500 B.C. |
The abacus |
1614 |
Napier discovers logarithms |
1623 |
Schickard's Calculating Clock |
1625 |
Invention of the Slide Rule by William Oughtred |
1642 |
Pascaline - Pascal's adding machine |
1668 |
Sir Samuel Morland's English money adding machine |
1671 |
Leibniz's "Stepped Reckoner" |
1775 |
Earl Stanhope makes a multiplying calculator similar to Leibniz's |
1776 |
Mathieus Hahn also makes a multiplying calculator |
1786 |
J. H. Mueller conceives the principles of the "difference engine" |
1801 |
punch cards used to control an automatic loom |
1820 |
"Arithmometer", the first mass-produced calculator |
1822 |
Charles Babbage's first mechanical computer |
1832 |
Babbage and Clement prototype the difference engine |
1834 |
George Scheutz's small wooden difference engine |
1834 |
Babbage's "Analytical Engine" |
1842 |
Babbage's difference engine project is cancelled. |
1843 |
Scheutz & Scheutz produce a 3rd order difference engine |
1847 |
Babbage improves and simplifies his difference engine. |
1848 |
George Boole devises Boolean Algebra |
1853 |
Scheutzes complete the first full-scale difference engine |
1858 |
First purchases of the full-scale difference engine |
1871 |
Babbage prototypes parts of his Analytical Engine |
1878 |
Ramon Verea invents a fast multiplying machine |
1879 |
Abandonment of the Analytical Engine project. |
1885 |
Compacter multiplying calculator enters mass production |
1886 |
First entirely key operated calculator |
1889 |
The first printing desk calculator |
1890 |
Punched cards used to record census data |
1892 |
More robust key operated calculator |
1896 |
Formation of the Tabulating Machine Company (to become IBM) |
1899 |
"Everything that can be invented has already been invented." |
1906 |
Henry Babbage completes some parts of his father's Analytical Engine |
1906 |
Electronic Valve developed |
1911 |
Merger of companies to form "Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company" (later IBM) |
1919 |
Flip-flop circuit design |
1924 - February |
IBM formed |
1931-1932 |
Binary digital counter |
1935 |
IBM introduce a punch card based multiplier (IBM 601) |
1937 |
Turing's paper on "computable numbers" |
1937 |
Bell Labs. 1-bit binary adder |
1938 |
Paper on implementing symbolic logic using relays |
1938 |
Konrad Zuses' mechanical programmable calculator ("V1") |
1939 - January 1 |
Hewlett-Packard formed |
1939 - November |
First machine to calculate using vacuum tubes |
1939 |
Start of WWII. This spurred many improvements in technology - and led to
the development of machines such as the Colossus (see 1943).
|
1939 |
Zuse and Schreyer begin work on the "V2" (later "Z2") |
1939/1940 |
Prototype 10-bit adder using vacuum tubes |
1940 - January |
Ball Labs. develop "Complex Number Calculator" |
1941 - Summer |
Simultaneous linear equation solver |
1941 - December |
Zuze's V3 (later Z3) |
1943 |
First Generation Computers (1943-1959) |
1943 |
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." |
1943 - January |
Harvard Mark I |
1943 - April |
Heath Robinson |
1943 - September |
Williams and Stibitz complete the "Relay Interpolator" |
1943 - December |
Colossus |
1946 |
ENIAC |
1947 - end |
Invention of the Transistor |
1948 - June 21 |
Manchester University's "Baby" |
1949 - May 6 |
EDSAC |
1949 |
EDVAC (the first computer to use magnetic tape) |
1949 |
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." |
1950 |
Floppy disk invented |
1950 |
Turing Test |
1951 |
High level language compliler invented by Grace Murray Hopper. |
1951 |
Whirlwind |
1951 |
UNIVAC-1 - the first commercially sucessful electronic computer |
1952 |
EDVAC completed. |
1953 |
Estimate that there are 100 computers in the world. |
1953 |
Magnetic Core Memory developed. |
1954 |
FORTRAN |
1956 |
First conference on Artificial Intelligence |
1956 |
Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm |
1957 |
First Dot Matrix printer marketed by IBM |
1957 |
FORTRAN development finished |
1957 |
"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." |
1958 |
LISP |
1958 - September 12 |
Integrated Circuit |
1959 |
Second Generation (1959-1964) |
1959 |
COBOL Programming Language |
1960 |
ALGOL Programming Language |
1960 |
Tandy Corp. founded. |
1961 |
APL Programming Language |
1964 |
Third Generation |
1964 |
PL/1 Programming language |
1964 |
Launch of IBM 360 |
1964 |
DEC PDP-8 Mini Computer |
1965 |
Moore's law published |
1965 |
Fuzzy Logic designed |
1965 |
BASIC Programming Language |
1965 |
Mouse conceived |
1965 |
First supercoputer, the Control Data CD6600 |
1967 |
PASCAL Programming Lanaguage |
1968 |
Intel founded |
1968 |
LOGO Programming Language |
1968 |
"But what ... is it [the microchip] good for?" |
1969 |
ARPANET Started |
1969 - April 7 |
RFC0001 |
1969 |
Introductions of RS-232 |
1970 |
First RAM chip |
1970 |
Development of UNIX started |
1970 |
Forth Programming langauge |
1970 - June |
Powerful and fast flight data processor for the F14A |
1971 - November 15 |
First microprocessor - the Intel 4004 |
1971 |
PASCAL completed |
1972 |
Atari founded |
1972 |
Pong released |
1972 |
Fourth Generation |
1972 |
C Programming language |
1972 |
First handheld scientific calculator |
1972 - April 1 |
Intel 8008 processor |
1972 |
International connections to ARPANET |
1973 |
Prolog Programming Language |
1973 |
Ethernet developed |
1974 |
First parallel computer (CLIP-4) |
1974 - April 1 |
Intel 8080 processor |
1974 - December |
First personal computer (MITS Altair 8800) |
1975 |
BASIC implemented by Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
1975 |
Unix marketed |
1975 |
Formation of Microsoft |
1975 |
IBM 5100 |
1976 |
Apple Computer Inc. founded to Market Apple I |
1976 |
First laser printer (IBM 3800) |
1976? |
Intel 8085 |
1976 |
Z80 processor from Zilog |
1976 |
6502 microprocessor |
1976 |
Cray 1, the first commercially developed supercomputer |
1976 |
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange algorithm published |
1977 |
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." |
1977 |
"RSA algorithm announced" |
1977 |
TCP is introduced to replace Arpanet's NCP |
1977 - May |
Apple II computer |
1978 - June 8 |
Intel 8086 |
1978 |
Arcade Video game "Space Invaders" |
1979 |
ADA Programming Language |
1979 - June 1 |
Intel 8088 |
1979 |
Commodore PET released |
1979 |
Compact Disk |
1979 |
68000 microprocessor |
1979 |
IBM started development of the PC |
1980 |
"DOS addresses only 1 Megabyte of RAM because we cannot imagine any applications needing more." |
1980 - October |
Development of MS-DOS/PC-DOS began |
1980 - Early |
Sinclair ZX80 |
1981 - April |
Xerox 8010 ('Star') System, the first WIMP (Windowing) system. |
1981 |
"640k ought to be enough for anybody." |
1981 |
Sinclair ZX81 released. |
1981? |
INTEL 80186/80188 |
1981 - August 12 |
IBM Announced the IBM PC. |
1981 - August 12 |
MDA (Mono Display Adapter) introduced with IBM PC |
1981 - August 12 |
MS-DOS 1.0., PC-DOS 1.0. |
1981 |
Pacman was written |
1982 |
BBC Micro introduced |
1982 - January |
Commodore 64 released |
1982 - February 1 |
Intel 80286 released |
1982 |
Compaq's IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable |
1982 |
MIDI standard published |
1982 |
Red Book on the format of Audio CDs |
1982 - March |
MS-DOS 1.25, PC-DOS 1.1 |
1982 - April |
Sinclair ZX Spectrum |
1982 - May |
320K floppy disk drives |
1982 - December |
IBM buy 12% of Intel. |
1983 - January 1 |
TCP/IP Protocol |
1983 - January |
IBM PC gets European launch at Which Computer Show. |
1983 - January |
Apple LISA |
1983 |
Borland Formed. |
1983 - Spring |
IBM XT released |
1983 - March |
MS-DOS 2.0, PC-DOS 2.0 |
1983 - May |
MS-DOS 2.01 |
1983 - October |
IBM released the PC Junior |
1983 - October |
PC-DOS 2.1 (for PC Jr) |
1983 - October |
MS-DOS 2.11 |
1984 |
DNS introduced to the internet |
1984 |
Turbo Pascal introduced by Borland |
1984 |
HP Laserjet released |
1984 - January |
Apple Macintosh released |
1984 |
IBM AT released |
1984 - August |
MS-DOS 3.0/PC-DOS 3.0 |
1984 - September |
512KB version of the Macintosh released |
1984 - October |
Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ released |
1984 - End |
Compaq started developing the IDE interface |
1985 - January |
Postscript introducted by Adobe Systems |
1985 |
Tetris written |
1985 |
CD-ROM |
1985 |
EGA released |
1985 - March |
MS-DOS 3.1/PC-DOC 3.1 |
1985 - May |
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 announced |
1985 - July 23 |
Commodore Amiga announced |
1985 - October 17 |
Intel 80386 released |
1985 - October |
MS-DOS 2.25 |
1985 - November |
Microsoft Windows launched |
1985 - December |
MS-DOS 3.2/PC-DOS 3.2 |
1985 - End |
EMS (memory standard) introduced |
1986 - January |
Macintosh Plus |
1986 - February |
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 released |
1986 - April |
Macintosh 512Ke |
1986 - September |
Amstrad PC 1512 |
1987? |
Acorn Archimedes |
1987 |
Connection Machine (very parallel supercomputer) |
1987 |
Microsoft Windows 2 released |
1987 |
Fractal Image Compression |
1987 - March 2 |
Macintosh II & SE |
1987 - April 2 |
IBM PS/2 introduced |
1987 |
VGA released |
1987 |
MCGA released |
1987 |
IBM 8514/A (a graphics card that included its own processor) |
1987 - April |
MS-DOS 3.3/PC-DOS 3.3 |
1987 - April |
OS/2 launched by Microsoft and IBM |
1987 - August |
AD-LIB soundcard released |
1987 - October/November |
Compaq DOS (v3.31) released to cope with disk partitions >32MB |
1987 - End |
LIM EMS v4.0 |
1988 |
First optical chip |
1988 |
XMS (memory standard) introduced. |
1988 |
EISA Bus standard introduced |
1988 |
WORM (Write Once Read Many times) disks |
1988 - June 16 |
Intel 80386 SX |
1988 - July/August? |
MS-DOS 4.0/PC-DOS 4.0 |
1988 - September |
IBM PS/2 Model 30/286 |
1988 - October |
CAM committee formed |
1988 - October |
Macintosh IIx released |
1988 - November |
MS-DOS 4.01/PC-DOC 4.01 |
1989 |
World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee |
1989 |
CD-I released |
1989 - January |
Macintosh SE/30 released |
1989 - April 1 |
E-IDE standard defined by CAM |
1989 - March |
Macintosh IIcx |
1989 - April 10 |
Intel 80486 released |
1989 - September |
Macintosh IIci |
1989 - November |
Sound Blaster Card released by Creative Labs |
1990 |
VESA formed to introduce the VESA SVGA standard |
1990 - March |
Macintosh IIfx |
1990 - May 22 |
Microsoft Windows 3.0 |
1990 - October |
Macintosh Classic released |
1990 - November |
Macintosh LC released |
1990 - November |
MPC (Multimedia PC) Level 1 specification |
1990 - November |
ATA spec. submitted to ANSI |
1991 |
ISA standard introduced |
1991 |
Borland took over Ashton-Take Copr. & its popular Dbase program |
1991 - April 22 |
Intel 80486 SX |
1991 - May |
Introduction of Sound Blaster Pro. |
1991 - June |
MS-DOS 5.0/PC-DOS 5.0 |
1991 - August |
Linux is born |
1992 |
"Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM which is more than any application will ever need" |
1992 |
Introduction of CD-I |
1992 - April |
Introduction of Windows 3.1 |
1992 - May |
Wolfenstein 3D released by Id Software Inc. |
1992 - June |
Sound Blaster 16 ASP Introduced. |
1993 |
Commercial providers were allowed to sell internet connections to individuals |
1993 |
Doom released by Id Software Inc. |
1993 |
The 7th Guest released by Trilobyte |
1993 |
Novell purchased Digital Research |
1993 - March 22 |
Intel Pentium released |
1993 - May |
MPC Level 2 specification introduced |
1993 - July 27 |
Windows NT 3.1 |
1993 - December |
MS-DOS 6.0 & Doublespace |
1994 - March 7 |
Intel Pentium 90 & 100 MHz versions. |
1994 - March 14 |
Linux kernel version 1.0 released |
1994 - September |
PC-DOS 6.3 |
1994 - September 21 |
Windows NT 3.5 |
1994 - October 10 |
Intel Pentirum 75 |
1994 |
Doom II released. |
1994 |
Netscape 1.0 |
1994 |
Command & Conquer released. |
1995 - March |
Linux Kernel v1.2.0 |
1995 - March 27 |
Intel Pentium 120 MHz |
1995 - May 30 |
Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 |
1995 - June 1 |
Intel Pentium 133 MHz |
1995 - August 21 [poss. 23] |
Microsoft Windows 95 |
1995 - November 1 |
Pentium Pro released |
1995 - December 28 |
CompuServe blocked access to over 200 sexually explicit sites |
1995 - December |
JavaScript development announced by Netscape. |
1996 |
Quake released |
1996 - January |
Netscape Navigator 2.0 released |
1996 - January 4 |
Intel Pentium 150 & 166 MHz versions |
1996 |
Windows '95 OSR2 |
1996 - June 9 |
Linux 2.0 released |
1996 - July 31 |
Windows NT 4.0 |
1996 - October 6 |
Intel Pentium 200 released |
1997 |
Tim Berners-Lee awarded the Institute of Physics' 1997 Duddell Medal for inventing the World Wide Web |
1997 |
"Grand Theft Auto", "Quake 2" and "Blade Runner" were all released while Lara Croft returned in "Tomb Raider 2". |
1997 - January 8 |
Intel Pentium MMX released |
1997 - May 11 |
IBM's Deep Blue, the first computer to beat a reigning World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov, in a full chess match. |
1997 - May 7 |
Intel Pentium II released |
1997 - June 2 |
Intel Pentium MMX 233 released |
1997 - August 6 |
Microsoft buy 100,000 non-voting shares in Apple |
1998 - February |
Intel Pentium II 333 MHz |
1998 - April |
A U.S. court has finally banned the long-running game of buying domain names relating to trademarks and then at selling them for extortionate prices to the companies who own the trademark. |
1998 - June 25 |
Microsoft Windows '98 |
1999 - Jan 25 |
Linux Kernel 2.2.0 released |
1999 - Feb 22 |
AMD release K6-III 400MHz |
1999 - Aug 31 |
Apple PowerMac G4 released |
1999 - Nov 29 |
AMD release Athlon 750MHz |
2000 - Jan 14 |
US Government cryptography restrictions relaxed |
2000 - Jan 19 |
Transmeta launch the 'Crusoe' chips |
2000 - Feb 17 |
Official launch of Microsoft Windows 2000 |
2000 - March 6 |
AMD Release the Athlon 1GHz. |
2000 - March 8 |
Intel release very limited supplies of the 1GHz Pentium III chip. |
2000 - June 20 |
BT claim to have patented hyperlinks |
2000 - Sept 6 |
RSA Security Inc. released their RSA algorithm into the public domain |
2001 - Jan 4 |
Linux kernel 2.4.0 released. |
2001 - March 24 |
Apple released MacOS X |
2001 - October 25 |
Microsoft released Windows XP |
2001 - November 15 |
Release of the `X' Box - Microsoft's games console |
2002 - August 6 |
Edsger W. Dijkstra died |
2003 - April 24 |
Windows Server 2003 |
2003 - October 24 |
MacOS X version 10.3 (Panther) released |
2003 - December 17 |
Linux kernel 2.6.0 released. |
2003 - December 31 |
Sir Tim Berners-Lee |