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Charles Babbage
Designed analytical automatic calculator, never developed. Considered a "father of the computer",Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as "pre-eminent" among the many polymaths of his century. -
Herman Hollerith
Created Hollerith Tabulating Machine, a punch-card computing mechanism. Developed as a mechanism using electrical connections to trigger a counter, recording information. -
Z1 Computer
Created by Konrad Zuse, mechanical calculator, included control unit and separate memory functions. The original Z1 was destroyed by the Allied air raids in 1943, but in 1986 Zuse decided to rebuild the machine. He constructed thousands of elements of the Z1 again, and finished rebuilding the device in 1989. The rebuilt Z1 (pictured) is displayed at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. -
1st Generation Computers
Used vacuum tubes to store data. Simple devices that needed these vacuums to transfer, but at a very slow pace. -
ENIAC
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, first successful high-speed electronic digital computer. In 2011, to honor of the 65th anniversary of the ENIAC's unveiling, the City of Philadelphia declared February 15 as The ENIAC Day, the day after the ENIAC operated, not introduced. -
2nd Generation Computers
Used transistors to store data. Much faster than vacuums and very efficient yet still very primative. -
UNIVAC
First commercially successful digital computer, operated on magnetic tape, not punch cards. UNIVAC is an acronym for UNIVersal Automatic Computer. The first UNIVAC was accepted by the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year. The fifth machine (built for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 presidential election. -
3rd Generation Computers
Used integrated circuits. The birth of upcomming modern computers for commercial and business use. -
Jack Kilby
Created Integrated circuits, enabled computers to become smaller and lighters. In mid-1958 he was a newly employed engineer for Texas Instruments. He also invented the handheld calculator and the thermal printer. -
BASIC
Revolutionized software industry, easily learned by beginners in programming, key language for PC, led to create Microsoft. BASIC remains popular in many dialects and in new languages influenced by BASIC, such as Microsoft's Visual Basic. In 2006, 59% of developers for the .NET Framework used Visual Basic .NET as their only programming language. -
4th Generation Computers
Use microprocessor chip. Very fast and efficient with less production costs over the decades. The modern every day computers. -
Introduction to the GUI
Graphical User Interface allowed easier interaction, Apple was first company to take commercial advantage of GUI; Xerox Alto created the GUI with file management system and mouse and network connectivity. GUIs can be found in hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players, gaming devices and smaller household, office and industry equipment. -
Altair Computer
Sold as a kit for $395, and was very limited; Bill Gates and Paul Allen were the first owners of the machine. The Altair is widely recognized as the spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution. -
Steve Jobs
Founded Apple, created Apple I and II with Steven Wozniak. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios. -
Apple II
Operating System Stored in read-only memory (ROM); Built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The earliest Apple IIs were assembled in Silicon Valley, and later in Texas; printed circuit boards were manufactured in Ireland and Singapore. -
WordStar
First word processing application. Had a dominant market share during the early- to mid-1980s. Formerly published by MicroPro International, it was originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS. -
VisiCalc
First electronic spreadsheet application. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and is considered the Apple II's killer app. -
Bill Gates
Founded Microsoft with Paul Allen and created it with BASIC, both were the first owners of the Altair computer; his wife donates huge funds to Texas. Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. -
Osborne Computer
Introduced the Birth of Portable Computing, 5 in. screen, 24.5 pounds; Compaq bought it in 1983 after Osborne declared bankruptcy. Its principal deficiencies were a tiny 5-inch (13 cm) display screen and use of single sided, single density floppy disk drives. -
PageMaker
The first desktop publishing software. As an application relying on a graphical user interface, PageMaker helped to popularize the Macintosh platform and the Windows environment. -
Excel
One of the first spreadsheets to use graphic user interface (GUI). Microsoft announces the shipment to retail stores of Excel for the Macintosh, a powerful, full-featured microcomputer spreadsheet that combines business graphics with an on-sheet database. -
Mosaic
Browser that caused 350% increase of Internet traffic. By 1997, it discontinued at version 3.0. Twenty years after Mosaic's introduction, the most popular contemporary browsers, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Mozilla Firefox retain much of the GUI style from Mosaic. -
Netscape
A major internet browser that became open source in 1998. Netscape's web browser was once dominant in terms of usage share, but lost most of that share to Internet Explorer during the first browser war.
