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Charles Babbage
Presented something that he called "The Difference Engine" to the Royal Astronomical Society. The Difference Engine is an automatic mechanical calculator. -
Herman Hollderith
He founded the Tabulating Machine Company to sell his invention. -
Z1 Computer
Z1 Computer was a binary electrically driven mechanical calculator with limited programmability. -
First Generation Computers
First generation computers were often very large, and took up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition used a lot of electricity. -
Second Generation Computers
These computers were smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy efficient and more reliable than the first generation predecessors. -
ENIAC
By the time ENIAC was finished it had cost the government $400,000, and the war it was intended to help win had ended. Its initial task was doing calculations for the construction of a hydrogen bomb. -
UNIVAC
The UNIVAC became famous because it was the first computer to be "mass produced" although only 46 of the first model were made! -
Third Generation Computers
Users were able to interact through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system instead of punched cards and printouts. -
Fourth Generation Computers
These computers were smaller, more powerful, and they can be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the devolopment of the intenet! -
The Altair
The Altair did not come with a keyboard or monitor and they were not cheaply available, users initially had to flip switches on the front panel, writing their own programs in machine language, and watching the LEDs on the front panel light up in response to their commands. -
The Apple II
The Apple II was one of the first computers that came with a color display, and it had the BASIC programming language built-in, so it is ready-to-run right out of the box. -
WordStar
WordStar was the best selling software program of the early eighties. -
BASIC
Microcomputers were usually shipped with BASIC, often in the machine's firmware. Having an easy-to-learn language on these early personal computers allowed s people to develop custom software on computers they could afford. -
The Osborne
The Osborne was as convenient as it got at that time. You could essentially purchase the computer, take it home, turn it on, and start working immediately. Everything you needed was included. -
GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Apple was the first to effectively mass-produce a GUI, but they were not its creators, nor were they the first to market it. -
Excel
Excel helped Microsoft achieve the position of leading PC software developer. -
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs introduced Macintosh.
Steve Jobs also helped to make Apple which becomes a symbol of the personal computing revolution. -
Pagemaker
PageMaker relied on a GUI, it helped to popularize the Macintosh platform and the windows environment. -
Bill Gates
At age 31, Gates becomes the youngest billionaire. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. -
Mosaic
The first web browser that allowed you to put pictures and text on the same page in the same browser. -
Jack S. Kilby
Jack S. Kilby won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit.
