HOME 

 TEXAS PAGE 

  

 ARCHIVES 

 Media/Cinema 
Terry Moore 
Tin Cup 

 Beyond the Lens 
20th Century's 
 Most Influential 
Nellie Connally 

 Radio/TV 
Radio Bloopers 
100 Years of TV 
Pirate Radio 
100 Years: Radio 

 Life Styles 
Road Gods 

 Technology 
COMDEX/98 
Y2K Problem 
PC History 
Impact of 
 Technology 
Cold Fusion 
Hurricane Plan 

 Editorials 
Schools 
Paparazzi 
Finger is Pointed 
Road Rage 
Pirate Radio 

  

 

  [CyberPro] 

 100 Years of Computing 
From a collection of artifacts 

 Let's gather around the computer for computer memorabilia. We can remember when computers took up a large rooms and took forever to process a few simple routines. But then, it was back then--the 50s when key punching and machine programming were the norm. It's all different. Computers have come a long way through its infancies of mainframes and PCs to today's web technology spanning the globe. We take you on a quick tour of its history... Believe this or not, but the idea of computing began over a century ago! 

  

19th Century 
1880: French physicist Jacques-Arsene d'Arsonval develops the famous D'Arsonval galvanometer.
1882: Another French physicist, Marcel Deprez, proved that electric energy can be sent further distances if the voltage is increased.
1885: American William Stanley made improvements to the transformer by replacing iron wires with rings and plates.
1890: Herman Hollerith of Washington, D. C. developed a census system with punched cards.
1896: Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company, which later became IBM. His charter was based on the his punched-card system.
1897: Karl Braun of Germany invented the cathode ray (CRT) tube.
20th Century
1901: Hollerith developed the first keyboard for punching cards.
1912: Lee DeForest developed the audion amplifier..
1918: J. Abraham and E. Bloch invented a calculator based on binary numbers 0s and 1s.
1919: William H. Eccles and F. W. Jordan developed the concepts of "flip-flop" circuits, the predecessor to a component used in computers during the 1940s.
1927: The analog computer was invented at MIT.
1931: Truman Gray invented the photoelectric integraph, a machine that solved mathematical problems by turning them into light beams.
1936: Konrad Zuse developed the first digital computer.
1937: Georges Stibitz invented the first binary circuit that worked on Boolean algebra.
1938: Zuse built the first working computer that used binary code.
1939: Bell Labs developed a computer that can be operated via a terminal.
1941: First computer program ran successfully for the first time.
1943: First computer using vacuum tubes, logic circuits, and memory solved linear equations.
1943: Vacuum tubes became the replacement for electromechanical relays for computers.
1945: The first "bug" was detected by Grace Hopper when he found that an actual bug interfered the with execution of a computer program.
1946: The ENIAC computer was developed secretly by John Mauchly and John Eckert. The device outperformed any vacuum tube systems developed by Zuse.
1948: The transistor was invented by Bell Laboratories.
1949: EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was introduced. The 3000-vacuum tube system would be six times faster than previous machines.
1950: SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) was developed by the US Air Force. It collected data from radar stations.
1952: IBM introduced the 701 Defense Calculator.
1953: IBM mass produced the model 650, a derivative of the model 701.
1954: Texas Instruments developed the first silicon transistor, which replaced the germanium-based versions.
1954: The first UNIVAC entered the commercial computer market.
1956: Univac delivered the first transitorized computers.
1958: Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation separately invented the integrated circuit.
1959: A slew of transistorized computers entered the marketplace, namely the IBM 7090, 1401, 1620 and National Cash Register's 304.
1961: IBM developed the model 7030 for the Los Alamos Laboratories.
1964: IBM introduced its model 360.
1965: Digital Equipment Corporation introduced the first minicomputer. It became the first low-cost machine on the market, priced at only $18,000.
1968: DEC introduced the model CDC 7600 supercomputer.
1969: Automated teller machines--popularly called 'ATMs'--debut.
1969: The US Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency or ARPANET was developed. The system, a predecessor to today's Internet, was developed to withstand nuclear attack.
1970: RCA invented a new process for manufacturing cheaper circuits--a prerequisite to personal computers.
1971: Texas Instruments introduced the first pocket calculator called the Pocketronic.
1972: Intel developed the first 8-bit central processor unit (CPU) chip, the 8008.
1974: A protocol called "Transmission Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol" was developed on the ARPANET project.
1974: Hewlett Packard introduced the first programmable pocket calculator.
1976: Cray-1 supercomputer debut.
1978: DEC introduced its VAX machine, capable of running large programs. VAX computers became a standard in the scientific community.
1978: Intel introduced the 8086 CPU.
1979: Motorola rolled out the 68000 chip, which became the norm for Macintosh computers.
1980: IBM introduced the model 5120 microcomputer, designed specifically for businesses.
1981: IBM introduced the Personal Computer, popularly called the 'PC'.
1981: Osborne rolled out an all in one system--monitor, disk drives, CPU, and keyboard in a box. It could be carried like a suitcase.
1982: The first IBM clone was rolled out by Columbia Data Products.
1981: Compaq followed suit with its own IBM clone.
1983: The IBM model XT debut using the 8088 chip.
1983: IBM introduced its 'PC Jr.', a scaled-down version of the model XT.
1984: Apple introduced the Macintosh, a graphic user interface system that uses icons and a mouse. The machine was based from the Lisa, a more expensive model introduced earlier.
1985: Intel rolled out its 80386 CPU.
1987: IBM introduced its model System/2.
1990: Intel rolled out the 486 CPU.
1992: The Internet and the World Wide Web gain popularity with the use of the Mosaic web browser, developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
1993: The 200-MHz Pentium CPU was introduced in June, offering a 20% faster clock speed boost over its 166-MHz predecessor.
1994: Netscape Communications introduced its web browser. It differed from Mosaic that it downloaded text first, then images.
1993: The 200-MHz Pentium CPU was introduced in June, offering a 20% faster clock speed boost over its 166-MHz predecessor.
1996: The number of web sites hit the 100,000 mark.
1997: Microsoft Office 97 debut with internet interfaces.
1998: Windows 98 debuts. Meanwhile, Linux shows a substantial, but minor market presence.