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Invented by Blaise Pascal, this arithmetic machine could perform addition and subtraction operations as well as multiplication and division through repeated addition or subtraction. -
Invented by Leibniz, this "wheel" is regarded as "the first true four-function calculator". -
Invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard, it was actually a fabric loom which was controlled by a "chain of cards". -
Invented by Charles Babbage, it was an automatic mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. -
Invented by Herman Hollerith, this electromechanical machine was a precursor of the modern computer, as it could automatically read, tally and sort data stored on punched cards. -
The Harvard Mark I, or IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), was one of the earliest general-purpose electromechanical computers used in the war effort during the last part of World War II. Harvard Mark I was folowed by three more advanced computing machines (Mark II - IV). -
Invented by Konrad Zuse, it was the first freely programmable computer in the world that used Boolean logic and binary floating-point numbers. -
Invented by John V. Atanasoff, it was the first automatic electronic digital computer. -
Colossus was a set of computers developed by British codebreakers to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. It's the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer. -
Invented by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, it was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer -
The first generation is characterized by the emergence of costly commercial computers.
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In second-generation computers, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors.
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The third generation is characterized by the invention of the integrated circuit and the chip.
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This period saw the appearance of desktop computers.
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The fifth generation is characterized by the miniaturization of computing machines.