#e <t>inv<t>comp<n>Enigma machine<d>1919<c>Germany<info>Hugo Koch patents a "secret writing machine" later known as Enigma. The mechanical cryptography device is used by Germany during World War II.
#e <t>hardware<t>inv<n>ENIAC<aka>Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator<d>1946 Feb<c>Pennsylvania<info>The ENIAC was built by John W. Mauchley and J. Presper Eckert at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania under contract to the U.S. War Department. It was designed for the calculation of ballistic trajectory tables. It officially became operational in February 1946 and was used successfully for about 9 years. ENIAC employed electronic vacuum tubes for all arithmetic processes; a total of 18,000 tubes went into its structure. It calculated in decimal base, using electronic "ring counter" circuits, and could calculate a ballistic trajectory faster than the projectile could execute it. Physically, ENIAC was large and awkward. It was designed for a special kind of calculation and did not include modern programming features such as stored, modifiable programming words. Nevertheless, it was fast and useful in its time.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>hardware<t>inv<d>1950<n>hard disks<c>U.S.
#e <t>hardware<t>inv<d>1951 Apr<n>UNIVAC<aka>Universal Automatic Computer<c>U.S.<info>UNIVAC is the trade name of a line of electronic digital computers designed by John W. Mauchley and J. Presper Eckert and produced by the Sperry-Rand Corporation. The first of these, the UNIVAC I, accepted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in April 1951, is generally credited as being the first commercially available stored-program electronic digital computer. UNIVAC I used Hollerith cards for input. It had twin arithmetic units - run in parallel for error detection - that converted binary information from memory into "words." Arithmetic was performed on these words at a rate of 2,000 additions or 450 multiplications per second. Internal memory capacity was 1,000 words. Provision was made for high rates of data exchange with an external magnetic tape memory of large capacity and with high-speed printers. UNIVAC I was intended for statistical usage. By 1958 nearly 50 of the computers had been produced.
#e <t>hardware<t>inv<d>1952<n>Whirlwind I computer<c>U.S.<info>Whirlwind I computer had 256 bits of storage in magnetic core memory.
#e <t>hardware<d>1964<n>IBM's System/360<c>U.S.
#e <t>hardware<d>1977<n>8086<c>U.S.<info>Intel releases the 16-bit 8086 CPU.
#e <t>hardware<d>1981 Aug<n>PC Computer<c>U.S.<info>IBM introduces their first PC.
#e <t>hardware<d>1984<n>3.5" floppy drive<c>California<info>3.5" floppy drives were introduced to the market in 1984.
#e <t>hardware<d>1989<n>80486<c>U.S.<info>Intel released the 80486 processor in 1989.
#e <t>hardware<d>1993<n>PowerPC<c>U.S.<info>Motorola introduced the PowerPC processor in 1993.
#e <t>hardware<d>1993<n>Pentium<c>U.S.<info>Intel introduced the Pentium processor in 1993.
// Software
#e <t>software<d>1959<n>COBOL<aka>common business-oriented language<c>U.S.<info>Grace Murray Hopper devised this language for business applications. It was based on a plain English computer language, Flow-matic, which she had invented in 1957.
#e <t>software<d>1961<n>time-sharing<c>Massachusetts<info>Computers at MIT allow several users access to one machine simultaneously.
#e <t>software<d>1964<n>Basic<c>U.S.<info>The Basic programming language was written by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz.
#e <t>software<d>1967<n>packet switching<c><info>Donald Davies devised this as a method for routing information through networks.
#e <t>software<d>1969<n>Unix<c>U.S.<info>The Unix operating system was created at Bell Labs.
#e <t>software<d>1969<n>ARPA Net<c>U.S.<info>The ARPA Net is created as a network of university computers.
#e <t>software<d>1970<n>B<c>U.S.<info>The "B" programming language was written by Ken Thompson. It was a precursor to the "C" language.
#e <t>software<d>1972<n>C<c>U.S.<info>The "C" programming language was written by Dennis Ritchie.
#e <t>software<d>1973<e>1974<n>TCP/IP<c>U.S.<info>Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn design transmission control protocol for linking different computer networks. TCP/IP is a two-layered program. The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling of a message or file into smaller packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received by a TCP layer that reassembles the packets into the original message. The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this address to see where to forward the message. Even though some packets from the same message are routed differently than others, they'll be reassembled at the destination.<ref>www.whatis.com
#e <t>software<d>1985<n>Internet<c>U.S.<info>ARPA Net renamed the "Internet"
#e <t>software<d>1987<n>OS/2<c>U.S.<info>IBM and Microsoft released OS/2 in 1987.
#e <t>software<n>prototype of WWW<d>1990<c>Europe<info>Tim Berners-Lee creates an Internet protocol called World Wide Web, including hypertext mark-up language (HTML), universal resource locators (URLs) and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
#e <t>software<d>1993<n>Mosaic<c>Urbana, Illinois<info>Marc Andreessen developed Mosaic in his early twenties. It was the first widely-distributed graphical browser or viewer for the World Wide Web. Once Mosaic was available, the Web virtually exploded in numbers of users and content sites. He developed it at the University of Illinois. Andreessen and others went on to become part of Netscape Communications, originally called Mosaic Communications, that developed today's most popular browser, Netscape Navigator.
#e <t>software<d>1997 May 3<e>1997 May 11<n>Deep Blue beats Kasparov<c>New York City<info>A computer called Deep Blue beats world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. Deep Blue won 3.5 to 2.5.
#e <t>calendar<t>software<d>2000 Jan 1<n>"Y2K"<info>The rollover of the year number from 1999 to 2000 was feared by many to bring economic catastrophe. Early commercial computer software often used only two decimal digits to represent the year. It turned out that by December, 1999, most computer systems were ready for the change.
// Microsoft
#p <nat>American<o>entrepreneur<n>Bill Gates<b>1955 Oct 28<c>Washington
#e <t>industry<t>comp<d>1997 Aug 6<n>Microsoft deal with Apple<c>Washington<info>Gates announces Microsoft will invest $150 million (US) in Apple. In exchange, Apple ships Microsoft's Web browser with its products.
#e <t>software<d>1981<n>MS-DOS<c>U.S.<info>MS-DOS introduced by Microsoft.
#e <t>software<d>1985 Nov<n>Windows 1.0<info>Microsoft ships Windows 1.0.<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1987 Aug<n>Windows 1.0.1<info>Microsoft ships Windows 1.0.1.<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1987 Oct<n>Windows 2.0<info>Microsoft ships Windows 2.0.<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1988<n>Windows 2.03<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1990 May<n>Windows 3.0<info>Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1992<n>Windows 3.1<c>Washington
#e <t>software<d>1995 Aug<n>Windows 95<c>Washington<info>Microsoft ships Windows 95.
