From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Computer & Calculator Industry Timeline

Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar of Alsace invents the arithmometer, the first commercially produced adding machine. These machines, which use Leibniz’s stepped drum technology, do not gain many applications until the 1860s or 1870s, by which time Thomas de Colmar has improved them considerably.

The Thomas de Colmar arithmometers remained in relatively limited production through about the start of World War I.

Frank S. Baldwin (United States) and W. T. Odhner (Russia) invent calculators using a true variable-toothed gear, the first real advance in mechanical calculating technology since Gottfried Leibniz's stepped drum (1673). These calculators are called "pinwheel calculators."

The greater ease of use of this technology, its general reliability, and the compact size of the equipment incorporating it caused an explosion of sales in the calculator industry.

Herman Hollerith founds the Tabulating Machine Company.

This eventually evolved into IBM.

To improve data processing of the 1900 census, Herman Hollerith adds an automatic card feed to his electric punched card tabulating machine. 

Herman Hollerith sells the Tabulating Machine Company to Charles R. Flint .

James Powers begins manufacturing a punched-card system that competes with Hollerith’s, operating mechanically rather than electrically. His machines were eventually made and sold by Remington Rand.

Brunsviga boasts that they have sold twenty thousand calculators based on the variable-toothed gear technology.

The Napier Tercentenary Celebration is held in Edinburgh, though the mathematical meeting scheduled to follow it is canceled because war is considered imminent.

The conference resulted in two scholarly publications on logarithms, mathematical tables, and mechanical calculators. These summarized both historical and current information for the period up to World War I. (See Readings 3.2 and 6.3.)

800,000 Burroughs calculating machines have been sold worldwide.

Thomas J. Watson, president of CTR, changes the name of the company to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

Leslie J. Comrie discovers how to use a commercial accounting machine as a difference engine.

With this technique Comrie reformed the production of the Nautical Almanac.

Texas Instruments is founded as Geophysical Service. Initially it is the first independent contractor specializing in the reflection seismograph method of exploration of oil fields in Texas.

IBM manufactures the 601 multiplying punch.

"It read two factors up to eight decimal digits in length from a card and punched their product onto a blank field of the same card. It could subtract and add as well as multiply. It had no printing capacity, so was generally used as an offline assistant for a tabulator or accounting machine."

IBM’s German subsidiary, Deutsche Hollerith Maschinen, introduces the Dehomag D11 tabulator, the first automatic sequence-controlled calculator, incorporating internal instructions programmed with a plug board.

Kistermann, "The way to the first automatic sequence-controlled calculator: The 1935 DEHOMAG D 11 tabulator," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing XVII (1995): 33-49.

Claude Shannon, in his master’s thesis entitled A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits, submitted to MIT on August 10, 1937, and published in a revised and abridged version in 1938, shows that the two-valued algebra developed by Boole can be used as a basis for the design of electrical circuits.

This thesis became the theoretical basis for the electronics and computer industries that will developed after World War II. Shannon wrote the thesis while working at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City. As examples of circuits that could be built using relays, Shannon appended to the thesis theoretical descriptions of "An Electric Adder to the Base Two," and "A Factor Table Machine." The "Factor Table Machine" was not included in the published version. Shannon's thesis was later characterized as the most significant master's thesis of the 20th century, (See Reading 12.1.)

Shannon's thesis was first published in Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 57 (1938) 713-23.

IBM starts construction on Aiken ’s Harvard Mark I.

IBM produces the Pluggable Sequence Relay Calculator (PSRC) for the United States Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground. This special-purpose punched-card calculator, developed for calculating artillery firing trajectories, was capable of performing a sequence of up to fifty arithmetic steps.

For the rest of the war these punched-card calculators, programmed with plug boards, remained the fastest digital calculators in the United States.

“These are the fastest relay calculators in operation; they perform six multiplications a second together with a great deal of addition, subtraction, reading, writing and consulting tables. They are not as elaborate as the Sequence Calculator at Harvard in that they have less storage capacity and less sequencing facilities; however, they are about twenty times as fast. Consequently, for those problems which can be handled in this way, they will do in one day what the Sequence Calculator will do in twenty days” (W.J. Eckert, 1947).

Because the ENIAC did not become operational until 1945, and stored-program computers following the EDVAC design were a later development, the PSRC has sometimes been called "the missing link between punched card equipment and stored program computers."

"As late as 1947, the Aberdeen machines still had the fastest calculating unit in existence. Their basic operations included addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square root, and column shift. These were the first punched-card machines to support division and square root. There were 36 storage and computing registers, and certain parallel processing capabilities, including the ability to read and process four input card streams simultaneously."

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly leave the Moore School,of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and establish their own firm, Electronic Control Company. This is the first electronic computer company in the world. Their business plan stated that they expected to sell an electronic computer for between $5000 and $30,000.

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly's Electronic Control Company, the world's first electronic computer company, obtains a grant of $75,000 from the National Bureau of Standards for a research project involving Eckert's mercury delay line memory system and tape input/output devices. "With the prospect of receiving some money," the company rented their first offices at 1215 Walnut Street in Philadelphia and begins to hire employees.

The Curta Model 1 pocket mechanical calculator is produced by Contina Ltd in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.

The most advanced small mechanical calculator ever built, the Curta was designed by Curt Hertzstark, a calculating machine manufacturer, while he was a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp from 1943 to 1945. The Nazis operating the concentration camp encouraged Hertzstark to complete the design while he was in Buchenwald, and produced a prototype by the end of the war. The Curta calculator was manufactured until 1973.

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly learn from a patent lawyer that John von Neumann’s First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is a publication barring their patenting the ENIAC because it was issued more than a year before they planned to apply for a patent.

The Electronic Control Company's planned “Statistical EDVAC” is renamed the UNIVAC.

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly apply for the broad ENIAC patent, essentially a patent on the stored-program electronic digital computer, basing their description of the machine to a large extent on the government report they issued on November 30, 1945. (See Reading 8.10.)

The Eastern Association for Computing Machinery, predecessor of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), holds its first meeting at Columbia University in New York. Seventy-eight people attended. John H. Curtiss was elected president, John Mauchly, vice president, and Edmund Berkeley, secretary.

Northrop Aviation places the contract for the BINAC (BINary Automatic Computer) with Pres Eckert and John Mauchly’s Electronic Control Company. The BINAC consisted of two identical serial computers operating in parallel with mercury delay-line memory, and magnetic tape as a secondary memory and auxiliary input device.

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly apply for a U.S. patent on the mercury acoustic delay-line electronic memory system. This was the "first device to gain widespread acceptance as a reliable computer memory system." (Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace [2002] 1191). The patent 2,629,827 was granted in 1953.

The first brochure advertising the UNIVAC is issued by Pres Eckert and John Mauchly’s Electronic Control Company. This was the first sales brochure ever issued for an electronic digital computer. A special characteristic of this brochure was that it did not show the product since at this time the product was not yet  fully conceptualized either in design or external appearance.

A contract is drawn up between Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and the United States Census Bureau for the production of the UNIVAC.

IBM produces the 604 Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator (CPC). Based on vacuum-tube technology, and programmed by making wired connections on a plugboard, the mass-produced CPC 604 featured the industry’s first assemblage of digital electronics replaceable as a unit.

The second module of the BINAC (the first was completed in August), is completed. Among its numerous innovations were germanium diodes in the logic processing hardware—probably the first application of semiconductors in computers. Until its delivery to Northrop Aviation in September 1949, the BINAC remained in Philadelphia for use in numerous sales demonstrations.

Albert A. Auerbach, one of the designers of the BINAC CPU at Pres Eckert and John Mauchly's Electronic Control Company, runs a small test routine for filling memory from the A register. This was the first program run on the first stored-program electronic computer produced in the United States.

Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation issues a press release describing the sale of the BINAC. This was the first press release ever issued for the sale of an electronic computer.

Engineering Research Associates publishes High-Speed Computing Devices, the first textbook on how to build an electronic digital computer.

Written in the form of a “cookbook,” the book describes available computer components and how they worked. It has extensive bibliographies of the American computing literature and some of the English, and contains a brief reference to Vannevar Bush's Rapid Selector information retrieval device then under development.

Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, the world's first electronic computer company, is sold to Remington Rand.

The Diners Club issues the first "general purpose" credit card, invented by Diners Club founder Frank X. McNamara.

The card allowed members to charge the cost of restaurant bills only.

In an article published in Scientific American about “Simon,” the first personal computer, Edmund Berkeley predicts that “some day we may even have small computers in our homes, drawing energy from electric power lines like refrigerators or radios.”

IBM decides to produce their first electronic computer, the 701. It is a machine for scientific applications based on the Princeton IAS design.

The first Ferranti Mark I version of the Manchester University machine is delivered to Manchester University in England.

With the exception of the unique BINAC delivered to Northrop Aviation in the United States, the Ferranti Mark I was the first commercially produced electronic digital computer delivered to a customer.

UNIVAC I, serial 1, is signed over to the United States Census Bureau.

The official dedication occurred on June 14, 1951. Excluding the unique BINAC, the UNIVAC I was the first electronic computer to be commercially manufactured in the United States. Its development preceded the British Ferranti Mark I, but the British machine was actually delivered to its first customer one month earlier than the UNIVAC I.

Though the United States Census Bureau owned UNIVAC I, serial 1, the Eckert -Mauchly division of Remington Rand retained it in Philadelphia for sales demonstration purposes, and does not actually install it at government offices for twenty-one months.

Bertram V. Bowden, the first computer salesman in England, discusses “The application of calculating machines to business and commerce” at the second English electronic computer conference held in Manchester. (See Reading 10.2.)

LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office) runs a program to "evaluate costs, prices and margins of that week's baked output" at tea shop operator J. Lyons and Company in England.

This adaptation of the EDSAC was the first stored-program electronic computer to run business programs on a routine basis. “LEO’s early success owed less to its hardware than to its highly innovative systems-oriented approach to programming, devised and led by David Caminer.”

Compagnie des Machines Bull, the first French electronic computer manufacturer, produces its Gamma 3 electronic calculator. It is not a stored-program computer.

The first electronic computer symposium on the west coast of the United States is held at UCLA. The proceeds appeared later that year as  Proceedings of the Electronic Computer Symposium . . .  at University of California, Los Angeles.

Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace (2002) no. 842.

The ACM holds a special meeting in Toronto in honor of the installation of the first electronic digital computer in Canada, installed at the University of Toronto. It is a Ferranti Mark I, known as the FERUT computer

IBM introduces the 701, their first stored-program electronic computer for commercial production.

Designed by Nathaniel Rochester, and based on the IAS machine at Princeton, the IBM 701 was intended for scientific use. Feeling that the word "computer" was too closely associated with UNIVAC, IBM called the 701 an “electronic data processing machine.” IBM eventually sold nineteen of these machines. (See Reading 8.9.)

Bertram V. Bowden, computer salesman for Ferranti Limited, and later made Baron Bowden, edits Faster than Thought, the first widely read English book on electronic digital computing.

Reflective of the slow speed of advances in computing at this time, the book remained in print without change until 1968.

IBM announces the development of the 702, a version of the 701 designed for business rather than scientific applications.

English Electric constructs a commercial version of Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE called DEUCE.

Thirty-three of the DEUCE machines were sold, the last in 1962.

IBM announces the 704.

It was the first commercially available computer to incorporate indexing and floating point arithmetic as standard features. The 704 also featured a magnetic core memory, far more reliable than its predecessors’ cathode ray tube memories. A commercial success, IBM produced one hundred twenty-three 704s between 1955 and 1960.

UNIVAC I, serial 8, is installed at General Electric Appliance Park outside Louisville, Kentucky.

Serial 8 was the first electronic computer sold to a nongovernmental customer in the United States. It ran the "first successful industrial payroll application."

IBM develops and builds the Naval Ordnance Research Computer (NORC)—for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance.

The NORC was the "first supercomputer," and "the most powerful computer on earth from 1954 to about 1963." The NORC’s multiplication unit remains the fastest ever built with vacuum tube technology.

IBM introduced the input-output channel as a feature on the NORC. This innovation synchronized the flow of data into and out of the computer while computation was in progress, relieving the central processor of that task.

Journal of the Association of Computing Machinery begins publication. At this time the ACM had twelve hundred members.

IBM introduces the IBM 608 transistor calculator, the first all solid-state computer commercially marketed.

Compagnie des Machines Bull launches the first stored-program electronic computer produced for commercial sale in France-- the Gamma ET.

Stanford Research Institute begins the computerization of the banking industry by demonstrating a prototype electronic accounting machine using its ERMA (Electronic Recording Method of Accounting) system.

FUJIC, the first Japanese stored-program electronic computer, is designed and built by essentially one person--Dr. Okazaki Bunji--for the Fuji Photo Film Company. The project began in 1949.

"Originally designed to perform calculations for lens design by Fuji, the ultimate goal of FUJIC's construction was to achieve a speed 1,000 times that of human calculation for the same purpose – amazingly, the actual performance achieved was double that number.

"Employing approximately 1,700 vacuum tubes, the computer's word length was 33 bits. It had an ultrasonic mercury delay line memory of 255 words, with an average access time of 500 microseconds. An addition or subtraction was clocked at 100 microseconds, multiplication at 1,600 microseconds, and division at 2,100 microseconds."

Sperry Rand agrees to cross-license patents with IBM, thereby turning over strategic technology.

The first Italian computer conference is held in Rome.

The first Japanese conference on electronic computers is held at Waseda University in Tokyo.

Commercial transistorized computers, including the UNIVAC Solid State 80 and the Philco TRANSAC S-2000, are introduced. These inaugurate the so-called second generation of electronic computers.

Konrad Zuse produces the Z22, the first commercial electronic digital computer in Germany.

It used vacuum tubes at this relatively late date for that technology. Zuse KG was the first independent German electronic computer company. It was eventually purchased by Siemens.

Seymour Cray of Control Data Corporation builds the first transistorized supercomputer, the CDC 1604.

Independently of Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor invents a process that makes it practical to manufacture integrated circuits.

IBM announces their 1401, a relatively inexpensive computer that proves very popular with businesses, and which begins to compete seriously with existing punched-card equipment.

IBM begins production of the the AN/FSQ-7, a military grade version of the Whirlwind.

"The AN/FSQ-7 used 55,000 vaccuum tubes, about 1/2 acre(2,000 m²) of floor space, weighed 275 tons and used up to three megawatts of power. Although the failure rate of an individual tube was low due to efforts in quality control. So many were used that the daily failure rate was in the hundreds. Each center had staff dedicated to replacing dead tubes by running up and down the racks of machinery with shopping carts filled with replacements. The AN/FSQ-7s remain the largest computers ever built, and will likely hold that record in the future. Each SAGE site included two computers for redundancy, with one processor on "hot standby" at all times. In spite of the poor reliability of the tubes, this dual-processor design made for remarkably high overall system uptime. 99% availability was not unusual."

Based on technology originally developed at the Stanford Research Institute, General Electric delivers the first 32 ERMA (Electronic Recording Method of Accounting) computing systems to the Bank of America.

The system used MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Reading.) ERMA served as the Bank’s accounting computer and check handling system until 1970.

At the Eastern Joint Computer Conference in Boston Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) demonstrates the prototype of its first computer, the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1), designed by a team headed by Ben Gurley.

"The launch of the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) computer in 1959 marked a radical shift in the philosophy of computer design: it was the first commercial computer that focused on interaction with the user rather than the efficient use of computer cycles" (http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/decpdp-1/, accessed 06-25-2009).

Selling for $120,000, the PDP-1 was a commercialization of the TX-O and TX-2 computers designed at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories. On advice from the venture-capital firm that financed the company, DEC did not call it a “computer,” but instead called the machine a “programmed data processor.” The PDP-1 was credited as being the most important in the creation of hacker culture. Some references identified this machine as the first minicomputer; however DEC gave that designation to either the PDP-5 introduced in 1963 or the PDP-8 introduced in 1965.

Reference: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Digital/timeline/1959-2.htm, accessed 08-25-2009.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Defense Department increases funding for research on computing.

IBM introduces a transistorized version of its vacuum-tube-logic 709 computer, the 7090.

The 7090 was the first commercially available general purpose computer with transistor logic. It became the most popular large computer of the early 1960s.

About six thousand computers are operational in the United States, and perhaps ten thousand are operational worldwide.

On December 6 and 7 essentially the same COBOL program was run on two different makes of computers, an RCA computer and a Remington-Rand Univac computer, demonstrating for the first time that compatibility between computers produced by different manufacturers could be achieved.

Over seven thousand people belong to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).

Wesley A. Clark, a computer scientist at MIT, starts building the Linc (Laboratory instrument computer).

The machine, which some later called both the first mini-computer and a forerunner of  the personal computer, was first used in 1962. It had small table-top size, “low cost” ($43,000), keyboard and display, file system and an interactive operating system. It's design was placed in the public domain. Eventually fifty of the machines were sold by Digital Equipment Corporation.

Texas Instruments delivers the first integrated circuit computer to the U.S. Air Force.

“The advanced experimental equipment has a total volume of only 6.3 cubic inches and weighs only 10 ounces. It provides the identical electrical functions of a computer using conventional components which is 150 times its size and 48 times its weight and which also was demonstrated for purposes of comparison. It uses 587 digital circuits (Solid Circuit™ semiconductor net works) each formed within a minute bar of silicon material. The larger computer uses 8500 conventional components and has a volume of 1000 cubic inches and weight of 480 ounces.”

John W. Haanstra, Chairman, Bob O. Evans, Vice Chairman and others at IBM issue as a confidential internal document Processor Products—Final Report of SPREAD Task Group.

In the period from 1952 through 1962, IBM produced seven families of systems—the 140, 1620, 7030 (Stretch), 7040, 7070, 7080, and 7090 groups. They were incompatible with one another, and both users and IBM staff recognized problems caused by this incompatibility. The SPREAD report, as adopted by IBM, led to the development of the IBM System/360 family of compatible computers and peripherals, and essentially reformed the company.

"IBM's public commitment to the SPREAD plan was embodied in the System/360, announced in Poughkeepsie on April 7, 1964. Six machines were announced: the 360 Model 30, 40, 50, 60, 62 and 70. Over the next few years, a number of additional systems were added to the 360 family.

"The SPREAD plan eventually allowed IBM to direct substantial resources toward the development of the full system—peripherals, programming, communications, and new applications. The success of System/360 is perhaps best measured by IBM's financial performance. In the six years from January 1, 1966 to December 31, 1971, IBM's gross income increased 2.3 times, from $3.6 billion to $8.3 billion, and net earnings after taxes increrased 2.3 times, from $477 million to $1.1 billion. In 1982 direct descendants of System/360 accounted for more than half of IBM's gross income and earnings.

"Perhaps most important, the SPREAD Report permitted IBM to focus on an excellence not possible with multiple architectures. It resulted in powerful new peripherals, programming, terminals, high-volume applications, and complementary diversifications whose future can only be imagined" (Bob O. Evans, "Introduction to SPREAD Report," Annals of the History of Computing 5 [1983] 5).  The text of the report was reprinted in the same journal issue on pp. 6-26.

Nearly all copies of this confidential report were destroyed. An original copy, donated by one of the authors, Jerome Svigals, is preserved in the Computer History Museum.

The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) standard is promulgated, specifying the pattern of seven bits to represent letters, numbers, punctuation, and control signals in computers.

"Historically, ASCII developed from telegraphic codes. Its first commercial use was as a seven-bit teleprinter code promoted by Bell data services. Work on ASCII formally began October 6, 1960, with the first meeting of the American Standards Association's (ASA) X3.2 subcommittee. The first edition of the standard was published during 1963, a major revision during 1967, and the most recent update during 1986. Compared to earlier telegraph codes, the proposed Bell code and ASCII were both ordered for more convenient sorting (i.e., alphabetization) of lists, and added features for devices other than teleprinters. ASCII includes definitions for 128 characters: 33 are non-printing control characters (now mostly obsolete) that affect how text and space is processed; 94 are printable characters, and the space is considered an invisible graphic. The most commonly used character encoding on the World Wide Web was US-ASCII until 2008, when it was surpassed by UTF-8" (Wikipedia article on ASCII, accessed 01-29-2010).

Digital Equipment Corporation introduces the PDP-5, DEC’s first 12 bit computer.

This was later called “the world’s first commercially produced mini computer.” The PDP-8 introduced in 1965 was also given this designation.

Compugraphic introduces the Linasec I and II, the first general typesetting computers.

These automated tapeprocessors produced justified tapes to drive the Linotype machines used in the newspaper industry.

"The net production of the Linasec-in excess of 3,600 lines per hour compared to the manually-set 600 lines per hour, break open the market by enabling newspapers to carry more detailed, late breaking news stories."

RCA announces the Spectra series of computers, which can run the same software as IBM’s 360 machines. The Spectra computers were the first commercial computers to use integrated circuits.

IBM introduces the Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter (MT/ST).

"With this, for the first time, typed material could be edited without having to retype the whole text or chop up a coded copy. On the tape, information could be stored, replayed (that is, retyped automatically from the stored information), corrected, reprinted as many times as needed, and then erased and reused for other projects.

"This development marked the beginning of word processing as it is known today. It also introduced word processing as a definite idea and concept. The term was first used in IBM's marketing of the MT/ST as a 'word processing' machine. It was a translation of the German word textverabeitung, coined in the late 1950s by Ulrich Steinhilper, an IBM engineer. He used it as a more precise term for what was done by the act of typing. IBM redefined it 'to describe electronic ways of handling a standard set of office activities -- composing, revising, printing, and filing written documents.' "

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly receive patent no. 3,120,606 for the ENIAC, a general patent on the stored-program electronic computer. Sperry Rand Univac, owner of the patent, charged a 1.5 percent royalty for all electronic computers sold by all companies except IBM, with which it had previously cross-licensed patents.

Texas Instruments in partnership with Zenith Radio introduces the first consumer product containing an integrated circuit--a hearing aid.

IBM announces the System/360 family of compatible machines.  All IBM System/360 products ran the same operating system—OS/360. Previously products developed by different divisions of IBM were incompatible.

IBM System/360 products were the first IBM computers capable of both commercial and scientific applications that were offered at what was considered a “reasonable price.” Their architecture incorporated Microprogramming.

DEC introduces the PDP-8, the first “production model minicomputer.” “Small in physical size, selling in minimum configuration for under $20,000.”

Honeywell attempts to open the home computer market with its Kitchen Computer.

The H316 was the first under-$10,000 16-bit machine from a major computer manufacturer. It was the smallest addition to the Honeywell "Series 16" line, and was available in three versions: table-top, rack-mountable, and self-standing pedestal. The pedestal version, complete with cutting board, was marketed by Neimann Marcus as "The Kitchen Computer.” It came with some built-in recipes, two weeks' worth of programming, a cook book, and an apron.

There is no evidence that any examples were sold.

Gordon Moore observes the exponential growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit and predicts that this trend will continue. The press calls this “Moore’s Law.” (See Reading 8.10.)

Semiconductor memory begins to replace magnetic-core memory.

Texas Instruments files the patent for the first hand-held electronic calculator, invented by Jack S. Kilby, Jerry Merryman, and Jim Van Tassel. The patent (Number 3,819,921) was awarded on June 25, 1974.

This miniature calculator employed a large-scale integrated semiconductor array containing the equivalent of thousands of discrete semiconductor devices.

Hewlett Packard introduces the desk calculator, HP 9100A.

IBM adopts a new marketing policy that charges separately for most systems engineering activities, future computer programs, and customer education courses. This “unbundling” will give rise to the software and services industry.

Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andrew Grove found Intel.

The company was originally incorporated under the name of NM Electronics.

The term “software engineering” is coined at a NATO conference, in response to the perception that computer programming has not kept up with advances in computer hardware.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is founded by Jerry Sanders and seven others from Fairchild Semiconductor. It began operations as a producer of logic chips.

DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) introduces the PDP-11 minicomputer, which popularizes the notion of a “bus” (i.e.“Unibus”) onto which a variety of additional circuit boards or peripheral products can be placed.

DEC sold 20,000 PDP-11s by 1975.

Xerox opens the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

PARC became the incubator of the Graphical User Interface (GUI), the mouse, the WYSIWYG text editor, the laser printer, the desktop computer, the Smalltalk programming language and integrated development environment, Interpress (a resolution-independent graphical page description language and the precursor to PostScript), and Ethernet.

Intel announces the Intel 1103, the world's first commercially available Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip (1K bit pMOS dynamic RAM ICs).

The first automatic teller machine (ATM) is installed.

Dates conflict as to whether this was in 1969 or slightly later. The first machine installed at Chemical Bank in New York may have been only a cash dispenser.

The Rand Corporation publishes the classified report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Computer Security, Security Controls for Computer Systems.

Security Controls for Computer Systems was the first systematic review of computer security problems.

IBM announces the System/370, an upgrade for the 360, using semiconductor memory in place of magnetic cores.

Gilbert Hyatt files a patent application entitled Single Chip Integrated Circuit Computer Architecture based on work begun in 1968.

Hyatt's patent was the first general patent on the microprocessor. Twenty years later, in 1990, the U.S. Patent Office awarded the patent, but was overturned in 1995.

Intel announces the first microprocessor: the 4004 four-bit central processor logic chip designed by Federico Faggin. 

IBM’s first operational application of speech recognition enables customer engineers servicing equipment to “talk” to and receive “spoken” answers from a computer that can recognize about 5,000 words.

Intel announces the 8008 microprocessor, the first 8-bit microprocessor.

"The 8086 was originally intended as a temporary substitute for the ambitious iAPX 432 project in an attempt to draw attention from the less-delayed 16 and 32-bit processors of other manufacturers (such as Motorola, Zilog, and National Semiconductor) and at the same time to top the successful Z80 (designed by former Intel employees). Both the architecture and the physical chip were therefore developed quickly (in a little more than two years, using the same basic microarchitecture elements and physical implementation techniques as employed by the older 8085, and for which it also functioned as its continuation. Marketed as source compatible, it was designed so that assembly language for the 8085, 8080, or 8008 could be automatically converted into equivalent (sub-optimal) 8086 source code, with little or no hand-editing. This was possible because the programming model and instruction set was (loosely) based on the 8080. However, the 8086 design was expanded to support full 16-bit processing, instead of the fairly basic 16-bit capabilities of the 8080/8085. New kinds of instructions were added as well; self-repeating operations and instructions to better support nested ALGOL-family languages such as Pascal, among others.

"The 8086 was sequenced using a mix of random logic and microcode and was implemented using depletion load nMOS circuitry with approximately 20,000 active transistors (29,000 counting all ROM and PLA sites). It was soon moved to a new refined nMOS manufacturing process called HMOS (for High performance MOS) that Intel originally developed for manufacturing of fast static RAM products. This was followed by HMOS-II, HMOS-III versions, and, eventually, a fully static version designed in CMOS and manufactured in CHMOS. The original chip measured 33 mm² and minimum feature size was 3.2 μm.

"The architecture was defined by Stephen P. Morse and Bruce Ravenel. Jim McKevitt and John Bayliss were the lead engineers of the development team and William Pohlman the manager. While less known than the 8088 chip, the legacy of the 8086 is enduring; references to it can still be found on most modern computers in the form of the Vendor ID entry for all Intel devices, which is 8086H (hexadecimal). It also lent its last two digits to Intel's later extended versions of the design, such as the 286 and the 386, all of which eventually became known as the x86 family" (Wikipedia article on Intel 8086, accessed 02-06-2010).

“A new standard one-chip MOS/LSI calculator logic circuit has been announced by Texas Instruments. This single chip may make full electronic calculators available to everyone at prices that can put a calculator into every kitchen or businessman’s pocket. The chip incorporates all of the logic and memory circuits to perform complete 8-digit 3-register calculator functions, including full precision add, subtract, multiply, and divide operations.” In large quantities the chip was priced less than $20.00.

Inexpensive electronic calculators flood the market.

The Alto computer system is operational at Xerox PARC.

Conceptually the first personal computer system, the Alto eventually featured the first WYSYWG (What You See is What You Get) editor, a graphic user interface (GUI), networking through Ethernet, and a mouse. When offered for sale the system was priced $32,000.

Atex works with the Minneapolis Star newspaper to develop the first electronic pagination system that allows the creation and output of full editorial pages, eliminating the need for manual paste-up of strips of film.

The Atex system featured "Atex Messaging" which is widely believed to be the forerunner of both email and instant messenger applications. Atex publishing systems were "based on highly modified Dec PDP-11 minicomputers, designed to produce news sections of newspapers. The systems included clustered CPUs, a distributed file system and dumb terminals that displayed memory-mapped video and featured keyboards with up to 140 keys: Distinctively, the cursor keys were on the left-hand side. A custom operating system tied everything together."

Gary Kildall, one of the first people to see microprocessors as full-featured computers rather than equipment controllers, develops the operating system, CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers). 

". . .Kildall originally developed CP/M during 1973-74, as an operating system to run on an Intel Intellec-8 development system, equipped with an Shugart Associates 8-inch floppy disk drive interfaced via a custom floppy disk controller. It was written in Kildall's own PL/M (Programming Language for Microcomputers). Various aspects of CP/M were influenced by the TOPS-10 operating system of the DECsystem-10 [PDP-10] mainframe computer, which Kildall had used as a development environment" (Wikipedia article on CP/M, accessed 02-06-2010).

"By 1981, at the peak of its popularity, CP/M ran on 3,000 different computer models and DRI had $5.4 million in yearly revenues" (Wikipedia article on Gary Kildall, accessed 02-06-2010).

Pres Eckert and John Mauchly’s ENIAC patent — a patent on the stored-program electronic digital computer — is ruled invalid in the case of Honeywell Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corporation et al. (See Reading 8.12.)

The term “mainframe” is first used in a Scientific American article to distinguish the main computer in a laboratory from other computers.

Intel announces the 8080 eight-bit microprocessor.

The 8080 powered the MITS Altair 8800 designed by H. Edward Roberts, the first truly inexpensive personal computer. Within a year the 8800 was designed into hundreds of different products.

The U.S. Department of Justice files an antitrust suit for the breakup of American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), alleging anticompetitive behavior.

Bill Gates, Paul G. Allen, and Monte Davidoff write a version of the Basic programming language that runs on the MITS Altair 8800. Called Altair Basic, or in its first iteration MITS 4K Basic, the program was written without access to an Altair computer or even an 8080 CPU.

Altair Basic was the first computer language written for a personal computer, and the first product of "Micro-Soft," which will later be called Microsoft.

It is estimated that 200,000 computers are operating in the United States. Nearly all of these are mainframes and minicomputers.

H. Edward Roberts, working in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announces the MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems) Altair personal computer kit in an article in Popular Electronics magazine.

The first personal computer to be offered for sale, the MITS Altair had an “open architecture.”

The basic Altair 8800 sold for $397.

The Homebrew Computer Club holds its first meeting at a garage in in Menlo Park, California. At these informal meetings of "tech-type" people Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak learned about computing.

"The Apple I and II were designed strictly on a hobby, for-fun basis, not to be a product for a company. They were meant to bring down to the club and put on the table during the random access period and demonstrate: Look at this, it uses very few chips. It's got a video screen. You can type stuff on it. Personal computer keyboards and video screens were not well established then. There was a lot of showing off to other members of the club. Schematics of the Apple I were passed around freely, and I'd even go over to people's houses and help them build their own" (Wozniak).

The Federal Government’s antitrust suit against IBM goes to trial.

The complaint for the case U.S. v. IBM was filed in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York on January 17, 1969 by the Justice Department. The suit alleged that IBM violated the Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the general purpose electronic digital computer system market, specifically computers designed primarily for business.

IBM introduces the 5100 Portable Computer for corporate users.

More luggable than portable, the machine weighed 50 pounds. The price, fully configured, was $19,975.

Steve Jobs and Steve "The Woz" Wozniak found Apple Computer Corporation, and introduce the Apple 1 at the price of $666.

Raymond Kurzweil introduces the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first practical application of OCR technology.

The Kurzweil Reading Machine combined omni-font OCR, a flat-bed scanner, and text-to-speech synthesis to create the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. It was the first computer to transform random text into computer-spoken words, enabling blind and visually impaired people to read any printed materials. 

William Henry Gates III (Bill Gates), in his role as "General Partner Micro-Soft", writes An Open Letter to Hobbyists making the distinction between proprietary and open-source software.

The grandly named World Altair Computer Conference, probably the first personal computer conference, takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Intel introduces the 8086 sixteen-bit microprocessor.

Apple introduces the Apple II, the first personal computer sold as a fully assembled product, and the first with color graphics.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen officially found Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Wang introduces its VS minicomputer system, which becomes one of the most popular office systems, "inaugurating the concept of office automation."

Intel introduces the 8088 microprocessor, a low-cost version of the 8086 using an eight-bit external bus.

IBM hires Paul Allen and Bill Gates of Microsoft to create an operating system (OS) for their new personal computer, then under development.

Because Microsoft had no OS at the time, so they purchased a non-exclusive license to sell a CP/M clone called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from Tim Patterson of Seattle Computer Products for $25,000.

Xerox introduces the 8010 Star Information System, the first commercial system to incorporate a bitmapped display, a windows-based graphical user interface, icons, folders, mouse, Ethernet networking, file servers, printer servers and e-mail.

Osborne produces the first commercially successful portable computer, the Osborne 1. It weighs twenty-three pounds, runs the CP/M operating system, and sells for $1795, with $2000 worth of software included.

Microsoft buys all rights to 86-DOS, otherwise known as QDOS, for Quick and Dirty Operating System, from Seattle Computer Products for $50,000 or $75,000, depending on how the cost is calculated. They rename it MS-DOS. 

"IBM PC-DOS (and the separately sold MS-DOS, which was licensed therefrom), and its predecessor, 86-DOS, were loosely inspired by CP/M (Control Program / [for] Microcomputers) from Digital Research, which was the dominant disk operating system for 8-bit Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 based microcomputers. However, PC-DOS never ran on less than an 8088 (16-bit).

"When IBM introduced their first microcomputer in 1980, built with the Intel 8088 microprocessor, they needed an operating system. Seeking an 8088-compatible build of CP/M, IBM initially approached Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (possibly believing that Microsoft owned CP/M due to the Microsoft Z-80 SoftCard, which allowed CP/M to run on an Apple II. IBM was sent to Digital Research, and a meeting was set up. However, the initial negotiations for the use of CP/M broke down—Digital Research wished to sell CP/M on a royalty basis, while IBM sought a single license, and to change the name to 'PC DOS'. DR founder Gary Kildall refused, and IBM withdrew.

"IBM again approached Bill Gates. Gates in turn approached Seattle Computer Products. There, programmer Tim Paterson had developed a variant of CP/M-80, intended as an internal product for testing SCP's new 16-bit Intel 8086 CPU card for the S-100 bus. The system was initially named "QDOS" (Quick and Dirty Operating System), before being made commercially available as 86-DOS. Microsoft purchased 86-DOS, allegedly for $50,000. This became Microsoft Disk Operating System, MS-DOS, introduced in 1981.

"Microsoft also licensed their system to multiple computer companies, who supplied MS-DOS for their own hardware, sometimes under their own names. Microsoft later required the use of the MS-DOS name, with the exception of the IBM variant. IBM continued to develop their version, PC DOS, for the IBM PC. Digital Research became aware that an operating system similar to CP/M was being sold by IBM (under the same name that IBM insisted upon for CP/M), and threatened legal action. IBM responded by offering an agreement: they would give PC consumers a choice of PC DOS or CP/M-86, Kildall's 8086 version. Side-by-side, CP/M cost almost $200 more than PC DOS, and sales were low. CP/M faded, with MS-DOS and PC DOS becoming the marketed operating system for PCs and PC compatibles" (Wikipedia article on DOS, accessed 02-05-2010).

IBM introduces their open architecture personal computer (PC) based on the Intel 8088 processor.

The IBM PC ran PC-DOS, the IBM-branded version of the 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS, provided by Microsoft. The IBM PC was originally designated as the IBM 5150, putting it in the "5100" series, though its architecture was not directly descended from the IBM 5100.

On August 1, 1981 a review of the IBM PC appeared on USENET (accessed 10-16-2009).

Mitchell Kapor, previously head of development at Visicorp, and Jonathan Sachs, with backing from Ben Rosen, found Lotus Development Corporation.

Kapor, who had been a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, named the company after 'The Lotus Position' or "Padmasana.''

SUN Microsystems, founded in February of this year by students at Stanford who worked on the Stanford University Network, announces its first UNIX workstation, the Sun 1.

"The initial design for what became Sun's first Unix workstation,  was conceived by Andy Bechtolsheim when he was a graduate student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He originally designed the SUN workstation for the Stanford University Network communications project as a personal CAD workstation. It was designed as a 3M computer: 1 MIPS, 1 Megabyte and 1 Megapixel. It was designed around the Motorola 68000 processor with an advanced Memory management unit (MMU) to support the Unix operating system with virtual memory support. He built the first ones from spare parts obtained from Stanford's Department of Computer Science and Silicon Valley supply houses" (Wikipedia article on Sun Microsystems, accessed 06-12-2009).

The GRiD Compass 1100, introduced by Grid Systems Corporation, is probably the first commercial computer created in a "clamshell" laptop format, and one of the first truly portable machines.

The 1100 included a magnesium clamshell case with a screen that folded flat over the keyboard, a switching power supply, electro-luminescent display, non-volatile bubble memory, and a built-in modem.

After thousands of hours of testimony (testimony of over 950 witnesses, 87 in court, the remainder by deposition) and the submission of tens of thousands of exhibits, the anti-trust case U.S. v. IBM is withdrawn on the grounds that the case is "without merit."

30,000,000 pages of documents were generated in the course of this anti-trust case.

Commodore issues the Commodore 64 — "the first cheap home computer."

The Commodore 64 looked like a bulky keyboard, but included color graphics, and excelled at playing early video games. Between 1982 and 1984 30,000,000 units were sold, making it the best-selling personal computer model of this era. Roughly 10,000 commercial programs were produced for this computer.

IBM introduces the Scanmaster 1, a mainframe computer terminal designed to scan, transmit and store images of documents electronically.

The TRS-80, Model 100, marketed in the U.S. by Tandy's Radio Shack, introduces the concept of a “laptop” computer.

More than 6,000,000 were sold. The introductory price was $1099.00.

Relational Software renames itself Oracle Corporation to align itself with its flagship relational database management system, Oracle version 3.

Six million personal computers are sold in the United States.

Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh ("Mac"), with a graphical user interface based on the Xerox Star system.

At the age of 19 Michael Dell founds a company called "PC's Limited," building PC clones out of his dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 1987 the company changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation.

Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner from Stanford University found Cisco Systems. named the company for San Francisco, gateway to the Pacific Rim.

Intel introduces the 32-bit 386 microprocessor. It featured 275,000 transistors— more than 100 times as many as the first Intel microprocessor, the 4004, developed in 1971.

Apple introduces the LaserWriter laser printer. It cost $6,995. The Mac's ability to run PageMaker for "desktop publishing" in association with Apple's LaserWriter printer caused sales of the Mac to take off.

Microsoft introduces Windows 1.0 for the PC.

Windows 1.0 was a graphical user interface (GUI) multi-tasking operating environment extension of MS-DOS rather than a completely new operating system.

Franklin Computer Corporation introduces Spelling Ace, an electronic spelling corrector. This may be considered the first handheld electronic book or e-book (eBook).

25,000,000 PC’s have been sold in the United States.

Lotus introduces Lotus Notes developed by Ray Ozzie at Iris Associates.

Notes was the first commercial networked-based communications and collaboration, or groupware, program. Ozzie derived the Notes concept from his experience working with PLATO Notes at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [PLATO Notes is noticed in this database.]

One of the first U.S. cases related to Cyberspace law is decided: Cubby v. CompuServe, 776 F. Supp. 135 (1991). It "suggested that online companies would not be liable for the acts of their customers. CompuServe exerted no control whatsoever over the presumably false and defamatory statements which were the subject of the suit; their forum sysops were independent entrepreneurs. Prior to this decision, the liability risk was largely undecided."

IBM develops scalable parallel systems, joining multiple computer processors and breaking down complex, data-intensive jobs to speed their completion.

The dot-com bubble, thought to have begun with the IPO of Netscape on August 9, 1995, reaches its climax on March 10, 2000 with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52.

After this date the dot-com bubble began to burst.

The ASCI White supercomputer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is operational. An IBM system, it covers a space the size of two basketball courts and weighs 106 tons. It contains six trillion bytes (TB) of memory, almost 50,000 times greater than the average personal computer, and has more than 160 TB of Serial Disk System storage capacity—enough to hold six times the information stored in the 29 million books in the Library of Congress.

IBM forms a Life Sciences Solutions division, incorporating its Computational Biology Center.

Edwin Black issues IBM and the Holocaust.

This book documents

"how IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson acted through its overseas subsidiaries to provide the Third Reich with punch card machines that could help the Nazis to track down the European Jewry (especially in newly conquered territory). The book quotes extensively from numerous IBM and government memos and letters that describe how IBM in New York, IBM's Geneva office and Dehomag, its German subsidiary, were intimately involved in supporting Nazi oppression. The book also includes IBM's internal reports that admit that these machines made the Nazis much more efficient in their efforts. Several documentaries, including the 2003 film The Corporation Screened, C-SPAN broadcast and The Times, the Village Voice, the JTA and numerous other publications published close-ups of several documents demonstrating IBM's involvement in the Holocaust. These included IBM code sheets for concentration camps taken from the files of the National Archives. For example, IBM's Prisoner Code listed 8 for a Jew and Code 11 for a Gypsy. Camp Code 001 was Auschwitz, Code 002 was Buchenwald. Status Code 5 was executed by order, code 6 was gas chamber. One extensively quoted IBM report written by the company's European manager during WWII declared “in Germany a campaign started for, what has been termed … ‘organization of the second front.’ ” The memo added, “In military literature and in newspapers, the importance and necessity of having in all phases of life, behind the front, an organization which would remain intact and would function with ‘Blitzkrieg’ efficiency … was brought out. What we had been preaching in vain for years all at once began to be realized.”

"The book documents IBM's CEO Thomas J. Watson as being an active Nazi supporter. Watson made numerous statements in numerous venues that the international community ought to give Nazi Germany a break from the economic sanctions. As head of the International Chamber of Commerce, Watson engineered an annual meeting to be held in Berlin, where he was witnessed to publicly give a Nazi salute to Hitler in the infamous "Seig, Heil" fashion. Watson traveled to Germany numerous times after the Nazis took power in 1933, but it was on the Commerce trip that he received an honor medal from Hitler himself. Watson also dined privately with Hitler, and attended lavish dinners with many infamous Nazi officials at the same time that Jews were being officially robbed and driven from their homes.

"There was an IBM customer site, the Hollerith Abteilung, in almost every concentration camp, that either ran machines, sorted cards or prepared documents for IBM processing. The Auschwitz tattoo began as an IBM number.

"Although IBM actively worked with the Hitler regime from its inception in 1933 to its demise in 1945, IBM has asserted that since their German subsidiary came under temporary receivership by the Nazi authorities from 1941 to 1945, the main company was not responsible for its role in the latter years of the holocaust. Shortly after the war, the company worked aggressively to recover the profits made from the many Hollerith departments in the concentration camps, the printing of millions of punchcards used to keep track of the prisoners, the custom-built punchcard systems, and its servicing of the Extermination through labour program. The company also paid its employees special bonuses based on high sales volume to the Nazis and collaborator regimes. As in many corporate cases, when the US entered the war, the Third Reich left in place the original IBM managers who continued their contacts via Geneva, thus company activities continued without interruption" (Wikipedia article on IBM and the Holocaust, accessed 05-23-2009).

Microsoft launches the Xbox game console, its first entry into the gaming console market.

"According to the book Smartbomb, by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, the remarkable success of the upstart Sony PlayStation worried Microsoft in late 1990s. The growing video game market seemed to threaten the PC market which Microsoft had dominated and relied upon for most of its revenues. Additionally, a venture into the gaming console market would diversify Microsoft's product line, which up to that time had been heavily concentrated on software."

Steve Jobs of Apple introduces the iPad, one-half inch thick, with a 9.7 inch, high resolution color touchscreen (multi-touch) diagonal display, powered by a 1-gigahertz Apple A4 chip and 16 to 64 gigabytes of flash storage, weighing 1.5 pounds and capable of running all iPhone applications, except presumably, the phone. The battery life is supposed to be 10 hours, and the device is supposed to hold a charge for 1 month in standby. The price starts at $499.00.

"The new device will have to be far better than the laptop and smartphone at doing important things: browsing the Web, doing e-mail, enjoying and sharing photographs, watching videos, enjoying your music collection, playing games, reading e-books. Otherwise, 'it has no reason for being.'" (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/live-blogging-the-apple-product-announcement/?hp, accessed 01-27-2010).

Link to iPad on Apple website: http://www.apple.com/ipad/