history of the computer...

HISTORY OF THE COMPUTER


1.First Generation (1939-1954)-vacuum tube

John V.Atanasoff was early person designed the first digital electronic computer.Konrad Zuse in Germany developed in secret the Z3.Howard Aiken developed the Harvard Mark I mechanical computer for the Navy.Meanwhile,John W. Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert built ENIAC at U of PA for the US Army.At 1950,Commander William C. Norris led Engineering Research Associates to develop the Atlas,based on the secret code –breaking computer used by the Navy in WWII.Then,Remington Rand successfully tested UNIVAC ,the first commercial computer to feature a magnetic tape storage system,the eight UNISERVO tape drives that stood separate from the CPU and control console on the other other side of a garage-size room.

2.Second Generation Computer (1954-1959)-transistor

Jacob Rabinow designed the first magnetic disk drive.At 1953, Tom Watson ,Jr., led IBM to introduce the model 604 computer,it first with transistors.Watson impressed with the new transistor radios,IBM alsodeveloped the 650 Magnetic Drum Calculator.”Calculator tht was the first Model 700 line that dominated main frame .


3.Third Generation Computers (1959-1971)-IC

Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments patented the first integrated circuit Feb. at 1959.He also made his first germanium IC.At 1964,IBM produced SABRE.dec introduced the first “mini-computer”,the PDP-8,named after the mini-skirt;DEC founded in 1957 by Kenneth H. Olsen.

4.Fourth Generation (1971-1991)-microprocessor

Gilbert Hyatt at Micro Computer Co. patented the microprocessor in 1971.Gary Kildall wrote his Control Program /Microprocessor (CP/M) disk operating system to provide instruction.At 1973,IBM were developed the first true sealed hard disk,called the “Winchester” after the rifle company,using two 30Mb platters.Xerox developed the Alto workstation at PARC,with a monitor .a grapichal user interface,a mouse and an enthernet card for networking.At 1976,Jobs and Wozniak developed the Apple personal computer ;Alan Shugart introduced the 5.25-inch floppy disk.At 1984,Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh January 24.At 1987, Bill Atkinson of Apple Computers created software called Hypercard.