IntComp: History of Computers

Question 1

a French merchant and inventor, created a loom that uses wooden punch cards

Answer 1

1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard

Question 2

created a stream driven calculating machine called the Difference Engine

Answer 2

1821 Charles Babbage

Question 3

created the world’s first computer program

Answer 3

1848 Ada Lovelace

Question 4

designed the world’s first printing calculator. This was the first machine to be able to compute tabular differences and print the results

Answer 4

1853 Per Georg Scheutz; son Edvard

Question 5

designed a punch-card system that helped the US Census

Answer 5

1890 Herman Hollerith

Question 6

invented the Differential Analyzer, the first large-scale automatic general-purpose mechanical analog computer

Answer 6

1931 Vannever Bush

Question 7

presented the principle of universal machine, machines capable of computing anything that is computable

Answer 7

1936 Alan Turing

Question 8

He is involved in the development of the Turing-Welchman Bombe, an electro-mechanical device designed to decipher Nazi codes during WW2

Answer 8

1936 Alan Turing

Question 9

submitted a proposal to build the first electric-only computer

Answer 9

1937 John Vincent Atanasoff

Question 10

founded the Hewlett Packard Company

Answer 10

1939 David Packard and Bill Hewlett

Question 11

completes the Z3 machine, the world’s earliest digital computer

Answer 11

1941 Konrad Zuse

Question 12

designed the first digital electronic computer in the US, capable of performing one operation every 15 seconds

Answer 12

1941 Atanasoff and Clifford Berry

Question 13

design and build the electronic numerical integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) the first “automatic, general-purpose, electronic, decimal, digital computer

Answer 13

1945 John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert

Question 14

leave the university of Pennsylvania and receive funding from the Census Bureau to build the UNIVAC

Answer 14

1946 Mauchly and Presper

Question 15

the first commercial computer for business and government applications

Answer 15

1946 Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC)

Question 16

invent the transistor

Answer 16

1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain

Question 17

develops the electronic delay storage automatic calculator (EDSAC) “The first practical stored-program computer”

Answer 17

1949 A team at the University of Cambridge

Question 18

develops the first computer language known as the COBOL

Answer 18

1953 Grace Hopper

Question 19

Full term of COBOL

Answer 19

Common, Business-oriented Language

Question 20

team of programmer created FORTRAN

Answer 20

1954 John Backus

Question 21

Full term of FORTRAN

Answer 21

Formula Translation

Question 22

unveil the integrated circuit known as the computer chip

Answer 22

1958 Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce

Question 23

reveals a prototype of modern computer at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, San Francisco

Answer 23

1968 Douglas Engelbart

Question 24

This marks the development of the computer from a specialized machine for academics to a technology that is more accessible to the general public

Answer 24

1968 Douglas Engelbart

Question 25

produce UNIX, an operating system that made "large-scale networking of diverse computing systems and the internet"

Answer 25

1969 Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie

Question 26

unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access memory (DRAM) chip

Answer 26

1970 The newly formed Intel

Question 27

invents the "floppy disk," enabling data to be shared among different computers

Answer 27

1971 A team of IBM Engineers led by Alan Shugart

Question 28

he releases Magnavox Odyssey the world's first home game console

Answer 28

1972 Ralph Baer

Question 29

released Pong, the world's first commercially successful video game

Answer 29

1972 Nolan Bushnell & Al Alcorn & Atari

Question 30

developed Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware

Answer 30

1973 Robert Metcalfe

Question 31

highlights the 8080 as the world's first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models

Answer 31

1975 Magazine Cover of the January Issue "Popular Electronics"

Question 32

On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two childhood friends form their own software company, Microsoft.

Answer 32

1975 Bill Gates & Paul Allen

Question 33

co found the Apple computer. They unveiled the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board and ROM

Answer 33

1976 Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak

Question 34

the commodore personal electronic transactor (PET) is released onto the home computer market

Answer 34

1977

Question 35

began its initial production run of 3,000 TRS-80 Model 1 computers

Answer 35

1977 Radio Shack

Question 36

the first west coast computer faire is held in San Francisco. Jobs and Wozniak present the Apple II computer at the faire

Answer 36

1977

Question 37

the first computerized spreadsheet program is introduced

Answer 37

1978 Visicalc (Visible Calculator)

Question 38

releases WordStar, the world's first commercially successful word processor.

Answer 38

1979 Seymour Rubenstein (WordStar Programmed by Rob Barnaby)

Question 39

IBM's first personal computer, is released onto the market

Answer 39

1981 Acorn

Question 40

the first personal computer to feature a GUI

Answer 40

1983 Apple Lisa (Local Integrated Software Architecture)

Question 41

released and is the first portable computer with a flip-form design and the very first to be sold as a "laptop"

Answer 41

1983 Gavilan SC

Question 42

is announced to the world during a Superbowl advertisement

Answer 42

1984 Apple Macintosh

Question 43

Microsoft releases Windows

Answer 43

1985 November

Question 44

summits his proposal for what would become the World Wide Web

Answer 44

1989 Tim Berners Lee

Question 45

the Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on PCs

Answer 45

1993

Question 46

develop the Google Search Engine

Answer 46

1996 Sergey Brin & Larry Page

Question 47

invests $150 million in Apple, which at the time is struggling financially. This investment ends an ongoing court case in which Apple accused Microsoft of copying its operating system

Answer 47

1997 Microsoft

Question 48

the abbreviated term for "Wireless Fidelity" is developed, initially covering a distance of up to 300 feet(91 meters)

Answer 48

1999 Wi-Fi

Question 49

later named OS X then simply macOS was released by Apple

Answer 49

2001 Mac OS X

Question 50

AMD's Athlon 64, the first 64-bit processor for personal computers, is released to customers

Answer 50

2003

Question 51

the Mozilla Corporation launches Mozilla Firefox 1.0 one of the first major challenges to internet explorer owned by Microsoft

Answer 51

2004

Question 52

Google Buys Android

Answer 52

2005

Question 53

the MacBook Pro from Apple hits the shelves. The Pro is the company's first intel-based dual-core mobile computer

Answer 53

2006

Question 54

Microsoft launches Windows 7

Answer 54

2009

Question 55

The iPad, Apple's flagship handheld tablet is unveiled

Answer 55

2010

Question 56

Google releases the Chromebook, which runs on google chrome OS

Answer 56

2011

Question 57

Apple releases the Apple watch

Answer 57

2015

Question 58

Microsoft releases Windows 10

Answer 58

2015

Question 59

the first reprogrammable quantum computer was created

Answer 59

2016

Question 60

the defense advanced research projects agency (DARPA) is developing a new "Molecular Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers

Answer 60

2017

Question 61

Team at Google became the first to demonstrate quantum supremacy - creating a quantum computer that could feasibly outperform the most powerful classical computer

Answer 61

2019

Question 62

the first exascale supercomputer, and the world's fastest, frontier, went online at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) in Tennessee

Answer 62

2022