Timeline of computing

This article is a supplemental part of the
History of computing series.

 History of computing hardware (before 1960s)

 History of computing hardware (1960s-present)

 History of operating systems

This article presents a detailed timeline of events in the history of computing. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related History of computing.

Computing timelines: 500 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present

Resources:

Stephen White: A Brief History of Computing, http://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.html. An excellent Computer history site; the above is a modified version of his timeline, used with permission.
The Computer History Graphing Project tries to build a graphical image of computer history, in particular operating systems, http://comp-hist.sourceforge.net/

See also:

History of computing hardware - up to third generation (1960s)
History of computing hardware (1960s-present) - third generation and later
Programming language timeline
Operating systems timeline
Commercial computer apps timeline
Computer science timeline
History of the graphical user interface
History of the Internet

Graphical Timeline

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from:1964 till:1972 text:"3rd Generation" width:16"

at:1975 text"Microsoft founded"
at:1976 text"Apple Computer founded"
at:1983 text"Borland founded"

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 at:1943 text:"'I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.' Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM"

 at:1949 text:"'Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons'"

 at:1950 text:"'"We'll have to think up bigger problems if we want to keep them busy.' Howard Aiken"

 at:1950 text:"(Turing Test)~_Alan Turing"

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 at:1965 text:"Moore's law: processor complexity will double every year,~revised in 1975: complexity will double every two years. Gordon E. Moore"

barset:skip

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 at:1977 align:right shift:(-5,-5) text:"'There is no reason anyone would want a computer~in their home' (Ken Olson, Chairman DEC)"

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 at:1981 text:"(Quantum Computer)~_Richard Feynmann

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 shift:(5,-5)

 at:1940 text:"teletype"

 at:1947 text:"(transistor)"

 at:1948 text:"random access memory"

 at:1948 text:"magnetic drum"

 at:1949 text:"registers"

 at:1953 text:"magnetic core memory"

 at:1956 text:"hard disk"

 at:1957 text:"dot matrix printer"

 at:1958 text:"integrated circuit"

 at:1962 text:"spooling,~interrupts,~virtual memory~paging~(ATLAS)"

 barset:skip

 barset:break

 at:1963 text:"mouse"

 at:1965 text:"time-sharing"

 at:1965 text:"fuzzy logic"

 at:1965 text:"packet switching"

 at:1969 text:"ARPANET precursor~of Internet"

 barset:skip

 at:1969 text:"RS-232"

 at:1970 text:"dynamic RAM"

 at:1971 text:"floppy disk"

 at:1971 text:"microprocessor~(4004)"

 barset:skip

 at:1972 text:"game console~(PONG)"

 barset:skip

 at:1973 text:"TCP/IP 1982 ??"

 at:1973 text:"ethernet"

 at:1975 text:"single-board~computer"

 barset:break

 at:1976 text:"laser printer"

 at:1976 text:"supercomputer~(Cray)"

 barset:skip

 at:1979 text:"compact disk"

 at:1981 text:"WIMP (GUI)"

 at:1981 text:"CGA video card"

 at:1982 text:"MIDI"

 at:1982 text:"RISC cpu"

 at:1982 text:"portable~PC"

 barset:skip

 barset:skip

 at:1983 text:"math~coprocessor"

 barset:skip

 at:1983 text:"PC harddisk"

 at:1984 text:"GNU project"

 at:1984 text:"DNS (Domain~Name Server)"

 barset:skip

 at:1984 text:"IDE interface"

 at:1985 text:"Expanded Memory"

 at:1985 text:"Postscript"

 barset:break

 at:1985 text:"EGA video card"

 at:1985 text:"CD_ROM"

 at:1986 text:"SCSI interface"

 at:1987 text:"massive parallel~computing~(Connection Machine)"

 barset:skip

 barset:skip

 at:1987 text:"VGA video card"

 at:1987 text:"PC sound card (AD-LIB)"

 at:1988 text:"optical chip"

 at:1988 text:"EISA bus"

 at:1989 text:"ATA interface"

 at:1990 text:"SVGA video card,~VESA driver"

 barset:skip

 at:1991 text:"ISA bus"

 at:1992 text:"CD-I"

at:1994 text:"DNA computing"

major or well known operating systems selection based on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computing_500_BC-1949

barset:hardware_systems

 at:1940 text:"Model I~Relay Calculator"

 barset:skip

 at:1941 text:"Atanasoff~Berry Computer"

 barset:skip

 at:1941 text:"Z3"

 at:1943 text:"Harvard Mark I"

 at:1943 text:"Relay Interpolator"

 at:1943 text:"Colossus"

 at:1946 text:"ENIAC"

 barset:break

 at:1962 text:"ATLAS"

 at:1964 text:"IBM 360"

 at:1964 text:"DEC PDP-8"

 at:1965 text:"CDC 6600~1st supercomputer"

 barset:skip

 at:1971 text:"electronic~calculator~TI"

 barset:skip

 at:1971 text:"(4004)"

 at:1972 text:"scientific~calculator~HP"

 barset:skip

 at:1972 text:"(8008)"

 at:1972 text:"1st 32-bit~ supermini"

 barset:skip

 at:1974 text:"(8080)"

 at:1974 text:"(MC 6800)"

 at:1974 text:"Altair 8800~personal~computer"

 barset:skip

 barset:break

 at:1976 text:"(Z80)"

 at:1976 text:"(6502)"

 at:1976 text:"Cray-1"

 at:1977 text:"Apple II"

 at:1977 text:"TRS-80"

 at:1978 text:"(8086)"

 at:1979 text:"PET"

 at:1979 text:"(68000)"

 at:1980 text:"VIC-20"

 at:1980 text:"ZX80"

 at:1981 text:"8010~'Star'"

 barset:skip

 at:1981 text:"ZX81"

 at:1981 text:"IBM PC"

 at:1982 text:"BBC~Micro"

 barset:skip

 at:1982 text:"C64"

 barset:break

 at:1982 text:"(80286)"

 at:1982 text:"Compaq~Portable"

 barset:skip

 at:1982 text:"ZX Spectrum"

 at:1983 text:"Lisa"

 at:1983 text:"IBM XT"

 at:1983 text:"IBM PC jr"

 at:1983 text:"Macintosh"

 at:1984 text:"LaserJet printer"

 at:1984 text:"IBM AT"

 at:1985 text:"Amiga 1000"

 at:1985 text:"Atari ST"

 at:1986 text:"Amstrad 1512"

 at:1987 text:"Acorn Archimedes"

 at:1987 text:"Connection Machine"

 at:1987 text:"IBM PS/2"

 barset:break

 at:1989 text:"(80486)"

 at:1993 text:"(66 MHz Pentium)"

 at:1998 text:"iMac"

 at:1999 text:"PowerMac"

 at:2000 text:"(1 GHz Pentium)"

 at:2003 text:"PowerPC G5

at:2003 text:"Athlon 64

major or well known operating systems selection based on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_systems_timeline

barset:operating_systems

 at:1965 text:"OS/360"

 at:1967 text:"CP/CMS"

 at:1969 text:"ACP"

 at:1969 text:"Unix"

 at:1972 text:"VM/CMS"

 at:1974 text:"MVS"

 at:1976 text:"CP/M"

 at:1978 text:"Apple DOS 3.1"

 at:1978 text:"VMS"

 at:1980 text:"OS-9"

 at:1981 text:"MS-DOS"

 at:1982 text:"SunOS"

 at:1983 text:"Lisa OS"

 barset:break

 at:1984 text:"Macintosh OS"

 at:1985 text:"AmigaOS"

 at:1985 text:"Atari TOS"

 at:1985 text:"Windows 1.0"

 at:1986 text:"AIX"

 at:1986 text:"GS-OS"

 at:1986 text:"HP-UX"

 at:1987 text:"IRIX"

 at:1987 text:"Minix"

 at:1987 text:"OS/2"

 at:1987 text:"Windows 2.0"

 at:1988 text:"OS/400"

 at:1989 text:"NeXTSTEP"

 at:1989 text:"RISC OS"

 at:1989 text:"SCO Unix"

 at:1990 text:"BeOS"

 at:1990 text:"OSF/1"

 at:1991 text:"Linux"

 barset:break

 at:1992 text:"Solaris"

 at:1992 text:"Windows 3.1"

 at:1993 text:"Windows NT 3.1"

 at:1994 text:"Red Hat Linux"

 at:1995 text:"OpenBSD"

 at:1995 text:"OS/390"

 at:1995 text:"Windows 95"

 at:1996 text:"Debian GNU/Linux"

 at:1997 text:"Mac OS 7.6"

 at:1998 text:"Windows 98"

 at:1999 text:"Mac OS 8"

 at:2000 text:"Mac OS 9"

 at:2000 text:"Windows ME"

 at:2000 text:"Windows 2000"

 at:2001 text:"Mac OS X"

 at:2001 text:"Windows XP"

 at:2001 text:"z/OS"

 at:2003 text:"Windows~Server~2003" shift:(5,1)

major or well known programming languages & dev tools selection based on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_programming_languages
generally only first versions are listed

 barset:sys_dev_software

 at:1945 text:"Plankalkül"

 at:1952 text:"A-0"

 at:1954 text:"Mark I"

 at:1954 text:"FORTRAN"

 at:1958 text:"Algol 58"

 at:1959 text:"LISP"

 at:1960 text:"COBOL"

 at:1962 text:"APL"

 barset:break

 at:1962 text:"Simula"

 at:1964 text:"PL/I"

 at:1964 text:"BASIC"

 at:1968 text:"Logo"

 at:1971 text:"Pascal"

 at:1972 text:"Smalltalk"

 at:1972 text:"C"

 at:1972 text:"PROLOG"

 barset:break

 at:1978 text:"VISICALC"

 at:1979 text:"REXX"

 at:1979 text:"DBASE-II"

 at:1983 text:"Ada"

 at:1983 text:"C++"

 barset:skip

 at:1983 text:"Turbo~Pascal"

 barset:break

 at:1985 text:"PARADOX"

 at:1985 text:"PostScript"

 at:1986 text:"Eiffel"

 at:1987 text:"HyperTalk"

 at:1987 text:"SQL"

 at:1987 text:"Perl"

 at:1991 text:"Python"

 at:1991 text:"Visual Basic"

 barset:break

 at:1993 text:"AppleScript"

 at:1995 text:"Delphi"

 at:1995 text:"JavaScript"

 at:1995 text:"Java"

 at:1997 text:"PHP"

 at:2000 text:"D"

 at:2000 text:"C#"

at:2001 text:"KYLIX"

 barset:applications

 at:1951 text:"electronic music"

 at:1960 text:"compiler compiler"

 at:1962 text:"computer game"

 at:1965 text:"bulletin board"

 at:1965 text:"email (1971 ?)"

 at:1965 text:"super computing"

 at:1968 text:"interactive computing~(mouse, windows, hypertext,~full screen word processing)"

 barset:skip

 barset:skip

 barset:break

 at:1969 text:"networking"

 at:1970 text:"flight data processor"

 at:1972 text:"arcade video game"

 at:1977 text:"spreadsheet"

 at:1979 text:"Usenet"

 at:1984 text:"WYSIWIG word processing"

at:1989 text:"World Wide Web"

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