A Brief History of
Computing and Computers

Some early events

• 1825-1850 - Charles Babbage designs Difference Engine (a machine designed to produce mathematical tables) and then the Analytical Engine the first programmable computer. Augusta Ada Byron, Lady of Lovelace, is first programmer.
• ~1890 - Hollerith builds machines that use punch cards to tabulate Census information.
• ~1939 - John Atanasoff (Iowa State) builds prototype electronic computer with 300 tubes.
• 1946 - Eckert and Mauchly (Pennsylvania) build first "large scale electronic digital computer" with 18K tubes. Programmable via patch panel
• ~1946 - Von Neumann (Inst. Advanced Study) describes computer in which data and program stored in machine.

Technology highlights

• 50's - vacuum tubes, Von Neumann architecture
• 60's - transistors, higher-level programming languages
• 70's - integrated circuits (chips), timesharing, networking
• 80's - VLSI (very large scale integration or microprocessors), PCs and Workstations
• 90's - networks of computers, Internet
• 00's - ?