The History of Computers

By maggiea16

  • Z1 Computer

    The Z1 computer was the first freely programmable computer and was made by Konrad Zuse.

  • The Atanasoff-Berry Computer

    This was a computing device made by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry. It was used to solve arethmitic equations with multiple variables. It could take hours to solve even just one equation.

  • Colossus Computer

    Colossus was the world's first electronic, digital, fixed-program, single-purpose computer with variable coefficients.

  • Harvard Mark I Computer

    The computer, controlled by pre-punched paper tape, could carry out addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and reference to previous results. It was made by Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper.

  • ENIAC 1 Computer

    ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first electronic general-purpose computer. It was Turing-complete, digital, and capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.

  • IBM 701 EDPM Computer

    The year 1953 saw the development of IBM's 701 EDPM, which, according to IBM, was the first commercially successful general-purpose computer.

  • ERMA

    ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting), was a pioneering computer development project run at SRI International under contract to Bank of America in order to automate banking bookkeeping.

  • Dynabook (laptop)

    The Dynabook concept, created by Alan Kay in 1968, described what is now known as a laptop computer or (in some of its other incarnations) a tablet or slate computer with nearly eternal battery life and software aimed at giving children access to digital media. Adults could also use a Dynabook, but the target audience was children.

  • Scelbi-8H Mini-Computer

    This is thought to be the first 'Personal Computer" that wsa put on for sale. Scelbi sold for $565 and came with 1K of programmable memory, with an additional 15K of memory available for $2760.

  • Xerox Star

    The Star workstation, officially known as the Xerox 8010 Information System, was introduced by Xerox Corporation in 1981. It was the first commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have become commonplace in personal computers, including a bitmapped display, a window-based graphical user interface, icons, folders, mouse (two-button), Ethernet networking, file servers, print servers and e-mail.

  • Apple's Lisa computer

    Officially, "Lisa" stood for "Local Integrated Software Architecture", but it was also the name of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' daughter. The Lisa is the first commercial computer with a GUI, or Graphical User Interface. Prior to the Lisa, all computers were text based - you typed commands on the keyboard to make the system respond. Now, with the Lisa, you just point-and-click at tiny pictures on the screen with a small rolling device called a 'mouse'.

  • Apple Macintosh Computer

    The Macintosh marketed as Mac, is a line of personal computers (PCs) designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is targeted mainly at the home, education, and creative professional markets, and includes the descendants of the original iMac, the entry-level Mac mini desktop model, the Mac Pro tower graphics workstation, and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops.

  • NEC UltraLite

    The NEC UltraLite was an MS-DOS-based portable computer in a "notebook" size. PC Magazine featured the UltraLite on its cover in November 1988 and shortly thereafter journalists began referring to the A4 sized computer as a "notebook" to distinguish it from the larger and heavier laptops of the time.

  • GRIDpad

    The first commercially available tablet-type portable computer was the GRiDPad from GRiD Systems.

  • First IMac

    The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc.In its original form, the iMac G3 had a gum-drop or egg-shaped look, with a CRT monitor, mainly enclosed by a colored, translucent plastic case, which was refreshed early on with a sleeker design notable for its slot-loaded optical drive.

  • Mac Book Pro 1st generation

    Replacing the PowerBook G4, the MacBook Pro was the second model, after the iMac, to be announced in the Apple–Intel transition. It is also the high-end model of the MacBook family and is currently produced with 13- and 15-inch screens, although a 17-inch version has been offered previously.