History of computer articles and photos http://www.computernostalgia.net Windows 3.1x is a graphical user interface, part of the Microsoft Windows family. There are many editions of this in the family of Microsoft Windows operating systems, released between 1992 and 1994, succeeding Windows 3.0. This family of Windows can run in either Standard or 386 Enhanced memory modes. The exception was Windows for Workgroups 3.11, which can only officially run in 386 Enhanced mode. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Windows31.htm Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) was a French silk weaver and inventor, who improved on the original punched card design of Jacques de Vaucanson's loom of 1745, to invent the Jacquard loom mechanism in 1804-1805. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/JosephMarieJacquard.htm Founded in 1981, Interleaf was a company that produced a technical publishing software product with the same name. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Interleaf.htm PageMaker was the first desktop publishing program, introduced in 1985 by Aldus Corporation, initially for the Apple Macintosh but soon after also for the PC http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/PageMaker.htm For many years, hard disks were large, cumbersome devices, more suited to use in the protected environment of a data center or large office than in a harsh industrial environment (due to their delicacy), or small office or home (due to their size and power consumption) http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryoftheHardDisk.htm A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive or FDD, the latter initialism not to be confused with fixed disk drive, which is an old IBM term for a hard disk drive http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryoftheFloppyDisk.htm Will Linux take over from Microsoft Windows? http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/LinuxVWindows.htm Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) was a computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/IndustryStandardArchitecture.htm EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) was an early British computer (one of the first computers to be created). The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal EDVAC report, was constructed by Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/EDSAC.htm Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. Perl borrows features from a variety of other languages including C, shell scripting (sh), AWK, sed and Lisp. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Perl.htm A sound card is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofSoundCards.htm The 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that follows the memory oriented design philosophy of the Motorola 6800. Several engineers (led by Chuck Peddle) left Motorola and formed MOS Technology, which introduced the 6502 in 1975. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/6502.htm An abacus is a calculation tool, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads sliding on wires. It was in use centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-Arabic numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China and elsewhere. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/abacus.htm The Acorn Atom was a home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd between 1981 and 1983, when it was replaced by the BBC Micro (originally called the Proton) and later the Acorn Electron. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/acornAtom.htm Ada is a structured, statically typed imperative computer programming language designed by a team led by Jean Ichbiah of CII Honeywell Bull during 1977-1983. It addresses many of the same tasks as C or C++, but with one of the best type-safety systems available in a statically typed programming language. Ada was named after Ada Lovelace, often credited as the first computer programmer. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/ada.htm Sir Alan Michael Sugar was born on the 24th March 1947 in Hackney, London. He has an estimated fortune of 760 million pounds (sterling) and was ranked 55th in the Sunday Times Rich List of 2005. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/alanSugar.htm ALGOL 58 is the first language in the ALGOL programming language family. It was an early compromise design soon superseded by ALGOL 60; ALGOL 58 introduced the fundamental notion of compound statement, but it was restricted to control flow only, and it was not tied to identifier scope. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/algol58.htm ALGOL (short for ALGOrithmic Language) is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which became the de facto standard way to report algorithms in print for almost the next 30 years. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/algol60.htm ALGOL 68 (short for ALGOrithmic Language 1968) is an imperative computer programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and a more rigorously defined syntax and semantics. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/algol68.htm Amstrad is an electronics company founded in 1968 by Sir Alan Michael Sugar in the United Kingdom, and based in Brentwood in Essex, England. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/amstrad.htm The analytical engine, an important step in the history of computers, is the design of a mechanical modern general-purpose computer by the British professor of mathematics Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837, but Babbage continued to work on the design until his death in 1871. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/analytical.htm APL (for A Programming Language, or sometimes Array Processing Language) is an array programming language based on a notation invented in 1957 by Kenneth E. Iverson while at Harvard University. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/apl.htm The Apricot PC was Apricot Computers' first personal computer made for business use. It had two 3.5-inch floppy drives and a keyboard with an LCD display. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/apricot.htm Apricot Computers was a British company that manufactured business personal computers. It was originally founded in 1965 as Applied Computer Techniques (ACT). http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/apricotComputers.htm An assembler is a computer program for translating assembly language - essentially, a mnemonic representation of machine language - into object code. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/assembler.htm Assembly language commonly called assembly or asm, is a human-readable notation for the machine language that a specific computer architecture uses. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/assembly.htm Atari, Inc. is a majority owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA), encompassing its North American operations. Atari develops, publishes and distributes games for all major video game consoles, as well as for the personal computer, and is currently one of the largest third-party publishers of video games in the United States. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/atari.htm Charles Babbage was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/babbage.htm Basile Bouchon was a textile worker in Lyon who invented a way to control a loom with a perforated paper tape in 1725. The son of an organ maker, Bouchon adapted the concept of music automata controlled by pegged cylinders to the repetitive task of weaving. Further refinements by others eventually lead to the wildly successful Jacquard loom. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/BasileBouchon.htm BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language) is a computer programming language that was designed by Martin Richards of the University of Cambridge in 1966. It was originally intended for use in writing compilers for other languages. Although not widely used now, it was very influential, because Dennis Ritchie would later develop the widely-used C programming language from BCPL. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/bcpl.htm The BRLESC I (Ballistic Research Laboratories Electronic Scientific Computer) was a first-generation electronic computer built by BRL engineers at Aberdeen Proving Ground (USA) http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/brlesc-i.htm Chuck Peddle is most well known for being the main designer of the 6502 microprocessor (MOS Technology), which was the most successful microprocessor of the first microcomputer decade, and on which the KIM-1 and the Commodore PET computers were both based. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/chuckPeddle.htm Sir Clive Marles Sinclair was born on July 30th, 1940, near Richmond upon Thames, England. Sinclair is a British entrepreneur and inventor of, amongst other things, the world's first small electronic pocket calculator, in 1972, and the ZX Spectrum computer in 1982. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/cliveSinclair.htm CLU is a programming language created at MIT by Barbara Liskov and her students between 1974 and 1975. It was notable for its use of constructors for abstract data types that included the code that operated on them, a key step in the direction of object oriented programming (OOP) http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/clu.htm Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore International, a West Chester, Pennsylvania based electronics company who was a vital player in the personal computer field. Commodore developed and marketed the world's best-selling machine, the Commodore 64. The company declared bankruptcy in 1994, but there have since been several attempts to revive its Amiga systems. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/commodore.htm The Commodore 64 (C64, CBM 64/CBM64, C=64) is a home computer with 64 kilobytes of RAM that was popular in the 1980s. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/commodore64.htm The Amstrad CPC was a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad during the 1980s and early 1990s. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/cpc.htm The Curta was a small, hand-cranked mechanical calculator introduced in 1948. It had a brilliantly compact design, a small cylinder that could fit in the palm of the hand. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/curta.htm The DECmate I, II, III were all PDP-8 compatible machines that were introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) at the beginning of the desktop era. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/decmate.htm A difference engine is a historical, mechanical special-purpose computer designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Since logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, such a machine is more general than it appears at first. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/difference.htm DisplayWrite was a word processor software application that IBM developed and marketed for its line of IBM PCs. Its document files used the RFT (revisable format text) or DCA (document content architecture) filename extension, both of which were standards on IBM mainframe computers. DisplayWrite's feature set was based on the IBM Displaywriter System, a dedicated microcomputer-based word processing machine. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/displayWrite.htm The IBM Displaywriter System was a dedicated microcomputer-based word processing machine that IBM's Office Products Division introduced in 1980. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/displayWriter.htm The EDVAC was the first internally stored program computer to be built, a major improvement over the ENIAC. One of the major disadvantages of the ENIAC had been the fact that it required considerable human effort to change to different programs. ENIAC was programmed by setting switches on function tables and by changing the wiring (wired programs). http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/edvac.htm Eiffel is an object-oriented programming language which emphasizes the production of robust software. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/EiffelProgrammingLanguage.htm The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) was the first operational electronic digital computer developed for the U.S. Army by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/eniac.htm GEM (Graphical Environment Manager) was a windowing system created by Digital Research, Inc. (DRI) for use with the CP/M operating system on the Intel 8088 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors. Later versions ran over DOS as well. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/GEM.htm Grady Booch (born 1955) is a software designer, a software methodologist and a design pattern enthusiast. He is chief scientist of Rational Software (now a part of IBM) and a series editor for Benjamin/Cummings. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/gradyBooch.htm Although the history of computer and video games spans almost five decades, computer and video games themselves did not become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofComputerGames.htm Computing hardware has been an essential component of the process of calculation and data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/historyOfComputers.htm A microprocessor is a digital electronic component with transistors on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofMicroprocessors.htm Operating systems (OS) provide a set of functions needed and used by most applications, and provide the necessary linkages to control a computer's hardware. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofOperatingSystems.htm History of programming languages http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofProgrammingLanguages.htm A word processor (more formally a document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of printable material. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HistoryofWordProcessors.htm The Hollerith card (or punch card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/HollerithCard.htm The IBM PC (Personal Computer), was the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/IBMPC.htm The ICON was a computer built specifically for use in schools, to fill a standard created by the Ontario education ministry. They were widely used, mostly in high schools in the mid- to late 1980s, but disappeared after that time with the widespread introduction of PCs and Apple Macintoshes. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/icon.htm Ivar Hjalmar Jacobson is a Swedish computer scientist, born in Ystad, Sweden, on September 2, 1939. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/ivarJacobson.htm Kenneth Eugene Iverson (born 17 December 1920, Canada) is most well known for inventing the programming language APL (A Programming Language or sometimes Array Processing Language). http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Iverson.htm Jack Tramiel (born 1928) is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga home computers. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/jackTramiel.htm Dr. James Rumbaugh is a methologist of modern software development. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/jamesRumbaugh.htm Jean-Babtiste Falcon was a co-worker of Basile Bouchon in Lyon, France. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Jean-BaptisteFalcon.htm The Logo programming language is an imperative programming language. It is an adaptation by Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert of the Lisp programming language that is easier to read; it has been called Lisp without the parentheses. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/logo.htm Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (December 10, 1815 - November 27, 1852) is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/lovelace.htm Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data directly understandable by a computer's central processing unit http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/machineCode.htm The Macintosh or Mac is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Macintosh.htm MOS Technology, Inc., also known as Commodore Semiconductor Group, was a microprocessor and calculator company famous for its 6502 processor http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/MOSTechnology.htm MS-DOS is a disk operating system made by Microsoft. It was the dominant operating system for the PC compatible platform during the 1980s. It has gradually been replaced on consumer desktop computers with various generations of the Windows operating system. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/ms-dos.htm MS-DOS is a disk operating system made by Microsoft. It was the dominant operating system for the PC compatible platform during the 1980s. It has gradually been replaced on consumer desktop computers with various generations of the Windows operating system. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/ms-dosTimeline.htm The ORDVAC was a general purpose computer capable of carrying out individual arithmetic operations at high speed. It became operational in the Spring of 1951 at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/ordvac.htm OS/2 is an operating system created by Microsoft and IBM, later developed by IBM exclusively. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/Os2.htm Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator, called alternatively the Pascalina or the Arithmetique, in 1645, the first being that of Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pascalina.htm The PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) was the first computer in Digital Equipment's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture, at MIT, BBN and elsewhere. The PDP-1 was also the original hardware for playing history's first computerized video game, Steve Russell's Spacewar. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-1.htm The PDP-10 (Programmed Data Processor-10) was a 36-bit timesharing machine, which was fairly successful over several different models. The instruction set was a slightly elaborated form of that of the PDP-6. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-10.htm The PDP-11, sold by Digital Equipment Corporation in the 1970s and 1980s, was one the most successful computers of all times, beginning life as a minicomputer and ending up as a micro or supermicro/supermini. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-11.htm The PDP-12 (Programmed Data Processor-12) was a descendant of the LINC-8. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-12.htm The PDP-14 (Programmed Data Processor-14) was a 12-bit machine intended as an industrial controller. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-14.htm The PDP-15 (Programmed Data Processor-15) was DEC's final 18-bit machine, and their only 18-bit machine constructed from TTL integrated circuits rather than discrete transistors. Later versions of the system were referred to as the XVM family. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-15.htm The PDP-16 (Programmed Data Processor-16) was mainly intended for industrial control systems, with more capability than the PDP-14. The PDP-16/M was introduced as a standard version of the PDP-16. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-16.htm The PDP-3 (Programmed Data Processor-3) was the first 36-bit machine DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) designed, although it was not offered as a product. Only one PDP-3 was built, and that was by a customer in 1960. Architecturally, the PDP-3 was essentially a PDP-1 stretched to 36-bit word width. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-3.htm The PDP-4 (Programmed Data Processor-4), which was a slower, cheaper alternative to the PDP-1, was not a commercial success. All subsequent 18-bit PDPs were based on the instruction set of the PDP-4. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-4.htm The PDP-5 (Programmed Data Processor-5) was DEC's first 12-bit machine. It introduced the instruction set that was later used in the PDP-8. Instead of having a dedicated hardware register, the memory location at address zero was used as the program counter. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-5.htm The PDP-6 (Programmed Data Processor-6) was a 36-bit timesharing machine, with very elegant architecture. It was considered to be a large minicomputer or a mainframe. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-6.htm The PDP-7 (Programmed Data Processor-7) replaced the PDP-4. It was DEC's first wire-wrapped machine, and the first version of Unix was written for this machine. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-7.htm The PDP-8 (Programmed Data Processor-8) was the world's first minicomputer. It was priced at the amazingly low price of $20,000.00. It was a 12-bit machine with a tiny instruction set. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-8.htm The PDP-9 (Programmed Data Processor-9) was DEC's successor to the PDP-7. It was DEC's first micro-programmed machine. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdp-9.htm PDP (Programmed Data Processor) minicomputers were produced by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) from the late 50s to the early 90s. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pdpTimeline.htm PHP is a scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. Its syntax is derived from C, Java, and Perl. PHP code can be embedded directly into an HTML page, which is then executed on the server every time the page is visited. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/php.htm PONG was a video game based on ping-pong, released by Atari on November 29, 1972. It was the first video game to win widespread popularity, in both its arcade and home console versions. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/pong.htm Programming language timeline http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/programmingTimeline.htm The punch card (or Hollerith card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/PunchedCard.htm Rasmus Lerdorf (born November 22, 1968 in Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland) is a Danish-Canadian programmer and the author of the first version of the PHP web programming language. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/rasmusLerdorf.htm Sinclair Research Ltd is a consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge, England (originally as Sinclair Radionics in 1961) to sell hi-fi equipment, calculators, radios and other products. In 1966 Sinclair created but never sold the world's first pocket television. In 1972 they marketed the world's first pocket calculator, the Sinclair Executive. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/sinclairResearch.htm The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer, consisting of calibrated strips, usually a fixed outer pair and a movable inner one, with a sliding window called the cursor. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/sliderule.htm SNOBOL (StriNg Oriented symBOlic Language) is a computer programming language developed between 1962 and 1967 at AT&T Bell Laboratories by David J. Farber, Ralph E. Griswold and Ivan P. Polonsky. (The name is a jocular reference to COBOL and ALGOL, but these languages have no other connection and no other notable similarities). http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/snobol.htm Space invaders was designed and developed by Toshihiro Nishikado in 1978, while working for the Japanese company, Taito Corporation. Although a simple game with simple graphics, it was a massive success, why? - game play - that essential ingredient that any game needs to be successful. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/spaceInvaders.htm Spacewar was the world's first video game, developed by a team of programmers led by Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Development of the game began late in 1961, with the first version being released in February 1962. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/spacewar.htm The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. Based on a Zilog Z80 CPU running at 3.50 MHz, the Spectrum came with either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/spectrum.htm Steve Russell led the team of programmers that created the first computer video game, Spacewar, while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/steveRussell.htm Toshihiro Nishikado designed and programmed the computer game Space Invaders for Japanese company Taito Corporation in 1978. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/taito.htm Tally sticks are an ancient mnemonic device (memory aid) to record and document numbers, quantities, or even messages. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/tallyStick.htm Tennis for Two was a game developed in 1958 on an oscilloscope which simulated a game of tennis or ping pong. It was based on analog, rather than digital computing. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/TennisforTwo.htm Toshihiro Nishikado designed and programmed the computer game Space Invaders for Japanese company Taito in 1978. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/toshihiroNishikado.htm Ventura Publisher was the first popular desktop publishing package for IBM PC compatible computers running DOS. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/VenturaPublisher.htm Web language timeline http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/webTimeline.htm Wilhelm Schickard (born 1592 in Herrenberg - died 1635 in Tubingen) built the first automatic calculator in 1623. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/wilhelmSchickard.htm WordPerfect is a software program for word processing. At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was the de facto standard word processor, but has since been eclipsed in sales by Microsoft Word. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/wordPerfect.htm WordStar was a word processor application, published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early-to-mid-1980s. Seymour I. Rubinstein was the principal owner of the company. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/wordstar.htm The Sinclair ZX80 was a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research of Cambridge, England. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/zx80.htm The Sinclair ZX81 home computer, released by Sinclair Research in 1981, was the follow up to the company's ZX80. http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/zx81.htm