500 – The Abacus – A mechanical aid for simple arithmetic was used by the Babylonians.
1300 – The Abacus – The Abacus design we are familiar with in the modern day was developed in China.
1470 – Drawloom – A loom where a draw boy was no longer needed as it returned the ropes towards the weaver in front of the loom. (Created by Jean le Calabrais)
1623 – Calculating Clock – Described in notes as a “counting machine with an automated tens-carry”. (Designed by Wilhelm Schickard)
1642 – Pascaline, also known as Arithmetic Machine or Pascal’s Calculator – Machine designed to add and subtract two numbers and perform multiplication and division through repeated addition or subtraction. (Invented by Blaise Pascal)
1678 – De Gennes’ Loom – The pivoting arm supports the pivot, and the rocking bar of all mechanisms pivots the flexible manipulation device. This helps keep the pivot pressed against the fixed bearing surface on the frame during the braiding process. (Invented by Jean-Baptiste de Gennes)
1694 – Stepped Reckoner – The first calculator that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations. Mechanical problems kept it from working reliably. (Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz)
1725 – Bouchon’s Loom – Mechanical loom controlled by perforated paper tape, partially automating the tedious setting up process of the drawloom. (Created by Basile Bouchon)
1728 – Falcon’s Loom – First machine to be controlled by punch cards. The loom used perforated cards tied together in an endless chain. (Invented by Jean-Baptiste Falcon)
1733 – The Flying Shuttle – A shuttle mechanism to increase the rate of weaving. (Patented by John Kay of Bury)
1745 – Automatic Loom – An design for a fully automatic loom. It automated the movement of the shuttle taking the weft thread back and forth across the loom, interweaving with the warp threads. It was powered by a single hand crank and did not use the Flying Shuttle. It was slower than a loom by hand, therefore it was not a success. (Created by Jacques de Vaucanson)
1771 – Cromford Mill – The first successful water powered cotton spinning mill. (Built by Sir Richard Arkwright)
1784 – Power Loom – Inspired by the water-powered spinning mills, it was a mechanized loom that used a large shaft to automate the loom, speeding up textile manufacturing. It allowed sixty picks per minute, when by hand most could do around 20-40 picks per minute. (Invented by Edmund Cartwright)
1804 – Jacquard Machine, also known as a Jacquard Loom – The automatic loom used the Flying shuttle and Falcon’s punch card control mechanism. (Patented by Joseph Marie Jacquard)
1808 – Turri’s Typewriter – The first typing machine was made for a blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano. It was also when carbon paper was invented, which was used for the machine’s ink. (Created by Pellegrino Turri)
1820 – Calculating Machine – Patent for a portable calculating machine, although not commercially available until 1851. (Patented by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar)
1829 – Typographer – A small wooden box with a lever that, when pressed, imprinted letters in upper and lower case on rolled paper, similar to a paper towel dispenser. The paper could then be torn off for use. (Patented by William Austin Burt)
1837 – Babbage Difference Engine – A design for an automatic mechanical calculator, using punch card programming like the Jacquard Machine. (Designed by Charles Babbage and partially created by Joseph Clement, but never finished until British built one in 1991)
1843 – Scheutz Calculation Engine – Capable of calculating series with 5-digit numbers and first-order differences with a printer, based off Babbage’s design. (Created by George Scheutz)
1851 – Thomas’ Arithmometer – The first commercially successful calculating machine that could add and subtract two numbers, and perform long multiplications and divisions, using a movable accumulator. (Patented by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar)
1853 – Scheutz Difference Engine – Capable of calculating series with 15-digit numbers and fourth-order differences. It was displayed at the 1855 Paris World Fair. It sold in 1856 to Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York – it was the first printing calculator sold and the first computer machine to carry out computations under U.S. government contract. (Created by George Scheutz)
1855 – Hughes’ Telegraph – No code telegraph. The operator at the sending station used a keyboard resembling a piano, with each key representing a character of the alphabet. When a key was pressed, the corresponding character was printed on a strip of paper at the receiving end. (Created by David Edward Hughes)
1873 – Remington Typewriter – The first production of a typing machine made to print words and numbers with a type-bar system and keyboard. This was the first use of the “QWERTY” keyboard, designed to prevent the typewriters’ mechanical arms from jamming. It was inspired by the Hughes’ Telegraph seen in London. (Patented by Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule)
1886 – Hollerith Tabulator – Electrically-operated components that read holes on paper punch cards to capture and process census data. The 1890 census data was processed in just six weeks compared to the 7 years it took to process the 1880 census data. (Invented by Herman Hollerith)
1887 – Comptometer – The first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator. Primarily an adding machine, it could also perform subtractions, multiplication, and division. Its keyboard had eight or more columns of nine keys each. Special comptometers with different key arrays were made for specific tasks, such as calculating currency exchanges, times, and Imperial weights.(Patented by Dorr Felt)
1890 – Odhner Arithmometer – The most successful type of mechanical calculator designed. It replaced the heavy, bulky Leibniz cylinder in the Thomas’ arithmometer with a lighter, smaller pinwheel disk. (Invented by W. T. Odhner)
1902 – Dalton Adding Machine – The first mechanical calculator to have a 10 key keyboard. (Invented by Hubert Hopkins and Harry H. Helmick)
1938 – Curta – Single drum design to replace multiple drums (typically 10 or more) for mechanical calculators. (Created by Curt Herzstark)
1939 – CNC (Complex Number Calculator) – The first example of remote access computing was performed in 1940, using the CNC remotely from Dartmouth College by the machine in New York. (Designed by George Stibitz)
1941 – V3 (Versuchsmodll/Experimental Model 3), later renamed as Z3 – The first working programmable, digital computer, completed in Berlin. The CPU was only 2,600 relays at 5-10 Hz. The Memory was 64 words with a length of 22 bits. Code was stored on punched film. (Designed by Konrad Zuse)
1942 – ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) – Proof-of-concept prototype that inspired the ENIAC computer. A fully functioning machine was completed in 1997. (Designed by John Vincent Atanasoff)
1944 – Harvard Mark I, also known as IBM ASCC (Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator) – The first device to automate the execution of complex calculations. It read instructions from a 24-channel punched paper tape. It could do 3 additions or subtractions in a second, multiplication in 6 seconds, division in 15.3 seconds, and a logarithm or a trigonometric function in over one minute. (Invented by Howard Aiken)
1945 – First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC – Outlines a stored-program computer concept, including the electronic storage of programs and data which would eliminate programming punched cards. (Written by John von Neumann)
1945 – ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator Computer) – The first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer. The first to have all these features in one device. (Designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. Programmed by a team of 6: Betty Holberton, Frances Spence, Jean Bartik, Kathleen Antonelli, Marlyn Meltzer, and Ruth Teitelbaum.)
1947 – Type I Curta – Hand-held mechanical calculator with an 8-digit data entry, a 6-digit revolution counter, and 11-digit result counter. (Designed by Curt Herzstark)
1947 – Manchester Mark I Williams-Kilburn Tube – The first high-speed electronic memory using a cathode ray tube to store bits as dots on a screen. (Designed by Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn)
1948 – Manchester Baby, also called SSEM (Small-Scale Experimental Machine) – The first electronic stored-program computer, in Manchester, England. It ran it’s first program on June 21st. A stored-program computer stores the program instructions in electronically, electromagnetically, or optically accessible memory. Before, systems stored the program instructions with plugboards or similar mechanisms. (Built by Frederic C. Williams, Geoff Tootill, and Tom Kilbuern)
1949 – Manchester Mark 1, also called MADM (Manchester Automatic Digital Machine) – An early stored-program computer operational in April. It is known to run an error-free program for nine hours on June 16th. The Mark 1 pioneered inclusion of index registers, making it easier for a program to read through an array of words in memory. (Designed by Frederic C. Williams and Tom Kilburn)
1949 – BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) – The first stored-program computer in the U.S., designed for the Northrop Aircraft Company and delivered in September. It was the first computer that came with a User Manual. Due to how the transport and delivery was handled, the BINAC never worked properly for Northrop, even though it had worked at the workshop that built it. (Designed by EMCC (Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation))
1950 – ERA 1101 – The first commercially produced computer for the U.S. Navy. (Built by Remington-Rand)
1950 – UNIVAC 1 Computer – The first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application in the U.S. was completed in December. A UNIVAC 1 was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau in March to processes census data in 1951. (Designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly)
1951 – ERA 1101, later renamed as UNIVAC 1101 – A commercial version of the Atlas I, a codebreaking machine used by the U.S. Navy. It was renamed after Remington Rand acquired Engineering Research Associates (ERA) in 1952. (Developed by Engineering Research Associates (ERA))
1952 – OXO for EDSAC – One of the earliest computer games, a version of Tic-Tac-Toe. The EDSAC would display the game board on a 35 x 15 dot cathode ray tube after players entered their moves on a rotary telephone. (Designed by Alexander Douglas)
1952 – Program Linker (Originally called a Compiler) – Converted English terms into machine code, written for the A-0 System. (Created by Grace Hopper)
1953 – IBM 701 – The first computer in the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers. It used Speedcode (also known as Speedcoding, or SpeedCo), the first high-level programming language developed by John W. Backus to support computation with floating point numbers. A floating-point system can represent very large and very small numbers with a fixed number of digits, like the distance between galaxies or between particles in an atom. (Designed by Jerrier Haddad and Nathaniel Rochester)
1953 – Manchester TC – An early transistorized computer, 48-bit machine, that used 92 point-contact transistors and 550 diodes. (Designed by Richard Grimsdale and Douglas Webb under Tom Kilburn)
1953 – UNIVAC 1103 or ERA 1103 – Successor to UNIVAC 1101. (Developed by ERA and built by Remington Rand Co.)
1954 – Type II Curta – Hand-held mechanical calculator with an 11-digit data entry, 8-digit revolution counter, and 15-digit result counter.(Designed by Curt Herzstark)
1954 – IBM 650 RAMAC – The first mass-produced computer in the world was installed in December. Operating at a frequency of 125 kHz, the 650 could add or subtract in 1.63 milliseconds, multiply in 12.96 milliseconds, and divide in 16.90 milliseconds. Its average speed was about 27.6 milliseconds per instruction, equating to roughly 40 instructions per second. (Designed by Reynold B. Johnson)
1955 – IMB 704 – The first mass-produced computer with hardware for floating-point arithmetic and second computer in the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers was installed in July. This large digital mainframe computer with 36 bit memory and adapting the new technology of magnetic-core memory for random-access applications. (Designed by John Backus and Gene Amdahl)
1956 – Flexowriter – Memo in February stated an electronically controlled typewriter connected to an MIT computer could function as an input device and was tested 5 months later. (Written by Doug Ross)
1956 – UNIVAC 1103A – The design improved the UNIVAC 1103 by replacing the unreliable Williams tube memory with magnetic-core memory, adding hardware floating-point instructions, and possibly introducing one of the earliest instances of a hardware interrupt feature. Sold to NACA, which became NASA in 1958. (Developed by ERA and built by Remington Rand Co.)
1956 – TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) – The first transatlantic telephone cable system between Gallanach Bay and Clarenville, Newfoundland, initially carrying 36 telephone channels and later increased to 48 channels. It was upgraded in 1960, increasing the capacity to 51 channels. It was retired in 1978. (Laid by a consortium that included the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T))
1958 – IBM 709 – The first computer system installed in August and the third in the series of scientific computers. It had more magnetic-core memory than the 704 and had the first use of independent I/O channels. (Created by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation))
1959 – CDC 1604 – One of the first commercially successful transistorized computers. (Designed by Seymour Cray)
1959 – IMB 7090 – First installation in December of the computer and replaced the IBM 709. Transistor circuitry was used instead of vacuum tube circuits. The modern implementation of Assembly Language was created for the IMB 7090, called Generalized Assembly System (GAS) by a team including Douglas McIlroy and George Mealy. (Created by IBM)
1961 – ANITA Mark VIII – The first mechanical calculator with an all-electronic calculator engine. (Produced by Sumlock Comptometer).
1962 – Spacewar! – The first computer video game released on February 14. (Designed by Steve “Slug” Russell)
1962 – IMB 7094 – Upgraded version of the 7090. It had seven index registers, instead of three on the earlier machines. (Created by IBM)
1964 – Control Data Corporation (CDC) 6600 – Supercomputer that ran three times faster than it’s competitor the IBM 7030. It was only surpassed by it’s successor in 1968. 10 small computers, known as peripheral processing units, offloaded the workload from the central processor. (Designed by Seymour Cray)
1965 – 3C DDP-116 – The world’s first commercial 16-bit minicomputer. (Designed by engineer Gardner Hendrie for Computer Control Corporation (CCC))
References:
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