#e <t>inv<t>comp<n>ENIGMA coding machine<d>1919<c>Germany<info>Hugo Koch patents a "secret writing machine" later known as Enigma. The mechanical cryptpgraphy device is used by Germany during World War II.
#e <t>hard<t>inv<d>1943<n>Colossus<au>Turing<info>Alan Turing helps to build an electronic computer that will be used by the Allies to crack German codes.
#e <t>hard<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>hard<t>inv<d>1950<n>hard disks<c>U.S.
#e <t>hard<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>hard<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>hard<d>1964<n>IBM's System/360<c>U.S.
#e <t>hard<d>1981 Sep<n>PC Computer<c>U.S.<info>IBM ships first PC.
// Software
#e <t>soft<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>soft<d>1961<n>time-sharing<c>Massachusetts<info>Computers at MIT allow several users access to one machine simultaneously.
#e <t>soft<d>1964<n>Basic<c>U.S.<info>The Basic programming language was written by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz.
#e <t>soft<d>1969<n>Unix<c>U.S.<info>The Unix operating system was created at Bell Labs.
#e <t>soft<d>1969<n>ARPA Net<c>U.S.<info>The ARPA Net is created as a network of university computers.
#e <t>soft<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>soft<d>1972<n>C<c>U.S.<info>The "C" programming language was written by and Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan.
#e <t>soft<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>soft<d>1985<n>Internet<c>U.S.<info>ARPA Net renamed the "Internet"
#e <t>soft<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>soft<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>soft<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>business<t>apple<d>1996 Feb<n>Amelio CEO of Apple<c>California<info>Gil Amelio replaces Splindler.
#e <t>business<t>apple<d>1996 Dec<n>Apple buys NeXT<c>California<info>Apple buys Jobs' company, NeXT Software, for $424 million. Jobs returns to Apple as an advisor.
#e <t>business<t>apple<d>1997 Jul<n>Jobs interim CEO of Apple<c>California<info>Amelio resigns. Jobs becomes interim CEO.
#e <t>apple<d>1977<n>Apple II<c>California<info>Apple releases the Apple II computer.
#e <t>apple<d>1984 Jan<n>Macintosh<c>California<info>Apple releases the Macintosh.
#e <t>apple<d>1987 Mar<n>Mac SE and Mac II<c>California<info>Apple introduces the Mac SE and Mac II.
#e <t>apple<d>1991 Oct<n>PowerBook<c>California<info>Apple launches the PowerBook.
#e <t>apple<d>1993 Jan<n>Newton<c>California<info>Apple launches the handheld Newton.
#e <t>apple<d>1994 Mar<n>PowerMac<c>California<info>Apple introduces a line of PowerMac computers.
#e <t>apple<d>1998 Aug<n>iMac<c>California<info>800,000 units sell by mid-December. The case is a translucent greenish-blue, called "bondi blue."
#e <t>apple<d>1999 Jan<n>fruit-flavour iMacs<c>California<info>Apple introduces a newer model of the iMac in five colours: blueberry, lime, tangerine, grape and strawberry.
// Microsoft
#p <nat>American<o>entrepreneur<n>Bill Gates<b>1955 Oct 28<c>Washington
