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Period: 1388 to
Chinese abacus
The abacus is a simple and mechanical calculator. According to the Chinese, it was invented during the Ming Dynasty by mathematician Cheng Dawei. While there are a number of tools today that have been developed to aid in the practice of mathematics and computation, the abacus is one of the oldest, hence its significance in early computation. -
First mechanical computer
Invented by Charles Babbage, an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer. Babbage's mechanical computer is important as his invention initiated the concept of the digital, programmable computer. Rather than made from electronic parts, a mechanical computer is made from levers and gears. -
First Generation of OS
The first electronic computer did not have an operating system. Instead, the programming was done entirely through machine language, where plugboards were wired up to control mechanical functions. Back then, computers were used mainly to solve math calculations, so OS were not needed. -
Period: to
Second Generation of OS
Introduced in the early 1950s, the first OS was called GMO, and was created by General Motors for IBM. This first OS was called the single-batch processing system because data was processed in groups. At the time, OS was a very new technology and thus was very expensive. Only government agencies or large corporations were able to afford them. -
Period: to
Third Generation of OS
By the third generation, OS can now multiprogram (i.e. do multiple jobs simultaneously). This was a huge improvement to the OS as it allowed CPUs to operate at 100% load. -
Period: to
Fourth Generation OS
The modern day OS stemmed from the idea of personal computing. It was during this time period that the Microsoft and Windows OS was born. -
Windows 1.0
For the first time, Windows OS allowed users to navigate a virtual desktop and display file contents in digital folders with the click of the mouse, rather than manually typing in commands and directory paths. -
Multimedia cards
Introduced by Siemen's and Sandisk, it uses a flash memory card to store digital information. -
Microdrive/USB
The USB Flash Drive uses a NAND-type flash memory to store digital data; it is plugged into the USP interface on computers. -
Cloud storage
With improvements in internet bandwidth and falling costs of storage capacity over the years, it has become more economical for business and individuals to outsource their data storage to a cloud system, rather than buying, maintaining and replacing hardware. Cloud expandable storage at the cost of more expensive plans, and as well data access that can be done anytime, anyplace.
