| Name |
Motivation |
Driven By |
Year |
|
Solution |
|
| |
No technical aids for scientific calculations
only clocks, sextants or other measuring devices |
|
1600 |
|
|
| John Napier |
Tables Crisis
people spent hours pouring over figures
in every 40 volumes of mathematical tables there were about 47,000 errors |
Banking Industry |
1617 |
|
Napier's bones - first attempt to reduce time and effort spent - each rod has a multiplication table for a particular digit - used by several inventors |
| Blaise Pascal |
Arithmetic Calculations |
Tax Collection |
1642 |
|
First digital calculator - wheels with a carry mechanism
revolving clockwise
subtract using marks on oppositie side of wheel and increasing in opposite direction
gear cutting not perfected - mechanisms would fall out of order |
| Joseph-Marie Jacquard |
Quantities of fabric could be produced at a faster rate than complex patterns could be woven by skilled weavers |
Textile Industry |
1804 |
|
Jacquard looms - use a tape of stiff pasteboard cards with weaving instructions imprinted on them |
| Charles Babbage |
in every 40 volumes of mathematical tables there were about 47,000 errors
- table of squares to five places
logarithmic tables without errors |
Tables Crisis |
1821 |
|
Difference Engine - would stamp result on a copper plate - completed by Scheutz in 1873 - printed tables successfully |
| Charles Babbage |
General purpose computer that follows instructions from punched cards |
|
1833 |
|
Analytical Engine - completed by Science Museum in 1991 (weighs 2.6 Tonnes with 4,000 parts) |
| Luigi Menabrea |
Promote French Decimal System
- produce Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables |
French Government |
1842 |
|
Reported and extended Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine to show that it can be used for any analytical function |
| Ada Lovelace |
|
|
1842 |
|
First Program for the Analytical Engine - to calculate Bernoulli numbers |
| William Burroughs |
|
|
1886 |
|
First commercially successful mechanical adding machine |
| Hermann Hollerith |
U.S. Census - Time needed to tabulate results extends beyond the next census date |
U.S. Government |
1890 |
|
Electo-mechanical machine for adding and sorting perforated card data - sold to Russians for their first census in 1895 |
| Vladimir Zworykin |
|
Westinghouse |
1929 |
|
Cathode Ray Tube invented |
| George Stibitz |
Speed-up complex number calculations |
Bell Labs |
1940 |
|
Complex Number Calculator - first binary calculator - instructions via paper tape |
| Konrad Zuse |
Solve systems of linear equations |
|
1941 |
|
Z3 - electro-mechanical computer controlled by relays - instructions on paper tape |
| Howard Aiken |
2 to 3 months to produce a ballistic table |
U.S. Navy |
1942 |
|
Mark I - electro-mechanical computer controlled by relays - 18,000 vacuum tubes - 6,000 switches - instructions on paper tape - data on punched cards - output on punched cards - multiply 11 digit numbers in 3sec |
| Grace Hopper |
|
U.S. Navy |
1944 |
|
First programmer for the Mark I |
| John von Neumann |
Solution of fluid dynamics equations - Successor to the forthcoming ENIAC |
U.S. Navy |
1945 |
|
EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) - stored-program computer |
| Eckert & Mauchly |
Trajectory Tables |
U.S. Army |
1945 |
|
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) - 80 Tons - 5000 additions and 360 multiplications per sec - multiply 10 digit numbers in 3msec |
| William Shockley |
Alternative to Vacuum Tube Relays |
Telephone Companies |
1947 |
|
Invented Transistor with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain |
| Grace Hopper |
Introduce mneumonics that will be translated into machine code |
Readability |
1949 |
|
Designed the first compiler |
| Maurice Wilkes |
von Neumann's concept of stored programs |
Cambridge Computing Laboratory |
1949 |
|
EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) - first operational, stored program computer |
| Maurice Wilkes |
Readability |
Cambridge Computing Laboratory |
1950 |
|
Symbolic Assembly Language on EDSAC |
| IBM |
|
|
1953 |
|
701 - IBM's first vacuum-tube stored-program computer |
| John Backus |
|
|
1954 |
|
FORTRAN - first high-level programming language |
| Gene Amdahl |
|
|
1954 |
|
First operating system for the IBM 704 |
| IBM |
|
|
1959 |
|
1620 and 1790 - first transistorized computer |
| Ken Iverson |
Algebraic Manipulation |
|
1961 |
|
APL Language |
| Kurtz & Kemeny |
Programming for Beginners |
|
1964 |
|
BASIC Language |
| Intel |
|
|
1968 |
|
Founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce |
| Nicklaus Wirth |
Structured Programming |
|
1969 |
|
PASCAL Language |
| Ken Thompson |
Interactivity and Time-sharing |
Bell Labs |
1970 |
|
UNIX operating system |
| Intel |
|
|
1971 |
|
4004 - the first microprocessor |
| John Blankenbaker |
|
|
1971 |
|
First personal computer - Kenbak I |
| Denis Ritchie |
UNIX in a high level language |
Bell Labs |
1973 |
|
C programming language |
| Microsoft |
|
|
1975 |
|
Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| Apple |
|
|
1977 |
|
Personal computer industry launched |
| IBM |
Playing Catch Up |
|
1981 |
|
Enters personal computer market |
| Microsoft |
|
|
1982 |
|
MS-DOS - operating system for PCs |
| Bjarne Stroustrup |
Upgradability |
Bell Labs |
1983 |
|
C++ programming language |
| IBM |
Advanced Technology |
|
1984 |
|
PC AT 80286 microprocessor |
| Sun Microsystems |
Develop UNIX |
|
1988 |
|
Help AT&T develop next version of UNIX - will lead to Solaris in 1991 |
| Intel |
|
|
1989 |
|
80486 microprocessor - > 1M transistors per chip |
| Microsoft |
|
|
1992 |
|
Windows 3.1 - operating system for PCs |
| Microsoft |
Networks and Security |
|
1993 |
|
Windows NT - operating system for PCs |
| Intel |
|
|
1993 |
|
Pentium I microprocessor |
| Linus Torvalds |
Open Source |
|
1994 |
|
Linux Kernel - version 1.0 released |
| James Gosling |
One code - many machines |
Sun Microsystems |
1995 |
|
Java |
