At a Glance
computer: Media
electronics
Videos
Learn about quantum computers.
Video: Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz
Walter Isaacson discussing the life and impact of Ada Lovelace.
Video: © World Science Festival (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
An overview of Colossus, the world's first large-scale electronic computer.
Video: © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about the Elliott 803, a transistorized computer made in the United Kingdom...
Video: © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about the ICL 2966, a mainframe computer utilizing integrated circuit technology,...
Video: © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about the BBC Micro, a microcomputer made in the 1980s by Acorn Computers,...
Video: © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
From devices that enable monkeys to control robotic arms with their minds to neural...
Video: Science in Seconds (www.scienceinseconds.com) (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about a computer algorithm that can distinguish between smiles that express...
Video: © Massachusetts Institute of Technology (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Images
A technician uses the UNIVAC I, made by Unisys, to scan census questionnaires.
Photographs by the U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office (PIO)
The supercomputer, which came out in 1976, was approximately 6 feet high and 7 feet...
© Charles O'Rear—Corbis/Getty Images
A mouse, computer tower, and monitor are typical components of a desktop computer...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The first true laptop to make it to consumer markets, the Osborne 1 featured a 5-inch...
© Bilby
Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on a computer chip was doubling...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
A hard drive is one example of a magnetic disk used for computer memory storage.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
A DVD player uses a laser that is higher-powered and has a correspondingly finer...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Mechanical mice use a rubber-coated ball to translate user movements into cursor...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Such printers use beams of light to etch patterns onto a cylindrical drum, which...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Color inkjet printers can produce nearly any color by simultaneously heating and...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Simple bus networks, such as Ethernet, were common for home and small office configurations....
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The computer, capable of computing 200 million positions per second, was powerful...
Tom Mihalek—AFP/Getty Images
The earliest known device used to make mathematical calculations was the abacus.
© Roman Gorielov/stock.adobe.com
A reproduction of Wilhelm Schickard's Calculating Clock. The device could add and...
The Computer Museum of America
A French monetary (nondecimal) calculator designed by Blaise Pascal c. 1642. Numbers...
Courtesy of the Computer Museum History Center
A reproduction of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz's Step Reckoner, from the original...
IBM Archives
At the top of the machine is a stack of punched cards that would be fed into the...
The Bettmann Archive
The completed portion of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, 1832. This advanced...
Science Museum London
A portion (completed 1910) of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. Only partially...
Science Museum London
The first modern analog computer, the Differential Analyzer could solve certain classes...
MIT Museum
Designed by Howard Aiken, this electromechanical computer, more than 15 meters (50...
IBM Archives
The British mathematician did the earliest work on AI and introduced many of the...
© GL Archive/Alamy
The ABC, c. 1942, was possibly the first electronic digital computer.
Iowa State University Photo Service
Funding for this code-breaking machine came from the Ultra project.
Geoff Robinson Photography/Shutterstock.com
Installed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania,...
Courtesy of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
The first stored-program digital computer, c. 1949.
Reprinted with permission of the Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Eng.
Tom Kilburn standing beside the console of the Ferranti Mark I computer, c. 1950.
Reprinted with permission of the Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Eng.
Designed by Maurice Wilkes (kneeling in the center of the photograph), the ESDAC...
Courtesy of the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA
A Census Bureau technician monitors the scanning of 1960 census questionnaires by...
Photographs by the U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office (PIO)
Introduced in 1954, the IBM 650 became the first mass-produced computer and one of...
IBM Archives
The programmer and Naval Reserve officer was also the first to create a computer...
U.S. Department of Defense
Steve Jobs (right) and Steve Wozniak holding an Apple I circuit board, c. 1976....
Courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.
The Xerox Alto was the first computer to use graphical icons and a mouse to control...
Courtesy of Xerox
Douglas Engelbart invented the computer mouse in 1963–64 as part of an experiment...
© Apic—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The IBM Personal Computer (PC) was introduced in 1981. Microsoft supplied the machine's...
© SSPL/Getty Images
Compaq Computer Corporation introduced the first IBM-compatible portable computer...
Courtesy of Compaq Computer Corp.
Introduced in March 1997, the Palm Pilot personal digital assistant (PDA) was equipped...
Courtesy of 3Com Corporation
The BlackBerry was manufactured by the Canadian company Research in Motion.
PRNewsFoto/Verizon Wireless/AP Images
The phone, designed by Verizon Wireless and released in 2008, featured a music player,...
Verizon Wireless/PRNewsFoto/AP Images
An Intel D915GUX desktop motherboard, introduced in the mid-2000s for PCs using Intel...
Copyright Intel Corporation
A school computer lab, its computers linked into a local area network (LAN) to allow...
© Brand X Pictures/Jupiterimages
Students using computers in a classroom.
© BananaStock
Interactives
Explore more about computers and technology in Britannica's 21st-Century Technology...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc
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