Milestones in Computer

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Milestones in
Computer
Development

Fall 2007

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Milestones in Computer
Development


2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation

Ancient abacuses

(images are from
http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation

Medieval abacuses

(images are from
http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation

Modern abacuses

(images are from
http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1642 A.D.: Blaise Pascal (French) creates a
mechanical adding machine
--

the
“Pascalene”
--

for tax computations

(image is from
http://www.webcom.com/calc/CalcMach.html
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1671 A.D.: Gottfried von Leibniz (German)
creates a more reliable adding machine that
adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, and
calculates square roots
--

the "Staffelwalze"

(image is from
http://www.fmeurope.org
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1842 A.D.: Charles
Babbage designs analytical
engine to perform
calculations automatically;
Ada, countess of Lovelace,
programs this machine

(image is from
http://www.ashfield
-
dc.gov.uk
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1890 A.D.: Herman
Hollerith designs census
recording system that
uses punched cards;
starts a company that
later becomes IBM

(image is from
http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1939 A.D.: John
Atanasoff designs and
builds first electronic
digital computer (w/
graduate student Clifford
Berry); called the ABC

(image is from
http://www.iastate.edu
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1946 A.D.: J. Presper Eckert and John
Mauchly design and build the ENIAC;
considered the first modern computer, used
vacuum tubes

(image is from
http://www.zianet.com/kromeke/pastcomp
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1946 A.D.: John von Neumann proposes
stored program architecture that bears his
name

(image is from
http://home.swipnet.se/~w
-
27237
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1951 A.D.: Eckert & Mauchly build the first
general
-
purpose computer, the UNIVAC I

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1957 A.D.: John Backus and his IBM team
complete the first compiler (Fortran)


PROGRAM TEST


INTEGER N


N = N + 1


PRINT *, N


STOP


END

(image is from
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/support/cit/fortran/photos
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1958: IBM introduces the 7090 series, first
to use transistors

(image is from
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/archives
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1964 A.D.: IBM
announces the 360,
first to use integrated
circuitry (IC)

(image is from
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Book/chap5
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1972 A.D.: Dennis
Ritchie at Bell Labs
develops the C
Programming
Language; precursor
of Java

(image is from
livinginternet.com
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1975 A.D.: The Altair,
the first microcomputer,
is introduced

(image is from
http://www.digicamhistory.com
)


1975 A.D.: The Cray
-
1,
the first supercomputer,
is announced

(image is from
http://www.computerthai.or.th/About_Us
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1976 A.D.: DEC
introduces its popular
minicomputer, the
VAX 11/780

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1977 A.D.: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
release the Apple I on April Fool’s Day, and
found Apple Computers

(image is from
http://apple2history.org/museum/images
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1981 A.D.: IBM
introduces its own PC

(images are from
http://www.pattosoft.com.au/jason/Articles/HistoryOfComputers
)


1984 A.D.: Apple
introduces the Macintosh

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1985 A.D.: Bjarne
Stroustrup at Bell
Labs develops the
C++ Programming
Language; the
Object
-
Oriented
extension of C;
precursor of Java

(image is from
http://www.hitmill.com/programming/cpp
)

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1991 A.D.: The
internet is
commercialized


1994: Netscape
Navigator 1.0 is
released; the WWW
takes off

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Milestones in Computer
Development


1995 A.D.: Sun releases
Java 1.0; object
-
oriented
programming takes off


1997 A.D.: UNO CS
Department adopts Java
as object
-
oriented
language support