Skip to content

History of Computers From 17th Century to Present | Dell Service Center

History of Computers From 17th Century to Present | Dell Service Center

Computers have become increasingly important in recent years, notably in the fields of data storage and distribution. The computer’s ease of use, in terms of speed, precision, readiness and availability of Dell service center in your neighborhood has made them extremely popular.

Because of the computer’s use, it has become fashionable for businesses to be computerized, which means that a computer department is established to serve the entire firm, and experts or professionals are hired to oversee the department. Because computer literacy is now a prerequisite for most industries, it is becoming increasingly difficult for people with no computer skills to get good careers.

The computer age was defined by several generations of computers, each of which represented a step in the evolution or development of the computer.

Before we could get to today’s computers, we had to go through a series of stages of development known as computer generated.

The history of computers may be traced back to the Scientific Revolution (which lasted from 1543 to 1678). The invention of the calculating machine by Blaise Pascal in 1642 and that of Goffried Liebnits in 1643 marked the beginning of the use of machines in the industry.

This developed until the industrial revolution in Great Britain occurred between 1760 and 1830 when the introduction of machines for production changed British society and the Western world. Joseph Jacquard invented the weaving loom during this time period (the machine used in the textile industry).

The computer was created to solve a serious number-crunching dilemma, not for pleasure or email. The population of the United States (US) had grown so big by 1880 that tabulating the census findings took more than seven years. The government was now required to develop a system that could work at higher speeds, this necessity led to the development of room-sized punch-cards system. We now have more computer capability in our smartphones than we did in these early devices. Not for fun or email, the computer was invented to tackle a severe number-crunching problem. 

By 1880, the population of the United States (US) had increased to the point where tabulating census results would take more than seven years. The government needed a faster means to complete the task, therefore punch-card computers that took up entire rooms were developed. Our cellphones today have greater computer capabilities than these early gadgets did.

Wilhelm Schickard devised and built the world’s first operational mechanical calculator in 1623.

In 1673, Gottfried Leibniz introduced the Stepped Reckoner, which is a digital mechanical calculator. He is credited with being the first computer scientist and information theorist because he documented the binary number system, among other things.

1801: In France, Joseph Marie Jacquard invents a loom that weaves fabric designs automatically using perforated wooden cards. In the same way earlier computers were using Punch cards. Strange News / Animals / History / Culture / Space & Physics / Home / News / Tech / Health / Planet Earth /History / Culture / Strange News / Animals / Space & Physics.

First generation of computers

1802: When Thomas de Colmar published his simplified arithmometer, the first calculating machine strong enough and dependable enough to be used everyday in an office environment, he established the mechanical calculator industry.

1822: The English mathematician Charles Babbage (Father of the Computer) devises a steam-powered calculating machine capable of calculating tables of numbers. The English government-funded effort was a failure. However, the first computer took a century more to get developed.

1843: Ada Lovelace created an algorithm to compute the Bernoulli numbers in one of the many notes she made while translating a French paper on the Analytical Engine, which is considered to be the first published algorithm ever specifically intended for implementation on a computer.

1885: Herman Hollerith built the tabulator, which processed statistical data using punched cards; his business subsequently became part of IBM.

1890: To calculate the 1880 census, Herman Hollerith devises a punch card system, which completes the assignment in three years and saves the government $5 million. He further founds the company which is presently known as IBM.

1936: Alan Turing proposes the concept of a universal machine, subsequently dubbed the Turing machine, that can compute anything that can be computed. His thoughts formed the basis of the contemporary computer’s central notion.

1937: J.V. Atanasoff, an Iowa State University professor of physics and mathematics, aims to design the first computer without gears, cams, belts, or shafts.

1937: Howard Aiken persuaded IBM, which was making all kinds of punched card equipment and was also in the calculator business, to develop his giant programmable calculator, the ASCC/Harvard Mark I, based on Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which itself used cards and a central computing unit, one hundred years after Babbage’s impossible dream. Some praised the machine’s completion as “Babbage’s fantasy come true.”

1939: According to the Computer History Museum, Hewlett-Packard was formed in a garage in Palo Alto, California, by David Packard and Bill Hewlett.

1941: Clifford Berry, a graduate student of Atanasoff, designs a computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This is the first time that a computer has been able to store data in its main memory.

1943: The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator is designed by two University of Pennsylvania academics, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert (ENIAC). It is the grandfather of digital computers, measuring 20 feet by 40 feet and containing 18,000 vacuum tubes.

1946: Mauchly and Presper quit the University of Pennsylvania to construct the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer for corporate and government applications, with support from the Census Bureau.

1947: The transistor was invented by Bell Laboratories’ William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain. They figured out able to create an electric switch out of solid materials without using a vacuum.

1953: Grace Hopper creates the first computer language, which is later adopted by the rest of the world. COBOL is the name given to the programming language. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr. is the son of IBM CEO Thomas Watson.

The IBM 701 EDPM is created by Thomas Johnson Watson Sr. to assist the United States. During the war, nations kept an eye on Korea.

1954: According to the University of Michigan, a team of IBM programmers led by John Backus invented the FORTRAN programming language, which is an acronym for FORmula TRANslation.

1958: The integrated circuit, sometimes known as a computer chip, is unveiled by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. Later, in 2000 Kilby bagged the Noble prize for this work.

1964: Douglas Engelbart depicts a current computer prototype with a mouse and graphical user interface (GUI). This symbolises the transition of the computer from a specialised machine for scientists and mathematicians to a more widely available technology.

1969: At Bell Labs, a group of programmers created UNIX, an operating system that addressed compatibility difficulties. 7 UNIX, written in the C programming language, was portable across various platforms and quickly became the mainframe operating system of choice for large corporations and government agencies. Home pc users had never liked it because it slow speed of its system. 1970: Intel introduces the Intel 1103, the world’s first Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chip.

1971: Alan Shugart leads an IBM team that invents the “floppy disc,” which allows data to be exchanged between computers.

1973: Ethernet is developed by Robert Metcalfe, a member of Xerox’s research department, for linking many computers and other gear.

1974 – 1977: The Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair, IBM 5100, Radio Shack’s TRS-80 — fondly known as the “Trash 80” — and the Commodore PET were among the first personal computers to hit the market.

1975: The Altair 8080 is featured in the January issue of Popular Electronics magazine as the “world’s first minicomputer kit to rival commercial versions.” Paul Allen and Bill Gates, two “computer geeks,” offer to build software for the Altair using the new Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming language. Following the success of their initial venture, the two boyhood friends start their own software firm, Microsoft, on April 4th.

1976: According to Stanford University, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computers on 1st April and released the Apple I, the first computer using a single-circuit board.

1977: The TRS-80 had a limited production run of only 3,000 units when it was released by Radio Shack. It was a huge hit. Non-geeks could now develop programmes and make computers do whatever they wanted for the first time.

old generation computers

1977: Jobs and Wozniak found Apple and show off the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire for the first time. Color graphics are included, as well as a storage audio cassette drive.

1978: The introduction of VisiCalc, the first computerised spreadsheet tool, brings joy to accountants.

1981: The “Acorn,” the first IBM personal computer, is unveiled. It runs on the MSDOS operating system from Microsoft. It has an Intel processor, two floppy disc drives, and a colour display as an option. The machines are sold by Sears & Roebuck and Computer Land, marking the first time a computer has been sold by a third party. It also popularises the phrase “personal computer.” 

1983: The Lisa was the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), created by Apple. A drop-down menu and icons are also included. It was a failure, but in the meantime Macintosh got the direction out of it. The Gavilan SC was developed which is the first portable computer with the well-known flip form factor and advertised as a “laptop.” The TRS80, which was released in 1977, was one of the first computers with documentation written for non-geeks.

1985: According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Microsoft announces Windows. This was Apple’s response to the company’s graphical user interface (GUI). The Amiga 1000, a computer with sophisticated audio and visual capabilities, is unveiled by Commodore.

1985: On March 15, years before the World Wide Web became the official start of Internet history, the first dot-com domain name is registered. Symbolics.com is registered by the Symbolics Computer Company, a tiny Massachusetts computer firm. Only 100 dot-coms had been registered after more than two years.

1986: Compaq released its 32-bit system call called “Deskpro 386” which run at the same speed as mainframes.

1990: A researcher at CERN in Geneva, Tim Berners-Lee, creates the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), which gives birth to the World Wide Web.

1993: The Pentium CPU improves the performance of graphics and music on personal computers.

1994: “Command & Conquer”, “Theme Park”, “Alone in the Dark 2”, “Magic Carpet”, “Little Big Adventure”, “Descent,” are among the games that have been released for PCs.

1996: At Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page created the Google search engine.

1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which was suffering at the time, putting an end to Apple’s legal battle with Microsoft over the “look and feel” of its operating system.

1999: The word “Wi-Fi” enters the computing lexicon, and users begin to connect to the Internet without the usage of wires.

2001: Apple introduces the Mac OS X operating system, which includes features such as protected memory architecture and preemptive multitasking. Microsoft, not to be outdone, releases Windows XP, which features a completely revamped graphical user interface.

2003: The first 64-bit CPU, AMD’s Athlon 64, is released to the general public.

2004: Mozilla’s Firefox 1.0 poses a number of problems. The most used web browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The first social media networking site has been live now.

2005: YouTube, a video-sharing site, is established. In the same year mobile phone operating system Android, which was developed on Linux but later acquired by Google.

2006: Apple unveils the MacBook Pro, the company’s first dual-core Intel-based mobile computer, and an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo’s Wii gaming system is now available for purchase.

2007: Many computing operations are available on the iPhone.

2009: Microsoft releases Windows 7, which includes, among other things, the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and improvements in touch and handwriting detection.

2010: Apple introduces the iPad, revolutionizing how people consume media and reviving the stagnant tablet computer market.

2011: The Google launches Chromebook is a notebook that runs on the Google Chrome OS.

2012: On October 4, Facebook surpassed one billion users.

2015: The Apple Watch is unveiled by Apple. Until now Microsoft has launched the Windows 10 version .

2016: There was invented the first reprogrammable quantum computer. 

Latest computer systems

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working on a new programme called “Molecular Informatics,” which uses molecules as computers. In a statement, Anne Fischer, programme manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, said, “Chemistry offers a rich set of properties that we may be able to exploit for rapid, scalable information storage and processing.” “There are millions of molecules, each with its own three-dimensional atomic structure and characteristics such as form, size, and even colour. This diversity opens us a huge design space for experimenting with new and multi-value ways to encode and process data that aren’t limited to the 0s and 1s of today’s logic-based digital systems.” 

In 1980, Microsoft released the MS-Dos operating system, and in 1981, IBM released the personal computer (PC) for home and office usage. Three years later, Apple released the Macintosh computer, which featured an icon-based interface, and the Windows operating system was released in the 1990s. As a result of many advancements in computer development, we now see computers being used in almost every aspect of life. It’s a very valuable tool that will continue to evolve as time goes on. Even with the soaring developments in the last 20 years, these machines still develop the technical snags in them. The service center network has also spread throughout The repair developments have also boomed in the last few years, like Dell service center Chandigarh gives 24-hour fix solutions of any problem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Call Now