The document traces the history of computers from early pioneers in the 1930s-40s who developed the first programmable computers and saw their potential uses, to the emergence of mainframe computers in the 1950s, to the rise of personal computing in the 1970s-80s led by innovators like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. It highlights key early computers like ENIAC and IBM's System/360 as well as influential personal computers like the Apple II and IBM PC. The summary concludes that computing has grown exponentially from giant machines that could only store minimal data to today's handheld devices with massive processing power and data storage capabilities.

2.  The meteoric rise of computers in the 20th
century started from a humble beginning. If
not for a few pioneers that had the foresight
to see the many uses of computers we might
not have the technologies and conveniences
of today. Many thought that computers could
do simply more than “compute” much like a
calculator but as we know today, computers
are as essential as oxygen is to our daily
survival.

3.  1936: The first
freely
programmable
computer is
developed by
Konrad Zuse
 1939: A fledgling
company is started
by David Packard
and Bill Hewlett
known as
Hewlett Packard

4.  1943: University of Pennsylvania professors
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert—build
the Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Calculator (ENIAC). The ENIAC shown below
spanned 20’ X 40’ and contained 18000
vacuum tubes

5.  1950: Engineering Research Associates of
Minneapolis built the ERA 1101, the first
commercially produced computer.
This unit used drum memory and
was of the first to uses magnetic
storage. It could hold 1,000,000
bits of data.
 1953: IBM ships its first computer, the 701.
During three years of production, IBM sold 19
machines to research laboratories and
government agencies

6.  1954: This year saw the emergence of
International Business Machines, a major power
in computer manufacturing and technology
development. IBM’s 650 is considered the first
mass-produced computer, with the company
selling 450 in one year. The 650´s magnetic drum
spun at 12,000 rpm’s allowing much faster access
to stored material than drum memory machines.
 In 1961 it was estimated that International
Business Machines owned as much as 81 percent
of the computer manufacturing market

7.  In 1964 IBM introduced the System/360, this was
a family of six equally compatible computers and
40 peripherals that could work together. IBM had
invested $5 billion for the system and as orders
climbed to 1,000 per month their return on
investment quickly escalated. It was also at
this time IBM was making a
transition from discrete transistors
to integrated circuits, and its major
source of revenue moved to
electronic computer systems.

8.  In 1977 the personal computer is produced by
several competitors. The world is starting to see
the usefulness of personal computing at an
affordable price
 The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) in
released with an option for 4 or 8 kilobytes of memory
and 2 cassette drives and keyboard
 Likewise an emerging company called, “Apple” releases
the Apple II to much fan fare. The Apple II was
revolutionary in that it had switching power
supply's, printed circuit motherboard, keyboard, case
assembly, manual, game paddles, and included a game
known as "Breakout.”
 Tandy Radio Shack releases the TRS-80 personal
computer that sells 10,000 units at a price of $599.95.

9.  In 1981 IBM introduced its
version of the personal
computer and thus ignited a fast
growth of the personal
computer market. IBM’s first
personal computer ran on a 4.77
MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor
and used Microsoft´s MS-DOS
operating system. This operating
system and personal computer
format would be the standard
for many years. IBM once again
flexed its computer
manufacturing muscle to the
world.
 In 1984 the Commodore
64 was released at a
price of $595 and touted
a very robust 64
kilobytes of memory.
The personal computer
offered many software
tiles and was considered
a pioneer in versatility
at the time. The
Commodore 64 went on
to sell over 22 million
units
of its
lifespan.

10.  As personal computing grew in the late 1970’s
and then boomed in the early 1980’s the world
of computing started to see the emergence of
brilliant minded individuals that focused on the
user experience and growth of computing as
much as they focused on technological
advancements. As computing moved away from
command line style computing and into GUI or
graphical user interfaces, we as consumer saw
the emergence of names
like:
 Bill Gates
 Steve Jobs

11.  As a child, Bill Gates always had interests in
technology. Gates attended Harvard until 1977
when he left form a company he called
Microsoft.
 While at Harvard Gates became proficient at
writing the programming language BASIC for the
MITS Alltair Microcomputer
 Gates later proposed after splitting with MITS
and seeing BASIC being copied freely, that
software developers should charge for and
copyright their work. Thus we have the initial
beginning of Microsoft Incorporated.

12.  As Gates company and prowess began to grow he
entered into software development agreements
with International Business Machines.
 Microsoft created MS-DOS/ OS2/ and eventually
Windows which we are accustomed to today.
 Gates and Microsoft are widely credited with
revolutionizing modern computing with their
Windows Operating system and Windows is still
the largest most commonly used operating
systems in computers today.

13.  Steve Jobs started Apple Computers with his partner
Steve Wozniak in 1976.
 Previously Jobs had held a positions at Atari designing
software for systems before branching out with the
money from a Volkswagen bus he had sold to create
Apple
 Jobs and Wozniak went on to create user friendly
personal computers through the late 1970’s and early
80’s. The Apple brand had grown to a 1.2 billion
dollar company.
 Jobs left Apple as the product line fell out of favor
with consumers and the he felt creative differences
with his partners within the company.

14.  After leaving Apple, Jobs created a software
company called NEXT.
 He then bought a an animation company from a
producer named George Lucas which is today's Pixar
studios.
 After the failure of Next but the success of Pixar,
Apple purchase NEXT and Jobs came back to rejoin
Apple as CEO in 1997
 From 1997 until his death from cancer on October 5,
2011, Jobs was considered the master innovator of
modern computing. He along with Apple is
responsible for such innovations as the Ipod, Itunes,
Ipads, Iphones, and the consolidation of computing
into handheld, easy to use devices. Thus
revolutionizing today’s computing.

15.  Computing Devices have grown exponentially
over the past hundred years through the
foresight of a select few who saw the potential
in computers as an everyday application.
 We once started from giant mainframes which
covered thousands of square feet but yet could
only hold minimal amounts of data or compute
minuscule amounts of process to devices no
bigger than our hands that can execute billions
of processes per second and store massive
amounts of data while using easy to use
graphical user interfaces .
 This truly illustrates how far we have come!

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