Turning Learners into Developers
The first programmable electronic computer
The first programmable electronic computer is widely considered to be ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), developed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert in 1945. It was a massive machine built with thousands of vacuum tubes and used for complex military calculations. ENIAC marked the beginning of modern computing by introducing electronic speed, programmability, and fully digital operations.
|
Computer Part |
Inventor / Creator |
Year |
Details |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cabinet / Case |
John Mauchly & J. Presper Eckert |
1945 |
ENIAC(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) cabinet. |
|
CPU (Microprocessor) |
Faggin, Hoff, Mazor (Intel) |
1971 |
Intel 4004. |
|
RAM (DRAM) |
Robert Dennard |
1968 |
Dynamic RAM. |
|
SRAM |
Robert H. Norman |
1963 |
Static RAM. |
|
ROM |
Various engineers |
1950s |
First read-only memory. |
|
Cache Memory |
Maurice Wilkes |
1965 |
First computer cache. |
|
Hard Disk Drive |
Reynold B. Johnson |
1956 |
IBM RAMAC. |
|
SSD |
Eli Harari |
1991 |
SanDisk 20MB SSD. |
|
Floppy Disk |
Alan Shugart |
1971 |
8-inch floppy. |
|
Pen Drive |
Dov Moran |
1999 |
USB flash drive. |
|
CD-ROM |
Sony & Philips |
1982 |
Optical disc. |
|
DVD |
Christopher Sholes |
1868 |
QWERTY basis. |
|
Mouse |
Douglas Engelbart |
1964 |
First wooden mouse. |
|
Mechanical Keyboard Switch |
Cherry Corp |
1983 |
MX switches. |
|
Touchpad |
George E. Gerpheide |
1980s |
Used by Apple. |
|
Touchscreen |
Dr. E. A. Johnson |
1965 |
Capacitive screen. |
|
Scanner |
Ray Kurzweil |
1974 |
Flatbed OCR scanner. |
|
Webcam |
Quentin Stafford-Fraser |
1991 |
First live webcam. |
|
Microphone |
Emile Berliner |
1877 |
Carbon mic. |
|
Speaker |
Edward W. Kellogg |
1925 |
Dynamic speaker. |
|
GPU |
NVIDIA |
1999 |
GeForce 256. |
|
Video Adapter |
IBM |
1981 |
MDA (Monochrome). |
|
Sound Card |
Creative Labs |
1987 |
Sound Blaster. |
|
Network Card (NIC) |
Datapoint Corp |
1977 |
ARCNET NIC. |
|
Ethernet |
Robert Metcalfe |
1973 |
LAN standard. |
|
Wi-Fi |
John O’Sullivan |
1992 |
CSIRO wireless. |
|
Bluetooth |
Jaap Haartsen |
1994 |
Ericsson wireless. |
|
USB |
Ajay Bhatt |
1996 |
Universal serial bus. |
|
HDMI |
HDMI Founders |
2003 |
Digital video interface. |
|
VGA Port |
IBM |
1987 |
Video Graphics Array. |
|
DVI Port |
Silicon Image |
1999 |
Digital Visual Interface.Content |
|
PSU (SMPS) |
IBM |
1960s |
Switched power. |
|
UPS |
John Hanley |
1934 |
First UPS system. |
|
CMOS Tech |
Frank Wanlass |
1963 |
Power-efficient ICs. |
|
UEFI |
Intel + HP |
2005 |
Modern BIOS. |
|
BIOS |
Gary Kildall |
1975 |
Basic system firmware. |
|
Motherboard |
IBM |
1981 |
First PC motherboard. |
|
Chipset |
Intel |
1989 |
430 series. |
|
Heat Sink |
Early engineers |
1950s |
Passive cooling. |
|
CPU Fan |
Compaq |
1980s |
PC cooling. |
|
Liquid Cooling |
Overclockers |
1990s |
Water cooling. |
|
Thermal Paste |
First industrial chemists |
1960s |
Heat transfer medium. |
|
Power Connector ATX |
Intel |
1995 |
Standard ATX PSU. |
|
Computer Case Fan |
Papst Motor |
1960s |
Active cooling. |
|
 Laptop |
Bill Moggridge |
1982 |
GRiD Compass. |
|
Tablet Concept |
Alan Kay |
1968 |
Dynabook prototype. |
|
Smartphone |
IBM |
1992 |
IBM Simon. |
|
CMOS Battery |
Designed with CMOS |
1980s |
Motherboard backup. |
|
PCI Slot |
Intel |
1992 |
Peripheral component interconnect. |
|
PCI Express |
Intel |
2003 |
High-speed I/O. |
|
AGP Slot |
Intel |
1997 |
Accelerated graphics port. |
|
SATA |
SATA-IO group |
2003 |
Storage interface. |
|
IDE / PATA |
Western Digital |
1986 |
Earlier disk interface. |
|
M.2 Connector |
PCI-SIG |
2013 |
NVMe SSDs. |
|
NVMe Protocol |
NVM Express Group |
2011 |
Fast SSD protocol. |
|
SDRAM |
Samsung |
1993 |
Synchronous DRAM. |
|
DDR RAM |
Samsung |
1998 |
High-speed memory. |
|
DDR2 |
JEDEC |
2003 |
Faster DDR. |
|
DDR3 |
JEDEC |
2007 |
Memory evolution. |
|
DDR4 |
JEDEC |
2014 |
High-efficiency RAM. |
|
DDR5 |
JEDEC |
2020 |
Latest memory. |
|
Keyboard Layout QWERTY |
Sholes & Glidden |
1873 |
Standard layout. |
|
Computer Bus |
Charles Babbage |
1837 |
Concept in Analytical Engine. |
|
Chip Fabrication (IC) |
Jack Kilby, Robert Noyce |
1958–1959 |
Integrated circuits. |
|
Transistor |
Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley |
1947 |
Modern computing root. |
|
Logic Gate (Electronic) |
Various physicists |
1930s |
Digital computation. |
|
Serial Port |
IBM |
1950s |
RS-232. |
|
Parallel Port |
Centronics |
1970 |
Printer interface. |
|
Printer (Laser) |
Gary Starkweather |
1969 |
Laser printing. |
|
Printer (Dot Matrix) |
Rudolf Hell |
1925 |
Early printing. |
|
Inkjet Printer |
Ichiro Endo |
1977 |
Canon bubble-jet. |
|
Barcode |
Norman Woodland |
1952 |
Barcode system. |
|
QR Code |
Masahiro Hara |
1994 |
Quick Response code. |
|
Joystick |
C. B. Mirick |
1926 |
Early control device. |
|
Gamepad |
Nintendo |
1983 |
Modern controller. |
|
Trackball |
Ralph Benjamin |
1946 |
Radar system. |
|
Stylus Pen |
Early engineers |
1950s |
Pen computing. |
|
Holographic Storage |
Bell Labs |
1960s |
Experimental tech. |
|
Projector (Digital) |
Gene Dolgoff |
1984 |
Bright LCD projection. |
|
CRT TV / Display |
Philo Farnsworth |
1927 |
Electronic CRT. |
|
IC Socket |
1960s engineers |
1960s |
Removable IC mounting. |
|
Ribbon Cable |
Mass storage teams |
1950s |
Data transfer. |
|
RJ45 Connector |
Bell Labs |
1980s |
Networking standard. |
|
Modem |
Dennis Hayes |
1977 |
Dial-up modem. |
|
Router |
Len Bosack & Sandy Lerner |
1984 |
Cisco router. |
|
Firewall |
Digital Equipment Corp |
1988 |
Network security. |
|
CMOS Sensor |
Eric Fossum |
1993 |
Digital cameras. |
|
Camera (Digital) |
Steven Sasson |
1975 |
First digital camera. |
|
BIOS Chip |
Invented with BIOS |
1975 |
Firmware storage. |
|
RISC Architecture |
IBM 801 team |
1970s |
Reduced instruction set computing. |
|
x86 Architecture |
Intel |
1978 |
8086 processor. |
|
ARM Architecture |
Acorn Computers |
1985 |
Low-power CPU. |
|
Power Button (Soft Power) |
ATX Standard |
1995 |
Modern soft-switch. |
|
Operating System |
GM Research |
1956 |
GM-NAA I/O. |
|
Programming Language (Assembly) |
Kathleen Booth |
1950 |
First structured programming system. |
|
Motherboard Chip BIOS CMOS |
IBM |
1980s |
Complete PC board architecture. |
|
Network Switch |
Kalpana Inc. |
1989 |
First Ethernet switch. |
|
Hub |
Networking pioneers |
1980s |
Early LAN hub. |
|
Thermal Sensor |
Semiconductor industry |
1970s |
Temperature monitoring. |
