Computer Inventions

By katieparsons

  • Invention of the Transistor

    Invention of the Transistor
    Invented by John Bardeen, W.B. Shockley, and W.H. Brattain. The invention of the transistor (simply put, a device that acts as a switch to control the flow of electronic signals) in 1947 replaced a previous part that took up significantly more space and power to operate. Modern day, the transistor is a very, very small (yet important) part of so many everyday items. There are transistors in calculators, watches, medical devices, electronics, etc.

  • Invention of Kenbak-1

    Invention of Kenbak-1
    Invented by John Blankenbaker, the Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum and many others to be the first personal computer (PC). It was not very successful, commercially, as only around 50 were produced and most were sold to educational institutions rather than the public. The Kenbak-1 was extremely beneficial to students though as it taught basic computer concepts and machine code programming.

  • Invention of the Microprocessor

    Invention of the Microprocessor
    Invented by Ted Hoff and other Intel engineers and architects, the microprocessor reduced the need for multiple different chips in a singular device. Instead of having 12 chips and more than 3000 transistors in a single calculator, that would be seemingly unprofitable, Hoff was able to fit all of the functions onto 1 chip with 1900 transistors. The invention of the microprocessor was crucial to the development of the technological devices, especially hand-held ones, we have in modern day.

  • Creation of the World Wide Web

    Creation of the World Wide Web
    Invented by Tim-Berners Lee, the World Wide Web (WWW for short) was created at the time for the purpose of reliably sharing information between scientists and institutions. The invention of the WWW opened the door for easier scientific, academic, and public discussion and creation.

  • First Online Web Server

    First Online Web Server
    Directly following the invention of the World Wide Web, Louise Addis and Paul Kunz called for the first online U.S. Web server. After returning from CERN and seeing the invention of the WWW, Kunz relayed the information to Addis (a librarian at SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and she encouraged SLAC to start the first web server in order to publicly display information to physicists around the world.