History of Personal Computers Quiz

Early Computing Devices

• Abacus (2400 BC): A calculating tool used for arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square roots.

Pascaline (17th Century)

• Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical adding machine, initially called the "arithmetic machine" or Pascal's calculator.
• It was primarily used for addition and subtraction of numbers.

Leibniz Calculator (17th Century)

• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz developed a more advanced calculating machine that performed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• It was also known as the Stepped Reckoner.

Analytical Engine (18th Century)

• Charles Babbage designed a mechanical general-purpose computer.
• Features similar to modern computers, including punched cards for input control, fast multiplication/division, various peripherals, and even array processing.
• This design was assembled according to Babbage's original designs in 1991.

Punched Card

• A 12-row/80-column IBM punched card from the post-early 20th century.
• These cards presented data, in a variety of formats, for use in tabulating machines.

Tabulating Machine (1890)

• Herman Hollerith invented electromechanical tabulating machines.
• Used punched cards to represent individual's census data for the 1890 US census.

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

• An English mathematician, computer scientist, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.
• In 1936, Turing designed the Turing Machine, an abstract computing machine, which paved the way for modern digital computers.
• He outlined the logical principles of the digital computer, and provided the first systematic method to decipher sophisticated German cyphers.
• Recognized as a founding father of Artificial Intelligence and modern cognitive science.

Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

• A German civil engineer, inventor, and computer pioneer.
• Created the Z1-Z4 computers between 1936 and 1943, which faced challenges in calculating construction of buildings and roads.

Harvard Mark 1 (1937)

• Conceived by Howard Aiken and built by IBM.
• A room-sized relay-based calculator.
• Used to generate mathematical tables but was superseded by stored-program computers.

HP 200A Audio Oscillator (1939)

• David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded Hewlett-Packard.
• Created the HP 200A Audio Oscillator which became popular testing equipment for engineers.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), (1937-1942)

• First electronic digital computer.
• Designed and constructed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and student Cliff Berry.
• Used vacuum tubes and regenerative memory to compute up to 29 simultaneous equations.
• The ABC was an early innovation of computer design, but was not patented due to circumstances relating to its designer.

Colossus (1943)

• Built at Bletchley Park, designed by Tommy Flowers.
• Designed to break complex Nazi Lorenz ciphers during World War II.
• A remarkable feat of wartime engineering and breaking of complex encryption.

ENIAC (1946)

• Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
• Conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.
• Comprised 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7200 crystal diodes and over 10,000 capacitors and resistors.
• A remarkable machine, with an initial estimate to accomplish 5000 operations per second.

EDVAC (1947)

• Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer.
• Followed the work of ENIAC, which was designed by Mauchly and Eckert, but advanced in many aspects, including the addition of a high-speed serial memory architecture.

Manchester Mark I (1949)

• First stored-program digital computer.
• Prototype for the Ferranti Mark I.
• A fundamental building block of the computing paradigm shift.

John von Neumann (1903-1957)

• Hungarian-born American mathematician who defined the architecture behind computers such as the Manchester Mark I.

EDSAC (1949)

• Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator.
• Second usefully operational electronic stored-program digital computer with programs running on May 6 1949.

Transistors (1947)

• Key advancement in electronics, and used in computers beginning around the 1960s era.

UNIVAC (1951)

• Universal Automatic Computer, the first general-purpose computer used for commercial use.

IBM System 360 (1964)

• A family of compatible computers from IBM.
• Initially a successful computer model, due to the low initial investment cost and high initial sales rate.

Integrated Circuits (1950s/60s)

• A key advancement to transistorized computing.

DEC PDP (1965)

• The Digital Equipment Corporation introduced a successful minicomputer in 1965.
• It was one fifth the price of a small sized IBM mainframe.

Apollo Guidance Computer (1968)

• Used for the Apollo 11 launch, using two-digit codes entered through a keyboard interface.

Interface Message Processor (IMP) (1969)

• An early gateway and router.
• Enabled communications between ARPANET systems, acting as a key element in the development of the internet.

Cray-1 (1976)

• Supercomputer.
• Featured a significant increase in speed compared to computers released prior to its time.

Kenbak-1 (1971)

• Often considered the world's first personal computer.
• It lacked a microprocessor.

Altair 8800 (1975)

• First widely sold microcomputer.
• Inundated the company making the Altair, with thousands of orders.

Apple I (1976)

• Steve Wozniak designed and Steve Jobs started marketing a computer for hobbyists to build themselves.

Apple II (1977)

• A successful computer that came pre-built, with a variety of features to interact with color displays.

Atari 400/800 (1979)

• Sold largely as game consoles, the Atari models introduced a variety of microcomputers.

IBM PC (1981)

• A complete-looking computer package with individual devices such as the keyboard, printer, and monitor.
• The IBM PC helped push personal computers to mainstream users.

Osborne (1981)

• Introduced a portable computer.

Commodore 64 (1982)

• A successful home computer.

Hewlett-Packard 150 (1983)

• An early personal computer.

Apple Lisa (1983)

• Introduced features like a graphical user interface.

Apple Macintosh (1984)

• Marketed as a revolutionary home computer, due to ease of use.

IBM PS/2 (1987)

• A computer series from IBM.

NeXT (1988)

• Released by Steve Jobs after being dismissed from Apple.

Deep Blue (1997)

• A chess-playing supercomputer.

iPhone (2007)

• Released by Apple.

iPad (2010)

• Tablet computer by Apple.

Google Glass (2013)

• Popularized wearable technology.

Apple Watch (2014)

• Popular wearable device.