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From the abacus of ancient history to the personal computer of today, the history of computer development has rested upon a chain of critical breakthroughs. An abbreviated list, in chronological order, would include:
The wire and bead based abacus, used by ancient Babylonians as an aid to counting.
The invention of the decimal system (base 10) by John Napier.
The invention of the slide rule by William Oughtred as an aid for advanced mathematical calculation.
Blaise Pascal's invention of the first gear driven mechanical adding machine.
Thomas Arithmometer designs the first calculator to become mass produced and sold to the general public.
George Boole of (boolean logic) fame, publishes a paper called "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought". This seminal paper describes a system for symbolic and logical reasoning that eventually becomes the basis for modern computers.
Lee de Forest modifies John Fleming's diode vacuum tube, creating a 3 electrode system that becomes the analog grandfather of the modern day transistor.
Manson Benedicks discovers that germanium crystals can be used to convert alternating current to direct current, setting the stage for the later development of microchips.
The U.S. physicists Eccles and Jordan invent the first on-off switching circuit; a critical discovery for the creation of high-speed electronic counting systems.
The quartz crystal clock is invented allowing a quantum leap in the improvement of time-keeping precision. This is a necessary precursor to inventing the modern day clock driven central processing units (CPUs) used in today’s computers.
IBM creates the 601 multiplying machine, which used punch cards. In addition they bring the first electric typewriter to market.
Alan Turing publishes a paper titled "On Computable Numbers". This paper led to the concept of the Turing Machine, a hypothetical computer used to study the nature of algorithms and computation.
Philadelphia's Moore School of Engineering begins work on ENIAC, one of the first true computers of the twentieth century that ran completely on vacuum tubes.
Britain unveils the Colossus, the first operational computer, also based on vacuum tubes.
ENIAC becomes fully operational.
The concept of a stored program is introduced by John von Neumann. Most modern computers are considered to be based on a von Neumann architecture.
The first digital storage device is introduced, the memory magnetic drum.
Bell Labs employees John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invent the first transistor.
Alan Turing publishes a criteria for evaluating the intelligence of a machine that becomes known as the Turing Test.
The U.S. Census bureau begins using the Univac series computer to tabulate its data.
Jay Forrester files a patent application for matrix core memory.
The junction transistor is invented by William Shockley.
The first compiler is invented by Grace Murray Hopper.
IBM's 650 series machine, known as the Magnetic Drum Calculator, becomes the first computer to be mass produced.
The Uniprinter is developed by Earl Masterson for computers and is capable of printing 600 lines per minute.
Texas Instrument develops the silicon transistor.
John Backus develops the first Fortran language compiler. Fortran is a language that becomes very popular for scientific computing.
Univac brings computers to market that now use transistors instead of vacuum tubes.
Bell Lab's develops the first commercial modem, allowing data to be transmitted over telephone lines.
Xerox introduces the first commercial copier.
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, of Moore's Law fame, file a patent describing one of the first designs for an integrated circuit. Integrated circuits were a critical step needed to begin the successful miniaturization of the current bulky transistor circuits.
DEC introduces the PDP-1, the first computer sold commercially that came with a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor and a keyboard.
John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz invent the BASIC computer language (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code).
This brought us to the doorstep of the first real computers that resemble the computers we use today, and a little while later the first handheld calculators. The 1980's brought the microcomputer revolution and the 1990's marked the widespread adoption of the Internet. The future will surely bring us even more incredible advances in computing technology at an increasingly breathtaking rate.
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