Computing
The Transistor and the Miniaturization of Circuits
First demonstrated at Bell Labs in December 1947, the transistor replaced vacuum tubes in many roles and made electronics smaller, sturdier and far less power-hungry.
1945–1988
Electronic age
From the postwar years to the end of the 1980s, the transistor and the integrated circuit made electronics smaller, cheaper, and more reliable. Programming languages, the first computer networks, personal computers, cellular phones, industrial robots, and the first artificial intelligence programs all emerged.
Articles
Computing
Integrated Circuits and the Expansion of Electronics
In 1958 and 1959, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce found ways to build a whole circuit in one piece of semiconductor, ending the hand-wiring of components.
Computing
The Evolution of Programming Languages
From numeric machine codes to FORTRAN, COBOL, C and Java, a history of how programming grew closer to human reasoning.
Digital networks
The Formation of the First Computer Networks
From packet switching to ARPANET, Ethernet and TCP/IP, how isolated computers began exchanging data between the 1960s and the 1980s.
Computing
The Popularization of the Personal Computer
Microprocessors, build-it-yourself kits, spreadsheets, the IBM PC and graphical interfaces carried the computer from large institutions to desks and living rooms.
Communication
The Evolution of Mobile Phones
The mobile phone grew from three ideas: divide territory into cells, reuse frequencies, and shrink the handset, a path that ran from car radios to smartphones.
Automation and computational intelligence
Robotics: From Automatic Machines to Programmable Systems
Robotics combined centuries of automatons, control theory and digital electronics to produce industrial, mobile and exploration robots whose limits remain significant.
Milestones
- 1946
ENIAC shown to the public
The electronic computer ENIAC, built at the University of Pennsylvania, is presented in February 1946.
Read: First computers → - 1947
The transistor at Bell Labs
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain demonstrate the point-contact transistor. William Shockley soon proposes the junction transistor.
Read: Transistor → - 1956
Dartmouth workshop
Researchers gathered at Dartmouth popularize the term "artificial intelligence." Alan Turing had already published a paper on thinking machines in 1950.
Read: Computational intelligence → - 1957
FORTRAN
IBM makes FORTRAN available, one of the first widely used high-level programming languages.
Read: Programming languages → - 1958–1959
The integrated circuit
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrates an integrated circuit in 1958. Robert Noyce of Fairchild proposes a planar silicon version in 1959.
Read: Integrated circuits → - 1961
Industrial robot on a production line
A Unimate robot is installed at a General Motors plant in the United States.
Read: Robotics → - 1969
First ARPANET nodes
Between October and December 1969, the first computers are linked by the ARPANET, a network funded by the United States government.
Read: First networks → - 1973
Call on a portable phone prototype
Martin Cooper of Motorola places a call in April 1973 using a prototype portable cellular phone.
Read: Mobile phones → - 1977
Ready-to-use microcomputers
The Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80 reach the market in 1977, aimed at homes and small businesses.
Read: Personal computer → - 1981
The IBM PC
IBM launches the PC, whose relatively open architecture encourages clones and third-party software.
Read: Personal computer → - 1983
TCP/IP on the ARPANET
On January 1, 1983, the ARPANET officially adopts the TCP/IP protocol suite.
Read: First networks →