A Brief History of

Computers
Marion Lester T. Raboy, Ph.D.
Charles
Babbage
An aristocrat inventor
who proposed and
developed the
difference engine. He
was considered as the
father of the
computer.
Analytical
Engine
Designed by Babbage
after the failure of the
difference engine. It
had mechanical
components analogous
to modern computers
and can be
programmed using
punched cards.
Augusta Ada Byron King,
Countess of Lovelace

Published descriptions
of the analytical
engine and was called
the world’s first
programmer.
Herman Hollerith

Developed the
mechanical tabulator
based on punched
cards as the solution
for the 1890 American
Census problem.
International Business
Machines

Lead by Thomas J.
Watson Sr., this
company was a merge
of the company of
Herman Hollerith and
two other companies.
Enigma

A German code
machine, used to
encrypt the most
secret radio messages
during World War II.
Colossus

A British computer-
like machine created
to decipher German
encrypted code
messages during
World War II.
ELECTRONIC
NUMERICAL
INTEGRATOR AND
COMPUTER (ENIAC)
The first electronic general-
purpose computer designed
to calculate artillery firing
tables for the United States
Army's Ballistic Research
Laboratory during World
War II. It was designed and
developed by John Mauchly
and J. Presper Eckert.
John von Neumann

He is one of the principal

scientists on building the
atomic bomb who joined
the Electronic Discrete
Variable Automatic
Computer (EDVAC)
project as consultant.
UNIVAC

A programmable
computer system
designed for business,
first developed by Eckert-
Mauchly Computer
Corporation and was later
owned by Remington
Rand, a typewriter
manufacturing company.
Thomas Watson Jr.

Led IBM to the age of

computers by hiring
electrical engineers by
the hundreds and putting
them to work designing
mainframe computers.
IBM 701

Led IBM to the age of

computers by hiring
electrical engineers by
the hundreds and putting
them to work designing
mainframe computers.
Transistor

William Bradford
Shockley Jr., John
Bardeen and Walter
Houser Brattain invented
the transistor which
replaced the large
vacuum tubes.
Integrated Circuit

Jack Kilby and Robert

Noyce engineers from
rival transistor
manufacturers,
independently came up
with breakthroughs
which lead to the
invention the integrated
circuit.
Marcian Edward
"Ted" Hoff, Jr.
An Intel engineer who
invented the
microprocessor in
computers.
Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniak
Founders of Apple
Mike Markkula

A retired Intel product-

marketing manager and
engineer provided the
funds for the early Apple
Computer Company.
Douglas "Doug" Carl
Engelbart

Inventor of the computer

mouse.
Xerox Alto

One of the first

computers designed for
individual use and was
the first computer to use
the desktop metaphor
and mouse-driven
graphical user interface.
Macintosh

The first successful

commercial GUI product
which was heavily
inspired by Xerox PARC's
work.
Paul Allen and Bill
Gates
Founders of Microsoft