ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE

Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

Milestones in Computer History

Description
Milestones in Computer shows the different breakthroughs and invention in Computer History

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Identify the different personalities, inventions, breakthroughs in the history

of computer.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units
ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

History of Computer

1937 Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry design and build the first electronic digital
computer. Their machine, the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer, or ABC, provides the foundation
for advances in electronic digital computers.

1943 During World War II, British scientist Alan Turing designs the Colossus, an Electronic
computer created for the military to break German codes. The computer’s existence is
kept secret until the 1970s.

1945 John von Neumann poses in front of the electronic computer built at the Institute for
Advanced Study. This computer and its von Neumann architecture served as the
prototype for subsequent stored program computers worldwide

1946 Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. complete work on the first large-
scale electronic, general-purpose digital computer. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator And Computer) weighs 30 tons, contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, occupies a 30
3 50 foot space, and consumes 160 kilowatts of power.

1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain invent the transfer
resistance device, eventually called the transistor. The transistor would revolutionize
computers, proving much more reliable than vacuum tubes.

1951 The first commercially available electronic digital computer, the UNIVAC I
(UNIVersal Automatic Computer), is introduced by Remington Rand. Public awareness of
computers increases when the UNIVAC correctly predicts that Dwight D. Eisenhower will
win the presidential election.

1952 Dr. Grace Hopper considers the concept of reusable software in her paper, “The
Education of a Computer.” The paper describes how to program a computer with symbolic
notation instead of detailed machine language.

1957 The IBM 305 RAMAC computer is the first to use magnetic disk for external
storage. The computer provides storage capacity similar to magnetic tape that previously
was used but offers the advantage of semi-random access capability.

1957 FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), an efficient, easy-to-use programming

language, is introduced by John Backus.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units
ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

1958 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments invents the integrated circuit, which lays the
foundation for high-speed computers and large-capacity memory. Computers built with
transistors mark the beginning of the second generation of computer hardware.

1960 COBOL, a high level business application language, is developed by

committee headed by Dr. Grace Hopper.

1965 Dr. John Kemeny of Dartmouth leads the development of the BASIC

programming language

1968 In a letter to the editor titled, “GO TO Statements Considered Harmful,” Dr. Edsger
Dijkstra introduces the concept of structured programming, developing standards for
constructing computer programs. 1968 Computer Science Corporation (CSC) becomes
the fieed rst software company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1969 The ARPANET network is established, which eventually grows to become the
Internet.

1970 Fourth-generation computers, built with chips that use LSI (large scale integration)
arrive. While the chips used in 1965 contained up to 1,000 circuits, the LSI chip contains
as many as 15,000.

1971 Dr. Ted Hoff of Intel Corporation develops a microprocessor, or microprogrammable

computer chip, the Intel 4004.

1975 Ethernet, the first local area network (LAN), is developed at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto
Research Center) by Robert Metcalf.

1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak build the first Apple computer. A subsequent version,
the Apple II, is an immediate success. Adopted by elementary schools, high schools, and
colleges, for many students, the Apple II is their first contact with the world of computers.

1980 Alan Shugart presents the Winchester hard disk, revolutionizing storage for personal
computers.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units
ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

1981 The first computer virus, Elk Cloner, is spread via Apple II floppy disks, which
contained the operating system. A short rhyme would appear on the screen when the user
pressed Reset after the 50th boot of an infected disk.

1982 Hayes introduces the 300 bps smart modem. The modem is an immediate success.

1984 Apple introduces the Macintosh computer, which incorporates a unique, easy-to
learn, graphical user interface.

1989 While working at CERN, WWW Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee invents the World
Wide Web.

1991 World Wide Web Consortium releases standards that describe a framework for
linking documents on different computers.

1989 The Intel 486 becomes the world’s first 1,000,000 transistor microprocessor. It
executes 15,000,000 instructions per second — four times as fast as its predecessor, the
80386 chip.

1992 Microsoft releases Windows 3.1, the latest version of its Windows operating system.
Windows 3.1 offers improvements such as TrueType fonts, multimedia capability, and
object linking and embedding (OLE). In two months, 3,000,000 copies of Windows 3.1
are sold.

1994 Yahoo!, a popular search engine and portal, is founded by two Stanford Ph.D.
students as a way to keep track of their personal interests
on the Internet.

1995 eBay, an online auction Web site, is founded. Providing an online venue for people
to buy and sell goods, it quickly becomes the world’s largest online marketplace as it
approaches 100 million active users worldwide.

1997 Intel introduces the Pentium II processor with 7.5 million transistors. The
new processor, which incorporates MMX technology, processes video, audio, and
graphics data more effi ciently and supports programs such as movie
editing, gaming, and more.

2001 Intel unveils its Pentium 4 chip with clock speeds starting at 1.4 GHz. The Pentium
4 includes 42 million transistors.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units
ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

2001 Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, is introduced. Additional wikis begin to

appear on the Internet, enabling people to share information in their areas
of expertise.

2002 Digital video cameras, DVD burners, easy-to-use video editing software, and
improvements in storage capabilities allow the average computer user
to create Hollywood-like videos with introductions, conclusions, rearranged
scenes, music, and voice-over.

2003 Wireless computers and devices, such as keyboards, mouse devices, home
networks, and wireless Internet access points become commonplace.

2004 USB flash drives become a cost-effective way to transport data and information from
one computer to another.

2004 Facebook, an online social network originally available only to college students, is
founded. Facebook eventually opens registration to all people and immediately grows to
more than 110 million users with more than 10 billion photos, 30 million of which are
uploaded daily.

2004 Mozilla releases its first version of the Firefox Web browser. Firefox provides
innovative features that enhance the Web browsing experience for users, including
tabbed browsing and a Search box.

2005 YouTube, an online community for video sharing, is founded. YouTube includes
content such as home videos, movie previews, and clips from television shows. In
November 2006, Google acquires YouTube.
2006 Text, picture, and video messaging continue to increase as popular
communications methods.

2007 Blu-ray Discs increase in popularity, overcoming and replacing HD DVD in less than
one year.

2008 Netflix, an online movie rental company, and TiVo, a company manufacturing digital
video recorders (DVRs), make Netflix movies and television episodes available on TiVo
(DVRs).

2008 Smart phones become smarter. Smart phones introduced this year include
enhanced features such as touch screens with multi touch technology, mobile TV, tactile
feedback, improved graphics, GPS receivers, and better cameras.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units
ILOCOS SUR POLYTECHNIC STATE COLLEGE
Santa Maria Campus

MODULE

2009 Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8, also known as IE8. IE8 offers new features
such as InPrivate Browsing, Accelerators, and support for WebSlices.

2009 Intel releases the Core i5 and Core i7 line of processors. These processors offer
increased performance for some of the more demanding tasks. Intel also enhances its
Core processor family by releasing multi-core processors, designed to increase the
number of instructions that can be processed at a given time.

2009 Social networking revolutionizes communications. Schools, radio stations, and

other organizations develop pages on popular online social networks, such as Facebook,
creating closer connections with their stakeholders.

2010 Hard disk capacity continues to increase at an exponential rate, with the largest
hard disks storing more than 2.5 TB of data and information. Solid state storage also is
becoming more popular, with storage capacities increasing and prices decreasing.

2010 Adobe releases the latest version of its design suite, Adobe CS5. This new suite
has many performance and interface enhancements over previous versions and takes
advantage of new technologies such as multi-touch.

Course Code: IT 101

Descriptive Title: Introduction to Computing
Instructor: Mrs. Katheleen H. Arizabal
Unit Number: 3 Units