The
abacus, a simple counting aid, may have been invented in Babylonia (now Iraq)
in the fourth century B.C.
Wilhelm Schickard builds the first
mechanical calculator in 1623. It can work with six digits, and carries digits
across columns. It works, but never makes it beyond the prototype stage. Blaise
Pascal builds a mechanical calculator in 1642. It has the capacity for eight
digits, but has trouble carrying and its gears tend to jam.
Augusta Ada Byron, the countess of
Lovelace, met Babbage in 1833. She describes the Analytical Engine as weaving
"algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and
leaves." Her published analysis of the Analytical Engine is our best
record of its programming potential. In it she outlines the fundamentals of
computer programming, including data analysis, looping and memory addressing.
EDVAC, for Electronic Discrete
Variable Computer, is completed under contract for the Ordinance Department in
1952.
In 1952 G.W. Dummer, a radar expert
from the British Royal Radar Establishment, proposes that electronic equipment
be manufactured as a solid block with no connecting wires. The prototype he
builds doesn't work and he receives little support for his research.
Augusta Ada Byron, the countess of
Lovelace, met Babbage in 1833. She describes the Analytical Engine as weaving
"algebraic patterns just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and
leaves." Her published analysis of the Analytical Engine is our best
record of its programming potential. In it she outlines the fundamentals of
computer programming, including data analysis, looping and memory addressing.
ELECTRONICS’S ADVANCES: TRANSISTOR AND
CALCULATOR
Bell Telephone Laboratories develops
the transistor in 1947. Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, completes the first general
purpose progammable calculator in 1941. He pioneers the use of binary math and
boolean logic in electronic calculation.
UNIVAC, the Universal Automatic
Computer (pictured below), is developed in 1951. It can store 12,000 digits in
random access mercury-delay lines.
EDVAC, for Electronic Discrete
Variable Computer, is completed under contract for the Ordinance Department in
1952.
Texas Instruments and Fairchild
semiconductor both announce the integrated circuit in 1959.
The IBM 360 is introduced in April
of 1964 and quickly becomes the standard institutional mainframe computer. By
the mid-80s the 360 and its descendants will have generated more than $100
billion in revenue for IBM.
Byte: Most computers use combinations of eight bits, called bytes, to represent one character of data. For example, the word "cat" has three characters, and it would be represented by three bytes.
kiloByte (K or KB): A kilobyte is equal to 1,024 bytes. megabyte (MB) A megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes, but it is usually rounded off to one million bytes.
gigaByte (GB): A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes.
teraByte (TB): A terabyte is one trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes.
Computer memory is usually measured in megabytes or gigabytes. This tells how much information your computer can store.
The speed of a modem (a device that connects two computers over a telephone line) is measured in bits per second, or bps. This tells how much information can be sent in a second.
The First Personal Computer:
Bill
Gates and Paul Allen form Traf-O-Data in 1971 to sell their computer
traffic-analysis systems.
1972: Gary Kildall writes PL/M, the
first high-level programming language for the Intel microprocessor.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are
building and selling "blue boxes" in Southern California in 1971.
April 1972: Intel introduces the
8008, the first 8-bit microprocessor.
Jonathan A. Titus designs the
Mark-8, "Your Personal Minicomputer," according to the July,
1974 cover of Radio-Electronics.
Popular Electronics features the
MITS Altair 8800 on its cover, January 1975. It is hailed as the first
"personal" computer. Thousands of orders for the 8800 rescue MITS
from bankruptcy.
Pictured below: The Homebrew
Computer Club in 1975.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates develop
BASIC for the Altair 8800. Microsoft is born.
1977: Apple is selling its Apple II
for $1,195, including 16K of RAM but no monitor.
Software Arts develops the first
spreadsheet program, Visicalc, by the spring of 1979. It is released in October
and is an immediate success. Copies shipped per month rise from 500 to 12,000
between 1979 and 1981.
By 1980 Apple has captured 50% of
the personal computer market.
In 1980 Microsoft is approached by
IBM to develop BASIC for its personal computer project. The IBM PC is released
in August, 1981.
The Apple Macintosh debuts in 1984.
It features a simple, graphical interface, uses the 8-MHz, 32-bit Motorola
68000 CPU, and has a built-in 9-inch B/W screen.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 ships in
November, 1985.
Motorola announces the 68040, a
32-bit 25MHz microprocessor.
Microsoft's sales for 1989 reach $1
billion, the first year to do so.
INTERNET:
Timesharing,
the concept of linking a large numbers of users to a single computer via remote
terminals, is developed at MIT in the late 50s and early 60s.
Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf develop the
basic ideas of the Internet in 1973.
In 1974 BBN opens the first public
packet-switched network - Telenet.
A UUCP link between the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University establishes USENET in
1979. The first MUD is also developed in 1979, at the University of Essex.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol and Internet Protocol) is established as the standard for ARPANET in
1982.
1987: the number of network hosts
breaks 10,000.
1989: the number of hosts breaks
100,000.
Tim Berners-Lee develops the World
Wide Web. CERN releases the first Web server in 1991.
1992: the number of hosts breaks
1,000,000.
The World Wide Web sports a growth
rate of 341,634% in service traffic in its third year, 1993. The Internet 1996
World Exposition is the first World's Fair to be held on the internet.
How Big Is a
Bit?
bit: The word "bit" is short for "binary digit."
A bit is the smallest piece of computer information. Byte: Most computers use combinations of eight bits, called bytes, to represent one character of data. For example, the word "cat" has three characters, and it would be represented by three bytes.
kiloByte (K or KB): A kilobyte is equal to 1,024 bytes. megabyte (MB) A megabyte is equal to 1,048,576 bytes, but it is usually rounded off to one million bytes.
gigaByte (GB): A gigabyte is one thousand megabytes.
teraByte (TB): A terabyte is one trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes.
Computer memory is usually measured in megabytes or gigabytes. This tells how much information your computer can store.
The speed of a modem (a device that connects two computers over a telephone line) is measured in bits per second, or bps. This tells how much information can be sent in a second.
COMPUTER VIRUS TIMELINE
Theories for self-replicating
programs are first developed.
1981
Apple Viruses 1, 2, and 3 are some
of the first viruses “in the wild,” or in the public domain. Found on the Apple
II operating system, the viruses spread through Texas A&M via pirated
computer games.
1983
Fred Cohen, while working on his
dissertation, formally defines a computer virus as “a computer program that can
affect other computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include a
(possibly evolved) copy of itself.”
1986
Two programmers named Basit and
Amjad (from Lahore) replace the executable code in the boot sector of a floppy
disk with their own code designed to infect each 360kb floppy accessed on any
drive. Infected floppies had “© Brain” for a volume label.
1987
The Lehigh virus, one of the first
file viruses, infects command.com files.
1988
One of the most common viruses,
Jerusalem, is unleashed. Activated every Friday the 13th, the virus affects
both .exe and .com files and deletes any programs run on that day.
2004
Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through
Internet servers. About 1 in 12 email messages are infected.
2010
Discovered in June, Stuxnet is a computer worm targeting
Siemens industrial software through Microsoft Windows. It is the first worm
that corrupts industrial equipment. Stuxnet is also the first worm to include a
PCL (programmable logic controller), software designed to hide its existence
and progress. In August, security software company Symantec states that 60% of
the computers infected with Stuxnet are in Iran. In November, Siemens announces
that the worm has not caused any damage to customers. However, the Iran nuclear
program is damaged by Stuxnet. Iran uses embargoed Siemens equipment for its
nuclear program. A Russian computer company, Kaspersky Lab concludes that
Stuxnet is the kind of sophisticated attack that could only be conducted with
the full support of a nation.
On June 1, an article in The New York Times states that
Stuxnet is part an intelligence operation by the U.S. and Israel called
"Operation Olympic Games." Started during George W. Bush's
presidency, the operation has expanded under President Obama.
2012
Flame, a malware that attacks computers using Microsoft
Windows, is discovered. A report, released on May 28 by Budapest University's
CrySyS Lab, states that "arguably, it is the most complex malware ever
found." Flame is capable of recording Skype conversations, audio, keyboard
activity, network traffic and screenshots. It is spread over a local network or
USB stick. Flame also has a kill command, wiping out all traces of it from the
computer.
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