Computersight -

The computer, it is a best friend to some people, it is our lifeline to thousands of places around the world without having to get out of your computer chair and it is a world of information on any subject or topic that you can think of. But have you ever wondered how the computer came to be? Well the answer to this can’t be based on one specific inventor. There are many who have contributed to the invention of this device, some have been different than others and some of the inventions have been necessary for the computer to evolve into what we know it as today. Take a walk with me through the years and see how far the computer has come.

1936- This is the year that the first computer was born and it was done with an invention of Konrad Zuse. It was called the Z1 computer. It was the first system that could be fully programmed although there were some inventions before this but nothing compared to the class of what Zuse invented. His invention had computing power which set it apart from anything brought to the market before this.

1942- This was the year that brought a profit to a company due to the computer. The first business that sold computers was a company that was called ABC computers and was owned by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry.

1942-1952- Through these years there were many changes in computers but not from one single person alone. It came from a conglomerate of inventers such as the invention of the transistor which was essential for the inner workings of the computer. One of the most interesting early computers may have been the ENIAC 1 which required 20,000 vacuum tubes to make it operable. You can just imagine how big this computer was and how much space it would have taken up. Not exactly like the computer that sits in our homes today. This machine was responsible for the start of the race to make a smaller computer.

1953- This was the year that IBM made the first plausible idea of the smaller computer that could be used by the consumer. It was the first time there was serious competition in the computer world. IBM’s contribution to the world of computers was called IBM 701 EDPM Computer.

1954- This was the year that the first high level programming language was introduced. This program was not written in assembly or binary, which were low levels of language. This is when FORTRAN was invented to give people the knowledge of programming computers more easily than the former programs.

1955- This is the year that the big boys came into play such as the Bank of America along with Stanford Research Institute and General Electric. These companies saw the invention of the first computer with intentions of moving them into banks.

1958- This was the year of a major occurrence in the world of the computer. It was the year that the integrated circuit came to life, today it is known as the chip and is one of the base components for a computer. Without these chips we would not have computers as we know them now. They just wouldn’t function without the chips that are inside.

1959- This is the year the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition teamed up with an actual computer called ERMA was put to use and was the first ever computer that was actually used in banks.

1962- This was the year that the first game was invented although nothing compared to what we use today however; it was a breakthrough in the use of the computer. This game was thought of by Steve Russell and MIT and the game was called Spacewar.

1964- This was the year of the mouse and it was given its name due to the wire that came from it on one end. This mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart. This proved to be another very necessary part of the computer.

1969- This was the year when ARPA net became the providers of internet, it is the original provider. This development would result in the evolution and knowhow of the computer across the whole world including the business.

1970- This was an exciting year in computers when Intel came through with the first dynamic RAM chip. This caused a very big stir of new inventions of computer science. Right after this Intel introduced the first microprocessor. These two components combines with the 1958 chip would be very necessary items of the modern computer.

1971- This was the year that brought the first floppy disk the name came from the amount of stored information it could hold. This allowed the transfer of data between people on separate unconnected computers.

1973- The first networking card was introduced. This allowed transfer of information between connected computers. This worked a little like the internet but allowed two computers to connect without the internet.

1974-1977-These were very busy years in the computer industry. This was the years of birth for the household computer. It is when some companies started developing computers with the ordinary household in mind. You could find computers such as the Scelbi, Mrk-8 Altair, IBM 5100, Apple I and II, TRS-80 and the Commodore Pet. The price at that time was very high and not everyone could afford a computer but those that could soon purchased them from the growing market.

1978- This was the year that a major breakthrough came through with the release of the VisiCala Spreadsheet Program. It was also one of the most profitable programs in the history of computers up to that point. The cost of bringing this to the market was paid for within two weeks of its release.

1979- This was the year when the ordinary person had access to Wordstar, the first word processing program. This made a big difference in the use of computers for the everyday person and changed it drastically.

1981- Finally the computer was affordable for almost every home owner that wanted one. This was the year that Microsoft came on line in the field of the computers with its MS-DOS operating system. This changed the computer forever when it was found that anyone who wanted to learn how to use it could do it easily.

1983- There was another major change when the Apple Lisa computer came out with a graphical user interface otherwise known as a GUI. This was the start of putting the text based only programs to be outdated very fast. The new GUI was more pleasing to the eye and much easier to use.

The rest of the improvements of the computer are the reality of what we use every day. Today computers are changing on a daily basis, almost every home has one. I am sure we are only scratching the surface of what computers will evolve into. It is an exciting time and this will not diminish, as the years pass so will the techniques of the computer, as it has done since the beginning, the only difference is in today’s world these changes will go in leaps and bounds towards the future.