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825 BCE
Abu Ja'far Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khowarizmi
Was a persian mathematician who gave the name to the term "algorithm" that was a fundamental step in computer development. An algorithm is a pre-written set of well-defined, orderly and finite instructions or rules that allows an activity to be performed by successive steps that do not createdoubts to those who must perform such activity. -
Period: 600 BCE to 300 BCE
Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians
Made an enormous contribution to the systematization of reasoning. the formal principles of mathematics were developed in Greece. Main representatives are Plato, Aristotle and Euclid. The Babyloniansand Egyptians developed a large number of calculation methods. -
500
Hindus, Arabs and Italians
The decimal numbering of position we use comes from the Hindu numbering system who invented zero. Arabs in the 8th century took this symbol and called it "céfer". -
1170
Leonardo Fibonacci
He was an Italian mathematician who was the first to write about Arabic numerals in the West. He travelled through North Africa and learned Arabic numbering and positional notation with zero. -
1501
Geronimo Cardano
He demonstrated, in 1545, that debts and similar phenomena could be treated with negative numbers. Before him mathematicians had believed that all numbers had to be greater than zero. -
1580
Francois Viéte
Began to use letters to symbolize unknown values (variables) and thus laid the foundations of algebra. -
John Napier
Invented logarithms (of "logos" and "aritmos" –knowledge of numbers). -
Edmund Gunter
Invented a precursor to the calculation rule. -
Wilhelm Schickard
He designed and built what is considered the first digital calculator. -
Galileo
Laid the foundations for mathematical formulation. -
Blaise Pascal
He generally regarded as the inventor of the calculator. It was based on a toothed wheel system and given the technology of the time failed to manufacture any reliable models. -
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
He was, along with Isaac Newton, the co-discoverer of calculus. Based on Pascal's work he built a device. This device could automatically perform additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. -
René Descartes
Discovered analytical geometry. -
Charles Babbage
He proposed two computer machines moved by steam machines. Each time it was necessary to follow the instructions of a different "program". -
Ada Byron
She was Babbage's colleague who developed the first "programs" for these computers and laid the foundations for programming languages. -
Georges Boole
His most prominent contribution was "An Investigation into the Laws of Truth",published in 1854. Boole's ideas did not have a major impact over the next fifty years until the emergence of a thesis by Claude E. Shannon who demonstrated that the analysis of complex electronic circuits could be performed using Boole’s algebra. -
Herman Hollerith
He created a punch card technology to control the census. In 1896 he founded his own company the "International Business Machines". -
John von Neumann
He combined two old interests already mentioned: the systematization of logic and the possibility of performing calculations quickly and reliably. These contributions were so momentous that, in fact, the term “Von Neumann machine” is used today to refer to modern computers. -
John V. Atanasoff
He discovered the first fully electronic digital computer. Atanasoff's main interest was to find an efficient method to solvesystems of linear equations. Although it was never considered a decisive tool, it was an important step in computing as it had a decisive influence on John Mauchly, the designer of ENIAC, the first large-scale digital computer. -
Howard T. Aiken
He collaborated with a group of IBM engineers, designed and built an electromechanical machine named Mark 1 capable of multiplying two numbers in six seconds and dividing them by twelve. -
Eckert and Mauchly
They created UNIVAC, the processor weighed 30 tons and required the full space of a 20 by 40 feet room. The beginning of the First Generation of computers starts with their invention. -
John Backus
He created FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator). -
Grace Hopper
Other high-level languages are COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was developed by her. -
J.C.R. Licklider
He wrote an essay on the concept of the Intergalactic Network, where the whole world is interconnected and can access programs and data from anywhere on the planet. -
Niklaus Wirth
He developed PASCAL. -
William Gibson
He novelized the new world and coined the term "cyberspace".