| 1500 |
Leonardo da Vinci designs a mechanical
calculator. |
| 1823 |
Charles Babbage starts work on his Difference
Engine. |
| 1880 |
Herman Hollerith constructed a punched-card
system to automate the U.S. census. He later sold the
technology to the company that became IBM. |
| 1906 |
The vacuum tube is invented by American
physicist Lee De Forest. |
| |
|
| |
The 1st Generation
The tube-based mainframe
computers |
| 1939 |
Dr. John V. Atanasoff and his assistant
Clifford Berry build the first electronic digital computer.
Their machine, the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer (ABC) provided the
foundation for the advances in electronic digital
computers |
| 1941 |
Konrad Zuse (recently deceased in January of
1996), from Germany, introduced the first programmable
computer designed to solve complex engineering equations. This
machine, called the Z3, was also the first to work on the
binary system instead of the decimal system. |
| 1942 |
Vannevar Bush's "Rockefeller Differential
Analyzer" -- a one-hundred-ton machine with 2000 vacuum tubes
and 150 motors, is dedicated at MIT. Bush's Analyzer was an
analog computer as opposed to today's digital
computers. A thermostat is a simple analog computer. It
was used to calculate ballistic trajectories during
W.W.II. |
| |
British Intelligence's Colossus built at
Bletchly Park by British mathematician Alan Turing. It was a
large-scale electronic machine. The Colossus, a
special-purpose machine developed to decode secret messages,
performed the logical, as opposed to arithmetical, operations
necessary to defeat the famous German code machine
Enigma. |
| 1944 |
Eniac (electronic numerical integrator and
calculator ) was placed in operation at the Moore School. By
today's standards for electronic computers the ENIAC was a
grotesque monster. Its thirty separate units, plus power
supply and forced-air cooling, weighed over thirty tons. Its
19,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands
of resistors, capacitors, and inductors consumed almost 200
kilowatts of electrical power. But ENIAC was the prototype
from which most other modern computers evolved. Eniac was
originally used for ballistics, but played a roll in the
development of the atomic bomb. |
| |
Howard Aiken, in collaboration with engineers
from IBM, constructed a large automatic digital
sequence-controlled computer called the Harvard Mark I. This
computer could handle all four arithmetic operations, and had
special built-in programs for logarithms and trigonometric
functions. |
| 1945 |
John von Neumann wrote "First Draft of a
Report on the EDVAC" in which he outlined the architecture of
a stored-program computer. This report changed the direction
of computer development away from punched paper tape. |
| |
September 9th, Grace Hopper (one of the
creators of the COBOL programming language) recorded the first
actual computer "bug" — a moth stuck between the relays and
logged at 15:45 hours on the Harvard Mark II. |
| 1947 |
On December 23, William Shockley, Walter
Brattain, and John Bardeen successfully tested this
point-contact transistor, setting off the semiconductor
revolution |
| |
Bell Labs physicists Shockley, Brattain, and
Bardeen create the first Germanium transistor. |
| 1948 |
Remington engineers complete the Model 3, a
one of a kind concept computer. |
| |
GE Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse wins an
order for a USAF tube computer, named OARAC. |
| 1951 |
The first UNIVAC I mainframe computer was
delivered to the Census Bureau. Unlike the ENIAC, the UNIVAC
processed each digit serially. But its much higher design
speed permitted it to add two ten-digit numbers at a rate of
almost 100,000 additions per second. Internally. It was the
first mass-produced computer. The central complex of the
UNIVAC was about the size of a one-car garage: 14 feet by 8
feet by 8.5 feet high. It was a walk-in computer. The vacuum
tubes generated an enormous amount of heat, so a high capacity
chilled water and blower air conditioning system was required
to cool the unit. The complete system had 5200 vacuum tubes,
weighed 29,000 pounds, and consumed 125 kilowatts of
electrical power. |
| 1952 |
The Remington (later SperryRand) Model 409 was
delivered to the Internal Revenue Service facility in
Baltimore. |
| |
MANIAC (mathematical analyzer, numerical
integrator and computer) built at Los Alamos by Metropolis. It
was responsible for the calculations of Mike, the first
hydrogen bomb. It was followed by MANIAC II, the IBM-built
STRETCH supercomputer and a series of commercial super
computers that have made the Laboratory the world's largest
scientific computing center |
| |
The IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine
announced by IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr. was IBM's
first commercially available scientific computer and the first
IBM machine in which programs were stored in an internal,
addressable electronic memory. It was the first of the
pioneering line of IBM 700 series mainframe computers,
including the 702, 704, 705 and 709. The computer consisted of
two tape units (each with two tape drives), a magnetic drum
memory unit, a cathode-ray tube storage unit, an L-shaped
arithmetic and control unit with an operator's panel, a card
reader, a printer, a card punch and three power units. The 701
could perform more than 16,000 addition or subtraction
operations a second, read 12,500 digits a second from tape,
print 180 letters or numbers a second, and output 400 digits a
second from punched-cards. |
| 1953 |
IBM's drum memory 650 computer, announced. It
sold for $200,000 to $400,000 and was a great success: more
than 1800 were sold or leased.. The basic IBM 650 had 2000
words of memory and 60 words of core memory. It was the first
computer on which IBM made a meaningful profit. |
| |
First IBM 701 delivered. |
| 1955 |
IBM 704 announced. It was the first
large-scale commercially available computer system to employ
fully automatic floating point arithmetic commands. It was a
large-scale, electronic digital computer used for solving
complex scientific, engineering and business problems and was
the first IBM machine to use FORTRAN. The 704 and the 705 were
the first commercial machines with core memories. |
| |
IBM 705 announced. Developed primarily to
handle business data, it could multiply numbers as large as
one billion at a rate of over 400 per second. In a 1954 IBM
publication, the 705 was credited with "Forty thousand or
twenty thousand characters of high-speed magnetic core
storage; Any one of the characters in magnetic core storage
can be located or transferred in 17 millionths of a second;
Any one of these characters is individually
addressable." |
| |
Honeywell computer business was originated
from the Datamatic Corporation, founded in Newton MA, as a
joint-venture by Raytheon and Honeywell, to produce
large-scale computer systems. Raytheon sells its 40% interest
to Honeywell in 1957 |
| |
|
| |
The 2nd Generation
Transistor
Computer Systems |
| 1956 |
The Air Force accepts the first UNIVAC Solid
State Computer. The machine was one of the first to use solid
state components in its central processing unit. Remington
Rand was not able to market a commercial version for three
years. The UNIVAC Solid State Computer came in two versions:
the Solid State 80 handled IBM-style 80 column cards, while
the Solid State 90 was adapted for Remington Rand's 90 column
cards. A Solid State system consisted of the CPU and drum
memory, card reader, card punch, and printer. There was the
option of adding a tape controller and up to ten UNISERVO II
tape drives. The drives could read both mylar tape and the old
UNIVAC metallic tape: the mode was selected by a switch on the
front of the drive. Actually a hybrid, the CPU had twenty
vacuum tubes, 700 transistors, and 3000 FERRACTOR
amplifiers. |
| 1957 |
Installation of the first Honeywell Datamatic
D-1000 to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan. |
| 1958 |
Introduction of Honeywell H-800 first shipped
in 1960. |
| |
Delivery of first GE ERMA system. Two years
later it is renamed GE-210. It was also sold by NCR as
NCR-204. |
| 1959 |
The fully transistorized IBM 7090 computer
system delivered. The system had computing speeds up to five
times faster than those of its predecessor, the IBM 709. It
was both a scientific and business machine. It was finally
withdrawn from production in 1969 |
| |
The IBM 1401 was called the Model T of the
computer business, because it was the first mass-produced
digital, all-transistorized, business computer that could be
afforded by many businesses worldwide. The basic 1401 was
about 5 feet high and 3 feet across. It came with 4,096
characters of memory. The memory was 6-bit (plus 1 parity bit)
CORE memory, made out of little metal donuts strung on a wire
mesh at IBM factories. The 1401 had an optional Storage
Expansion Unit which expanded the core storage to an amazing
16K. The 1401 processing unit could perform 193,300 additions
of eight-digit numbers in one minute. The monthly rental for a
1401 was $2,500 and up, depending on the configuration. By the
end of 1961, the number of 1401s installed in the United
States alone had reached 2,000 -- representing about one out
every four electronic stored-program computers installed by
all manufacturers at that time. The number of installed 1401s
peaked at more than 10,000 in the mid-1960s, and the system
was withdrawn from marketing in February 1971. |
| 1960 |
UNIVAC announced the 1107( actually completed
in 1962) with the EXEC I operating system which occupied about
8K of the 1107's 32K of memory. It was intended to support
true multiprogramming: sharing CPU time among several batch
runs. |
| |
Introduction of Honeywell 400 |
| |
Decision to launch the GE Mosaic line, a
family of four 24-bits computers. The lower models will be
announced as GE-415, GE-425 and GE-435. They will be known as
Compatible GE-400 series. |
| 1961 |
IBM 7040 and 7044 computer systems
announced. |
| 1962 |
Introduction of Honeywell 1800 (first shipped
in 1964). |
| |
IBM's 1440 Data Processing System was a
low-cost compact electronic computer designed specifically for
small and medium-size business firms. |
| |
IBM 7094 computer announced. With a memory
reference speed of two microseconds (millionth of a second),
the 7094 could in one second perform 500,000 logical
decisions, 250,000 additions or subtractions, 100,000
multiplications or 62,500 divisions. The 7094 internally
performed mathematical computations 1.4 to 2.4 times faster
than the IBM 7090, A typical 7094 sold for $3,134,500. IBM
provided customers with a complete package of 7090/7094
programs, including FORTRAN and COBOL programming languages,
input-output control system and sorting, without charge. The
7094 was withdrawn from marketing in 1969. |
| 1963 |
Introduction of Honeywell H-200, a machine
targeting the IBM 1401, with a similar architecture and a
"Liberator" program translator. |
| |
|
| |
The 3rd Generation
computers
Multiprocessing and operating
systems make the scene |
| 1960's |
Burroughs B5000 mainframe introduced. The
system can be considered the first of the "third generation"
of computer systems. The most remarked-upon aspects are its
use of a hardware-managed stack for calculation, and the
extensive use of descriptors for data access. It included
virtual memory -- perhaps the first commercial computer to do
so -- as well as support for multiprogramming and
multiprocessing. |
| 1964 |
CDC (Computer Data Corp.) 6600 shipped; 100
nsec cycle time. |
| |
First GE Time-sharing operation at Dartmouth
College of the DTSS Dartmouth time-sharing system on a GE-265
(GE-225 + Datanet-30) |
| |
IBM announces the 360 family of computer
systems. |
| |
The Burroughs B5500, appeared. It also had
multiprogramming and virtual memory capabilities, but was
three times faster than the B5000 |
| 1965 |
IBM ships the midrange 360 model 40 computer
which had COBOL and FORTRAN programming languages available as
well as the stock Basic Assembly Language (BAL)
assembler. |
| |
Introduction of GECOS-II, a multi-programming
operating system for the GE-600 |
| 1966 |
The Burroughs B6500, which was actually an
improved version of the B5500. |
| 1967 |
First IBM 360/Model 91 shipped to NASA
GSFC. |
| 1969 |
First shipment of the CDC 7600 computer
system. |
| |
First shipment of IBM 360 Model 85. The 360 family was
intended to have 3 operating systems:
- DOS/360 operating system for the small machines. It
could run two "real-time" sessions and one batch session.
- OS/360 operating system for the midrange and high end.
- TSS/360 operating system for Time-sharing Multi-user
system
|
| |
Introduction of Honeywell model 115 in the
H-200 product line. The line was renamed H-2000 after models
115/2, 1015 and 2015 introduced in January 1971, and model
2020 and 2030 in December 1972 after the GE merger. The line
was eventually merged into Series6 0 NPL through a H-200 mode
(emulator) on level 64. |
| |
Introduction of GE-655 that was better known
as H-6000 after 1970. |
| 1970 |
Burroughs announces the 700 series. The first
B6700 computer systems were installed during 1971. It was the
first Burroughs machine with dynamic linking of programs at
runtime. The B6700 line started out with one CPU and one i/o
processor and could be expanded up to a maximum of three CPUs
and two i/o processors. |
| |
Formal acquisition of Bull-General Electric by
Honeywell. BGE takes the name of Honeywell-Bull. |
| |
IBM announces a family of machines with an
enhanced instruction set, called System/370. The 370s proved
so popular that there was a two-year waiting list of customers
who had ordered a systems. |
| |
A giant dies: Announcement of the
cession of the world-wide GE computer business, except
time-sharing to Honeywell. |
| 1971 |
US Air Force orders several Honeywell H-6000
WWMCCS (World Wide Military Command and Control System), a
$3.5M contract. |
| |
First shipments of IBM S/370 Models 155 and
165 as well as the S/360 Model 195. |
| 1973 |
Introduction of virtual memory on IBM S/370
Models 158 and 168. |
| 1975 |
Amdahl 470 V/6 computer system delivered to
NASA. |
| 1977 |
The Burroughs Scientific Processor was
developed, and announced. |
| |
IBM 3033 computer system announced |
| 1979 |
The Burroughs 900-level systems were
introduced. |
| 1985 |
The most powerful IBM computer system of its
time, the 3090 high-end processor of the IBM 308X computer
series incorporated one-million-bit memory chips, Thermal
Conduction Modules to provide the shortest average
chip-to-chip communication time of any large general purpose
computer. The Model 200 (entry-level with two central
processors) and Model 400 (with four central processors) IBM
3090 had 64 and 128 megabytes of central storage,
respectively. At the time of announcement, the purchase price
of a Model 200 was $5 million. A later six-processor IBM 3090
Model 600E, using vector processors, could perform
computations up to 14 times faster than the earlier
four-processor IBM 3084. |
| 1990 |
The ES/9000 models came out with fiber-optical
I/O channels (ESCON), and IBM began using the name System/390.
The ES/9000s exploited new technologies, such as high-speed
fiber optic channels with IBM's new ESCON architecture,
ultra-dense circuits and circuit packaging that provided
higher performance, extended supercomputing capabilities and
twice the processor memory previously available. The line
spanned a 100-fold performance range increase from the
smallest (model 120) to the most powerful (model 900 six-way
multiprocessor). Basic purchase prices for the air-cooled
processors of ES/9000 ranged from approximately $70,500 to
$3.12 million. Basic purchase prices for the water-cooled
models ranged from $2.45 million to $22.8 million. |
| 1999 |
IBM releases a new generation of S/390. |
| 2002 |
The S/390 G5/G6 enterprise server family has up to 256
channels, from 2 to 8 Cryptographic Coprocessors, from 8 to 32
Gigabytes of memory, and can run under OS/390, MVS, VM, VSE,
or TPF operating systems. It can also host an unbelievable
amount of hard drive storage.
Let's see a PC match
that! |
|
2004
|
The 3/4 ton IBM eServer zSeries 890, dubbed the "Baby Shark"
can host up to 32 GBytes of memory. The four PCIX Crypto
Coprocessor (and optional PCI Crypto Accelerators) on the z890
have seven engine levels, giving a total of 28 capacity
settings overall.
With it's advanced virtualization technology the 64-bit
z890 can run several operating systems at the same time
including z/OS, OS/390®, z/VM®, VM/ESA®, VSE/ESA, TPF and
Linux for zSeries and Linux for S/390®.
The z890 is upgradeable within z890 family and can also
upgrade to z990 from select z890 configurations.
Configured with the new Enterprise Storage Server Model 750 which handles from
1.1TB up to 4.6TB of data, the x890 makes an awesome
server. |
| 2007 |
IBM produces the Blue-Gene/P, a system capable of a
petaflop (1,000,000 gigaflops or 1,000 teraflops). It
sports 73,728 processors comprised of four cores each of IBM’s
850MHz PowerPC 450, resulting in 294,912 cores. The system can
be scaled to nearly three times that size, resulting in a 3
petaflop capability and is all hooked up via a high-end
optical network. |
