History of Computers 1930-2012

1950

1970

2017

1990

1930

In a late evening of November, 1937, a research mathematician at the Bell Labs, George Stibitz left his working place to go home, taking from the Bell stockroom two telephone relays, a couple of flashlight bulbs, a wire and a dry cell. At home he sat behind the kitchen table and started to assemble a simple logical device, which consisted from the above-mentioned parts and a switch, made from a tobacco tin. He soon had a device, which proved to be the first relays binary adder, in which a lighted bulb represented the binary digit "1" and an unlighted bulb, the binary digit "0." His wife Dorothea named it the K-model, after "kitchen table". The next day Stibitz's took the K-model to the Labs to show the colleagues, and they speculated on the possibility of building a full-size calculator. His colleagues reasoned that any practical relay computer, using binary arithmetic, would need perhaps hundreds of relays, thus making it both bulkier and more expensive than the commercial mechanical calculators then in use at the Labs. But what George Stibitz realized was, that a relay calculator could perform not just one but a sequence of calculations.

 

The New IBM 650!

The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is one of their earliest computers.  As the world's first mass-produced computer. With an upgrade of disk units the storage dramatically enhanced four fold! This machine provides an upgrade for business, science and engineering evolving from basic punch card machines all on its own.

1950

 

Xerox PARC Alto

The Xerox PARC Alto was the first computer to support an operating system via its inception, based on a graphical user interface. It was introduced on March 1973. With its multi-chip processing unit or CPU only took up the space of about one filing cabinet! Although it is expressed as a personal computer the selling prices ranged somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars a unit.

1970

Apple's Macintosh Powerbook

Although no extremely successful in sales this computer lead to the change in design of personal computers. Being a portable compter all three PowerBookd had a built in trackball, internal floppy drive and palm rests. The 170 version was the high end remake model providing a active matrix display, faster processing speed, and a floating piont Unit. This was discontinued in 2006.

1990

IMAC APPLE PRO

Natasha Reid