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In Pictures: Iconic Machines From Computing History
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1. 1642: Pascaline

Vive la France! The ancestor of the computer is the adding machine, and one of the first and most influential was created by Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1645. The machine, now known simply as “Pascaline,” had a number of notched wheels. Each notch represented a digit (0-9), and each wheel represented a unit (tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on).  Even better, by using wheels with 12 notches instead of 10, the Pascaline was able to count in base 12, which was commonly used in the 17th century. Pascal built an estimated twenty machines, some of which can still be seen in museums today.

2. 1942: Colossus

For three centuries, continuous improvements were made to mechanical and electromechanical calculating machines. In World War II, the German army used several machines of this type to encrypt communications. The need to decrypt those messages put Allied research into high gear, setting the stage for the development of modern information technology. The first result of these efforts was the Colossus. Consisting of 2,400 vacuum tubes, the Colossus was the world’s first partially-programmable digital electronic computer. Built at England’s famous Bletchley Park, it enabled the Allies to break the code generated by Germany’s Lorenz SZ40/42 machine.

3. 1946: ENIAC

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first truly programmable computer, meaning it could be used for all types of calculation and not simply to solve a specific problem. As such, this was the first device to fit the definition of a Turing machine. Much more complex than the Colossus, ENIAC employed 17,468 vacuum tubes and used ten-bit registers to store values in base 10. ENIAC remained functioning up until 1955.

4. 1951: Whirlwind

In World War II, the Army had the idea of using a computer to help simulate training for bomber crews. It called on MIT to design the machine, code-named Whirlwind. In many ways, this project is a precursor to the modern PC. First, it had to react in real time. To do this, it introduced bit-parallel mode computing. The Whirlwind used 16-bit words with 16 calculations happening in parallel, whereas its contemporaries used 48- or 60-bit words and calculated them in sequence. Whirlwind was also the first computer to feature magnetic memory, of which today’s hard disks and flash memory are descendants.

5. 1956: MIT TX-0

The Whirlwind had a direct descendant, the TX-0, also built at MIT. The TX-0 (Transistorized Experimental computer Zero) was the first programmable computer to use transistors, which were invented nine years earlier in 1947. The TX-0’s transistors were germanium-based, and ran at just 5 MHz. But thanks to them, the TX-0, functionally a clone of the Whirlwind, could be installed in a single room, whereas its predecessor took up an entire floor. The TX-0 ended its career as an artificial-intelligence research tool at MIT in the 1960s. The TX-0 was succeeded by the DEC PDP-1, considered by many to be the first “microcomputer.”

6. 1956: IBM 305 RAMAC

The IBM 305 RAMAC is not remarkable for its power, its miniaturization, or its transistors. No, the RAMAC is remarkable because it was the first computer to use a hard disk as a storage medium. The disks were enormous, measuring 24” in diameter. Each storage unit, called the IBM 350 Disk Storage System, had 50 disks and a capacity of 5 million 7-bit words, or the equivalent of only 5 MB. Two access arms moved up and down to select the right disk, and then in and out to read tracks. The disks’ rotation speed was a mere 1,200 RPM, and the data transfer rate topped out at 8,800 words per second, or the equivalent of just 8.8 Kb/s.

7. 1960: DEC PDP-1

The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was the first computer designed by DEC, a company whose influence on personal computers can still be felt today. For instance, in the '90s, DEC designed an innovative CPU called the Alpha. One of the Alpha’s architects, Dirk Meyer, later went on to work for AMD, where he led the team responsible for its Athlon. Similar to the TX-0, the PDP-1 was even more compact. It also featured a bizarre, 9.3”-diameter, circular CRT monitor capable of displaying 1024x1024 points at 20,000 points per second. Its graphical capabilities gave researchers the idea to create Spacewar!, one of the very first video games in history.

8. 1965: DEC PDP-8

In 1965, DEC made a new breakthrough with the PDP-8. This minicomputer was designed be less expensive, and was just the size of a refrigerator. At $18,000 when it first launched, the PDP-8 cost only one-fifth the price of an IBM System/360, a very popular mainframe at the time. The PDP-8 made up for its lower performance with a high capacity for interconnection with peripherals. Commercially, it was a huge success, with DEC selling 50,000 units, making the PDP-8 the first mass-market computer.

9. 1966: Texas Instruments Cal-Tech

The research on large calculation machines, which led to programmable computers, took a slight detour in the 1960s with the development of a much smaller calculator. In 1958, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments created the first integrated circuit. It was just five electronic components on a single piece of germanium-based semiconductor material. But a few years later, Kilby used his invention to create the first electronic pocket calculator. The prototype, named Cal-Tech, could perform the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), and was never marketed.

10. 1973: Micral N

Another feather in France’s cap is the Micral N, created in 1973. Designed by André Truong Trong Thi and François Gernelle, the Micral N was one of the first models to use an Intel microprocessor: the 8008. Intel was the inventor of the microprocessor concept and had been marketing them since 1971, starting with the 4004. Thanks to the all-in-one chip, the Micral N was five times cheaper than the PDP-8, which comes to around $10,500 in today’s money. The Micral brand was bought out by Bull, which used it through 1989 for its PC clones.

11. 1973: Xerox Alto

Many concepts fundamental to today’s computers originated at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). In 1974, the company launched the Alto workstation, which was the first computer to sport a mouse and graphical user interface (GUI). The Alto was not released commercially, but it was widely distributed within Xerox. It was seeing the Alto during his famous visit to PARC that gave Steve Jobs the idea for what was to become the Macintosh.

12. 1975: Altair 8800

The mid-1970s marked the start of personal computing as we know it today. One of the computers that helped it take off was the Altair 8800. Distributed either as a DIY kit or fully-assembled, the Altair took its name from a star, and was an unexpected success. Its manufacturer, MITS, sold several thousand the first month. Yet, the Altair was extremely difficult to use, and there was no interface except for the switches and diodes on the front panel. The Altair is also known for giving a small company its first big contract. “Micro-Soft” supplied the machine’s programming language, Altair BASIC.

13. 1976: Apple I

Compared to the Altair, the Apple I seemed childishly simple. Steve Wozniak, its designer, managed to install all of its components on a single motherboard, whereas the Altair required a minimum of five boards. The Apple I also featured the necessary circuitry to use a standard television set as a display. Once the Apple I was assembled inside a case, all you had to do was connect a keyboard and TV. Apple sold 200 Apple I computers before announcing its successor, the Apple II. The Apple I used an 8-bit MOS 6502 CPU clocked at 1 MHz. The chip was designed by part of the Motorola 6800 design team and was much less expensive than the Intel or Motorola equivalents. MOS Technology was later purchased by Commodore, where the MOS 6502 became the heart of the Commodore PET.

14. 1976: Cray 1

While personal computing was taking off, a revolution was also happening at the other end of the power scale, shaping the world of supercomputers. In 1976, Cray Research, a company founded by its eponymous president Seymour Cray, installed its first product at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The aptly-named Cray-1 was the most powerful supercomputer of its time at 80 MFLOPS. It was also the first to use vector processing, where the same instruction is applied to a very large set of data. This new approach to designing processors would have enormous repercussions on the industry, eventually leading to the birth of the GPU in the 1990s.

15. 1977: Commodore PET

1977 was a watershed year that saw the introduction of three emblematic personal computers: the Commodore PET, the Apple II, and the TRS-80. In January, the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was the first to debut. This all-in-one device contained a MOS 6502 8-bit processor clocked at 1 MHz, 4 to 8 KB of RAM, 18 KB of ROM, and a 9-inch monochrome monitor capable of displaying 40 lines and 25 columns of text. It was supplied with a keyboard and a cassette drive for storage. With a starting price of just $495, the Commodore PET became a huge commercial success.

16. 1977: Apple II

In April 1977, Apple unveiled the Apple II. It used the same basic equipment as the earlier model, including the MOS 6502 processor, but was much more approachable, as it was sold in a case instead of as a kit. The Apple II was one of the first computers that could read and store data on 5.25” “floppy” disks in addition to the traditional cassettes. It also had the advantage of being able to display command lines in color, a first at the time. This was the core of Apple’s product line for many years, with numerous versions (II Plus, IIe, IIc, etc.) remaining in production until the series was discontinued in 1993. That's right, the family lasted for 16 years!

17. 1979: Atari 800

The name Atari is inseparable from video game history. But after producing its famous game console, the company attempted to enter the emerging personal computer market. Atari's first attempts took the form of the 400 and 800. The former was an entry-level machine pitched as a hybrid game console, whereas the latter was marketed as a full-fledged computer. Hardware-wise, the two were very similar. Both models featured the MOS 6502B processor clocked at ~1.8 MHz, 8 KB of RAM, and 8 KB of ROM. But while the 800 had a complete keyboard plus upgradable RAM and ROM, customers still preferred the 400. The Atari connected to a standard TV screen, and displayed a maximum of 384 pixels per line and up to 16 colors. The video circuit could manage eight sprites, allowing the machine to display animations and run games. But the company’s venture into the PC market didn’t pan out, which is why its name remains associated with the history of video games.

18. 1981: IBM PC

IBM, then the top player in business computing, didn’t fail to notice the success of personal computers. “Big Blue” took up the challenge of creating a credible competitor to the Commodore PET, Apple II, and Atari 800. To pull it off, IBM formed a small team of engineers who were given special permission to bypass the company’s usual time-consuming development processes in order to get the product designed as quickly as possible. “Project Chess”, as it was called, succeeded within just one year.

The PC broke with a number of IBM’s standard procedures. It was no longer built from in-house hardware, but was assembled from components provided by various third parties. But above all, the key to the PC’s worldwide success was the decision to give it an open architecture. Any manufacturer was allowed to produce compatible peripherals or write software for it without paying any royalties. Starting in 1982, companies like Phoenix, Award, and American Megatrends succeeded in reverse engineering the PC’s BIOS, resulting in the first appearances of “PC-compatible” products.

The original PC, the IBM 5150, used an Intel 8088 processor running at 4.77 MHz, two 5.25” diskette drives, and either 16 or 64 KB of RAM. BASIC was its programming language, and PC-DOS its operating system.

19. 1981: Osborne 1

With computers becoming more compact and affordable, naturally, the idea arose to make them portable. The Osborne 1 was the first portable computer to go on the market. Built by Adam Osborne, it used a 4 MHz Zilog Z-80 processor, a faster and less expensive clone of the Intel 8080. But like the Apple Macintosh, the Osborne 1 was also heavily influenced by Xerox’s avant-garde ideas. In 1976, Xerox created the Notetaker, a portable PC prototype that, like the Alto, was never marketed. Comparing the Osborne 1 to today’s laptops is worth a smile, as the machine had a tiny 5” monochrome display, weighed a whopping 23½ lbs, and had no battery.

20. 1982: Commodore 64

Five years after the PET, Commodore re-entered the market with a computer that would go on to make a lasting impression: the Commodore 64, or C64. Still an 8-bit device, this iconic symbol of the 1980s took the form of a rather thick keyboard in which all the essential components were housed. It used a MOS 6510 processor clocked at approximately 1 MHz. The new chip was a slight improvement over the MOS 6502, and it could address up to 64 KB of RAM. The Commodore 64 also had very good graphics and audio capabilities for its time. Its MOS VIC-II video circuit could display 320x200 pixels in a maximum of 16 colors. It could also generate sprites via hardware, which led to the creation of numerous games. Commodore was able to put the C64 on the market at the very low price of $595 because it had bought the chipmaker, MOS Technology. The C64 was an enormous commercial success. Between 1983 and 1986, it sold at more than 2 million units a year, accounting for between 30 to 40 percent of the personal computer market.

21. 1983: Compaq Portable

The Osborne 1’s career was very short. In November 1982, a very young company founded by three former Texas Instruments employees released its first product: the Compaq Portable. It was an IBM PC-compatible portable computer. Despite having a significantly higher price than the Osborne 1 ($3,590 compared to $1,795), its success was immediate, selling 53,000 units in the first year. For the price, the Compaq Portable was a quality piece of equipment, housing an Intel 8088 processor clocked at 4.77 MHz, an astonishing (for the time) 128 KB of RAM, two 5.25” diskette drives, and MS-DOS. It weighed 27½ lbs and had a 9” CRT display. Compaq had the smart idea of entering into a partnership with Intel that guaranteed first dibs on the chip maker’s new products. This arrangement included the 80286, followed by the 80386, which Compaq had on the market even before IBM.

22. 1984: Apple Macintosh

By 1984, PC-compatible systems were beginning to take a dominant presence in the personal computer market. But they would meet a formidable opponent when Apple launched its Macintosh. This little computer was revolutionary in several ways. Everything was housed in a single unit, making it very compact, stylish, and approachable to novice users. The interface was no longer a plain screen with stacks of text-based command lines. Instead, the Mac had a graphical user interface that employed the desktop metaphor. Icons, windows, and even the file menu were all introduced to the public in the Apple Macintosh. The new GUI was displayed on a 9” black-and-white monitor pushing out 512x342 pixels. This screen established 72 DPI as the standard for graphical user interfaces. The Macintosh was also remarkable for its power, featuring a Motorola 68000 processor clocked at 8 MHz, 128 KB of RAM, and a 400 KB 5.25” diskette drive. For $2,495, it was considered a great buy.

23. 1984: Amstrad CPC464

While the U.S. was clearly the epicenter of the personal computing revolution, some interesting computers came out of other countries, too. Amstrad, a U.K.-based company named after its creator (Amstrad: Alan Michael Sugar Trading), produced one of the more memorable machines: the Amstrad CPC464. The first part of this computer’s name was derived from its main attraction, a color display. Hence, Colour Personal Computer (CPC). The first model was the CPC464, powered by an 8-bit Zilog Z-80 processor running at 4 MHz with 64 KB of RAM. And that's where the 464 comes from. The CPC was designed as an all-in-one, with its guts inside the keyboard unit, powered by the monitor unit. The monitor’s display was in bitmaps, with three modes available: 160x200 pixels in 16 colors, 320x200 pixels in 4 colors, or 640x200 pixels in two colors. The Amstrad CPC464 was compatible with another popular personal computer at the same time, the ZX Spectrum, though the CPC’s graphics capabilities made it the platform of choice for video games.

24. 1985: Amiga 1000

In 1985, Commodore made waves when it launched the Amiga, a computer that was vastly ahead of its time. The key to the Amiga’s strength was its coprocessors. In addition to its Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at ~7 MHz, the Amiga had a sophisticated graphics chipset capable of displaying 600x256 pixels in 16 colors. The Amiga also had a very good audio processor that could handle four 8-bit channels. The Amiga 1000 also had an edge thanks to its operating system, AmigaOS. This 32-bit OS featured preemptive multitasking and a color GUI with windows and icons. Unfortunately, poor marketing kept the Amiga from becoming a standard. Commodore was unable to capitalize on its technological superiority, and like most others, was eventually overtaken by the PC. The last Amigas were sold in 1994.

25. 1987: IBM PS/2

In 1987, the success of the PC was no longer in doubt. But IBM had lost control of it. Vendors like Compaq got the jump on Big Blue. Compaq marketed the first PC-compatible computer with an Intel 80386 processor, so IBM tried to regain the upper hand by launching its PS/2. Unlike the PC AT and PC XT, PS/2 (Personal System 2) used a proprietary architecture. Among its innovations were a protected BIOS and new bus, both of which were usable under license. Technically-speaking, the PS/2 was a very good computer, but IBM’s competitors and customers tended to shun it due to higher cost and general contentment with the existing PC-compatible ecosystem. The PS/2 also featured a new operating system, OS/2, which was co-developed by Microsoft. However, OS/2 didn’t receive a GUI until 1988, so it had to compete with Microsoft’s other OS, Windows 2.0. The PS/2 was a commercial failure, but several of its features went on to become staples for years to come, namely PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and the VGA interface.

26. 1989: Poqet PC

The first portable computer to hit the market, 1981’s Osborne 1, weighed 22 lbs and filled a suitcase. Eight years later, Poqet introduced the first sub-notebook-class PC, the Poqet PC. It weighed just 19 oz, was one-inch thick, and about the size of an envelope (8.8” x 4.3”). The Poqet PC featured an 80C88 processor clocked at 7 MHz. The 80C88 was a clone of Intel's 8088 fabricated using CMOS technology. The Poqet came with 512 KB of RAM and 640 KB of ROM that contained the BIOS, MS-DOS, and a few additional software applications. The reflective DTSN screen displayed 640x200 pixels and had a diagonal measurement of approximately seven inches. Power was supplied by two AA batteries, and battery life was up to 20 hours under heavy use!

Aside from its record-breaking small size, the Poqet ushered in a concept that still survives today: memory cards. Using a format that would later become PCMCIA, the cards contained either RAM for storing the user data, or ROM for additional programs.

27. 1991: Psion Series 3

Even smaller than a subnotebook, the Personal Digital Assistant experienced its first major commercial success thanks to an English company called Psion. In 1984, the company launched its Organiser, which, while very small, was handicapped by its two-line display. The real breakthrough happened in 1991 with the Psion Series 3. It was even smaller than the Poqet PC at just 6.5”×3.3”x0.9”, and weighed half as much at just 9.7 oz. However, the Series 3 was less powerful with its NEC V30H CPU, another clone of Intel's 8088 running at only 3.84 MHz. Its smaller 5” display also had lower definition at 240x80 pixels. Nevertheless, the Psion Series 3 still had all the functions of a PDA: address book, calendar, calculator, word processor, spreadsheet, and handwritten note taking. In 1993, the Series 3a doubled the unit’s CPU power and display definition. The line finally ended with the Series 3mx in 1998.

28. 1992: IBM ThinkPad

While IBM eventually failed in the desktop PC market, the company succeeded in etching its brand into the world of portable computers. In 1992, IBM launched the ThinkPad, a name that has been a benchmark in business-grade laptops for two decades. Among the first three ThinkPad models was a 10” keyboard-less tablet, the ThinkPad 700T. The two other models, both laptops, introduced the line’s emblematic TrackPoint in the center of the keyboard (that red pencil eraser thingy). The high-end version, the 700C, featured an IBM-manufactured 486SLC processor clocked at 25 MHz and 10.4” color VGA display (the first on the market). The ThinkPad brand, along with IBM’s entire personal computer division, was bought out by Lenovo in 2005.

29. 1993: Apple Newton

Meet the Apple Newton, an ancestor of today’s venerable iPad. To be precise, Newton is the name of the complete platform and not just the device pictured. Newton OS operated on different devices from Apple, Sharp, Motorola, and others. This was Apple’s first venture into the PDA segment. In fact, the term PDA was coined by Apple’s then-CEO, John Sculley. While Newton offered a few major innovations, the most notable was handwriting recognition via its touchscreen.

Apple’s line of NewtonOS-based PDAs was called MessagePad. The original MessagePad used an ARM 610 processor running at 20 MHz, with 640 KB of RAM. But despite having relatively powerful hardware for the time, the Newton was ultimately a failure. The first MessagePads had very short battery life and users quickly found that the handwriting recognition performed poorly. By 1998, Apple threw in the towel.

30. 1997: IBM Deep Blue

While Apple and Psion were working to miniaturize computers and put one in everyone’s pocket, IBM was pursuing a very different goal: making computers as intelligent as humans. And to prove it was possible, Big Blue built a computer capable of beating the world’s best chess players at their own game.

Its name, Deep Blue was an amalgamation of “Deep Thought,” the name of the megacomputer in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and IBM’s own nickname. Deep Blue was originally pitted against the then-world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The supercomputer lost its first match in 1996, but won a re-match in 1997 after undergoing a major upgrade. Its winning configuration (Deeper Blue, as it was sometimes referred to) consisted of two racks containing a total of 30 IBM P2SC (Power2 Single Chip) processors clocked at 120 MHz and 480 specialized coprocessors. It measured 11.38 GFLOPS using the Linpack benchmark, which made it the 259th most powerful supercomputer of its time.

31. 1998: Apple iMac

For Apple, the 1990s were a difficult time. Its market share eroded, losses were accumulating, and Mac OS was aging in comparison to Windows 95, which was busy revolutionizing the PC landscape. But in 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple and changed everything. His first order of business was to secure a large investment. This influx of cash came from sworn enemy Microsoft, which also agreed to supply Office for the Mac. Then, in August 1998, Steve Jobs unveiled the iMac, a worthy follow-up to 1984’s original Macintosh. Its all-in-one design did away with most wires and cables, and its translucent shell was radically different from the beige PC towers that were the standard back then. The original iMac carried a fast G3 processor, 100 Mb/s networking, a large high-definition display, a fast CD drive, USB ports, and a distinct lack of the diskette drive. The striking design, coupled with strong internals, ensured the iMac's immediate success. No fewer than 800,000 units were sold during the first five months after the launch. This success restored consumer and investor trust in Apple. The rest is history.

32. 2001: Microsoft Tablet PC

The idea of a computer in the form of a tablet is almost as old as the computer itself. Heck, such devices were seen in Star Trek back in the 1960s. Logically enough, manufacturers made numerous attempts at turning this popular idea a reality. In 2001, Microsoft decided that the time had finally come, and it introduced the Tablet PC concept. It wasn't actually a device, though. Rather, Microsoft’s Tablet PC was a set of hardware requirements needed to utilize a specially-modified version of Windows XP. But the specifications were too ambitious for the technology of the period. The x86 processors needed to run the Windows ecosystem required the use of bulky, heavy batteries, while the stylus-enabled LCD also added to the total weight. Due to the day's limitations, the Tablet PC didn’t live up to its goal of being “a thin, lightweight device that slips easily into a briefcase or portfolio and can be held in one hand, just like a paper tablet.” One of the best Microsoft Tablet PCs, the HP Compaq TC 1100 (pictured) weighed 4 lbs and was 0.8” thick.

33. 2007: Asus Eee PC

During the 2000s, Microsoft, Intel, and several other vendors tried to find the winning formula for a miniature computer. After the Tablet PC came Microsoft’s first painfully-slow Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs), and the Mobile Internet Device (MID) concepts from Intel were all unsuccessful, technological dead ends. But Intel’s MID research motivated the company to develop the Atom processor, which enabled Asus to develop its Eee PC. These 7” and 10” devices gave rise to the netbook, a new category of portable PC that was small, light, and affordable. In just a few months, the netbook revolutionized the laptop market. All PC manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, creating a plethora of models. In 2008, netbooks accounted for about 40% of all laptop sales. But the netbook’s success was short-lived, overtaken by tablets. Netbooks are now officially dead; not a single manufacturer makes one today.

34. 2010: Apple iPad

After a decade of trial and error, Apple found the winning formula for a tablet. The technological progress made in the smartphone segment gave Steve Jobs and company a lot of help. High-performance ARM processors with very low power usage, thinner displays, and more powerful batteries were now widely available. But Apple was also smart enough to learn from Microsoft’s errors. Instead of Mac OS X, the iPad ran iOS, a separate operating system that was suited to its hardware resources. Its applications were also developed specifically for the touchscreen interface, rather than re-purposing existing applications that were originally designed for a keyboard and mouse. The iPad’s rise to success was nothing short of meteoric. It sold even faster than the iPhone that preceded it, and three years after its introduction, the iPad still accounts for approximately half of the tablet market. But as Apple’s competitors have finally matched the qualities of the iPad, Android-based tablets are now nibbling away at its market share. Historically, Apple has never competed on the basis of price, so if the company wants to remain a trailblazer, it had better be working on another digital revolution.