TIMELINE - PREHISTORY - 1990s
(inventions - events - developments)
BC
3000 Dust Abacus possibly from Babylon
1800 Algorithms by a Babylonian mathematician
500 Bead abacus possibly from Egypt
AD
200 Saun-pan computing tray in China?
1000 Improved abacus by Gerbert of Aurillac
1275 Clockwork mechanism, probably by a monk in Burgundy
1448 Printing press using movable type by Johann Gutenburg, Germany
1580 Unknowns defined by letters, Francis Vieta
1586 Decimal fractions by Simon Stevin, Flemish mathematician
1594 Logarithm work begun by John Napier, Scotland.
1603 Logarithm system by Joost Buergi, Switzerland
1617 Logarithmic tables & divining rods by Napier (Napier's Bones)
1622 Slide rule by William Oughtred, England
1624 Four function calculator-clock by Wilheim Schickard, Heidelberg
1637 Analytic geometry by Rene Descartes
1642 Numerical calculating machine by Blaise Pascal, Paris - French mathematician
1660 Calculus by Sir Isaac Newton & Gottfried Leibniz
1673 Stepped Reckoner by Gottfried Leibniz, Germany
1675 Integral & differential calculus foundation by Leibniz
1679 Binary numeration by Leibniz
1690 Programmable loom using wooden bars by Broesel, Austria (perhaps 1680)
1725 Programmable loom using perforated paper by Basile Bouchon, France
1780 Electricity discovered by Benjamin Franklin, USA
1805 Perforated card loom by Joseph-Marie Jacquard (programmable)
1813 Panharmonium programmable organ by Johann Nepomuk Maelzel performs
Beethoven's battle symphony in Vienna
1815 Calculator by Charles Babbage performs to 8 decimal places
1820 Arithmometer by Thomas de Colmar - 1st commercially available calculator
1822 Difference Engine designed by Charles Babbage, England - to calculate logarithms but never built
1822 Electric motor by Michael Faraday, England
1830 Electromagnetic telegraph using needles by W.F. Cooke & Charles Wheatstone, England
1833 Analytical Machine by Charles Babbage, England - First general-purpose computer
1842 Program by Lady Ada Byron, England - for Babbage's machines
1844 Telegraph by Samuel Morse, USA
1854 Algebraic formulation of mathematical logic by George Boole, Ireland - Boolean algebra
1855 Mechanical calculator George & Edvard Scheutz Stockholm Sweden based on Babbage's work
1860 'Thinking machine' term used by Josef Petzval, Austrian mathematician, physicist & engineer (actual year may be as early as 1840)
1862 Telegraph in New Zealand
1865 Electric Telegraph Department formed in New Zealand
1866 Submarine telegraph cable across Cook Strait, NZ
1867 Typewriter by Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule & Carlos Glidden, USA
1867 Printing telegraph by Hughes, USA (year probably earlier)
1874 Duplex cable laid across Cook Strait
1874 Trans-Tasman telegraph cable laid to Australia - connecting to Europe & Britain via Far
East, India & Middle East
1876 Telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, USA
1877 Experiments with telephones began in NZ
1877 Gramophone by Thomas A Edison, USA
1880 Arthur Young established in New Zealand
1884 Tabulating machine by Dr Herman Hollerith, USA - Automatic punch-card tabulator
1884 Institute of Electrical Engineers established (IEE)
1885 AT&T founded (American Telephone & Telegraph)
1885 Electric logic machine designed by Allan Marquand 1886 Arithmometer recording adding machine by William Burroughs, USA
1886 American Arithmometer Company incorporated
1890 First mechanical calculator arrives in New Zealand
1890 Electro-mechanical tabulator by Dr Herman Hollerith, USA
1892 Adder-subtracter with superior printer introduced by Burroughs
1892 Seikosha factory set up by Kintaro Hattori (Seiko)
1893 The Millionaire - four-function calculator
1895 Plug-in programming by Otto Schaeffler, Austria (cf phone switchboard)
1896 Sorting machine by Herman Hollerith, USA
1896 Tabulating Machine Company est by Herman Hollerith, USA
1899 Magnetic recorder by Valdemar Poulsen, Denmark [telegraphon]
1900 Photocopying machine by Rene Graffin, France
1902 Pan-Pacific telegraph cable laid between New Zealand and Canada
1903 Electrical logic circuits by Nikola Tesla, USA - logic gates
1905 Burroughs Adding Machine Company (previously American Arithmometer Company)
1906 Triode by Lee De Forest
1906 Haliod Company (later Xerox)
1906 Complex number multipler device designed by Torres y Quevedo, Spain
1907 Language for defining mechanical drawings by Quevedo
1907 NCR (New Zealand) Limited established
1910 "Principia Mathematica" by Bertrand Russell & Afred North Whitehead
1911 Computer Tabulating Recording Company formed, USA - later becomes IBM
1911 Radio-telegraphy station opens in Wellington, NZ
1912 Chess player by Torres y Quevedo, Spain
1912 Institute of Radio Engineers
1913 Automatic totalisator by George Julius, New Zealand
1914 Thomas Watson Sr joins CTR
1916 Andas Business Machines Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1919 Counting & sorting machine by Fredrik Rosing Bull, Olso, Norway
1919 Improved rotary automatic switching equipment commissioned in Wellington, NZ
1919 Flip-flop circuits described in paper by W.H. Eccles & F.W. Jordan
1921 'Robot' term coined Karel Capek, Czechoslavia
1921 New Zealand Government orders tabulators for census
1921 Tandy Corp established. HQ Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
1923 Iconoscope electronic scanner by Vladimir K. Zworykin, USA
1924 CTR becomes International Business Machines (IBM), USA [see 1911]
1925 Differential analyzer by Vannevar Bush, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
1925 Private Automatic Branch Exchanges introduced in NZ (PABX)
1927 Television by John Logie Baird, UK
1927 Philips New Zealand Ltd established
1928 Cathode Ray Tube by Vladimir Zworykin, USA
1928 Imperial & International Communications Ltd est'd in London, UK
TIMELINE - 1930S & 1940S - THE RISE OF THE MAINFRAME
1930 Differential analyzer by Vannevar
Bush
1930 Burroughs Ltd established in New Zealand
1930 Geophysical Services Inc by Dr J Clarence Karcher & Eugene
McDermott
(later Texas Instruments)
1930 Electric switching circuits can model Boolean logic Ph.D. thesis by
Claude Shannon
1930 Automatic bookkeeping system & machine by Gustav Tauschek, Austria
(also invents optical reader & cryptographic system (years unknown)
1931 Public radio-telephone link between New Zealand and Britain.
1932 Creed teleprinter circuits installed in New Zealand
1933 Electronic talking machine by Dudley
1933 Compagnie des Machines Bull S.A. incorporated, Paris, France to market
Bull machines [see 1919]
1935 Fujitsu Ltd becomes manufacturing subsidiary of Fuji Electric Ltd
1935 150 series tabulators by Bull S.A.
1935 'Automation' coined by Delmar S. Harder, General Motors [automatic
operation]
1936 Turing's machine by Dr Alan Turing, Princeton University - algorithm
1936 Electric logic machine built by Benjamin Burack
1936 "On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungs-
problem" paper by Alan Turing
1937 Binary calculator by George Stibitz, Bell Telephone Laboratory, USA
1938 Z1 universal mechanical test computer by Konrad Zuse, Germany
(originally called V1)
1938 New Zealander Leslie Comrie opens Scientific Computing Services -
world's first computer bureau
1938 Schreyer electronic test model by Schreyer, Germany
1938 "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" by
Claude
Shannon
1938 Xerography by Chester Carlson, USA
1938 Hewlett-Packard Company, USA - makers of electronic equipment
1939 Vocoder by Dudley (Voice coder)
1939 Z2 electromechanical test computer by Konrad Zuse, Germany
1939 ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) by John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry,
Iowa
- uses radio valves [vacuum tubes] as switches
1940 Complex Number Calculator by George Stibitz, Bell Labs, USA - digital
computer
1940 Colour TV broadcast
1940 Remote processing experiments by Bell Laboratories, USA - Terminal
1941 Colossus proposed by Alan Turing & Prof Max H.A. Newman,
University of
Manchester, UK - to break German coding machine Enigma.
1941 Z3 electromechanical computer by Konrad Zuse, Germany (fully
operational)
1942 High-speed duplex radio-telegraph link between NZ, USA & London.
1942 S1 special-purpose electromechanical computer, Germany
1943 Colossus operational - built by T.H. Flowers - 1500 valves
1943 Relay interpolator by George Stibitz
1944 Mark I by Prof Howard H Aiken for Harvard & IBM (IBM ASCC,
relay-based)
1944 Schreyer electronic test model by Schreyer, Germany
1944 Programming the Mark I by Grace Murray Hopper, USA
1944 S2 special-purpose electromechanical computer, Germany
1944 Log. 1 electromechanical logical computer, Germany
1944 Manual for Mark I computer written by Grace Hopper.
1945 EDVAC stored-program concept by John von Neumann
1945 ENIAC in operation - fully functional electronic calculator
1945 Plankalkl [program calculus] language by Konrad Zuse.
1945 Chess-playing algorithm written down by Zuse.
1945 "First Draft of Report on the EDVAC" by John von Neumann
1945 Z4 electromechanical computer by Konrad Zuse, Germany
1945 IBM becomes largest business machine manufacturer in USA.
1946 'Bit' term coined by John Tukey
1946 BINAC by Eckert and Mauchly - real-time computer (BINary Automatic
Computer)
1946 Flow diagrams described & term coined by Hermann H. Goldstine and
John von Neumann [later called flow charts].
1946 Williams storage cathode ray tube patented
1946 "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic
Computing Instrument" by Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine & John von
Neumann
1946 Electronic Control Company by Eckert & Mauchly - first US computer
manufacturer
1947 Artificial Intelligence concept by Alan Turing in "Intelligent
Machinery" article
1947 AWA New Zealand Ltd established
1947 Magnetic drum by Dr Billing, Germany
1947 Photo-telegraph service between NZ, Australia, Britain & later
USA.
1947 Hewlett Packard incorporated
1947 'Bug' term applied to moth-induced error on Mark II by Hopper &
others
1947 ACM Association for Computing Machinery
1948 EDSAC by Maurice V Wilkes, University of Cambridge - first full-scale
electronic stored-program computer (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Computer)
1948 SSEC electromechanical computer by IBM runs stored program
(Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator)
1948 Copying Products Limited est'd in New Zealand
1948 Manchester University Mark I prototype runs first fully electronic
stored program by Prof Tom Kilburn (takes 52 minutes)
1948 Composition (code generated algorithm) described by Haskell B. Curry.
1948 604 electronic calculator, IBM
1948 Point-contact Transistor by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter
Brattain
1949 Magnetic discs - On EDVAC
1949 Chess-playing machine by Claude Shannon, MIT
1949 Short Code high-level language suggested by John W. Mauchly &
coded
by William F. Schmitt.
1949 Iron Core Memory by Jay Forrester used in Whirlwind computer
1949 BINAC tested
1949 Automatic Payrolls Incorporated by Henry Taub (later Automatic Data
Processing Inc)
TIMELINE - THE 1950S - IMPROVEMENTS
1950 EDVAC by John von Neumann, Moore
School of Electrical Engineering
1950 SEAC delivered to US National Bureau of Standards (Standards Eastern
Automatic Computer)
1950 Intermediate PL by Arthur W. Burks, University of Michigan; also
Janet Wahr, Don Warren & Jesse Wright [Programming Language]
1950 ZUSE KG est'd by Konrad Zuse, Hessen, Germany
1950 Remington Rand buys the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation
1950 Assembler language by Maurice Wilkes, Cambridge University - On EDSAC
1951 IEEE Computer Society formed.
1951 Ferranti Mark I installed at Manchester University - first
commercially manufactured computer
1951 Gamma 3 by Bull S.A. - first germanium diode computer
1951 UNIVAC installed in Bureau of Census, USA - Using Magnetic tape as
buffer memory
1951 Junction transistor by William Shockley, R.L. Wallace & Morgan
Sparks
1951 Klammerausdrcke algebraic language by Heinz Rutishauser on Z4, Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology
1951 Microprogramming by Maurice Wilkes
1951 Wang Laboratories founded by An Wang, Boston, USA
1951 Formules universal compiler by Corrado Boehm, Italy
1951 Whirlwind becomes operational by Jay Forrester & Ken Olsen, MIT
1951 Joint Computer Conference - First conference held.
1952 Bizmac by RCA - Magnetic drum & iron core memory & first
database
1952 Nixdorf Computer GmbH founded, Germany
1952 IBM sued by US Dept of Justice for monopolising punch-cards
1952 701 - IBM's first electronic stored-program computer
1952 AUTOCODE by Alick E. Glennie, Royal Armaments Research Establisment,
England ("first real compiler"- Knuth & Pardo)
1952 Problem-oriented language by Heinz Rutihauser
1952 Integrated Circuit proposed by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer, USA
1952 Draughts/checkers game written by A.L. Samuel on a IBM 701.
1952 'Compiler' term first used by Grace Hopper
1952 A-0 compiler by Grace Hopper?
1952 Thomas Watson Jr becomes president of IBM
1952 UNIVAC successfully predicts outcome of US presidential election
1952 A-1 compiler by Grace Hopper? for UNIVAC
1953 701 shipped by IBM - uses radio valves - 1st generation Computer
1953 726 Magnetic tape drive IBM - 100 cpi, 75 ips
1953 SPEEDCO by John Backus IBM
1953 A-2 compiler by Grace Hopper
1953 Magnetic-core memory by Jay W Forrester tested at MIT
1953 High-speed printer, Remington-Rand - For use on Univac
1953 Algebraic Interpreter by J. Halcombe Laning & Niel Zeirler, MIT
1953 UDEC installed by Burroughs Corp at Wayne State University [Universal]
Digital Electronic Computer
1954 FORTRAN by John Backus, IBM 704 (FORmula TRANslator)
1954 User's manual for novice programmers (by Laning & Zierler?)
1954 Mark I AUTOCODE by R. A. Brooker, Manchester's Mark I
1954 Operating System by Gene Amdahl - Used on IBM 704
1954 II II-2 [PP-2] production compiler by S. S. Kamynin & E. Z.
Liubinski
for STRELA computer, Mathematical Institute of the Soviet Academy of
Sciences, USSR
1954 650 medium-sized computer introduced by IBM
1955 Sperry-Rand formed by merger of Remington Rand and Sperry Corp
1955 IBM branch in Wellington, NZ starts operations
1955 Wang Laboratories incorporated
1955 Shockley Semiconductor founded in Palo Alto, California, USA
1955 II II [PP] by A. P. Ershov for BESM computer; also L. N. Korolev,
L.D. Panova, V.D. Poderiugin & V.M. Kurochkin, USSR
1955 SHARE users group
1955 BACAIS compiler by Mandalay Grems & R.E. Porter, Boeing Airplane
Company, Seattle, USA for IBM 701 [Boeing Airplane Company Algebraic
Interpretive Computing System]
1955 IT discussed by Alan Perlis, Mark Koschman, Sylvia Orgel, Joseph W.
Smith & Joanne Chipps for Datatron computer, Purdue University
Computing
Laboratory [Internal Translator]
1955 Kompiler 2 by A. Kenton Elsworth, Robert Kuhn, Leona Schloss &
Kenneth
Tiede, University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore
1956 IPL language by A Newell, D Shaw, F Simon (Information Programming
Language)
1956 ADES declarative language by E. K. Blum, US Naval Ordnance Laboratory
[Automatic Digital Encoding System]
1956 APT language by D.T. Ross (Automatic Programmed Tool) - industrial
1956 B-0 compiler by Grace Hopper's programming staff, UNIVAC [later called
Procedure Translator, & FLOW-MATIC]
1956 MAILFTERL computer by H. Zemanek & team, University of
Technology, Austria [MAILUEFTERL = Viennese spring-time breeze - ie, not a
Whirlwind]
1956 Burroughs 205
1956 MADCAP language by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (Mark B. Wells?)
1956 IT adapted & run on IBM 650 by Perlis & Smith, with Harold van
Zoeren,
Carnegie Institute of Technology
1956 Physics Nobel Prize won by Bardeen, Brattain & Shockley for
transistor
1956 MATH-MATIC compiler by Charles Katz et al, UNIVAC
1956 Bull S.A. announces very-large, very-fast Gamma 60 for 1960 to compete
against IBM
1956 T.J. Watson Jr becomes president of IBM
1956 'Artificial Intelligence' term coined by John McCarthy, MIT
1956 Bizmac shipped by RCA
1956 US Govt antitrust suit settled. IBM has to sell not just lease
1957 Datamatic 1000 Honeywell & Raytheon
1957 Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) founded by Ken Olsen, Maynard
Massachusetts
1957 Fairchild Semiconductor founded
1957 Philco 2000 by Philco Corporation - first commercially available
transistorised computer.
1957 MAC compiler for Whirlwind by Laning, Philip C. Hankins & Charles
P.
Werner
1957 Control Data Corporation est. by William Norris & Sperry-Rand
engineers
1957 Datamation first published
1958 SAGE direction centre operational, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey
1958 Atlas by R.M. Kilburn, University of Manchester - first virtual memory
1958 Integrated Circuit (IC) by Jack Kilby, Texas Instruments
1958 NEC-1101, NEC-1102 NEC Japan's First computer (Nippon Electric
Company)
1958 Commodore Business Machines founded by Jack Tramiel
1958 FORTRAN II - 1st language accepted worldwide.
1958 CRT as output device by Frank Rosenblatt on Perceptron Mark I
1958 CDC 1604 by Seymour Cray, Control Data Corp, 1st transistorised
supercomputer
1958 Planar process of making transistors by Jean Hoerni
1958 ALGOL Zurich. Originally called IAL
1958 LISP language by John McCarthy et al, MIT (LISt Processing) - for
artificial intelligence
1959 Packaged program by Computer Science Corporation
1959 Monolithic idea for ICs by Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor
1959 ACM-GAMM report by John Backus
1959 Planar IC by Robert Noyce - for mass manufacturing of ICs
1959 1620 & 1790 - IBM's 2nd generation computers
1959 1401 introduced by IBM
1959 COBOL language by committee of mainframe makers (COmmon Business-
Oriented Language)
1959 Teleprinter link between Auckland & Sydney
TIMELINE - THE 1960S - RISE OF THE MINIS
1960 PDP-1 by Benjamin Curley, DEC, 1st minicomputer
1960 CDC 1604 by Control Data Corporation. CDC's 1st - large scientific
computer
1960 ALGOL 60 language (ALGOrithmic Language or ALGebraic Oriented
Language)
1960 First electronic computer in New Zealand installed in Treasury - IBM
650
1960 Removable disks
1960 IPL-V linked list language
1960 Electronic Components Ltd est'd in NZ
1960 Electronic switching central office operational, Chicago USA
1961 Multiprogramming on Stretch computer
1961 AFIPS formed
1961 Xerox incorporated
1961 PA Management Consultants Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1961 Time-sharing by F Corbato, MIT - on IBM 709 & 7090
1961 Wiljef Business Products Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1961 Stretch computer by IBM
1961 IC computer by Texas Instruments
1961 Spacewar game written at MIT on a DEC PDP-1
1962 1311 by IBM - uses removable disks
1962 GPSS language by IBM - (General Purpose System Simulator) -
simulations
1962 Data Link Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1962 EDS founded by H Ross Perot, Dallas Texas (Electronic Data Systems)
1962 SIMSCRIPT simulation language by Rand Corporation - general simulation
1962 SNOBOL nonnumerical language by Bell Laboratories - string
manipulation (StriNg-Oriented SymBOlic Language)
1962 COLASL two-dimensional notation language (K.G. Balke & G. Carter?)
1962 APL by Ken Iverson Harvard University & IBM (A Programming
Language)
1962 Addition & subraction machine by Stephen Wozniak wins prize at
local
science fair
1963 Tandy Corp takes over Radio Shack's electrical-supplies chain stores,
USA
1963 PDP-5 by DEC
1963 MADCAP 4 algorithmic language (M.J. Devaney & J. Hudgins?)
1963 Light-pen by Ivan Sutherland, MIT Lincoln Laboratories On Sketchpad
1963 Group Rentals NZ Limited est'd
1963 Electronic calculator by Bell Punch Company, UK - discrete components
1963 MIRFAC two-dimensional notation language (H.J. Gawlik?)
1963 Bull S.A. loses $US25 million
1963 Conversational graphic console by General Motors & MIT Lincoln -
CAD
(Computer Aided Design)
1964 Graphic tablet by MR Davis & TD Ellis, Rand Corporation
1964 Bull S.A. merges with General Electric
1964 BASIC language by Tom Kurtz & John Kemeny, Dartmouth - general
purpose
1964 National Telex service introduced in NZ
1964 CDC 6000 introduced by Control Data Corp Uses 60-bit words
1964 H-200 Honeywell
1964 MADCAP 5
1964 Digital Equipment Corporation establishes branch in New Zealand
1964 AED hierarchical records language by D.T. Ross at MIT
1964 PL/I language (Programming Language 1) commercial, scientific
1964 315/100 introduced NCR
1964 System 360 announced IBM 1st compatible computer family
1964 CDC 6600 Seymour Cray Control Data Corporation - Most powerful for
years
1965 PDP-8 shipped by Digital Equipment Corporation
1965 System 360 shipped IBM
1965 Applied Computer Techniques (ACT) begins, UK.
1965 Control Data Institute established by CDC - computer-related education
1965 Associated Personnel Consultants Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1965 Datacom Systems Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1965 NZ becomes member of Intelsat (international satellite communications)
- telephone link to Britain via Early Bird satellite
1965 1st Computer Science Ph.D to Richard L Wexelblat by the University of
Pennsylvia
1966 Sigma 7 introduced by Scientific Data Systems
1966 FORTRAN IV standardised by ANSI (American National Standards
Institute)
1966 Cii assembled by Charles de Gaulle after Bull acquired by GE
(Compagnie
Internationale de l'Informatique)
1966 Solid-state handheld calculator by Texas Instruments
1967 PDP-10 introduced by DEC
1967 Bubble memory by A.H. Bobeck, Bell Laboratories
1967 Databank Systems Ltd established in New Zealand to link & process
trading bank data
1967 SIMULA 67 algorithmic language
1967 B3200 shipped by Burroughs
1967 Hewlett-Packard (NZ) Ltd est'd
1967 AHI Computer Services est'd in NZ (later Data Management Group - DMG)
1967 LOGO language by Seymour Papert - education, turtle graphics
1967 ComputerWorld first published
1967 APL language by Kenneth Iverson (A Programming Language) - general
1968 Dendral diagnostic medical pgm by Joshua Lederberg, Stanford
University
1968 9400 introduced by Univac
1968 ICL formed by merger of ICT & English Electric (International
Computers Ltd]
1968 ICL New Zealand Limited est'd
1968 Progeni established in New Zealand
1968 MITS founded by Ed Roberts, USA (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry
Systems)
1968 ALGOL 68 function data type
1968 Amstrad est'd by Alan Sugar, London, UK (Alan M Sugar TRADing company)
1968 Data Control Limited est'd in New Zealand
1968 Integrated Electronics Corp by Gordon Moore & Robert Noyce in
Santa
Clara, California (Intel)
1968 87 computers in New Zealand
1968 Single chip microcomputer devised & patented by Gilbert Hyatt,
Micro
Computer Inc, Los Angeles, California
1968 1 kilobyte random-access memory (1K RAM) by Intel
1969 Bull-GE sold to Honeywell becoming Honeywell Bull - France(HB)
1969 Solstat Industries Ltd est'd in NZ
1969 Nova by Edson deCastro introduced, Data General - 1st 16-bit
minicomputer
1969 ECL data abstraction language
1969 Artificial Intelligence International Joint Conference
1969 MAC-18 shipped by Lockheed Electronics
1969 Data General Corp founded by Edson deCastro
1969 Computer Consultants Limited est'd in New Zealand (later CCL Business
Systems Ltd)
1969 System/3 minicomputer introduced by IBM
1969 PASCAL compiler by Niklaus Wirth. Installed on CDC 6400
1969 UNIX language
TIMELINE - THE 1970S - EARLY PERSONAL COMPUTERS
1970 Artspeak language by JT Schwartz &
David Benevy - graphics
1970 PDP-11/20 shipped by Digital Equipment Corporation - DEC's 1st 16-bit
minicomputer
1970 Computer Broking Services Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1970 SLS-18 shipped by Computer Logic Systems
1970 Datel service introduced in NZ to transmit computer data by phone
(international link 1973)
1970 BLISS structured control language, Carnegie-Mellon University (W.A.
Wulf,
D.B. Russel & A.N. Habermann?)
1970 CF-16A introduced by Xerox Data Systems
1970 System 370 shipped by IBM - 4th generation computer
1970 SuperNova shipped by Data General
1970 ACM Computer Chess tournament
1971 Kenbak I by John Blankenbaker - 1st personal computer?
1971 Pascal language by Niklaus Wirth - general (after Blaise Pascal, C17th
French mathematician)
1971 Cream Soda Computer by Stephen Wozniak & Ben Fernandez
1971 IBM New Zealand Limited incorporated
1971 Intel 4004 announced by Marcian E Hoff and team Intel Corporation -
1st
microprocessor
1971 RCA computer line taken over by Sperry-Rand
1971 Community Pharmacy Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1971 PAXUS Computer Services Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1971 Century 50 introduced by NCR
1971 MACSYMA two-dimensional notation language (W.A. Martin & R.J.
Fateman?)
1971 MATHLAB two-dimensional notation language (C. Engelman?)
1971 SCRATCHPAD two-dimensional notation language (J.H. Griesmer & R.D.
Jenks)
1971 Computronics Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1971 Floppy diskette by IBM? Used to load IBM 370 microcode
1971 Warkworth Earth-satellite station commissioned, Auckland NZ
1971 370/135 introduced by IBM
1971 Alpha-16 introduced by Computer Automation
1971 System 370/195 introduced by IBM
1972 Cray Research founded by Seymour Cray
1972 MADCAP 6 filing system language
1972 Prime Computer founded
1972 PL/1 programming language by Gary Kildall, US Naval Postgraduate
School
for Intel 4004, also for commercial & scientific work
1972 Commercial Data Processing Ltd established in New Zealand
1972 8008 introduced by Intel - 8-bit microprocessor
1972 Business Computers Ltd est'd in NZ (later Concept Data Systems Ltd)
1972 4040 by Intel
1972 People's Computer Company (PCC) founded
1972 SIGPLAN two-dimensional language
1972 SETL set-theory language
1972 Traf-O-Data founded by Bill Gates & Paul Allen
1972 Telephone phreaking blue boxes by Stephen Wozniak & Steven Jobs
1972 Lampen & Associates Ltd est'd in NZ (later Morgan & Banks Ltd
Processing Personnel Division)
1972 Opal Consulting Group Ltd est'd in NZ
1972 Smalltalk language Alan Kay & Xeroxgraphic object
1973 National Computer Conference, New York NCC
1973 Thames Computer Services est'd (NZ)
1973 PROLOG language by Alain Comerauer, University of Marseilles-Luminy,
France, (PROgramming in LOGic) - artifical intelligence
1973 8080 by Intel
1973 Admas Enterprises Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1973 The Community Memory Project
1973 "TV Typewriter" article by Don Lanchester in Radio
Electronics
1973 ENIAC patent is invalidated
1973 Data 100 Pty Ltd est'd in NZ (subsidiary of Northern Telecom of
Canada)
1973 IDPE Personnel Services Ltd est'd in NZ
1973 Computer Cast - astrology forecasting machine by Gary Kildall &
Ben Cooper
1973 PILOT language by John Starkweather - education
1973 Tekram Agencies Ltd est'd in NZ
1973 Winchester disk drive, IBM
1973 MICRAL R2E France - 1st microcomputer in France
1974 C language by Dennis Ritchie, Bell Laboratries, USA - systems
1974 Mark-8 home computer project published in Radio-Electronics, USA
1974 EDUC-8 home computer project by Jamieson Rowe pub'd in Electronics
Australia
1974 Systems Development and Processors Ltd ets'd in NZ
1974 Sperry Corporation, Information Systems Group est'd in New Zealand
1974 CLU restricted external access language, MIT (B. Liskov & S.
Zilles?)
1974 Control Microcomputers est'd in New Zealand
1974 Windmill-powered electric generator commissioned for NZ Land Mobile
Service in remote Te Uku, Waikato.
1974 VDL abstract method by Vienna Laboratory (IBM?) published [Vienna
Definition
Language]
1974 8080 introduced by Intel - 8-bit microprocessor
1974 ALPHARD data abstraction language (M. Shaw, W.A. Wulf, R.L. London?)
1974 In excess of 200 computers in use in NZ
1974 Zilog Inc formed - Microprocessor manufacturer
1974 Mitac founded, Taiwan
1975 The Computer Store by Dick Heiser opens in Los Angeles, California
1975 Xerox withdraws from mainframe computer industry
1975 FORTH language by Charles Moore USA (FOuRTH generation computer
language)
1975 DES symmetrical data encryption
1975 Altair personal computer by Ed Roberts & Bill Yates, MITS
1975 Microsoft founded by Bill Gates & Paul Allen, Boston - originally
Traf-O-Data - writes BASIC for Altair
1975 Cromemco founded
1975 MESA data abstraction language (C.M. Geschke, J.H. Morris & E.H.
Satterwrite?)
1975 Data General Ltd established in New Zealand
1975 Homebrew Computer Club formed
1975 Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey founded
1975 Byte magazine published
1975 Byte Shop by Paul Terrell opens in Mountain View, California, USA
1975 Processor Technology founded
1975 Southern California Computer Society meets
1975 Financial Systems Ltd est'd in NZ
1975 Cray-1 supercomputer introducd by Seymour Cray
1976 Cray-1 delivered by Seymour Cray
1976 MODEL data abstraction language (R.T. Johnson & J.B. Morris?)
1976 System 900 introduced by NEC - general-purpose mainframe
1976 Cii merges with Honeywell-Bull to form Cii-HB - France
1976 Mocom Computer Group est'd in New Zealand
1976 Over 400 computer systems in NZ
1976 Superminicomputers introduced by Perkin-Elmer & Gould SEL
1976 Wang Computer Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1976 IMSAI ships its first computer
1976 MicroStuf founded by George Morrow
1976 Dr Dobbs first published
1976 CP/M on sale
1976 Data Domain founded
1976 Intergalactic Digital Research founded by Gary Kildall (later Digital
Research)
1976 Z-80 microprocessor introduced by Zilog
1976 Subscriber Toll Dialling introduced in NZ
1976 Kilobaud published by Wayne Green
1976 Acer America Corp established (Taiwan-based)
1976 T/16 Tandem - 1st fault-tolerant computer
1976 MYCIN by E Shortliffe, Stanford University
1976 Trenton (New Jersey) Computer Festival
1976 Kentucky Fried Computers founded
1976 Electric Pencil word processor by Michael Shrayer
1976 Midwest Area Computer Club conference
1976 Apple I demonstrated to Homebrew Computer Club by Stephen Wozniak
1976 Personal Computing Festival in Atlantic City, USA
1976 World Altair Computer Conference
1976 System 800 introduced NEC General-purpose mainframe
1976 Solar-powered NZPO station begins service in remote Coromandel Ranges
1977 VAX-11/780 Digital Equipment Corporation DECs 1st 32-bit
1977 Apple Computer founded
1977 Apple II introduced by Apple Computer
1977 ICL (USA) incorporated
1977 Boston Computer Society founded by Jonathan Rotenberg
1977 Personal Computing published by David Bunnell
1977 ComputerShack opens in Morristown, New Jersey (first ComputerLand
franchise)
1977 Commodore sells PCs
1977 Datacom Equipment Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1977 FORTRAN 77 introduced
1977 PET introduced by Commodore
1977 MITS sold to Pertec
1977 Apple sells personal computers
1977 ARC system introduced by Datapoint - 1st local area network (LAN)
1977 Tandy/Radio Shack announces TRS-80 microcomputer
1977 Adventure International founded
1978 Half million computers in USA
1978 RSA asymmetrical data encryption using public key
1978 COMDEX tradeshow
1978 Apple disk drives shipped
1978 Lisa research & development project by Apple
1978 Speak-and-Spell introduced by Texas Instruments - Digital speech
synthesize toy
1979 The Source on-line
1979 CompuServe Information Service
1979 Northrop Instruments & Systems est'd in New Zealand
1979 VisiCalc spreadsheet by Daniel Bricklin, West Coast Computer Faire,
Personal Software (later VisiCorp)
1979 Wordstar word processor by Rob Barnaby, Micropro International - now
Wordstar International
1979 IMSAI files for bankruptcy & closes doors
1979 Processor Technology closes
1979 TRS-80 Model II announced by Tandy/Radio Shack
1979 Computerised telephone directory in NZ
1979 Ada language by Jean Ichbiah & team, Cii-Honeywell Bull, France
(after
Ada Byron [see 1842]) - military, also business, industrial, etc
1979 International Subscriber Dialling introduced in NZ
1979 OASIS database retrival system introduced in NZ (Overseas Access
Service for Information Systems)
1979 Intelsat's Pacific Ocean satellite links NZ with Tonga, & then
other
Pacific islands in 1980
TIMELINE - THE 1980S - RISE OF PCS
1980 Xenix introduced by Microsoft - Unix adaption
1980 AST founded, USA
1980 HP-85 by Hewlett-Packard
1980 Apple III announced by Apple
1980 Microsoft to write operating system for IBM
1980 Bureaufax service introduced in NZ
1980 Cyber 205 supercomputer intr'd by Control Data Corporation
1980 Low-speed data-transfer started between NZ & Australia
1980 One million computers in USA
1980 Nixdorf Computer Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1980 RPL language by Timothy Stryker (Reverse Polish Language)
1981 VIC-20 by Commodore - eventually sells over 1 million units
1981 IBM PC by IBM creates 'de facto' PC standard
1981 Dick Smith Electronics Pty Ltd est'd in NZ (from Australia)
1981 CGA - Colour Graphics Adaptor by IBM, 4 colours from 16
colour-palette,
640 x 200 pixel resolution
1981 Osborne Computer Corporation incorporated
1981 Osborne 1 portable by Adam Osborne
1981 Poly 1
launched by Progeni, New Zealand
1981 8010 Star & 820 released by Xerox
1982 IBM anti-trust suit dropped by US Govt
1982 Computer named 'Man of the Year' by Time Magazine
1982 Rainbow 100, DECmate II, & Professional 325 and 350 announced by
DEC
1982 Lisa announced by Apple
1982 COMPAQ Computer Inc founded
1982 Amstrad International established in Hong Kong
1982 The Computer Centre opens in Christchurch
1982 Sun Microsystems founded
1982 AT&T divided up, USA
1983 Cray 2 introduced by Cray - one billion FLOPS rating
1983 SX-1 announced by NEC
1983 SX-2 announced by NEC
1983 Imagineering Micro Distributors Ltd est'd in New Zealand
1983 IBM PCjr announced by IBM
1983 Apricot launched by ACT [c.1965]
1983 Fibre-optic cable laid by NZPO
1983 Osborne Computer Corporation files Chapter 11 (partial bankruptcy)
1983 Lisa launched by Apple
1983 COMPAQ sells $111 million - Greatest 1st year sales in USA
1983 10 million computers in USA.
1983 COMPAQ computer shipped
1984 PC AT introduced by IBM - (Advanced Technology)
1984 Macintosh introduced by Apple
1984 Tandy 1000 by Tandy USA
1984 Ashton-Tate (New Zealand) Ltd est'd in New Zealand (as Arcom
Distributors Ltd)
1984 Dell est'd USA
1984 Eagle Technology Group Ltd est'd in New Zealand by Trevor Eagle
1984 CPC464 'Arnold' beginner computer by Amstrad
1984 Videotex service introduced commercially in NZ
1984 EGA - Enhanced Graphic Adaptor by IBM. 16 colours from 64
colour-palette, 640 x 350 pixel resolution.
1984 One-million bit RAM by IBM
1985 3090 Sierra system shipped by IBM
1985 Macintosh Office launched by Apple.
1985 Pagemaker desktop publisher by Aldus - for Macintosh computers
1985 Electronic Funds Transfer service introduced in NZ
1985 PCW8256 word processor by Amstrad
1985 Christchurch PC Users Group formed, Christchurch, NZ
1985 80386 by Intel - 32-bit microprocessor
1986 30 million computers in USA.
1986 Microsoft Windows awarded Best software product for 1985 by Software
Publishers Association, USA.
1986 Fiat Shamir zero-knowledge-based data encryption
1986 Spectrum line introduced by Hewlett-Packard - RISC computer
1986 Atari releases 520ST & 1040ST in NZ
1986 PC1512 by Amstrad
1986 NEC Information Systems est'd in New Zealand
1986 Amstrad buys Sinclair Research Ltd
1986 Commodore's Amiga officially launched in Christchurch
1986 COMPAQ 386 introduced by COMPAQ
1986 Unisys formed by Burroughs & Sperry
1987 VGA - Video Graphics Array by IBM. 256 colours from 256,000
colour-palette, 640 x 480 pixel resolution.
1987 ETA-10 family introduced ETA Systems
1987 Cray 2S introduced by Cray Research - 40% faster than Cray 2
1987 Pagermaker version for IBM PCs by Aldus
1987 UCCEL acquired by Computer Associates
1987 Claris launched by Apple - Apple's software business
1987 PS/2 introduced by IBM - 1 million shipped by year's end
1987 AI microprocessor introduced by Texas Instruments
1987 64,000-processor CM2 by Thinking Machines - data-parallel architecture
1987 MicroVAX 3600 introduced by DEC
1987 Guillou Quisquater data encryption
1987 PC1640 by Amstrad
1987 Conner sells $113M 1st year. Conner Peripherals - hard drives
1987 MicroVAX 3500 introduced by DEC
1987 Sun RISC-based workstation Sun Microsystems
1987 Macintosh II introduced by Apple
1987 Macintosh SE introduced by Apple
1987 Vaxstation 2000 introduced by DEC
1987 SAA introduced by IBM
1988 Next UNIX version developed by AT&T and Sun Microsystems
1988 2200/400 family introduced by Unisys
1988 LARC data compression by Kazuhiko Miki, Japan - LZSS rewrite
1988 LHARC data compression by Haruyasu Yoshizaki, Japan
1988 Open Software Foundation by OSF IBM, DEC, Apollo, HP & others to
counter AT&T and Sun's Unix version
1988 LZSS data compression program by Haruhiko Okumura, Japan
1988 Cray Y-MP introduced by Cray Research - $US20M supercomputer
1988 PC2000 by Amstrad
1988 VAXstation 8000 introduced by DEC
1988 VLIW-machine design by Multiflow Computer (Very Long Instruction Word)
1988 MVS/ESA introduced by IBM - Mainframe operating system
1988 Silverlake AS/400 announced by IBM - mid-range computer
1988 88000 RISC microprocessor announced by Motorola
1988 Photoshop by Adole for the Mac
1988 Graphics supercomputers Apollo, Ardent & Stellar for 3D
applications
1988 Mac IIx launched by Apple
1988 80386 workstations by Sun Microsystems
1988 Erasable optical disk computer by NeXT
1988 Worm invades Internet
1988 ES/3090 S series introduced by IBM - mainframes
1988 EISA bus standard by COMPAQ and others to counter IBM's MicroChannel
1988 PRODIGY begins by IBM & Sears - Joint videotex operation
1988 Sematech consortium headed by Robert Noyce Austin Texas
1989 ETA subsidiary discontinued by Control Data - supercomputer
1989 Officevision s/w announced by IBM - for mainframes
1989 Sparcstation introduced by Sun Microsystems - RISC workstation
1989 PC Direct est'd in NZ
1989 Macintosh portable introduced by Apple
1989 Cray Computer Corp established by Seymour Cray
1989 Sun-4 compatible introduced by Solbourne Computer
1989 100 million computers worldwide
1989 80486 microprocessor announced by Intel
1989 I860 RISC chip announced RISC/coprocessor chip
1989 Apollo acquired by Hewlett-Packard
1989 Pocket-sized MS-DOS announced by Poqet
1989 EISA-based PCs
1989 80486 computers introduced
1989 MSA acquired Dun & Bradstreet - software
1989 VAX 9000 by DEC - mainframe
1989 LTE/286 Compaq
1989 Handwriting recognition laptop GRiD - forerunner to PDAs
1989 50 million computers in USA
1989 LTE by Compaq
TIMELINE - THE 1990S
1990 Y-MP2E introduced by Cray Research
- entry-level supercomputer
1990 Windows 3.0 Microsoft
1990 Fault-tolerant VAX introduced by DEC
1990 RISC Station 6000 family intrd IBM high performance workstations
1990 ALT laptop by Amstrad
1990 68040 microprocessor introduced by Motorola
1990 System 390 announced - IBM's mainframe for 1990s
1990 Generation-3 PC by Amstrad
1990 PS/1 shipped by IBM
1991 Superstor bundled with DR-DOS 6.0 - first realtime data compression
bundled with a version of DOS
1991 Quadra - first 68040-based Mac
1991 PCI local bus proposed (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
1992 OS/2 v2.0 launched by IBM - first 32-bit operating system for IBM PCs
1993 Quadra 840AV video Mac
1993 New version of VESA local bus specs
1993 Windows NT shipped by Microsoft
1993 MessagePad PDA announced by Apple - Personal Digital Assistant
1993 Pentium PCs hit market
1993 Intel opens $750 million Fab10 IC factory, Leixlip Ireland
1994 Alpha AXP 21164 by DEC - world's fastest microprocessor - 300MHz
1995 24 million users of Internet
1995 Windows 95 launched (Windows v4.0, Chicago, etc)
1996 One million Australians regularly use Internet.
1996 CompuServe subscribers top 5 million.
Foundation reference - "THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY ALMANAC 1991" by Karen Juliussen and Egil Juliussen - thanks. Thanks also to a milliard other sources.
NB: Dates may be inaccurate. Often different sources quote different years. Please email us if you have more accurate information.