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Project Whirlwind
Project Whirlwind begins. During World War II, the U.S. Navy approached the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about building a flight simulator to train bomber crews. The team first built a large analog computer, but found it inaccurate and inflexible. After designers saw a demonstration of the ENIAC computer, they decided on building a digital computer. By the time the Whirlwind was completed in 1951, the Navy had lost interest in the project, though the U.S. Air Force would eventuall -
EDSAC
Maurice Wilkes assembled the EDSAC, the first practical stored-program computer, at Cambridge University. His ideas grew out of the Moore School lectures he had attended three years earlier. For programming the EDSAC, Wilkes established a library of short programs called subroutines stored on punched paper tapes.
I chose this because it was the first practical computer that led on to many more computers. -
Lyons
England´s first commercial computer, the Lyons Electronic Office, solved clerical problems. The president of Lyons Tea Co. had the computer, modeled after the EDSAC, built to solve the problem of daily scheduling production and delivery of cakes to the Lyons tea shops.
I chose this because it was a success, and it was able to keep growing, leading to bigger data proccessing systems. -
TRADIC
Felker and Harris program TRADIC, AT&T Bell Laboratories announced the first fully transistorized computer, TRADIC.required by comparable vacuum tube computers.
I chose this because it led to us getting faster computers, because it was faster than the others at this time, leading us to even more discoveries. -
SAGE
SAGE — Semi-Automatic Ground Environment — linked hundreds of radar stations in the United States and Canada in the first large-scale computer communications network. An operator directed actions by touching a light gun to the screen.
I chose this because it led to bigger things, such as GPS's and being able to tell where another person is, later in history. -
Minicomputer
The precursor to the minicomputer, DEC´s PDP-1 sold for $120,000. One of 50 built, the average PDP-1 included with a cathode ray tube graphic display, needed no air conditioning and required only one operator.
I chose this because it eventually led to laptops, and handheld devices, helping us out in further history. -
PET
Commodore Business Machines (CBM) is founded. Its founder Jack Tramiel emigrated to the US after WWII where he began repairing typewriters. In 1965, he moved to Toronto and established Commodore International which also began making mechanical and electronic calculators. In 1977, Commodore released the Commodore PET computer; in 1981 the VIC-20; and, in 1982, the Commodore 64.
I chose this because I think it's cool he got an idea to make a better computer by repairing an old one, like us. -
Xerox Alto
Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center designed the Alto — the first work station with a built-in mouse for input. The Alto stored several files simultaneously in windows, offered menus and icons, and could link to a local area network.
I chose this because it led to a computer system that actually works, and we use files all the time today, so it was a great invention! -
VAX 11/780
The VAX 11/780 from Digital Equipment Corp. featured the ability to address up to 4.3 gigabytes of virtual memory, providing hundreds of times the capacity of most minicomputers.
I chose this because it led to more and more speed that you can do not just on a desktop computer, but also on laptops and handheld devices. -
Microsoft
The Windows NT family started with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. Modern Windows operating system versions are based on the newer Windows NT kernel that was originally intended for OS/2. Windows runs on IA-32, x86-64, and Itanium processors. Microsoft is also working to bring Windows NT onto ARM in the next release of Windows.[1] Earlier versions also ran on the i860, Alpha, MIPS, Fairchild Clipper, and PowerPC architectures.
I chose this because it led to Windows 7!!!
