Milestones in Computer Development Fall 2007
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Milestones in Computer Development
2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation
Ancient abacuses
(images are from http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history )
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Milestones in Computer Development
2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation
Medieval abacuses
(images are from http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history )
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1 Milestones in Computer Development
2000 B.C.: Abacus first used in computation
Modern abacuses
(images are from http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/history )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1642 A.D.: Blaise Pascal (French) creates a mechanical adding machine -- the “Pascalene” -- for tax computations
(image is from http://www.webcom.com/calc/CalcMach.html )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1671 A.D.: Gottfried von Leibniz (German) creates a more reliable adding machine that adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides, and calculates square roots -- the "Staffelwalze"
(image is from http://www.fmeurope.org )
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2 Milestones in Computer Development
1842 A.D.: Charles Babbage designs analytical engine to perform calculations automatically; Ada, countess of Lovelace, programs this machine
(image is from http://www.ashfield-dc.gov.uk )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1890 A.D.: Herman Hollerith designs census recording system that uses punched cards; starts a company that later becomes IBM
(image is from http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1939 A.D.: John Atanasoff designs and builds first electronic digital computer (w/ graduate student Clifford Berry); called the ABC
(image is from http://www.iastate.edu )
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1946 A.D.: J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly design and build the ENIAC; considered the first modern computer, used vacuum tubes
(image is from http://www.zianet.com/kromeke/pastcomp )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1946 A.D.: John von Neumann proposes stored program architecture that bears his name
(image is from http://home.swipnet.se/~w-27237 )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1951 A.D.: Eckert & Mauchly build the first general-purpose computer, the UNIVAC I
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1957 A.D.: John Backus and his IBM team complete the first compiler (Fortran)
PROGRAM TEST INTEGER N N = N + 1 PRINT *, N STOP END
(image is from http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kis/support/cit/fortran/photos )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1958: IBM introduces the 7090 series, first to use transistors
(image is from http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/archives )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1964 A.D.: IBM announces the 360, first to use integrated circuitry (IC)
(image is from http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Book/chap5 )
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5 Milestones in Computer Development
1972 A.D.: Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs develops the C Programming Language; precursor of Java
(image is from livinginternet.com )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1975 A.D.: The Altair, the first microcomputer, is introduced
(image is from http://www.digicamhistory.com )
1975 A.D.: The Cray-1, the first supercomputer, is announced
(image is from http://www.computerthai.or.th/About_Us )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1976 A.D.: DEC introduces its popular minicomputer, the VAX 11/780
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1977 A.D.: Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs release the Apple I on April Fool’s Day, and found Apple Computers
(image is from http://apple2history.org/museum/images )
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Milestones in Computer Development
1981 A.D.: IBM introduces its own PC
1984 A.D.: Apple introduces the Macintosh
(images are from http://www.pattosoft.com.au/jason/Articles/HistoryOfComputers ) CSCI 1583 20
Milestones in Computer Development
1985 A.D.: Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs develops the C++ Programming Language; the Object-Oriented extension of C; precursor of Java
(image is from http://www.hitmill.com/programming/cpp )
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7 Milestones in Computer Development
1991 A.D.: The internet is commercialized
1994: Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released; the WWW takes off
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Milestones in Computer Development
1995 A.D.: Sun releases Java 1.0; object-oriented programming takes off
1997 A.D.: UNO CS Department adopts Java as object-oriented language support
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