The Information Age

What is the Information Age?

People, Information & Societies that chronicle the birth and growth of electronic information -- from ancient times to Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph in the 1830s, through the development of the telephone, radio, television, and computer.

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/AZ/ITHistoryOutline.htm

Four Periods of The Information Age

Pre-Mechanical - 3000 B.C.-1450 A.D.

Mechanical - 1450-1840

Electro-Mechanical - 1840-1940

Electronic/Information -1940-Present

The Pre-Mechanical Age

Writing and Alphabets: Cuneiform, Symbols

Paper and Pen: Papermaking

Books and Libraries: Religious Scrolls, Binding

Numbering Systems: Numbers 1-9, Zero

The First Calculators The Abacus

3000 B.C.-1450 A.D.

The Mechanical Age

Movable Type Printing General Purpose Computers (people who used numbers)

Slide Rule Analog Computer

Key Punch Computer Binary Logic Real Time Operated Computers

1450-1840

The Electro-Mechanical Age

Telecommunications Voltaic Battery Telegraph Morse Code Telephones and Radios

Computing Census Machine Mark 1

Paper Stored Programming

1840-1940

Picture of a 1986 Telephone from Vendsyssel Historiske Museum in Hjørring, Denmark

© 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki

Information Age

Electronic Vacuum Tubes Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer Manchester Mark 1 First Computer for Commercial Use

1840-Present

Computer Generations

First Generation (1951-1958) Main Logic Elements Externally Stored Information Machine and Assembly

Language Compilers

Second Generation (1959-1963) Transistors Semi-Conductors High-Level Programming Fortran/Cobol

Third Generation (1964-1978) Integrated Circuits Magnetic Tape and Disk Operating Systems BASIC

Fourth Generation (1979-) Large Scale Circuits Central Processing Units Apple II/Apple Mac IBM/MS-DOS/GUI MS Windows

Pioneers in Information Technology

John Mauchly J. Prosper Eckert John Von Neumann Blaise Pascal William Oughtred Gottfried von Leibniz Charles Babbage Augusta Ada Byron

Alexander Graham Bell Herman Hollerith Howard Aiken Max Newman Maurice Wilkes Steven Wozniak Steven Jobs Bill Gates