Lets not forget Wilhelm Shickard, John Napier, Blaise Pascal, Gottfried
Leibnitz, Samuel Morland, Rene Grillet, and finally Charles Babbage.
1926
October
Dr. Julius Edgar Lilienfield of New York, files for a patent on a "Method
and Apparatus for Controlling Electric Currents". The application completely
describes an NPN junction transistor and its use as an amplifier.
1930
January
Dr. Lilienfield is issued a patent for the first solid-state amplifying
transistor.
1932
September
Dr. Lilienfield is issued a patent describing a multijunction NPPN or PNNP
transistor.
1933
March
Dr. Lilienfield is issued a patent showing an NPN transistor using copper-sulfide
and aluminum oxide.
1938
(month unknown)
William R. Hewlett and David Packard making electronic instrumentation,
founded Hewlett-Packard.
1947
December
Three scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories, William Shockley, Walter
Brattain, and John Bardeen demonstrate their new invention of the point-contact
transistor amplifier.
American computer engineer Howard Aiken predicts that only six computers
would be needed to satisfy the computing needs of the United States.
1948
(month unknown)
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Schockley of Bell Labs file
for a patent on the first transistor.
1951
(month unknown)
Coronado Corporation changes its name to Texas
Instruments Incorporated.
1952
(month unknown)
G. W. Dummer, a radar expert from Britain's Royal Radar Establishment presents
a paper proposing that a solid block of materials be used to connect electronic
components, with no connecting wires.
1953
April
IBM unveils the Defense Calculator, its
first computer.
1954
May
Texas Instruments announces the start of
commercial production on silicon transistors.
(month unknown)
Jack Tramiel founds Commodore as a typewriter repair service.
1955
(month unknown)
William Shockley founds Shockley Semiconductor in Palo Alto, California.
1956
(month unknown)
The Nobel Prize in physics is awarded to John Bardeen, Walter Brattain,
and William Shockley for their work on the transistor.
Fairchild Semiconductor files a patent application for the planar process
for manufacturing transistors. The process makes commercial production
of transistors possible and leads to Fairchild's introduction, in two years,
of the first integrated circuit.
(month unknown)
Texas Instruments and Fairchild Semiconductor
both announce the integrated circuit.
1960
(month unknown)
IBM develops the first automatic mass-production
facility for transistors, in New York.
(month unknown)
Digital Equipment introduces the minicomputer,
the PDP-1, for US$120,000.
Steven Gray founds the Amateur Computer Society, and begins publishing
the ACS Newsletter. Some consider this to be the birthdate of personal
computing.
The first Consumer Electronics Show is held in New York City.
1968
(month unknown)
Douglas C. Engelbart, of the Stanford Research Institute, demonstrates
his system of keyboard, keypad, mouse, and windows at the Joint Computer
Conference in San Francisco's Civic Center. He demonstrates use of a word
processor, a hypertext system, and remote collaborative work with colleagues.
(month unknown)
Hewlett-Packard introduces the first programmable
scientific desktop calculator.
(month unknown)
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore leave Fairchild Semiconductors.
(month unknown)
Robert Noyce and Gordone Moore found Intel
Corporation.
(month unknown)
Ed Roberts and Forest Mims found Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems
(MITS).
May
Computer Automation introduces the PDC 808, it as four kbytes of 8 bit
core memory.
Engineers from Japan's ETI company meet with Intel
to inspect work on their calculator IC project. They accept the Intel
design for a chip set, and sign an exclusive contract for the chips.
(month unknown)
(early) Intel receives a request from
Japan's ETI company to develop integrated circuits for a line of calculators.
(month unknown)
Intel's Marcian Hoff designs an integrated
circuit chip that could receive instructions, and perform simple functions
on data. The design becomes the 4004 microprocessor.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen, calling themselves the "Lakeside Programming
Group" sign an agreement with Computer Center Corporation to report bugs
in PDP-10 software, in exchange for computer time.
Gilbert Hyatt files a patent application entitled "Single Chip Integrated
Circuit Computer Architecture", the first basic patent on the microprocessor.
Information Sciences contacts Bill Gates and Paul Allen, offering them
PDP-10 computer time in exchange for their programming expertise.
(month unknown)
(spring) Work begins at Intel on the
layout of the circuit for what would be the 4004 microprocessor. Federico
Faggin directs the work.
