2. • The abacus is thought to have been originally invented
3000 years before the birth of Christ.
• Revisions to its use/design continued for many years
e.g. 500 BC a bead and wire version is developed in
Egypt.
• Early versions of the calculator were gradually
replacing this primitive method of mathematics.
• In 1624, Wilhelm Schickard built the first four-function
calculator-clock at the University of Heidelberg, thus
heralding a new era.
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3. • 1780 - when Benjamin Franklin discovered (through
experimentation) electricity.
• The 1st general purpose computer was designed by Charles
Babbage around the year of 1833.
• In 1855 George and Edvard Scheutz built a practical model based
on Babbage's original designs.
• The 1st electronic calculator (named the Z1) is built by Konrad
Zuse in 1931.
• In the year of 1940 at Bell Labs, the Complex Number Calculator
is tested and then demonstrated. This is thought to have been
the first digital (pulse wave rather than analogue wave run)
computer.
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4. • 1971 was the year that the Intel Corporation released
the 1st microprocessor (the Intel 4004.)
• The PC as we know it today was created by IBM and
released during 1981.
• Apple introduces it’s PC alternative, the Macintosh,
during 1984. It features a GUI (Graphical User
Interface) which gave the IBM PC's DOS (text-based)
run system stiff competition due to it's usability and
professional software
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5. • The World Wide Web is developed by Tim Lee in 1991,
and CERN also creates the 1st Web Server in 1993.
• The Pentium chip is included in PCs for the first time in
1993 signalling the end for the 486.
• There is officially World Internet Connectivity as of
15/06/95
• A supercomputer is the most advanced type of
computer (or collection of computers in one large
tower) available - IBM's ASCI Purple
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6. • First Generation Computers (1940s – 1950s)
– First electronic computers used vacuum tubes
– First general purpose electronic computer was the
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And
Computer)
– It was Digital, but no binary code
– IBM card reader and IBM card punch
– 167 sq mtrs, 27 tons, 150 kw.
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7. • Second Generation Computers (1950 – 1960)
– The invention of the transistor replaced vacuum
tubes in computer design
– Consumed less power, produced less heat, and were
much smaller
– First transistor computer was created at the
University of Manchester in 1953.
– The most popular of transistor computers was IBM
1401.
– IBM also created the first disk drive in 1956, the
IBM 350 RAMAC
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8. • Third Generation Computers (1960 - 1970)
– Invention of the integrated circuits (ICs) –
microchips
– Making circuits out of single pieces of silicon,
semiconductor
– First appeared minicomputers, still based on non-
microchip transistors, and later versions were
hybrids, both transistors and microchips, such as
IBM’s System/360.
– smaller, and cheaper than earlier also known as
mainframes.
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9. • Fourth Generation Computers (1971 – present)
– Multiple microchips for different CPU components
– Miniaturization led towards single-chip CPUs - single
microchip, called a microprocessor - Intel 4004
– microprocessor spawned the evolution of the
microcomputers
• ADVENT OF MICROCOMPUTERS…………………….
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10. • First Generation of Microcomputers (1971 – 1976)
– First microcomputers were a weird bunch - in kits,
boxes, lights and switches, usable only to engineers
– CTC Datapoint 2200 - no microprocessor (Multichip)
– became a basis for the x86 used in IBM PC and its
descendants. Plus a keyboard and a monitor, an
exception in those days. (Intel 8008)
– found companies - Microsoft and Apple.
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11. • Second Generation Microcomputers (1977 – present)
– Continued to evolve - accessible to a larger audience -
came with a keyboard and a monitor, connected to a
TV, and they supported visual representation of text
and numbers
– Examples - Commodore PET, Apple II, and in the 80s
the IBM PC.
– nature of the underlying electronic components didn’t
change - change was the number of circuits that could
be put onto a single microchip.
– Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore predicted the
doubling of the number of transistor on a single chip
every two years, which became known as “Moore’s
Law”
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12. paradigm shifting innovations……..
• Graphical User Interface (GUI)
– Doug Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research
Lab developed the first mouse – GUI demonstrated in
1968
– In 1973 developed Xerox Alto, the first computer with a
mouse-driven GUI (Xerox PARC research center)
– never became a commercial product - Steve Jobs
negotiating - directed Apple to improve upon it.
– In 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh, the first mass-
market computer with a graphical user interface and a
mouse
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13. The story of competition………..
• IBM was dominating the PC market with their IBM PC
• Microsoft providing operating system for the IBM PC
known as “DOS” or “Disk Operating System”
• Apple has introduced Macitosh with GUI and Mouse,
to dislodge IBM’s dominance
• Microsoft made this more difficult with their PC-
compatible Windows operating system with its own
GUI
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14. Portable Computers………….
• Xerox PARC by Alan Kay developed Dynabook and intended it
for children.
• The first portable computer was the Xerox Notetaker, but
only 10 were produced.
• The first laptop that was commercialized was Osborne 1 in
1981, with a small 5″ CRT monitor and a keyboard that sits
inside of the lid when closed ran on the OS that Microsoft
bought and based DOS.
• Compaq Portable was the first IBM PC compatible computer.
• The first portable computers which resemble modern laptops
in features were Apple’s Powerbooks
• IBM’s ThinkPad was largely inspired by Powerbook’s design
• Powerbooks were replaced by modern MacBook Pro’s.
the journey continues…
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15. See the magic………….
• condensed history –
–The ENIAC proposal of April 1943,
–Ethernet in 1973, and
–CERN making the World Wide Web available
to the world free of charge in April 1993
–Thus the 2013 marks the 70th, 40th, and 20th
anniversaries of these events.
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