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.
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.
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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment