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The Pascaline
Between 1642 and 1644, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator called Pascaline or Arithmetic machine. It could do addition and subtraction. -
The Leibniz Wheel
The German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz invented the Leibniz Wheel which was a mechanical calculator, regarded as "The first true four-function calculator". -
Jacquard loom
Between 1804 and 1805 Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented the first machine that used the idea of storage and programming called "Jacquard loom". -
Difference Engine
In 1823, Charles Babbage invented an automatic mechanical calculator able to solve polynomial equations called the Difference Engine. -
Analytical Engine
14 years after the invention of the Difference engine, C. Babbage developed the Analytical Engine which shares numerous similarities with modern computers. -
Tabulating Machine
In 1890, Herman Hollerith designed and built a tabulating machine: an electromechanical machine that could automatically read, tally and sort data stored on punched cards. -
The Z1
The German mathematician and engineer Konrad Zuse, built a general purpose mechanical computer called "The Z1". -
The Mark I
A huge electromechanical protocomputer built at Harvard University, sponsored by IBM and the US Navy and directed by Howard Aiken. -
The ABC
John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry invented the ABC computer: The first computer that encoded information electrically. -
The Colossus
A team of telephone engineers led by Tommy Flowers invented the first programmable electronic digital computer in England called "The Colossus" and was used for cryptanalysis during WW2. -
The ENIAC
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert made the first general-purpose electronic computer in 1946, called The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). -
The EDVAC
At the University of Pennsylvania in 1950, the first computer based on von Neumann's concept was built and was named EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). -
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The first generation
First generation commercial computers were costly and only big organizations could afford them. They were used solely by professionals. -
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The second generation
During the second generation, computers reduced in size and cost making them affordable to smaller corporations. Additionally, High-level programming languages were invented. -
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The third generation
During the third generation, the integrated circuit and chips were invented. The processing power of computers increased, minicomputers appeared on the market along with software packages and the software industry was born. -
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The fourth generation
During the fourth generation, desktop computers started appearing with the first one being the "Altair 8800" which became available in 1975. In 1981 IBM introduced its first personal computer whose software was developed by Microsoft. -
The fifth generation
During the fifth generation (1985 to present), computers continued to get smaller, laptops began appearing, secondary storage media improved and smartphones emerged as a new technology.