From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Computer & Calculator Design / Architecture Outline

Perhaps the Earliest Programmable Analog Computer
(1206)

The Pascaline
(1642)

Leibnitz Invents the Stepped Drum Gear Calculator
(1673 – 1710)

Leibniz on Binary Arithmetic
(March 15, 1679 – 1705)

First Description of the Stepped-Drum Calculator
(1710)

Mathematical Tables Calculated by Hairdressers Unemployed after the French Revolution
(1801)

The Most Famous Image in the Early History of Computing
(1839)

The First Published Computer Programs
(1842)

The First Automatically Made Numerical Table Printed by the First Printing Calculator
(1849)

The Second Scheutz Difference Engine
(1853)

Calculators Using a True Variable-Toothed Gear
(Circa 1875)

The Most Complete Work on Babbage's Computers
(1889)

The Millionaire
(1893)

The First Systematic Classification of Calculating Machines
(1894)

A New Version of Babbage's Analytical Engine, Lost
(1908)

Summarizing the State of the Computer Industry Prior to World War I
(July 24 – July 27, 1914)

The Differential Analyzer
(1930)

Zuse's Z1: The First Freely Programmable Binary-Based Calculating Machine
(April 11, 1936)

An Experimental Electromechanical Cryptanalysis Machine Capable of Binary Multiplication
(1937)

The First Electromechanical Computer Built in America
(November 1937)

Aiken Drafts a Proposal for the Harvard Mark 1
(November 1937)

Atanasoff Plans the ABC Machine
(Circa December 1937)

The "Earliest" Electronic Digital Computer
(1939)

Zuse Completes the Z2
(1939)

The First Electromechanical Computer for Routine Use
(April 1939)

"10,000 Operations per Second"
(October 15, 1939)

Complex Number Calculator
(January 8, 1940)

Design and Principles of the ABC Machine
(August 1940)

Mauchly Meets Atanasoff
(December 1940)

An Improved Bombe
(Circa December 1940)

Converting Zuse's Logical Designs into Switching Circuits
(1941)

Zuse's Z3: The First Turing-Complete Computer
(May 12, 1941)

Eckert and Mauchly Begin their Collaboration
(Circa June 1941)

Atanasoff Abandons Work on his ABC Machine
(1942)

Z4
(1942)

Containing 2000 Vacuum Tubes and Weighing 100,000 Pounds
(1942)

High Speed Vacuum Tube Devices for Calculating
(August 1942)

The First Complete Machine to Perform Arithmetic Electronically
(1943)

Project Whirlwind Begins
(1943)

The First Computing Journal
(1943)

The Harvard Mark 1 is Operational
(January 1943)

The Proposal to Build the ENIAC
(April 8, 1943)

Electronic Memory
(January 29, 1944)

The ENIAC is Partly Operational
(July 1944)

John von Neumann Visits the ENIAC in Development
(September 1944)

Authorship of the ENIAC Design
(September 27, 1944)

The U.S. Army Funds Development of the EDVAC
(October 1944)

Zuse's Z4
(1945)

The First Theoretical Description of a Stored-Program Computer
(June 30, 1945)

Turing's ACE
(Circa October 1945)

From Analog to Digital
(Circa November 1945)

First Confidential Report on the Completed ENIAC
(November 30, 1945)

The Moore School Lectures Take Place
(1946)

Among the Earliest Published Examples of Computer Programs
(1946)

Automatic Computing Engine (ACE)
(1946)

Von Neumann Begins the Princeton IAS Computer Project
(March 1946)

Bigelow joins von Neumann and Goldstine
(June 1946)

Ideas to be Incorporated into the Princeton IAS Design
(June 28, 1946)

A Single Erasable High-Speed Memory
(July 15, 1946)

The ENIAC Becomes an Elementary Stored-Program Computer
(1947)

EDVAC is Declassified
(1947)

Couffignal Decides against Building a Stored-Program Computer
(1947)

Untitled
(1947)

The Most Advanced Small Mechanical Calculator
(1947)

"Practical Versions of the Universal Machine"
(February 20, 1947)

Von Neumann's First Draft Bars Patenting the ENIAC
(April 8, 1947)

The von Neumann Architecture
(Circa June 1947)

Eckert & Mauchly Apply for a Patent on the Stored-Program Computer
(June 26, 1947)

Northrop Places the Contract for the BINAC
(October 1947)

Patenting the Mercury Acoustic Delay-Line Electronic Memory
(October 31, 1947)

First Assemblage of Digital Electronics Replaceable as a Unit
(1948)

The First Magnetic Drum Memory
(1948)

The First Computer that Could Modify a Stored Program
(January 1948)

The First Operational Stored-Program Computer
(June 21, 1948)

"Intelligent Machinery"
(July – August 1948)

Innovations in the BINAC
(September 9, 1948)

The First Popular Book on Electronic Computers
(1949)

The First Software to Allow a Computer to be Operated by a Keyboard
(1949)

Automated Detection and Interception System
(1949)

First Program Run on the First Stored-Program Electronic Computer in the U.S.
(February 1949)

The First Easily Used Fully Functional Stored-Program Computer to Run a Program
(May 6, 1949)

The First Stored-Program Computer in Australia
(November 1949)

Magnetic-Core Memory Replaces Electrostatic Memory on the Whirlwind I
(1951)

Calculating Machines and Human Thought
(January 8 – January 13, 1951)

The First Graphical Display for a Computer
(April 20, 1951)

Maurice Wilkes Introduces Microprogamming
(July 9 – July 12, 1951)

Once Finally Operational, the EDVAC is Obsolete
(1952)

Vaccuum Tubes Especially Designed for Digital Circuits
(1952)

Untitled
(1952)

The First Trackball
(1952)

First Russian Stored-Program Computer
(January 1952)

The IAS Machine is Fully Operational
(June 10, 1952)

The First Electronic Computer in Germany
(September 1952)

IBM Produces an "Electronic Data Processing Machine"
(December 1952)

IBM Installs its First Stored Program Electronic Computer, the 701, but They Don't Call it a Computer
(March 27, 1953)

The Deuce
(1954)

The First Supercomputer
(1954)

The First Light Pen
(1954)

The First Solid State Computer
(1955)

Magnetic Core Storage Units
(1955)

The ENIAC is Retired
(1955)

The First Full-Scale Programmable Japanese Computer
(October 1955)

First Japanese Stored-Program Computer
(March 1956)

The Burroughs Atlas Guidance Computer
(1957)

IBM Phases Out Vacuum Tubes
(1957)

Control Unit Based on Microprogramming
(1957)

The Sage Air Defense System
(1957)

So-Called Second Generation of Computers
(1957)

The First Significant Computer Music Composition
(1957)

First Commercial Electronic Computer Produced in Germany
(1958)

The First Transistorized Supercomputer
(1958)

The IBM 1401, a Relatively Inexpensive Computer
(1958)

A Computer Occupying a Half Acre of Floor Space
(1958)

The TX-2 Computer for the Study of Human-Computer Interaction
(1959)

ARPA Increases Funding for Research on Computing
(1960)

The First Commercially Available General Purpose Computer with Transistor Logic
(1960)

Coining the Term "Computer Science"
(1961)

The Linc, Perhaps the First Mini-Computer
(May 1961)

Origins of the IBM System/360
(December 28, 1961)

The First Commercially Produced Mini-Computer
(1963)

The First Commercial Computers to Use Integrated Circuits
(1964)

The ENIAC Patent
(February 4, 1964)

The IBM System/360 Family
(April 7, 1964)

One of the Earliest Tablet Computers and the First Reference to Electronic Ink
(August 1964)

The First Production Model Minicomputer
(1965)

Early Home Computer?
(1965)

The First Hand-Held Electronic Calculator
(1967)

Hypertext, Text Editing, Windows, Email and a Mouse
(December 8, 1968)

PDP-11
(1970)

Xerox PARC
(1970)

The First General Patent on the Microprocessor
(December 1970)

The First Microprocessor
(1971)

Computer Structures
(1971)

Conceptually, the First Personal Computer System
(1973)

The First Computer Employing RISC
(1974)

Virtual Machines
(1974)

The First Microprocessor for the First Personal Computer
(March 1974)

The First Personal Computer Offered for Sale
(January 1975)

The First Personal Computer Sold as a Fully Assembled Product
(1977)

Inaugurating the Concept of Office Automation
(1977)

The 8086 Microprocessor
(1978)

Intel 8088
(July 1, 1979)

Xerox Star
(1981)

The First Commercially Successful Portable Computer
(1981)

The IBM PC
(August 12, 1981)

Sun Microsystems Announces its First Workstation
(1982)

The First "Clamshell" Laptop?
(1982)

The First Cheap Home Computer
(August 1982)

The First Scanner?
(November 1982)

The "Trash" 80: The First Laptop?
(1983)

On of the First Commercially Available Touchscreen Computers
(November 1983)

Apple Introduces the "Mac"
(January 24, 1984)

The First Commercially Available Tablet Computer
(September 1989)

Scalable Parallel Systems
(1993)

The First Tablet Computer with Wireless Connectivity
(April 1993)

Supercomputer ASCI Blue-Pacific SST
(October 28, 1998)

IBM's Blue Gene
(December 1999)

The ASCI White Supercomputer
(June 29, 2000)

Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 and its Printer are Finally Constructed
(2002)

Supercomputer Project Columbia
(October 27, 2004)

280.6 Trillion Operations per Second
(October 28, 2005)

On the Origins of the ENIAC
(February 14, 2006)

Supercomputer Built from Video Gaming Components
(June 2008)

1.75 Petaflops Achieved
(November 2009)

Introduction of Apple's iPad
(January 27, 2010)