First in Computer

When was the first computer invented?

The first mechanical computer, created by Charles Babbage in 1822.Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his revolutionary difference engine, designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that a much more general design, an Analytical Engine, was possible.

When was the word "computer" was first used?

The word "computer" was first used in 1613 and originally described a human who performed calculations or computations. The definition of a computer remained the same until the end of the 19th century, when the industrial revolution gave rise to machines whose primary purpose was calculating.

First programmable computer

The Z1 was created by German Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938.  It is considered to be the first electromechanical binary programmable  computer, and the first really functional modern computer.

First concepts of what we consider a modern computer

The Turing machine was first proposed by Alan Turing in 1936 and became the foundation for theories about computing and computers. The machine was a device that printed symbols on paper tape in a manner that emulated a person following a series of logical instructions. Without these fundamentals, we wouldn't have the computers we use today.

The first electric programmable computer

The Colossus was the first electric programmable computer, developed by Tommy Flowers, and was first demonstrated in December 1943. The Colossus was created to help the British code breakers read encrypted German messages.

The first digital computer

Short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC began development by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937. Its development continued until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). The ABC was an electrical computer that used more than 300 vacuum tubes for digital computation, including binary math and Boolean logic and had no CPU (was not programmable).

The first stored program computer

The first computer to electronically store and execute a program was the SSEM (Small-Scale Experimental Machine), also known as the "Baby" or "Manchester Baby," in 1948. It was designed by Frederic Williams, and built by his protégée, Tom Kilburn, with the assistance of Geoff Tootill, at the University of Manchester, England. 

The first computer company

The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed to EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and released a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name.

First computer with program stored in memory

First delivered to the United States government in 1950, the UNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101 is considered to be the first computer capable of storing and running a program from memory. 

First commercial computer

In 1942, Konrad Zuse begin working on the Z4 that later became the first commercial computer. The computer was sold to Eduard Stiefel, a mathematician of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich on July 12, 1950.

The first computer with RAM

MIT introduces the Whirlwind machine on March 8, 1955, a revolutionary computer that was the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics.

The first transistor computer

The TX-0 (Transistorized Experimental computer) is the first computer to be demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956.

The first minicomputer

In 1960, Digital Equipment Corporation released its first of many PDP computers, the PDP-1.

The first workstation

The first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse.

The first microcomputer

The Vietnamese-French engineer, André Truong Trong Thi, along with Francois Gernelle, developed the Micral computer in 1973. Considered as the first microcomputer, it used the Intel 8008 processor and was the first commercial non-assembly computer. It originally sold for $1,750.

The first microprocessor

Intel introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971.

The first personal computer

In 1975, Ed Robert coined the term "personal computer" when he introduced the Altair 8800. Although the first personal computer is considered by many to be the KENBAK-1, which was first introduced for $750 in 1971. The computer relied on a series of switches for inputting data and output data by turning on and off a series of lights.

The first portable computer

 IBM 5100

The IBM 5100 is the first portable computer, which was released in September 1975. The computer weighed 55-pounds and had a five inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9 MHz PALM processor, and 64 KB of RAM.

The first laptop

The first laptop is considered to be the Osborne I, which was released in April 1981 and developed by Adam Osborne. The Osborne I weighed 24.5-pounds, had a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4" floppy drives, ran the CP/M 2.2 operating system, included a modem.

The first Apple computer

The Apple I (Apple 1) was the first Apple computer that originally sold for $666.66. The computer kit was developed by Steve Wozniak in 1976 and contained a 6502 8-bit processor and 4 kb of memory, which was expandable to 8 or 48 kb using expansion cards. Although the Apple I had a fully assembled circuit board the kit still required a power supply, display, keyboard, and case to be operational. 

The first IBM personal computer

IBM introduced its first personal computer, the IBM PC, in 1981. The computer was code-named Acorn. It featured an 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and used MS-DOS.

The first multimedia computer

In 1992, Tandy Radio Shack released the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX, among the first computers to feature the MPC standard.

The first PC clone

The Compaq Portable is considered to be the first PC clone and was release in March 1983 by Compaq. The Compaq Portable was 100% compatible with IBM computers and was capable of running any software developed for IBM computers.