1 Learning The Basic Computer Concepts

INTERNET AND COMPUTING
FUNDAMENTALS
Learning the Basic Computer
Concepts
Lesson 1
Being Familiar with the Computer
System
Information Sheet 1.1
Timeline of the History of Computers
1617
Mathematician John Napier uses wooden
rods for calculating. This calculation
method was called Napier’s Bones.
1642
Inventor Blaise Pascal introduces to the
world the digital adding machine referred
to as the Pascaline digital adding
machine.
1822
Charles Babbage shines forth the Difference
Engine and the Analytical Engine which is
considered a real general purpose computing
machine.
1906
Inventor Lee De Forest patents the vacuum
tube triode. It was used as an electronic
switch in the first electronic computer
systems.
1937
John V. Atanasoff creates what is
considered the official first electronic
computer. It is known as the Atanasoff Berry
Computer, or simply ABC.
1943
During World War II, Alan Turing develops the
Colossus, a top secret British code- breaking
computer. It was built to decode German
secret messages.
1945
John von Neumann outlines the
architecture of the modern stored
program computer system.
1946
An electronic computing machine called
ENIAC is built by John Mauchly and
Presper Eckert.
1947
The semiconductor revolution is blasted off
when William Shockley, John Bardeen, and
Walter Brattain invent and test what is called
a point contact transistor.
1949
At Cambridge University, Maurice Wilkes
assembles the first practical stored
program computer called the EDSAC.
1950
The ERA 1101 is built by the Engineering
Research Associates of Minneapolis. It is one
of the first commercially produced computer
systems.
1952
The UNIVAC used by the U.S. Census
Bureau becomes the first commercial
computer to attract substantial public
attention.
1953
IBM ships its first electronic computer
system called the 701.
1954
Gordon Teal from Texas Instruments
perfects a silicon-based junction
transistor which brings a tremendous
reduction in costs to build a computer.
IBM’s 650 magnetic drum calculator is
also established as the first mass-
produced computer. In the ’50s, 450
computers were mass-produced.
1955
The first fully-transistorized computer
TRADIC is announced by Bell Laboratories.
1956
The TX-0 is built by MIT researchers. It is the
first general purpose, programmable computer
that is built using transistors. Also, the era of
magnetic disk storage is about to blossom
when IBM ships a 305 RAMAC to Zellerbach
Paper in San Francisco, California.
1958
The first integrated circuit is created by
Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments. This
proved that both resistors and
capacitors could exist on the same
semiconductor material.
1959
IBM’s 7000 series mainframes become
its first transistorized computer.
Also in 1959 Robert Noyce’s
integrated circuit allows printing of
electrical conducting channels directly
on a silicon surface.
1960
The first commercial modem called
Dataphone is designed by Bell Labs. It
was designed specifically for converting
digital computer data to analog signals
for transmission across a long-distance
network.
1961
According to Datamation magazine, IBM
has approximately an 81.2 percent
share of the computer market. IBM also
introduced the 1400 Series computer
system in this year.
1964
IBM announces a family of six mutually
compatible computers and 40 peripherals that
work together called the System/360.
Seymour Cray’s CDC supercomputer performs
up to three million instructions per second
which literally is a processing speed three times
its closest competitor, IBM’s Stretch system.
Also in 1964, IBM’s SABRE reservation system
is also setup up for American Airlines.
1965
Digital Equipment Corporation
introduces the first commercially
successful minicomputer called the
PDP-8.
1966
Hewlett-Packard enters the all- purpose
computer business with its release of
the HP-2115. The HP-2115’s computing
power is that which is formerly found
only in far larger computer systems
before it.
1968
Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, by
Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and
Andrew Grove.
1970
The computer-to-computer communication
revolution expands when the U.S.
Department of Defense establishes four
devices on the ARPAnet. Two of these
nodes reside at University of California
campuses including one in Santa Barbara
and another in Los Angeles. Another sits
at University of Utah and the fourth
resides at SRI International.
1971
The 8-inch floppy disk is invented by a
team at IBM’s San Jose Laboratories.
One of the first personal computers
called the Kenbak-1 is advertised for
$750 in Scientific American magazine.
Also in 1971, the first advertisement for
a microprocessor appears for the Intel
4004 in Electronic News.
1972
Intel’s 8008 microprocessor makes its
debut. Hewlett-Packard announces the
HP-35.
Steve Wozniak builds his blue box which

is a tone generator to make free phone
calls.
1973
At the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Robert
Metcalfe devices the Ethernet method of
networking.
Using the Intel 8008 processor, Micral becomes
the earliest commercial non-kit personal
computer system based on a microprocessor.
Also 1973, the TV Typewriter was designed by
Don Lancaster. It provided the first display of
alphanumeric information on an ordinary
television.
1974
Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center design the Alto which is the first
workstation with a built-in mouse for input.
Also in 1974, Scelbi advertises the 8H
computer. What makes the 8H special is the
fact that it is the first commercially
advertised U.S. computer based on a
microprocessor. It used the Intel 8008
computer processor.
1975
Microsoft is founded by Bill Gates and
Paul Allen on April 4, 1975.
The first commercial packet switching
network called Telenet is created. It is
the civilian equivalent of ARPAnet.
1975
The January edition of Popular Electronics
features on its cover the Altair 8800
computer, which uses the Intel 8080
microprocessor.
1975 also was the year of the visual display
module prototype. Designed by Lee
Felsenstein, it was the first implementation of
a memory-mapped alphanumeric video display
for personal computer systems.
1976
Apple is established on April 1, 1976 by Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald
Wayne to sell a single board computer called
the Apple I.
The 5 ¼-inch flexible disk drive and disk is
introduced by Shugart Associates.
The Cray I makes its name as the first
commercially-successful vector processor also
in 1976.
1977
Apple Computer introduces the Apple II
computer system. The TRS-80 is also
introduced by Tandy Radio Shack.
Commodore also introduces the PET, or
Personal Electronic Transistor.
1978
The VAX 11/780 from Digital
Equipment Corporation features the
capability to address up to 4.3GB of
virtual memory. This provided
hundreds of times the capacity of most
minicomputers of the time.
1979
Motorola introduces the 68000

microprocessor.
1980
The first hard drive for microcomputers,
called the ST-506, is created by Seagate
Technology.
Also in 1980 the first optical data
storage disk contains 60 times the
capacity of a 5¼-inch floppy disk.
1980
Another sweet kick-off for the ’80s is
the invention of the computer ―worm‖
by John Shoch from the Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center. This so-called worm is
a short program that searches a network
for idle processors.
1981
IBM introduces Personal Computer
(PC), kicking off the fast growth of the
personal computer market and
revolution.
Xerox also introduces the Star which
is the first personal computer with a
graphical user interface (GUI).
1981
The first portable computer is also
completed by Adam Osborne. Like
many inventions of the day, it gets its
name from the inventor; hence, it’s
called the Osborne I which weighed in at
24 pounds and sold for $1795 dollars at
the time.
Also in 1981 Sony Corporation
1981
Also in 1981 Sony Corporation
introduces and ships the first 3 ½-inch
floppy disk drive and disks.
1983
Apple introduces its Lisa computer
incorporating a GUI very similar to that
first introduced on the Xerox Star.
Compaq Computer Corporation

introduces its first PC clone that uses
the same software as the IBM PC.
1984
Apple Computer launches the
Macintosh, which is the first
successful mouse driven computer with
a GUI. It was launched, in fact, with a
single $1.5 million commercial during
the 1984 Super Bowl.
1984
Also in 1984 IBM releases the PC-AT,
which is three times faster than original
PC’s.
Its speed came from its usage of the
Intel 286 processor.
The PC-AT also introduced a new
computer bus called the 16-bit ISA bus.
1985
Philips introduces the CD-ROM.
1986
Compaq announces the Deskpro 386,
which is the first computer on the
market to
use Intel’s new 386 chip.
1987
IBM introduces its PS/2 computers
making the 3 ½-inch floppy disk drive
and VGA video standard for PC’s.
Also introduced with the PS/2 was its
inclusion of the first plug-and-play
computer bus for PC’s called Micro
Channel Architecture (MCA).
1988
After leaving Apple, Apple cofounder
Steve Jobs unveils his own company
called NeXT.
1988
Also in 1988 Compaq and other PC
makers develop a new computer bus
called the Enhanced Industry Standard
Architecture (EISA). What was
especially unique about this bus was
that unlike Micro Channel, EISA
remained backward compatible with the
ISA bus.
1989
Intel releases the 486 microprocessor
which contains more than one
million transistors. Intel also introduces
alongside it the 486 motherboard
chipsets.
1990
The World Wide Web (WWW) is born after
researcher Tim Berners-Lee develops
HTML, the Hypertext Markup Language
1993
Intel releases the Pentium processor,
leaving behind its old numbered naming
convention in the process as they
realized it’s impossible to trademark a
number. Intel also releases motherboard
chipsets and for the first time
completes motherboards.
1994
Yahoo is founded by two Stanford
graduate students named Jerry Yang
and David Filo. (Fun Fact: Yahoo
originally started out with the name,
Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.)
1995
Microsoft releases the first mainstream
32-bit operating system Windows 95 in
huge numbers.
Intel releases the first processor in

their P6 family called the Pentium
Pro processor.
1997
Intel releases the Pentium II processor
and AMD introduces the K6, which is
compatible with the Intel Pentium.
1998
Google is co-founded by Larry Page and
Sergey Brin while they are students at
Stanford University. The company is
first incorporated as a privately held
company in September of 1998.
1998
Microsoft releases Windows 98.
Intel releases their Celeron processor,

which is basically a low-cost version of
the Pentium II processor of the time.
1999
Intel releases their Pentium III
processor and AMD introduces their
Athlon line of processors.
2000
Microsoft releases Windows Millennium
Edition or Me, and Windows 2000.
The 1GHz milestone is hit when both
Intel and AMD introduce processors
running at 1GHz.

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INTERNET AND COMPUTING

Steve Wozniak builds his blue box which

Motorola introduces the 68000

Compaq Computer Corporation

Intel releases the first processor in

Intel releases their Celeron processor,

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