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Abstracted from: DAWN
TREE
Computer Structures
by Gordon Bell and Allan Newell
The "family tree" of computer design. The remarkable growth of
electronic computing systems in the Western world began primarily through
government support of research and development in the universities. The
need for data-processing facilities of increased capacity inspired further
support for their development in both educational institutions and private
industry. The current generation of computers is predominantly the result
of development by private industry. The tree lists many of the machines
developed in these ways. At the roots are the contributions of many existing
technologies to the rapid growth from electromechanical to electronic systems.
Some of the milestones are ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer),
the first electronic computer; EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer), the first internally stored-program computer and first acoustic
delay-line storage; MADM (Manchester Automatic Digital Machine), the first
index registers (B lines) and first cathode-ray-tube electrostatic storage;
MTC (Memory Test Computer), the first core-storage computer. (Courtesy
of National Science Foundation.)
The prehistory for electronic computers encompasses the lifetimes of
the pioneers in mathematical logic, computing machines, and programming
concepts. Some of these pioneers are identified here.
Conceived Boolean Logic
Charles Babbage, inventor
of the "Analytic Engine"
A good friend of Charles Babbage
and an amateur mathematician
Conceived the "Hollerith
Punched Card Machine."
Harvard Mark I Relay Computer Relay
Computers
George Stibitz, relay logic pioneer
Howard Aiken, father
of Harvard Mark I
ENIAC Computer: 17,468 tubes,
70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors,
6,000 manual switches, 174,00 watts
Eckert and Goldstine, two
principal ENIAC designers
Institute of 
John von Neumann,
Advanced Study (IAS) computer
scientist, father of IAS computer
Whirlwind Computer, developed at M.I.T.
Whirlwind
J.W. Forrester,
father of the Whirlwind computer
M.V.Wilkes,
developer of the EDSAC computer
A.M.Turing,
inventor of the "Turing Machine"
LOGIC AND MEMORY ELECTRONICS OF THE 1950'S
Logic Units;
vacuum tubes to semiconductors
Ferrite core memory stack
UNIVAC I
Univac
Eckert and Mauchly; computer pioneers
and founders of theUnivac company
IBM 701
IBM
701 Arrives
IBM 650
IBM RAMAC
Datamatic 1000: The Last Vacuum Tube
Data Procesing Mainframe To Be Developed
IBM1401: An Early Solid State
Data Processing System
