A History of Computers 500 BC The abacus

A History of Computers

500 BC: The abacus

Not a whole lot… • The Roman Empire, Jesus, King Arthur, the Dark Ages, The Renaissance, Christopher Colombus, Galileo, Coppernicus, The American Revolution, The French Revolution, a lot of other Revolutions, blah blah

1837: The Analytical Engine

Charles Babbage

Ada Lovelace

Not a whole lot… • The car is invented, World War I, my grandma is born, The Great Depression, The invention of the movie, the Russian Revolution, probably some more Revolutions somewhere, blah blah

1899 "Everything that can be invented has already been invented. " Charles H. Duell, director of the U. S. Patent Office

Computers and the Military

1946: The first electronic computer ENIAC

1943 -1959: The 1 st generation vacuum tubes and punch cards

1943 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. “ Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM.

1959 -1964: 2 nd generation The Transistor and the circuit board

The computer monitor

1962: The First Computer Game

1964 -1972: 3 rd generation The integrated circuit

1968: Douglas Englebart invents the mouse

1969: ARPANET is started ancestor to the Internet

1972 – present: 4 th generation (Very) Large Scale Integration

1977 "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. " Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation.

The next 20 years • The Personal Computer • The Internet gets popular – E-Mail – World Wide Web – Instant Messaging (AIM, ICQ, MSN, etc)