Evolution of IT

Information technology has been evolving rapidly during the last half of the 20th century, particularly since the 1960’s and 1970’s. The current era has acquired the name “information era”. It has revolutioned the media and modes of computing, storing and communicating information. Today information technology involves more than just computer literacy; it also takes into account how computers work and how these computers can further be used not just for information processing but also for communications and problem solving tasks as well. But what was it before we knew the word “computer”.

Let us now briefly look at the history of information technology which dates back to 500 BC.

1642

First Numerical calculating Machine was built (Blaise Pascal).

1833

The first general purpose computer (Analytical machine that follows instructions from punched cards).

1946

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator ENIAC was built. It was the first successful high speed digital computer.

1948

Transistor is invented.

1958

First Integrated Circuit is fabricated.

1970

VLSI The entire assemblies became available as computer “chips”. MS-DOS, Unix, Operating Systems, Network, Distributed Operating Systems all came into existence around this time.

1971

First Microprocessor was developed by Intel 4004 ( A team headed by Marcial Ho). The development of this chip meant that computers could become small enough and cheap enough to be owned by individuals rather than only by large companies.

1979

The first electronic spreadsheet program is introduced.

1981

IBM introduces its first personal computer with an operating system developed by Microsoft.

1983

The switch over to the TCP\IP protocol marks the beginning of the global Internet.

1985

Microsoft releases the Windows operating system.

1989

The world wide web project is proposed to the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN).

1990

Windows version 3.0 is released bringing a stable graphical user interface to the IBM Personal Computer.

1993

The Mosaic NCSA is developed by the National Centre for Super-computing Applications.

1995

The first full length feature movie created by a computer is released, Toy Story.

Late 1990’s

The emergence of electronic commerce.

So that is how technology got advanced from 500 BC to today’s world and so the availability of information.