-
Period: to
1st Era
Most of them were mechanical, not even close to resembling anything of a digital computer. -
The Pascaline
In 1644 the famous French Mathematician and Philosopher Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator dubbed Pascaline. Pascaline, also known as the arithmetic machine, could perform addition and subtraction operations as well as multiplication and division through repeated addition and subtraction. -
The Leibniz Wheel
A little later in 1671 A more sophisticated mechanical calculator called the Leibniz Wheel (or Drum) was invented by the German Mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. This ‘wheel’ is regarded as ‘the first true four-function calculator’. -
The Jacquard Loom
In between 1804 and 1805 took place the creation of the first machine ever that used the idea of storage and programming. The machine, called the Jacquard Loom, after its inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard, was actually a fabric loom that used punched cards which instructed the loom
to perform automated tasks in the manufacturing of textiles. -
The Difference Engine
In 1823 Charles Babbage a leading pioneer in the field invented the Difference Engine, which was capable of doing a lot more than simple arithmetic operations; It could solve polynomial equations. -
The Analytical Engine
In 1837 Charles Babbage developed another machine which he named the Analytical Engine. This machine shares numerous similarities with modern computers. It consists of 4 components that are the essential parts in every computer today:
- The Mill (corresponding to a modern central processing unit [CPU])
- The Store (The Memory [HDD/SSD, RAM, etc.])
- The Reader and The Printer (The modern input
and output devices [Mouse, Keyboard, etc.]). -
The Tabulating Machine
In 1890 Herman Hollerith an American businessman, inventor, statistician, designed and built a tabulating machine. This electromechanical machine was a precursor of the modern computer, as it could automatically read, tally, and sort data stored on punched cards. Hollerith’s concept of the punched card tabulating machine held sway in the field for many years to come and marked the beginning of the era of mechanized binary code and semiautomatic data processing. -
Period: to
2nd Era
This period is marked by the birth of the electronic computer. During these 2 decades, several computers were invented by scientists who are considered the pioneers of the electronic computer industry. These early computers did not store the program in their memory; they were all programmed with the use of series of external switches and dials. -
The Z1
In 1938 a general-purpose mechanical computer that was built from 1936 to 1938 by the German mathematician, engineer, computer pioneer Konrad Zuse. -
The Atanasoff Berry Computer
In 1939 John V. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford Berry invented the first special-purpose computer that encoded information electrically. Called ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer) was specifically designed to solve systems of linear equations. -
The Colossus
During years 1943-1945 the world's first programmable electronic digital computer invented in England by a team of telephone engineers led by Tommy Flowers. The Colossus was extensively used by British codebreakers for cryptanalysis, as it was designed to help decipher the Lorenz-encrypted messages between Hitler and his generals during the Second World War. -
The ENIAC
In 1946 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) is the first general-purpose, totally electronic computer made by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert. The ENIAC used 18,000 vacuum tubes, was 30.5 m. long by 3 m. high, and weighed 30 tons. -
The First "Computer Bug"
In September 9th, 1947 The First "Computer Bug" Moth found trapped between points at Relay #70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry "First actual case of bug being found". (The term "debugging" already existed; thus, finding an actual bug was an amusing occurrence.) -
The EDVAC
Previous computers used memory only for storing data and were programmed externally with wires or switches everytime to do a new task. John von Neumann, a mathematician and physicist, proposed that both data and instructions to be stored in a uniform memory. In 1950 the 1st computer to be designed based on that model was the EDVAC, made at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the digital computers built since then have been based on the same model. -
Period: to
3rd Era
From the 50's onwards, the most important technological achievements of the period include the invention of a small semiconductor device that would ultimately change the world the Transistor and the development of Integrated Circuits. Physicists William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain and Jack Kilby were awarded Nobel Prizes in Physics. The 3rd Era is subdivided into 5 vaguely agreed Generations. Computers built in this Era follow the von Neumann model. -
Period: to
1st Gen
The 1st Gen is characterized by the emergence of costly commercial computers which were affordable only by big organizations, and for this reason were used solely by professionals. They were bulky, used vacuum tubes as electronic switches, and were locked in rooms with limited access. -
The Mark IV
In 1952 Mark IV, last successor for Mark series, developed by Howard Aiken was a fully electronic computer. In late 1930s Mark I a huge electromechanical protocomputer built at Harvard University under the direction of Howard Aiken, followed by 3 more advanced computing machines (Mark II - IV), The project was sponsored by IBM and the US Navy, for which the Mark I provided vital calculations during the Second World War. -
The AVIDAC
AVIDAC was built by the Physics Division of the Argonne National Laboratory, a leading science and research center in the USA, and was based on the architecture developed by John von Neumann. The name of the first digital computer at Argonne is AVIDAC, which began operating in 1953. AVIDAC stands for 'Argonne Version of the Institute's Digital Automatic Computer'. -
Period: to
2nd Gen
The 2nd Gen vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. This reduced their size and cost, and made them affordable to smaller corporations. At the same time, high-level programming languages, such as FORTRAN and COBOL, were invented and made programming easier. -
Period: to
The 3rd Gen
The 3rd Gen is characterized by the invention of the Integrated Circuit and the Chip, which reduced the cost and size of computers even further. Meanwhile, the processing power of computers began to double every two years. Minicomputers appeared with the creation of the first software packages. These packages were ‘canned programs’, readily available on the market, which a corporation could buy and use, instead of having to write its own programs. -
The Altair 8800
In 1975 the first desktop computer the Altair 8800 became available and is credited as the
spark that ignited the microcomputer revolution. -
Period: to
The 4th Gen
The 4th Gen is marked by emergence of Computer Network and significant advances in the electronics industry that allowed computer subsystems to fit on a single circuit board. This generation saw the appearance of Desktop Computers and the Personal Computer [PC], which was a major step toward popularizing computing. -
The Personal Computer
In 1981 IBM introduced its first desktop computer, called the Personal Computer [PC] whose underlying software was developed by the then newly-formed Microsoft. -
Period: to
The 5th Gen
The 5th Gen is mostly characterized by the miniaturization of computing machines. This gen appearance of Laptop Computers, improvements in secondary storage [CD-ROM, DVD, etc.], Multimedia leading to the emergence of the Internet, and the phenomenon of Virtual Reality. Perhaps the most revolutionary application of electronic miniaturization is on the Smartphone, pocket-sized device, which is a lot more powerful than the supercomputers of previous decades.