Computerhope (dot) com

A timeline of the story of the computer

By AlxChr
  • Period: 250 BCE to

    The First Period

    Mechanical computing machines.
    *With the Antikythera mechanism dating back to as far as 87 ~ 250 B.C. (GREECE)
  • Period: to

    Invention of the Pascaline

    a.k.a the arithmetic machine invented by Blaise Pascal could perform basic mathematical operations.
  • Leibniz Wheel

    Leibniz Wheel
    Invented by Gottfried Leibniz is regarded as ‘the
    first true four-function calculator
  • Period: to

    First idea of Storage and Programming

    The Jacquard loom, created by Joseph-Marie Jacquard, used punched cards for instructions.
  • Difference Engine

    Difference Engine
    Invented by Charles Babbage, it was capable of doing a lot more than simple arithmetic operations.
  • Precursor of the Modern Computer

    Precursor of the Modern Computer
    Invented by Herman Hollerith, it could automatically read, tally, and sort data stored on punched cards.
  • Period: to

    The Birth of the Electronic Computer

    These computers did not store the program in their memory; they were all programmed with the use of series of external switches and dials.
  • Period: to

    The Z1

    A general-purpose mechanical computer that was built by Konrad Zuse
  • The ABC

    The ABC
    The (Atanasoff Berry Computer) is the first computer that encoded information electrically, invented by John V. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford Berry,
  • Period: to

    The Colossus

    The world's first programmable electronic digital computer invented in England, by a team of telephone engineers led by
    Tommy Flowers.
  • The ENIAC

    The ENIAC
    (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) the first totally electronic computer made by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.
  • EDVAC

    EDVAC
    The first computer to be designed based on von Neumann’s concept (stored-program design) EDVAC, was made at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Period: to

    The First Generation

    Emergence of costly commercial computers, affordable only by big organizations.
  • The Mark I

    The Mark I
    Built at Harvard University under the direction of
    Howard Aiken, sponsored by IBM and the US Navy, for which the Mark I provided vital calculations during the Second World War.
  • Period: to

    The Second Generation

    Vacuum tubes replaced by transistors, reducing size and cost.
    Invention of programming languages such as FORTRAN and COBOL.
  • Period: to

    The Third Generation

    The invention of the integrated circuit and the chip reduced the cost and size of computers even further, doubling the processing power. Minicomputers and software packages appeared and the software industry was born with them.
  • Altair 8800

    Altair 8800
    The first desktop computer became available and is credited as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution.
  • Period: to

    The Fourth Generation

    Advances in the electronics industry allowed whole computer subsystems to fit on a single circuit board.
  • Is that a PC?

    Is that a PC?
    IBM introduced its first desktop computer, called the personal computer whose underlying software was developed by the then newly-formed Microsoft.
  • Period: to

    The Fifth Generation

    Mostly characterized by the miniaturization of
    computing machines, appearance of laptop computers and improvements in secondary storage, as well as the emergence of the Internet.