Before 1944
1944 - 1971
1972 - 1981
1981 - 1990
1990 - 1998
Memories
The Future
Quotes
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 First stored program computer is invented, the EDVAC.
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| First computer "bug" reported. The "bug" was an moth that was caught up in the computer. It was discovered by naval officer and mathematican Grace Murray Hopper. |
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First point-contact transistor invented.
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First commercial computer is created, called the UNIVAC.
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Schockley of Bell Labs file for a patent on the first transistor. |
Texas Instruments announces the start of commercial production of silicon transistors.
The first transistorized computer is completed, the TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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At Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby completes
building the first integrated circuit, containing five components on a piece of germanium half an inch long and thinner
than a toothpick. |
Control Data Corporation delivers the air traffic control display, for use in tracking planes.
IBM develops the first automatic mass-production facility for transistors, in New York.
Teletype ships its Model 33 keyboard and punched-tape terminal, used for input and output by many early microcomputers.
Digital Equipment sells its first minicomputer, to Atomic Energy of Canada.
Control Data Corporation announces and delivers the 3600 computer, 603 tape drive, and 405 card reader.
Douglas Engelbart receives a patent on the mouse pointing device for computers.
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Gordon Moore suggests that integrated circuits would double in complexity every year. This later becomes known as Moore's Law. It is printed by a magizine in an artical writen by Moore.
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John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop the BASIC programming language at Dartmouth College.
| IBM introduces the first disk storage system, the IBM RAMAC 305. It holds 5 MB of data on 50 2-foot wide platters. |
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IBM builds the first floppy disk.
Douglas Engelbart, of the Stanford Research Institute, demonstrates his system of keyboard, keypad, mouse, and windows at the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco's Civic Center. He demonstrates use of a word processor, a hypertext system, and remote collaborative work with colleagues.
| Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore found the Intel Corporation |
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Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated is founded.
Intel announces a 1 KB RAM chip, which has a significantly larger capacity than any previously produced memory chip.
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Unix is developed at AT&T's Bell Laboratories. |
Gary Starkweather, at Xerox's research facility in Webster, New York, demonstrates using a laser beam with the xerography process to create a laser printer.
| Xerox opens the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). |
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Intel creates the first 4004 microprocessor.
Intel creates the 1103 chip, the first generally available DRAM memory chip. This chip was the first merchant market LSI (large-scale integrated) DRAM.
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Intel introduces its 4-bit bus, 108-KHz 4004 chip - the first microprocessor. Initial price is US$200. Speed is 60,000 operations per second. It uses 2300 transistors, based on 10-micron technology. It can address 640 bytes. The dimensions for the chip are 3x4 mm. |
Niklaus Wirth invents the Pascal programming language.
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IBM introduces the "memory disk", or "floppy disk", an 8-inch floppy plastic disk coated with iron oxide. |
Intel introduces the 1101 chip, a 256-bit programmable memory, and the 1701 chip, a 256-byte erasable read-only memory (EROM).
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