CS378W, History of Computing
Week 8, Weekly Report
Due 2004 Oct 14


Electronic Computing: A Timeline
Bryant Tang
2004 Oct 14

The period of time between 1930 and 1950 marked an important turning point in the evolution of electronic computing. No longer were such devices reliant on mechanical parts for storage and computation; the introduction of electronic elements such as the electronic relay and vacuum tube were integral in the design of the electronic computational machines of this time.

1939 John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University build a prototype electonic computer that used binary arithmetic (1). It was named the Atanasoff Berry Computer and was used to solve systems of linear equations (3). It used capacitors fixed in a rotating drum for storage (3) and was the first electronic computer with vacuum tubes (4).
1941 Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, builds the Z3, the world's first fully functional program-controlled electromechanical digital computer (1). It was based on telephone relays and pioneered the calculation of floating point numbers (3). A total of 2600 relays were used to build the machine (4).
1943 Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers and M.H.A. Newman build the Colossus, a British vacuum tube computer at Bletchley Park (1). It was the first totally electronic computing device, using vacuum tubes and no relays (3). A total of ten Mk I and Mk II Colossi were built, but they were destroyed due to a veil of secrecy that was enforced by the British government (3).
1944 The Harvard Mark I, also known as the Automatic Sequence Controlled Computer, is dedicated at Harvard University on August 7, 1944 (1). It was designed by Howard Aiken, was partly financed by IBM and was the first program controlled calculator (2). It used fixed point arithmetic and used punch cards for input and output (2).
1946 The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) is completed and unveiled in the Unversity of Pennsylvania on February 14, 1946 (1). It is widely recognized as the first electronic general purpose computer and featured thousands of delicate vacuum tubes, making it capable of performing up to 100,000 calculations per second (3).
1947 William B. Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain design the first transistor (2) at Bell Labs on December 23, 1947 (1). It would play an important part in the construction of modern computers, a component which is used even in today's electronic devices.
1948 The Manchester Mark I becomes the first operational stored-program digital computer on June 21 1948 (1). It evolved from the Small Scale Experimental Machine (or 'Baby') and was built at Manchester University (2). It was the first computer to store both programs and data in memory (2).
1949 The EDSAC (Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer) is built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University and performs its first calculation on May 6, 1949 (1). It used paper tape for input and output and is the first stored-program computer to provide a regular computing service (2).

The first generation of programmed electronic computers made their debut in the 1940s. World War II proved to be a driving force in this field, resulting in an amazing spurt of development that resulted in landmark machines such as the ENIAC, Colossus and the Manchester Mark I. The switch from mechanical to electronic computing ushered in a completely new era of computing.



Notes

1. Bob Carlson, Angela Burgess, Christine Miller and Larry Bauer, "Timeline of Computing History," http://www.computer.org/computer/timeline/timeline.pdf (IEEE Computer Society, accessed 2004 Oct 11).

2. Stephen White, "A Brief History of Computing - Complete Timeline," http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history/timeline.html (Oxford University Computer Society, accessed 2004 Oct 11).

3. "History of Computing Hardware," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware (Wikipedia, accessed 2004 Oct 11).

4. "Timeline - Chronology of the History of Computing," http://www.thocp.net/timeline/timeline.htm (The History of Computing Project, accessed 2004 Oct 11).