Dr. Arthur Scherbius begins manufacturing the Enigma machine, capable of transcribing coded information. Enigma is later used by the German forces in WWII.
Timeline: Digital Technology and Preservation
1923
1939
"Bomba," a highly specific electro-mechanical device, successfully decodes many German Luftwaffe and Navy messages for the Allies.
1945
Construction of the ENIAC, one of the first electronic computers, is completed. ENIAC filled an entire room, weighed thirty tons, and consumed two hundred kilowatts of power.
Grace Hopper finds the first computer bug. A moth had been caught in the circuitry of the Mark II computer system at Harvard.
1951
The first commercial computer, UNIVAC I, is introduced.
1952
Grace Hopper develops the first compiler, laying the foundations for programming languages.
IBM introduces IBM 701, the first commercial scientific computer.
1955
1964
IBM's Cambridge Research Lab begins the CP-40 project to build the first VM (virtual machine) timesharing system.
One of the first general purpose mainframe computers, the IBM System/360, is announced.
Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) is developed at Dartmouth College.
1965
Introduction of DIGITAL's PDP-8, the world's first mass-produced minicomputer.
1970
IBM System/370 is introduced. The 370 is one of the first lines of computers to implement the notion of a virtual machine, allowing users to share mainframe resources.
PDP-11 the first of DIGITAL's 16-bit family of machines is delivered.
1971
UNIX Time Sharing System First Edition is patented by Bell Labs.
1972
The programming languages C and FORTRAN 66 are created.
Atari releases Pong, the first commercial video game.
Intel introduces its 200-KHz 8008 chip, the first commercial 8-bit microprocessor. This sparks the development of smaller, faster, and cheaper computers.
1973
Xerox Alto is the first personal computer with a built-in mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI) from which most modern GUIs are derived.
1975
The Altair 8800 is sold as a kit. Its creator, Ed Roberts, coins the term "personal computer."
The Kurzweil Reading Machine combines omni-font OCR, flat-bed scanners, and text-to-speech synthesis to create the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. This is the first practical application of OCR technology.
First appearance of an interpreted BASIC programming language.
1976
1977
The Commodore PET, Apple II, and Radio Shack's TRS-80 are all released.
Introduction of the VAX-11/780 "supermini" computer.
CP/M Operating system developed by Digital Research Corporation becomes the dominant standard for the personal computer in business, but incompatible floppy disk formats and the success of MS-DOS and the IBM PC in 1981 eventually led to its demise.
1978
The VMS 1.0 operating system is designed by Digital in conjunction with their 32-bit VAX processor for use in time sharing, batch processing, and transaction processing.
Philips releases the laserdisc player.
1979
WordStar software becomes the first commercially successful word processor.
1980
FORTRAN 77 programming language is created.
Digital faxes using uniform data standards appear.
1981
Commodore ships the VIC-20.
The IBM PC 8080 is introduced.
MSDOS 1.0 operating system is released.
1982
The Commodore 64 is sold with 64KB of RAM and Microsoft BASIC.
VAX-11/730 is released.
Sony and Philips introduce the first CD player.
1983
Apple's Lisa is introduced, the first commercial microcomputer with a graphical user interface.
1984
Apple Macintosh is introduced, the first mainstream commercial computer with a graphical user interface. In six months sales of the computer reach 100,000.
As personal computers become more powerful, people become accustomed to faster machines and graphical interfaces. Use shifts from centralized mainframes to personal computers distributed over a network.
Philips and Sony introduce CD-ROM technology.
1985
A Carnegie Mellon doctoral student named Feng-hsiung Hsu begins to develop a chess-playing computer called "Chiptest," which evolves into Deep Blue.
Microsoft Windows 1.0 is created, representing a shift from the DOS operating system.
The combination of Aldus PageMaker for the Macintosh and the Apple LaserWriter laser printer usher in the era of desktop publishing.
1987
NCSA develops NCSA telnet, making it easier to connect to a remote computer.
IBM sends clone manufacturers letters demanding retroactive licensing fees.
1988
IBM AS/400, a minicomputer for small business and departmental users, is released.
VAX 6200 is released.
1990
Archie software for searching FTP sites is released.
Microsoft Windows 3.0 is released, beginning the era of Microsoft's domination of the software industry.
1992
Veronica, a Gopher search engine, is released.
1993
First graphical browser for the web, Mosaic, is introduced.
Windows NT is released, providing advanced network connectivity.
1994
Netscape 1.0 web browser is introduced, replacing Mosaic.
Linus Torvalds, 21, writes an operating system called Linux, bringing the open-source movement into the mainstream.
1995
Java, an object-oriented programming language, is announced by Sun.
Netscape announces Javascript, an object-oriented scripting language.
The Xerox DocuTech Publishing System is designed for "print-on-demand" network accessed document publishing.
The Kodak DC40 and the Apple QuickTake 100 become the first digital cameras marketed for consumers.
Internet Explorer 2.0 web browser is introduced.
IEEE1394, a.k.a Firewire, is introduced as a new standard for connecting computer devices. Initially proposed as a successor to SCSI, Firewire’s fast data transfer speeds made it well suited for video devices, such as digital camcorders, and hard drives.
Iomega debuts high-capacity drives "Jaz" and "Zip".
1998
Apple introduces the iMac, which revolutionized the PC industry with its design, along with some key features such as the inclusion of USB ports and the purposeful exclusion of a floppy drive.
Microsoft Windows 98 is released.
MP-3 players for downloaded Internet audio appear.
2000
A commercial Digital Video Recording (DVR) system is developed by TiVo, Inc. Reruns of Columbo can now be recorded digitally, saved, and viewed anytime.
Macintosh OS X is released.
2001
After 21 years of selling hard drives, Quantum switches to higher-level storage products and services.
Windows XP is released.
2002
QuickTime 6.0 is released.
Universal Serial Bus 2.0 (USB) is released. Building on USB 1.0 introduced in 1995, this serial bus can connect up to 127 devices, supports speeds of up to 480Mbps, allows plug-and-play and hot-swapping.
2004
Apple's family of personal music players, the iPod, dominates the market with over 5.7 million units sold since their debut in late 2001.
2005
USB Flash Drives flourish. The solid state, inexpensive, pocketable storage media are taking all kinds of shapes and sizes (pens, watches, little fuzzy creatures, and even sushi).
2007
Microsoft Vista released worldwide.
The successful release of Apple's iPhone continues the shift to handheld digital devices.
2008
Version 1.0 of the open source iRODS, a data grid software system, is released by the San Diego Supercomputer Center's Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) group.
The National Archives and Records Administration starts populating the ERA system, an initiative aimed at preserving electronic records created by the U.S. Government.
2009
Windows 7 released.
All Television broadcasting in the U.S. went digital by June 12, 2009.
2010
Memento, a software tool that allows users to easily browse older versions of websites, wins the 2010 Digital Preservation Award from the Library of Congress. "The Memento architecture means you no longer need to search archives or go to a special website to recover earlier versions of pages."
First iPad released.
2011
Google Chrome is the 3rd most widely used browser and surpassed 10% share of global browser usage.
iPad2 released.
2014
DataUp tool merges with data sharing platform, DASH.