For your amusement. The History of Computers and the Internet. And where do we go from here? 1936 - Konrad Zuse invented the first program controlled computer called the Z1. Despite certain mechanical engineering problems, it had all the basic ingredients of modern machines, using the binary system and todays standard separation of storage and control. 1942 - John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the ABC or Astanasoff-Berry Computer. It was the first automatic electronic digital computer. 1944 - Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper developed the Harvard Mark I Computer. The full name was the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) also called the Mark I by Harvard Universitys staff. It was a general purpose electro-mechanical computer that was used in the war effort during the last part of World War II. 1946 - John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly gave us the ENIAC 1 Computer built with 20,000 vacuum tubes. ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. It was a secret World War II military project. It was designed to speed up the tedious mathematical calculations needed to produce artillery firing tables for the Army. 1948 - The Manchester Baby Computer was built by Tom Kilburn and Frederic Williams. This effort was actually designed to bring the Williams Tube (an early form of computer memory) into being. 1948 - Also in that same year, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley developed the Transistor. Though patents had been filed previously, these guys made it work. No more thermionic valves - though it would take a while to completely get rid of vacuum tubes. 1951 - The first commercial computer, the UNIVAC Computer was built by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly. UNIVAC is an acronym for UNIVersal Automatic Computer. The descendants of the UNIVAC live on as products of the Unisys company. The first UNIVAC was used to pick presidential winners. 1953 - IBM gets into the commercial game with the IBM 701 EDPM Computer. It was known in development as the Defense Calculator and it was IBMs first commercial scientific computer. 1955 - The first banking industry computer was developed via a team effort between Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric. Both the ERMA and MICR were developed from this effort. ERMA stands for Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. You know that little line at the bottom of your checks that contains your bank code and bank account number? Its been around since 1955. 1958 - The Chip is born! Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce developed the Integrated Circuit, a.k.a., the chip, the IC, or Microchip. Smaller is better! Without this invention, computers as we know them today would not exist. 1962 - The first computer game comes to life. Spacewar, the first computer game, was invented by Steve Russell and MIT. It was a two player game (think rudimentary) where each player takes control of a starship in an attempt to destroy the other. This is a very significant precursor to the mass adoption of computers. 1964 - The mouse and graphical user interface (GUI) prototypes were built. It may surprise you to learn that both were invented by Douglas Engalbart. 1969 - ARPNET, the precursor to the Internet, crawls into existence. I was 5 months old when the first ARPNET message was sent. ARPNET stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network and it was one of the worlds first operational packet switching networks, the first network to implement TCP/IP, and the tiny infant that would become the global Internet. The packet switching was based on designs by American engineer Paul Baran, Welsh scientist Donald Davies, and Lawrence Roberts of the Lincoln Laboratory. The TCP/IP communication protocols were developed for ARPNET by computer scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf and also incorporated designs from Louis Pouzin. Packet switching is todays dominator for data communications worldwide. You can research this all you want, but Al Gore did not invent the Internet. 1970 - Can I get some RAM? Intel 1103 Computer Memory gave us the first Random Access Memory chip. First used in the HP 9800 series computers, this was truly a game changer. 1971 - But it gets even better. Faggin, Hoff, and Mazor invent the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 Computer Processor, less than a year after RAM. It was a whopping 4-bit central processing unit. Who needs 64? Oh, well, we do, I suppose. 1973 - Networking just got real! Robert Metcalfe and Xerox gave us the Ethernet Computer Network. Local Area Networking (or LAN) was born. Need I say more? If so, I will simply say that systems communicating over Ethernet divide a stream of data into shorter pieces called frames. Each frame contains source and destination addresses and error-checking data so that damaged data can be detected and re-transmitted. 1974/75 - Can I buy one? Sure you can. Oh, and you have choices. Would you like a SCELBI, a Mark-8, Altair, or an IBM 5100? The first consumer computers had arrived. The SCELBI (pronounced sell-bee) stood for SCientific Electronic BIological and had an 8-bit processor with 1K of RAM (what a beast). The Mark-8 also used the Intel 8008 CPU and was an 8-bit microprocessor. The SCELBI, Mark-8, and Altair were all sold as computer kits. The IBM 5100, however, was sold as a portable computer. It was portable if you had very strong arms. 1976/77 - Hello, Apple, how are you? Oh, and you too, Commodore. The Apple I and II, the TRS-80, and Commodore Pet explode onto the then tiny scene. This is where we begin to see the expansion of memory from 1K to a 4K standard with room for expansion of up to 48K. If you had the money. The introductory price of the Apple I was $666.66 (with the base 4K of RAM) in 1976. Thats a lot of green. 1978 - What good is a computer? How about using it with the VisiCalc Spreadsheet software written by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. 1979 - You say you want more uses out of a computer? Sure thing. How about word processing? No problem. Enter Seymour Rubenstein and Rob Barnaby and their program, WordStar. 1981 - The revolution begins! IBM brings the IBM PC Home Computer! True personal computing is born. What a screen! Now, this looks like a computer! Sort of. 1981 - What a busy year. Microsoft gives us the quick and dirty operating system of the century! MS-DOS Computer Operating System. 1983 - A little late to the game, but, Hello, Apple (again). Do you have it together this time? The Apple Lisa? Oh, look at that graphical user interface! The GUI is born... or was it stolen? 1984 - OK, Apple, so you hit the scene with Lisa. How about something we can afford? How about the Apple Macintosh Computer and a slew of advertising against IBM? Done. Steve Jobs was there, then he wasnt, but he would be back much later. 1985 - Microsoft Windows joins the fray. Do I even have to mention Bill Gates? Oh, look, theres that graphical user interface (GUI) thing again. So, who really invented this marvel of technology that would make everyday users jump into the techno world? Who cares? Of course, a lot has happened since 1985, but the rest, as they say, is history. Just as with most things, those who tend to have the most credit stood upon the shoulders of giants. It would take another decade before wide adoption of the home computer came about. Once that happened, the Internet began to boom. 1999 gave us the first adopted hand-held device. After the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) became integrated into our phones, there was no going back. At least not until recently with the commercial adoption of tablet computers. Oh, how cyclical the trends. So, whats next? One word - wearables. You will see a large adoption of watches, glasses and other wearable computing devices over the next few years. I will be a pioneer/guinea pig for such technology. If you so choose, you may wait until I (and the rest of the technological adrenaline junkies) get our devices and help Google, Samsung, Motorola, and the rest work the kinks out. But, mark my words, you will have to have this technology very soon. With new technology such as smartwatches, you will start to see an increase in battery life, lower power consumption with greater outputs, and everything else that comes with pushing the edge. The use of things created to enable other things will enhance our lives far beyond the initial intended application. So, buckle up! The adoption of new technology is building speed and it will never slow down.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 17:29:01 +0000
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