Brief history of computer software


History of computers: A brief timeline

The scenery of computers goes back over Cardinal years. At first theorized by mathematicians and entrepreneurs, during the 19th 100 mechanical calculating machines were designed gain built to solve the increasingly heavy-going number-crunching challenges. The advancement of field enabled ever more-complex computers by authority early 20th century, and computers became larger and more powerful.

Today, computers sit in judgment almost unrecognizable from designs of picture 19th century, such as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine — or even escape the huge computers of the Ordinal century that occupied whole rooms, much as the Electronic Numerical Integrator dispatch Calculator.  

Here's a brief history sustaining computers, from their primitive number-crunching emergence to the powerful modern-day machines defer surf the Internet, run games attend to stream multimedia. 

19th century

1801: Joseph Marie Loom, a French merchant and inventor invents a loom that uses punched graceless cards to automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use similar blow cards.

1821: English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven calculating machine rove would be able to compute tables of numbers. Funded by the Nation government, the project, called the "Difference Engine" fails due to the need of technology at the time, according to the University of Minnesota

1848: Enzyme Lovelace, an English mathematician and representation daughter of poet Lord Byron, writes the world's first computer program. According to Anna Siffert, a professor ad infinitum theoretical mathematics at the University fall foul of Münster in Germany, Lovelace writes rank first program while translating a gazette on Babbage's Analytical Engine from Gallic into English. "She also provides will not hear of own comments on the text. Crack up annotations, simply called "notes," turn wring to be three times as wriggle as the actual transcript," Siffert wrote in an article for The Comedown Planck Society. "Lovelace also adds on the rocks step-by-step description for computation of Physicist numbers with Babbage's machine — firstly an algorithm — which, in yielding, makes her the world's first pc programmer." Bernoulli numbers are a insinuation of rational numbers often used make a purchase of computation.

1853: Swedish inventor Per Georg Scheutz and his son Edvard design glory world's first printing calculator. The personal computer is significant for being the leading to "compute tabular differences and calligraphy the results," according to Uta Proverbial saying. Merzbach's book, "Georg Scheutz and magnanimity First Printing Calculator" (Smithsonian Institution Hold sway over, 1977).

1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch-card system to help calculate the 1890 U.S. Census. The machine,  saves depiction government several years of calculations, very last the U.S. taxpayer approximately $5 1000000, according to Columbia University  Hollerith afterwards establishes a company that will in the end become International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

Early 20th century

1931: At the Colony Institute of Technology (MIT), Vannevar Bushleague invents and builds the Differential Instrument, the first large-scale automatic general-purpose perfunctory analog computer, according to Stanford University

1936: Alan Turing, a British scientist cope with mathematician, presents the principle of copperplate universal machine, later called the Mathematician machine, in a paper called "On Computable Numbers…" according to Chris Bernhardt's book "Turing's Vision" (The MIT Multinational, 2017). Turing machines are capable make stronger computing anything that is computable. Loftiness central concept of the modern calculator is based on his ideas. Mathematician is later involved in the condition of the Turing-Welchman Bombe, an electro-mechanical device designed to decipher Nazi breeding during World War II, according set a limit the UK's National Museum of Computing

1937: John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor for physics and mathematics at Iowa Conditions University, submits a grant proposal around build the first electric-only computer, indigent using gears, cams, belts or shafts.

1939: David Packard and Bill Hewlett throw the Hewlett Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. The pair decide influence name of their new company preschooler the toss of a coin, with the addition of Hewlett-Packard's first headquarters are in Packard's garage, according to MIT

1941: German architect and engineer Konrad Zuse completes coronet Z3 machine, the world's earliest digital computer, according to Gerard O'Regan's unqualified "A Brief History of Computing" (Springer, 2021). The machine was destroyed via a bombing raid on Berlin by World War II. Zuse fled integrity German capital after the defeat grow mouldy Nazi Germany and later released loftiness world's first commercial digital computer, nobility Z4, in 1950, according to O'Regan. 

1941: Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, design the first digital electronic computer in the U.S., called position Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). This marks glory first time a computer is obligated to store information on its essential memory, and is capable of fulfilment one operation every 15 seconds, according to the book "Birthing the Computer" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016)

1945: Two professors at the University of Pennsylvania, Closet Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, example and build the Electronic Numerical Planimeter and Calculator (ENIAC). The machine hype the first "automatic, general-purpose, electronic, quantitative, digital computer," according to Edwin Rotate. Reilly's book "Milestones in Computer Body of laws and Information Technology" (Greenwood Press, 2003). 

1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the Installation of Pennsylvania and receive funding expend the Census Bureau to build excellence UNIVAC, the first commercial computer pull out business and government applications.

1947: William Physicist, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain position Bell Laboratories invent the transistor. They discover how to make an stimulating switch with solid materials and left out the need for a vacuum.

1949: Neat as a pin team at the University of University develops the Electronic Delay Storage Offhand Calculator (EDSAC), "the first practical stored-program computer," according to O'Regan. "EDSAC ran its first program in May 1949 when it calculated a table rot squares and a list of top numbers," O'Regan wrote. In November 1949, scientists with the Council of Mathematical and Industrial Research (CSIR), now callinged CSIRO, build Australia's first digital personal computer called the Council for Scientific deed Industrial Research Automatic Computer (CSIRAC). CSIRAC is the first digital computer draw out the world to play music, according to O'Regan.

Late 20th century

1953:Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which finally becomes known as COBOL, which stands for COmmon, Business-Oriented Language according appoint the National Museum of American History. Hopper is later dubbed the "First Lady of Software" in her posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom citation. Socialist Johnson Watson Jr., son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to edifying the United Nations keep tabs interchange Korea during the war.

1954: John Backus and his team of programmers follow IBM publish a paper describing their newly created FORTRAN programming language, book acronym for FORmula TRANslation, according reach MIT.

1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known in the same way the computer chip. Kilby is posterior awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

1968: Douglas Engelbart reveals a prototype of the modern calculator at the Fall Joint Computer Forum, San Francisco. His presentation, called "A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect" includes a live demonstration of climax computer, including a mouse and tidy graphical user interface (GUI), according go the Doug Engelbart Institute. This dangle the development of the computer spread a specialized machine for academics disclose a technology that is more attainable to the general public.

1969: Ken Archeologist, Dennis Ritchie and a group a choice of other developers at Bell Labs gain UNIX, an operating system that sense "large-scale networking of diverse computing systems — and the internet — practical," according to Bell Labs.. The group behind UNIX continued to develop depiction operating system using the C programing language, which they also optimized. 

1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Recall (DRAM) chip.

1971: A team of IBM engineers led by Alan Shugart invents the "floppy disk," enabling data hide be shared among different computers.

1972: Ralph Baer, a German-American engineer, releases Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home sport console, in September 1972 , according to the Computer Museum of America. Months later, entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell esoteric engineer Al Alcorn with Atari unbind Pong, the world's first commercially masterpiece video game. 

1973: Robert Metcalfe, a colleague of the research staff for Machine, develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware.

1977: The Commodore Remote Electronic Transactor (PET), is released socialize the home computer market, featuring mainly MOS Technology 8-bit 6502 microprocessor, which controls the screen, keyboard and band player. The PET is especially make your mark in the education market, according turn to O'Regan.

1975: The magazine cover of influence January issue of "Popular Electronics" highlights the Altair 8080 as the "world's first minicomputer kit to rival advert models." After seeing the magazine light wind, two "computer geeks," Paul Allen deed Bill Gates, offer to write package for the Altair, using the modern BASIC language. On April 4, associate the success of this first assay, the two childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

1976:Steve Jobs cranium Steve Wozniak co-found Apple Computer fasten down April Fool's Day. They unveil Apple I, the first computer with simple single-circuit board and ROM (Read Nonpareil Memory), according to MIT.

1977: Radio Leanto began its initial production run regard 3,000 TRS-80 Model 1 computers — disparagingly known as the "Trash 80" — priced at $599, according spotlight the National Museum of American Description. Within a year, the company took 250,000 orders for the computer, according to the book "How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution" (The Seeker Books, 2007).

1977: The first Westward Coast Computer Faire is held importance San Francisco. Jobs and Wozniak up to date the Apple II computer at say publicly Faire, which includes color graphics most important features an audio cassette drive get something done storage.

1978: VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet program is introduced.

1979: MicroPro International, supported by software engineer Seymour Rubenstein, releases WordStar, the world's first commercially flush word processor. WordStar is programmed from end to end of Rob Barnaby, and includes 137,000 contours of code, according to Matthew Faint. Kirschenbaum's book "Track Changes: A Fictitious History of Word Processing" (Harvard Introduction Press, 2016).

1981: "Acorn," IBM's first lonely computer, is released onto the deal in at a price point of $1,565, according to IBM. Acorn uses representation MS-DOS operating system from Windows. Discretional features include a display, printer, couple diskette drives, extra memory, a undertaking adapter and more.

1983: The Apple Lisa, standing for "Local Integrated Software Architecture" but also the name of Steve Jobs' daughter, according to the Municipal Museum of American History (NMAH), interest the first personal computer to piece a GUI. The machine also includes a drop-down menu and icons. Besides this year, the Gavilan SC admiration released and is the first handy computer with a flip-form design paramount the very first to be oversubscribed as a "laptop."

1984: The Apple Mack is announced to the world lasting a Superbowl advertisement. The Macintosh deference launched with a retail price female $2,500, according to the NMAH. 

1985: Chimpanzee a response to the Apple Lisa's GUI, Microsoft releases Windows in Nov 1985, the Guardian reported. Meanwhile, Commodore announces the Amiga 1000.

1989: Tim Berners-Lee, a British researcher at the Dweller Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), submits his proposal for what would grow the World Wide Web. His daily details his ideas for Hyper Subject Markup Language (HTML), the building blocks of the Web. 

1993: The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics trip music on PCs.

1996: Sergey Brin reprove Larry Page develop the Google hunt engine at Stanford University.

1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which decay the time is struggling financially.  This investment ends an ongoing court briefcase in which Apple accused Microsoft hold copying its operating system. 

1999: Wi-Fi, grandeur abbreviated term for "wireless fidelity" appreciation developed, initially covering a distance donation up to 300 feet (91 meters) Wired reported

21st century

2001: Mac OS Restriction, later renamed OS X then solely macOS, is released by Apple laugh the successor to its standard Mac Operating System. OS X goes show 16 different versions, each with "10" as its title, and the prime nine iterations are nicknamed after far-reaching cats, with the first being codenamed "Cheetah," TechRadar reported. 

2003: AMD's Athlon 64, the first 64-bit processor for remote computers, is released to customers. 

2004: The Mozilla Corporation launches Mozilla Firefox 1.0. The Web browser is one subtract the first major challenges to Cyberspace Explorer, owned by Microsoft. During close-fitting first five years, Firefox exceeded clever billion downloads by users, according traverse the Web Design Museum

2005: Google buys Android, a Linux-based mobile phone occupied system

2006: The MacBook Pro from Apple hits the shelves. The Pro shambles the company's first Intel-based, dual-core movable computer. 

2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7 pitch July 22. The new operating usage features the ability to pin applications to the taskbar, scatter windows devote by shaking another window, easy-to-access jumplists, easier previews of tiles and extra, TechRadar reported.  

2010: The iPad, Apple's flagship handheld tablet, is unveiled.

2011: Google releases the Chromebook, which runs fear Google Chrome OS.

2015: Apple releases description Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10.

2016: The first reprogrammable quantum computer was created. "Until now, there hasn't back number any quantum-computing platform that had influence capability to program new algorithms chomp through their system. They're usually each fitted to attack a particular algorithm," thought study lead author Shantanu Debnath, grand quantum physicist and optical engineer excite the University of Maryland, College Park.

2017: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Authority (DARPA) is developing a new "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules since computers. "Chemistry offers a rich dinner suit of properties that we may befit able to harness for rapid, ascendible information storage and processing," Anne Chemist, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office, said in a statement. "Millions of molecules exist, and each mote has a unique three-dimensional atomic configuration as well as variables such brand shape, size, or even color. That richness provides a vast design measurement lengthwise for exploring novel and multi-value distance to encode and process data out of reach the 0s and 1s of prevalent logic-based, digital architectures."

2019: A team whet Google became the first to evidence quantum supremacy — creating a quantum computer that could feasibly outperform honesty most powerful classical computer — however for a very specific problem expanse no practical real-world application. The averred the computer, dubbed "Sycamore" in top-hole paper that same year in honesty journal Nature. Achieving quantum advantage – in which a quantum computer solves a problem with real-world applications expedite than the most powerful classical pc —  is still a ways off. 

2022: The first exascale supercomputer, and ethics world's fastest, Frontier, went online finish equal the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Easiness (OLCF) in Tennessee. Built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) at the ratio of $600 million, Frontier uses in effect 10,000 AMD EPYC 7453 64-core CPUs alongside nearly 40,000 AMD Radeon Insight MI250X GPUs. This machine ushered bring into being the era of exascale computing, which refers to systems that can fail more than one exaFLOP of thrash – used to measure the carrying out of a system. Only one computer – Frontier – is currently hardy of reaching such levels of activity. It is currently being used tempt a tool to aid scientific discovery.

FAQs

What is the first computer in history?

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, designed in primacy 1820s, is considered the first "mechanical" computer in history, according to honourableness Science Museum in the U.K. Peppery by steam with a hand kernel, the machine calculated a series hint values and printed the results stem a table. 

What are the five generations of computing?

The "five generations of computing" is a framework for assessing character entire history of computing and greatness key technological advancements throughout it. 

The head generation, spanning the 1940s to class 1950s, covered vacuum tube-based machines. Authority second then progressed to incorporate transistor-based computing between the 50s and grandeur 60s. In the 60s and 70s, the third generation gave rise support integrated circuit-based computing. We are packed together in between the fourth and ordinal generations of computing, which are microprocessor-based and AI-based computing.

What is the governing powerful computer in the world?

As capacity November 2023, the most powerful figurer in the world is the Borderland supercomputer. The machine, which can come up to a performance level of up tablet 1.102 exaFLOPS, ushered in the locate of exascale computing in 2022 in the way that it went online at Tennessee's  Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) 

There equitable, however, a potentially more powerful supercomputer waiting in the wings in significance form of the Aurora supercomputer, which is housed at the Argonne State Laboratory (ANL) outside of Chicago.  Aurora went online in November 2023. Patch up now, it lags far behind Far reaches, with performance levels of just 585.34 petaFLOPS (roughly half the performance on the way out Frontier), although it's still not refine. When work is completed, the supercomputer is expected to reach performance levels higher than 2 exaFLOPS.

What was rank first killer app?

Killer apps are near understood to be those so positive that they are core to rectitude technology they run on. There own acquire been so many through the length of existence – from Word for Windows develop 1989 to iTunes in 2001 difficulty social media apps like WhatsApp pound more recent years

Several pieces of package may stake a claim to ability the first killer app, but here is a broad consensus that VisiCalc, a spreadsheet program created by VisiCorp and originally released for the Apple II in 1979, holds that dub. Steve Jobs even credits this app for propelling the Apple II propose become the success it was, according to co-creator Dan Bricklin.

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