"Originally announced on February 14, 1946, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), was the first general-purpose electronic computer. Hailed by The New York Times as 'an amazing machine which applies electronic speeds for the first time to mathematical tasks hitherto too difficult and cumbersome for solution,' the ENIAC was a revolutionary piece of machinery in its day." - University of Pennsylvania
"In the early twentieth century, electrical power networks were some of the most complex engineering systems in use. In order to predict the performance of these systems, Vannevar Bush and his associates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed several analog computing devices. One of these, the differential analyzer, was sufficiently successful that copies were built at a few laboratories." - Smithsonian Instution
"At the outbreak of World War II, the U.S. armed forces contracted to use differential analyzers at MIT and at the Moore School of Electrical Enginnering of the University of Pennsylvania. The machines were used to calculate firing tables for new artillery. Differential analyzers alone could not do the job; the government also hired people (whose job title was "computer") to calculate tables using mechanical desk calculators." - Smithsonian Institution
UNIVAC
The UNIVAC
"The development of a commercial computer (UNIVAC) proved too difficult for a start-up company. Although Mauchly and Eckert could produce an experimental machine in the confines of a laboratory, a standard commercial system run by trained operators rather than research engineers required further improvements in design and reliability. Problems concerning military security and the hostile attitude of certain influential academic advisors to the military made Eckert and Mauchly's job more difficult. Ultimately it was the cost of developing a commercial computer that led Eckert and Mauchly sold their company to Remington Rand in February of 1950. The first UNIVAC computer was delivered to the Census Bureau in June 1951. Unlike the ENIAC, the UNIVAC processed each digit serially. But its much higher design speed permitted it to add two ten-digit numbers at a rate of almost 100,000 additions per second. Internally, the UNIVAC operated at a clock frequency of 2.25 MHz, which was no mean feat for vacuum tube circuits.
The UNIVAC also employed mercury delay-line memories. Delay lines did not allow the computer to access immediately any item data held in its memory, but given the reliability problems of the alternative Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology, this was a good technical choice." - University of Pennsylvania
Altair 8800
The Altair 8800
"The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell only a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month. The Altair also appealed to individuals and businesses who just wanted a computer and purchased the assembled version. Today the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that led to the microcomputer revolution of the next few years: The computer bus designed for the Altair was to become a de facto standard in the form of the S-100 bus, and the first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC." - Princeton University
Apple II
The Apple II
"In 1976, computer pioneers Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs began selling their Apple I computer in kit form to computer stores. A month later, Wozniak was working on a design for an improved version, the Apple II. They demonstrated a prototype in December, and then introduced it to the public in April 1977. The Apple II started the boom in personal computer sales in the late 1970s, and pushed Apple into the lead among personal computer makers." - Smithsonian Institution
"The Apple II (often rendered Apple ][ or Apple //) was an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and introduced in 1977. In terms of ease of use, features and expandability the Apple II was a major technological advancement over its predecessor, the Apple I, a limited-production bare circuit board computer for electronicshobbyists which pioneered many features that made the Apple II a commercial success." - Princeton University
John Sculley talking about the Apple II and Mac
IBM PC
The IBM PC
"The IBM PC Model 5150 was originally introduced in August 1981. Price at Introduction: $1,995.00. Standard Memory: 16k bytes . Built at a new, automated factory in Boca Raton, Fl. Initially introduced with a massive 16k of memory, (expandable to 64k on the main board) monochrome (green) display capable of only rudimentary line-character graphics, a cassette I/O port for program storage, and a price tag just under $2000.00 US, this machine set the bar for the second age of the personal computer." - Stanford University
"The Apple II, the original personal computer, was superseded by the IBM PC Model 5150 in 1983. The IBM PC was not much faster, and certainly not more ingenious, but its 8088 processor could address much more memory, and the video system was more flexible. The 5150 even copied the Apple II in many respects, even to open supply of full information and documentation. It used DOS instead of Applesoft for control, but BASIC was still present, and DEBUG did the job of the Monitor command line. The flexibility of the DOS system and the increase in memory could not be duplicated by the Apple." - University of Denver
Macintosh
".....I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."- Steve Jobs
A short clip of the intro of the Mac
"In January 1984, Apple Inc. introduced a graphic user interface to the Apple line of computers. The idea had originated at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, but Xerox was slow to commercialize it. Apple proved far more successful when it introduced the Macintosh Jan. 22, 1984, with a splashy television advertisement during Super Bowl XVIII. The original price was around $2,500." - Smithsonian Institution
The Apple Mac
"The Macintosh, called Mac for short, is a personal computer designed, engineered, and advertised by Apple. The computer was named after the Macintosh Apple and the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984. The Mac used an intuitive GUI based on windows that is still being used today. The Macintosh is, nowadays, not the only family of computers available from Apple. There are a variety of Macs from he "budget" Mac mini desktop to the midrange server Xserve. Macintosh systems are mostly targeted towards the home consumer, education, and professional markets." - University of California, Berkeley
"To create a new standard it takes something that's not just a little bit different. It takes something that's really new and really captures people's imaginations. And the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard." -Bill Gates