Charles Babbage receives a grant from the British government to build a "difference engine" -- a machine that will compute accurate logarithms using the method of differences. It would use gears and punch cards (used to control factory looms, at the time), but was never finished. He had an idea for a more general-purpose, stream-powered general computer. Countess Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, was recruited to write steps for the machine. This makes her the official answer to the question "Who was the first computer programmer?"

Alan Turing submits a proof (of Godel's incompleteness theorum) using Turing machines -- simple rules for a universal computer which all ISU Com Sci majors study in cs331.

He will later work on the German Fish and Enigma cypers (the ones stolen from the submarine in the movie) and describe the Turing test of intelligence.

He committed suicide two years after the British goverment sentenced him to take estrogen for the crime of homosexuality.

German civil/aeronautical engineer Konrad Zuse builds the Z1 computer, using mechanical relays and binary math.

After having been drafted to an airplane factory, Konrad completes the Z3. It still used relays (it was semi-portable and vacuum tubes are fragile.) It is used to make calculations for eliminating wing-flutter.

Hitler denied him permission to build the Z4. It is completed in Zurich by 1950 and used at a University there until '55.

At Iowa State University, Physicist John Vincent Atanasoff and his grad student, Clifford Berry, develope a semi-programmable computer (the ABC) to help grad students solve physics problems. It is about the size of a file cabinet. A model is on display in the Computational center.

Components for airplanes and other sensitive electronic equipment are first connected through wires built into a printed "circuit board."

A secret British project developes the computer COLOSSUS, which is used to quickly decode German messages (but not the Enigma.) It is kept secret until ~1976.

The Mark I, a 51' long computer with relays and gears, built at IBM, is installed at Harvard. Although technologically a dead-end, Grace Hopper writes programs for it.

J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly complete ENIAC in Pennsylvania. It was sponsored by the US to compute artillery tables for the war. They had first seen the ABC and spoken with Dr. Atanasoff.

It had 18,000 vacuum tubes, which burned out at 2K/month, and could be programmed for anything, but required days of moving around plug-in wires to do so. It used standard IBM card-readers and printers.

The transistor is invented at AT&T Bell Labs (now Lucent Technologies), replacing larger, fragile vacuum tubes. It is essentially a speck of treated germanium (or soon silicon) in a tiny "can" for protection.

The Canadian version of Bell Labs is the Northen Electric and Manufacturing Company, which will become communications company and Lucent competitor Nortel Networks.

Presper & Mauchly (of ENIAC) form a company to make the UNIVAC computer. The first contract is with the US census Bureau. They are bought by Remington-Rand and eventually sell 46 UNIVACs. They use magnetic tape and a Remmington typewriter.

Of the other inventors, Konrad is still making computers in Europe, but Germany is in bad shape after the war. COLLOSUS was secret -- none of the inventors could even talk about it.

IBM rents the 701, still using vacuum tubes, for government scientific work.

In 1954, IBM rents the IBM650 for business work, to their same customers who bought card-readers, though their army of salesmen. The 650 uses standard IBM punch cards, etc... . It rents at half-price to schools(11).

The 704, in 1956 replaces the 701, but does not use any of the same programs. This is the start of a disappointing, but common occurance.

A primative new "programming language", FlowMatic, is designed by Admiral Grace Hopper for the UNIVAC.

The SAGE project, at MIT Lincoln Labs, begins recruiting and training programmers. SAGE is Semi-Automatic Ground Environment -- a computerized radar system to detect Russian missile attacks.

The term "byte" is first used, at IBM, to refer to 8 bits.

"Scientific" computer langauge FORTRAN, and a compiler, is developed at IBM.

COBOL was developed, based on Flow-Matic, through a US-gvmnt/business partnership, for business-related programming.

Most people are using IBM computers. IBM supplies some basic programs, and writes the rest for free (with purchase of computer). Still it becomes obvious people will pay for programs. The first mention of the word Software was in 1957(6). By 1960, many new software companies have formed, to write specific programs for specific business' computers.

Fairchild semiconductor produces a 1/4"-long chip of silicon with 8 transistors integrated into it. The idea of "eliminating the can" came in 1959, at both Fairchild and Texas Instruments.

DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation,) formed in 1957, sells the PDP-1 "mini"-computer. It cost "only" $120,000, had an 18-36 bit word size, 31 registers and from 4K to 32K of memory. It is programmed with a paper tape and has a video display.

MIT gets one and, in 1962, the game Space War has been written (two people drive around spaceships, shooting at each other.)(7)

ACSII is adopted (6) by everyone except IBM, which created EBCIDC in 1964, based on its punch-card codes.

A mouse (using a pair of small wheels) is patented by Douglas Engelbart at Stanford. Previously, a light-pen had been used (for the few computer that had a screen.)

IBM introduces the 360 -- its first upgradable computer. You can buy a small one, buy more memory, upgrade the CPU ... and use all of your old programs & tapes. It used DOS. This is IBMs money-maker for the next decade.

Programming language Basic is written at Dartmouth.

Wang Labs sells the LOCI -- a popular programmable desktop calculator -- which is used by doctors, accountants, for car loans, ... . It used ICs and would be called a computer today (2).

INTEL is founded by former Fairchild employees Robert Noyce and Gorden Moore to make the first general purpose integrated circuits. Machine controls are being made with custom-designed ICs. Noyce & Moore see a market for generic memory chips, to be used by the custom IC makers. They use a PDP-8 to control their chip-cutting machine(2).

A US military project, ARPANET, was started to decentralize computer communications in the event of nuclear war. Much later work was eventually done at Berkeley. In 1968, the first "packet-switching" networks (used today in the internet) are running.

More business-types become aware of the number of custom software firms (it was impossible to write general purpose software, at the time.) These firms go public and their IPOs make millionaires of the founders, including Ross Perot of EDS.

IBM is sued (by the US gvmnt) for anti-trust violations. In other words, for telling its customers and suppliers that dealing with any new computer companies voids the warrantee on IBM equipment. The lawsuit lasts for 13 years, until it is dropped in 1982.

IBM "unbundles" its software -- selling it separately from the computer. Previously, they were always sold as a set, for one high price.

The ISU Com Sci Dept is founded. An MS degree was offered in '65, through a joint program with Math, EE and Stat, then an undergrad in '67.

The first Com Sci dept was at Stanford, in '65. By '69, ISU was one of hundreds of schools offering a CS undergrad(11).

At Bell Labs, part of AT&T, the monopoly phone company, the operating system UNIX is developed for the PDP-series mini-computer (the 360 used IBM's OS/360 by now, which replaced DOS.)

UNIX grew to be the OS of choice for minis, and was seen by most CS majors.

The PDP-11 family is introduced. They sell for ~$11,000, use 16-bit words, run UNIX and eventually (1972) use a hard-disk.

Texas Instruments sells a $350 hand-held calculator. The price is down to $150 by 1972

The C programming language is developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs, to program in and eventually rewrite UNIX (UNIX was originally written in PDP assembly code.)

By 1972, ARPA-net has grown to connect 28 computer networks at Universities and companies doing government work (it is still a government project.) ISU, in Ames, is one of them. It allows file transfer (programs, technical papers.)

"Mail" had previously been sent over time-sharing systems. In 1972, the first email is sent over ARPA-net, using the @-sign.

Five German IBM programmers quit their jobs to start a company making generic, but easily customizable, business software. SAP is now the largest of the "Enterprise computing" software companies.

Xerox, worried that paper might become obsolete, had started Palo Alto Research Center in 1970 (near later Silicon Valley.) PARC developed a protoype for a progrmmable desktop ~$40,000 computer using a mouse and windows, mostly as they look today. Eventually, a few thousand were built for use inside Xerox.

An Ethernet Prototype is developed at PARC. It allows multiple computers to use the same central cable to send messages. It is what connects most local computer networks (LANs,) today.

The first cell phones, using integrated circuits, are sold (Motorola.)

INTELs first "programmable" IC was the 4004, in 1971. It was used for relatively simple machine controls, timers and so on. In 1974 their new 8080 chip was the first true "computer on a chip." It listed for $360 (and sold for much lower.)

unix shell sh is written. Other shells are csh(1978), ksh, tcsh and finally bash. They all mostly copied the way sh worked.

Gary Kildall, who left INTEL to found of Digital Research, writes operating system CP/M for the new programmable ICs (8080, Z80.) The primary function of an Operating sytem then was creating/manipulating a tape/floppy disk file system (with commands to save, retrieve & run those files.) He invents the BIOS for it.

Electronic hobbyists are racing to make the first "computer kit," based on the new Intel 8080 chips. Ed Roberts, in Albuquerue, is the first, with the Altair 8800. It needs to be put together, and has switches and lights as the only I/O, but soon used CP/M to run floppy drives, and a stripped-down version of BASIC, choosen because it was small and easy to learn. The "interpreter" for Basic was liscensed from Bill Gates and Paul Allen, calling themselves "micro-soft."

The first Cray, a "super-computer" was built (for Los Alamos Labs, which does super-secret nuclear stuff.) For years, CRAY meant "biggest computer you could imagine."

DEC sells the VAX, an almost-mainframe computer. They were 32-bit, could be grouped together and could run UNIX. ISU used them in the 80's.

Wang Labs sells the WPS Word Processing System. It fits on a desktop, uses microchips, floppy disks and a central file-server, has on-screen error messages and insert/delete keys. They sell like hot-cakes up to 1982, when PCs start to replace them(2).

Steve Wozniak with partner Steve Jobs sell the Apple-II -- a "runs out of the box", cheap (~$1000) micro-computer. It uses floppy disks, and can be programmed in BASIC (code written by Wozniak, then later MicroSoft(11))

In 1970, IBM researcher E.F. Codd published a paper on a new type of "relational" database. IBM had invented database language SQL and produced database System R. In 1977 Larry Ellison formed Oracle to make his own industrial strength relational database, named Oracle.

The first spreadsheet, VisiCalc, is written for the Apple II by Harvard MBA student (and former DEC employee(11)) Dan Bricklin, while doing accounting homework. People bought Apple II's just so they could use Visicalc.

IBM designs a microcomputer to compete with the Apple-II. The small, new PC division at IBM buys rights for the well-known MS-basic from Gates & Allen. Gates (falsely) claims to have an operating system, quickly buys a CP/M clone from Seattle Computer, renames it MS-DOS and licenses it to IBM, which calls it PC-DOS. IBM later pays CP/M creator, Gary Kildall (who they were trying to contact in the first place) $800K after they find out(8).

SUN computers is formed by Stanford/Berkeley hackers to build UNIX-based (called SUN-OS) graphical "workstations", modeled after the PARC Alto. The most famous founder is Scott McNealy.

The anti-trust case against IBM, from 1969, is dropped.

Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is adopted as a standard for the different types to networks in use to communicate between each other. Eric Allman, at Berkeley, releases the open source sendmail program. It routes mail between various networks.

Former TI execs form Compaq, selling IBM-compatible PCs (known as "clones.") DELL computer will be formed in 1984 and Gateway in 1985 (using the "Cow" boxes.) There are many smaller operations selling cheap, sometimes exploding IBM-PC clones. They pay ~$5 royalties on each machine to Micro-Soft for MS-DOS, the same OS as the "real" IBM-PC.

Novell begins selling its Network Operating system (which is used on IBM-compatible PCs for shared printers and such, since MS-DOS2.0 can't do that.)

Apple computer, now a profitable company, introduces the popular Macintosh. It is the first consumer computer with a mouse and windowing system (black & white.) Jobs got the idea after a visit to PARC.

MIT AI lab employee Richard Stallman decides he is fed up with the way corporate software is going and starts the GNU Free Software Project (motto: "free as in free speech, not free beer.") He eventually writes a gcc/g++, text editor emacs and developes the GPL "CopyLeft" which fuels the Open Source movement.

Standford hackers, after installing "routers" so that different local campus networks can talk to each other without having to go out to the internet and back, form cisco. They provide code more-or-less open source. They are forced out by their venture capitalist in 1990 (5).

Bjarne Stroustrup, at Bell Labs, releases the first edition of The C++ Programming Language -- a guide to the language C++ he has been developing. It is worked on until 1998, when it is standardized.

Enterprise software company PeopleSoft is founded. They are bought by Oracle in 2004.

Several thousand sites are "on the internet." Network news newsgroups, mostly scientific topics and photos of topless models, have become popular.

(yr?) As a government project, commercial traffic was banned on the internet. That changes after a bill championed by then-Senator Al Gore.

Larry Wall writes Perl, as a better way than shell commands to collate documents. It becomes the most popular language for web cgi-scripts (and is now GPL'd.)

The dominant PC is now running MS-DOS on an Intel 80286 chip. Microsoft starts work on the New Technologies OS (NT,) running on a different chip, completely cutting off Intel. Intel starts to advertise -- soon customers who never heard of Intel are asking for an Intel chip in their PC.

After unsucessfully suing Advanced Micro Devices for using "386" in an ad for their chips (the judge said you may not trademark a number) Intel starts using Pentium(tm). This is why "Intel Pentium Inside" is on new PCs(4).

The first known internet worm is written (by grad student Robert Morris.) It takes advantage of bugs in finger and sendmail to spread, stopping/slowing much of the internet for a few days. It has no extra code to do anything -- it just spreads itself.

The first successful version of MS-Windows is sold (3.0.) It runs as a program on MS-DOS.

Apple sells physical computers. As the Mac was developed, they shared technical specs with the small software company Microsoft. After Steve Jobs shows Bill Gates an early Mac demo, Gates tells his programmers to build those features into MS-DOS. Windows 1.0 is completed in 1985, but isn't very good. A number of other people are working on their windowing programs. Notably, Gary Kildal's Digital Research (maker of CP/M, which started it all) has sold DR-DOS (an MS-DOS clone) and windows program GEM. GEM and Windows 2.0 were both crippled by an Apple "Look and Feel" lawsuit. The '83 MS-Windows 1.0 vaporware announcement scared off others.

Lotus's Lotis 1-2-3 and Borland's QuatroPro spreadsheets and WordPerfect's word processor are the best-selling products in those categories in 1989. MicroSoft has sold its Word and Excell products on the smaller, less competitive Mac and, in 1988, bought PowerPoint and test bundled all three, for the Mac, calling it "Office".

After Windows 3.0, MS-office will replace those -- other firms didn't have anything that would run on Windows 3.1 (they were designing for OS/2, a joint IBM/MicroSoft OS, which was flopping horribly before MS pulled out.)

There are now 5 versions of UNIX, which is frustrating. MS-DOS is secret, and you certainly aren't allowed to share your own "improved" version. Inspired by the internet newsgroup about the "teaching" operating system MINUX, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish Com Sci student, starts writing a UNIX-clone operating system from the ground up, with help from the internet. It will later be named LINUX and combined with GNU(3).

Tim Berners-Lee makes the first web site using his new WWW standard and a simple "browser" (it automatically types all the commands you need and shows the file, instead of just copying it.) He does not charge anything to use it. He will later found the group in charge of WWW standards, www.w3c.org

Several American teenage "hackers" calling themselves MOD (an offshoot of the similar LOD -- "Legion of Doom") are arrested by the Feds. They sold (for $700) an account on the TRW credit report service, gave friends 3-way calling and used hours of conference calls without paying. Sentences were 6 months to a year. They did it by finding passwords and old unix/VAX manuals in the phone company's garbage, trading them on bulletin boards and pretending to work for the phone company.(9).

IBM loses a record amount of money.

The first modern browser, Mosaic, is written at the University of Illinois. It runs on UNIX, the Mac and MS-Windows.

The first search engine, Lycos, is written.

RedHat forms, to sell Linux distrubutions (with other GPL'd software.)

Mark Andreeson, leader of the Mosiac team, forms Netscape and releases the immensely popular Netscape browser. Netscape would later create "cookies" and LiveScript (renamed JavaScript after Java became popular,) which are now standards.

Computer bulletin board AOL (Commodore PC in '85, Mac in '89, MS-DOS in '91) gives its users internet access. They will later buy competitor CompuServe and then NetScape, merge with Time-Warner and break up again.

The first US vs. Microsoft anti-trust lawsuit ends. It started with a (very silly) investigation into IBM/MS dividing up the PC market, but later focused on threats against computer makers who sold products besides MS-DOS (especially Digital Research's "doctor-DOS".) It ended with MicroSoft signing a consent decree to avoid product trying and bundling.

Having trouble using C++ for cell phones, cable boxes, etc... , SUN releases their replacement, JAVA (they were going to call it OAK, but that was taken.) It becomes popular for programs over the 'Net.

Microsoft discovers the internet. They buy Mosiac, turn it into Internet Explorer, give it away for free (with purchase of MS-Windows), threaten OEMs and make a deal with AOL: AOL uses IE, and Windows includes a link to AOL (instead of the new MSN.)

Open-source GPL'd web server Apache 1.0 is released. Its success prevents the Netscape/MicroSoft "browser wars" from dividing the 'Net into halves.

Kevin Mitnick, who had made front the page of the New York Times as the most wanted internet hacker, was arrested after 3 years on the run. He was first arrested as a teen in '81, then in '88 for stealing VAX code, then fled prosecution in '92 after being set-up by another hacker on the Secret Service's payroll. His crimes were doing illegal credit card checks for a detective company, breaking into the phone system to use cell-phone numbers while on the run, and moving a wiretap from his phone to an FBI agent's (by calling the phone company and asking.)(10)

The second US vs. MicroSoft anti-trust trial begins. They are charged with violating the consent degree by bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. They lose in 1999. Iowa's lawsuit, for damages, is scheduled for 2005. MS is currently being sued in Europe over bundling their media player with MS-windows.

IBM announces it will support Open Source web server Apache, instead of its own web server. IBM later supports Linux -- if you have problems running IBM programs on your free Linux operating system, you can call IBM and they will fix it. Major chip makers start to produce chips supporting Linux. These dispell initial FUD claims.