History of Computers (Time Line) by Sara Craig

1939-Hewlett-Packard

30craigs — 2025-01-29 13:14:32 UTC

In 1939 the Hewlett Packard was founded by David Packard and Bill Hewlett. They had stared a company in a Palo Alto, California garage. There first product was the the HP 200A Audio Oscillator .This was became popular fast, especially for Engineers.

1944- First Colossus (operational at Bletchley Park)

30craigs — 2025-01-29 15:31:26 UTC

The Colossus was designed/ founded by British engineer Tommy Flowers. The colossus was designed to translate/decode the complicated Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis during World War II. Only a total of ten Colossi were distributed, with each one using 2,500 vacuum tubes. (25,000 total) A lot of historians do believe this computer reduced the war, because it was providing evidence of enemy intentions and beliefs. Even though it was made in 1944 it was not known to the pucbic untile 1970s.

1956- Direct keyboard input to computers (Keyboards added)

30craigs — 2025-01-29 15:46:49 UTC

Before keyboards people would use punched cards or paper tape. But at MIT researchers began conducting experiments with direct input with keyboards. But then Doug Ross came along and wrote a memo advocating direct access in February. Then Ross added a Flexowriter ( like a type writer) to a MIT computer. The Flexowriter was added to other computers and keyboards were added to future computers.

1962-MIT LINC introduced

30craigs — 2025-01-30 13:11:03 UTC

This LINC is a great early and important example of a 'personal computer'. (its designed for only one user) This was designed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory engineer Wesley Clark. For the research , Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) supplied the components, and 50 original LINCs were made. But later the LINC was later commercialized by DEC and sold as the LINC-8.

1977- Apple II introduced

30craigs — 2025-01-30 13:18:13 UTC

The Apple II introduced gains popularity, thats far behind beyond the hobbyist( a person who pursues a particular hobby) community. What was Apple’s user community until then. This was complete with a main logic board, switching power supply, keyboard, case, manual, game paddles, and cassette tape containing the game Breakout. Millions of Apple IIs were sold between 1977 and 1993, what makes it the longest lived lines of personal computers for the time. They were given to schools so the next generation had access to personal computers.

1982-Commodore introduces the Commodore 64

30craigs — 2025-01-30 13:32:25 UTC

The C66, as its better known, selled for $595, and comes comes with 64 KB of RAM and features impressive graphics. By the time it was discontinued in 1993 it had sold more then 22 million units. During its life time thousands of software titles were released. In the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records it was recognized as the the greatest selling single computer of all time.

1995-IBM releases the ThinkPad 701C

30craigs — 2025-01-30 13:41:38 UTC

The keyboard that was used was designed by inventor John Karidis. The keyboard
consisted of three roughly triangular interlocking pieces, which made a full size computer when opened. What resulting in a keyboard significantly wider than the case. This keyboard design was dubbed “the Butterfly.” But the need for this grew less as computer screens grew wider.

2000-First camera phone introduced

30craigs — 2025-01-30 13:46:36 UTC

Japan's SoftBank introduces the first camera phone. The J-Phone J-SH04; a Sharp-manufactured digital phone with integrated camera. It can not only take pictures, it had the ability to share them wirelessly. The J-Phone J-SH04 will quickly expand into a flip phone only a mouth latter.

2010-Apple Retina Display

30craigs — 2025-01-30 14:21:59 UTC

Ever since the release of the Macintosh in 1984, Apple has placed emphasis on high-resolution graphics and display technologies. So in 2010 Apple introduced the Retina display for the MacBook Pro laptop and iPad tablet. Retina displays approached the limit of pixel visibility to the human eye with 400 pixels-per-inch (PPI). It also had a wider viewing area due to In Plane Switching (IPS) technology. The Retina display became standard on most of the iPad, iPhone, MacBook, and Apple Watch product lines.