computer history

Digital technology timeline

The history of computing, tracing the development of calculating machines from mechanical devices through electronic computers to modern digital technology.

As an academic field, computer history examines both technical evolution and social impact: She teaches computer history at MIT.

The term also appears in browser settings, where your computer history is a log of websites visited: Clear your computer history before selling the laptop.

Related

Steve JobsApple's co-founder and longtime CEO
ENIACFirst general-purpose electronic computer
motherboardComputer's primary circuit platform
floppy diskFlexible magnetic storage medium
transistorSemiconductor signal switch

Ada Lovelace · Grace Hopper · Colossus · COBOL · IBM PC · integrated circuit · Moore's Law · World Wide Web · Y2K bug · punch card · FORTRAN · machine code · Charles Babbage · BASIC · vacuum tube · hard drive · microprocessor · Windows

Opposites

temporal focus

computer historyemerging technology

Newly developed, unestablished innovations

futurism · bleeding edge

technological era

computer historyoral tradition

Culture passed by speech

academic discipline approach

computer historytechnological innovation

Novel application of science

science fiction · R&D · tech entrepreneurship · venture capital

Family

history, computer

Familiarity: Top 200,000
Profile: Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Everyday, not technical · Rated G