A timeline of modern computing, from the 19th century to present day.
On 14th June 1822, Charles Babbage presented a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society. Babbage detailed a 'Difference engine' that used the decimal number system to produce tables by machine. The engine interested the British government, who believed the machine could produce tables faster and more economically.
The British computer 'Colossus', the first electronic computer system, was built in 1943. Colossus was designed by engineer Tommy Flowers, and mathematicians Max Newman and Alan Turing. It was constructed to decode encrypted German messages during the Second World War. The first generation computer was fast even by today's standards, able to carry out instructions in milliseconds. Large vacuum tubes were used compared to transistors today, and the computer received input from 'hole-punched' cards. However, it filled a large room, and needed constant air conditioning to prevent overheating.
In 1947, silicon transistors were invented by scientists at Bell laboratories. The team included John Barden, William Brattain and William Shockley. These transistors began the second generation of computers. These computers could complete instructions in nanoseconds because of new technologies including transistors and magnetic tapes. However, the second generation of computers still had the similar issues of the first, such as requiring temperature regulation and being expensive to develop.
In 1950, Alan Turing published the paper 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'. Turing considers the question "Can machines think?". Turing suggested the 'Turing Test', a simple guessing game where an interrogator must determine which of two players is a human and which is a computer. If the computer fools the interrogator at least 30% of the time, it has passed the test and has Artificial intelligence (AI).
In 1951, the first commercial computer system, UNIVAC I, was built primarily by J. Presper Eskert and John Mauchly. Like Colossus, it was a first generation computer. 46 Units in total were constructed and delivered, as the price rose from $159,000 USD up to $1,500,000 USD. Consumers included the Pentagon, General Electric, the U.S Navy, and New York University, to name a few.
In 1958, Jack Kilby developed the idea of the integrated circuit. In 1961, three years later, the first IC was invented. The size of an IC is approximately a quarter of a square inch and a single chip could contain thousands of transistors. These technologies led computing into the third generation. Additionally, it allowed computers to become smaller, faster and more affordable, in comparison to the previous generations. However, air conditioning was still required; and very sophisticated, expensive technology was required for the manufacture of IC chips.
In 1968, Intel was founded by Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Andrew Grove. Intel invented the x86 microprocessors, which are found in modern computers to this day. Currently, Intel is the highest valued and largest semiconductor chip producer in the world.
In 1971, Ted Hoff invented the first microprocessor for Intel, called 'Intel 4004'. This began the fourth generation of computers. Technology in integrated circuits increased rapidly: Large Scale Integration and Very Large Scale Integration allowed computers to become much smaller and more affordable. This meant more of the general public could access computers for the first time. Additionally, computers no longer required air conditioning due to the invention of cooling fans. However, microprocessors required the latest, most expensive technology to develop.
In 1975, Microsoft corporation was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Microsoft's significant position was first secured with the release of the command-line operation system MS-DOS in 1984, and later Windows 1.0 in 1985.
In 1976, Apple Inc. was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. 8 years later in 1984, the company released the first Macintosh computer, the first desktop computer sold without a programming language. The Macintosh is often seen as a major contribution to the establishment of the desktop computing market. (Link: '1984' Macintosh advertisement)
In 1984, Ultra Large Scale Integration was invented. ULSI was used on computer chips such as Intel 486 and Pentium microprocessors. This began the fifth generation of computers, the current generation. New technologies such as Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) gave hard drives more storage space; optical disks and solid state storage allowed data to be stored and edited more easily; and more powerful servers and cluster computing (a set of connected computers to form a single system) allowed the internet to become faster and more accessible to the public.
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