TICS

By Fernando05gr

  • 1801

    1801: In France, Joseph Marie Jacquard invents a loom that uses punched wooden
    cards to automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use similar punch
    cards.

  • 1822

    1822: English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating
    machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. The project, funded by the
    English government, is a failure. More than a century later, however, the world’s first
    computer was actually built.

  • 1890

    1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card system to calculate the 1880 census,
    accomplishing the task in just three years and saving the government $5 million. He
    establishes a company that would ultimately become IBM.

  • 1936

    1936: Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, later called the Turing
    machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of
    the modern computer was based on his ideas.

  • 1937

    1937: J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University,
    attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts or shafts.

  • 1941

    1941: Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, design a computer that can
    solve 29 equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a computer is able to store
    information on its main memory.

  • 1943-44

    1943-1944: Two University of Pennsylvania professors, John Mauchly and J. Presper
    Eckert, build the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). Considered
    the grandfather of digital computers, it fills a 20-foot by 40-foot room and has 18,000
    vacuum tubes.

  • 1946-47

    1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of Pennsylvania and receive funding
    from the Census Bureau to build the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer for
    business and government applications.
    1947: William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories invent
    the transistor. They discovered how to make an electric switch with solid materials and
    no need for a vacuum.

  • 1953-1954

    1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which eventually becomes
    known as COBOL. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson
    Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations keep tabs on
    Korea during the war.
    1954: The FORTRAN programming language is born.

  • 1958-1964

    1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the
    computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work.
    1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse
    and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of the computer from a
    specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to technology that is more
    accessible to the general public.

  • 1958-1964

    1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the
    computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work.
    1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse
    and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of the computer from a
    specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to technology that is more
    accessible to the general public.

  • 1973-1977

    1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox, develops Ethernet
    for connecting multiple computers and other hardware.
    1974-1977: A number of personal computers hit the market, including Scelbi & Mark-8
    Altair, IBM 5100, RadioShack’s TRS-80 —affectionately known as the “Trash 80” — and
    the Commodore PET.

  • 1975

    1975: The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair 8080,
    described as the "world's first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models." Two
    "computer geeks," Paul Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair, using
    the new BASIC language. On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two
    childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

  • 2011-2015

    2011: Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS.
    2012: Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4.
    2015: Apple releases the Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10