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The Z3 Computer
The Z3, an early computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse, used 2,300 relays, performs floating point binary arithmetic, and has a 22-bit word length. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations but was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in late 1943. Zuse later supervised a reconstruction of the Z3 in the 1960s, which is currently on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. -
Harvard Mark 1
Conceived by Harvard physics professor Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark 1 is a room-sized, relay-based calculator. The machine had a fifty-foot long camshaft running the length of machine that synchronized the machine’s thousands of component parts and used 3,500 relays. The Mark 1 produced mathematical tables but was soon superseded by electronic stored-program computers. -
First Computer Program to Run on a Computer
University of Manchester researchers develop the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), was built to test a new memory technology developed by Williams and Kilburn -- soon known as the Williams Tube – which was the first high-speed electronic random access memory for computers. Their first program, consisting of seventeen instructions and ran on June 21st, 1948. This was the first program in history to run on a digital, electronic, stored-program computer. -
IBM 650
IBM 650 was the first mass-produced computer, with the company selling 450 in just one year. Spinning at 12,500 rpm, the 650´s magnetic data-storage drum allowed much faster access to stored information than other drum-based machines. The Model 650 was also highly popular in universities, where a generation of students first learned programming. -
IBM 1400 series
The 1401 mainframe, replaces earlier vacuum tube technology with smaller, more reliable transistors. Demand called for more than 12,000 of the 1401 computers, and the machine´s success made a strong case for using general-purpose computers rather than specialized systems. By the mid-1960s, nearly half of all computers in the world were IBM 1401s. -
PDP-8
A Canadian Nuclear Lab needed a device to monitor a reactor. Two engineers from Digital Equipment Corporation develop a small, general purpose computer and program it to do the job. The PDP-8 was born, the first successful minicomputer. It sold for $18,000, one-fifth the price of a small IBM 360 mainframe. Because of its speed, small size, and reasonable cost, the PDP-8 was sold by the thousands to manufacturing plants, small businesses, and scientific laboratories around the world. -
Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC)
Designed by scientists and engineers at MIT, the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) is the culmination of years of work to reduce the size of the Apollo spacecraft computer from the size of seven refrigerators side-by-side to a compact unit weighing only 70 lbs. and taking up a volume of less than 1 cubic foot. The AGC was one of the earliest uses of integrated circuits, and used core memory, as well as read-only magnetic rope memory. -
Intel introduces the first microprocessor
The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004, appears in Electronic News. Developed for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker, the 4004 had 2250 transistors and could perform up to 90,000 operations per second in four-bit chunks. Federico Faggin led the design and Ted Hoff led the architecture. -
Apple Computer launches the Macintosh
Apple introduces the Macintosh! The Macintosh was the first successful mouse-driven computer with a graphical user interface and was based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Its price was $2,500. Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing. -
The Apple iPhone
Apple launches the iPhone - a combination of web browser, music player and cell phone - which could download new functionality in the form of "apps" (applications) from the online Apple store. The touchscreen enabled smartphone also had built-in GPS navigation, high-definition camera, texting, calendar, voice dictation, and weather reports.
