Transcript A Brief History of Technology

Do Now
• Print out your finished résumé and place it in
the basket at the front of the room.
• Work on vocabulary handout. Fill out
handout to the best of your ability.
A Brief History of Technology
Today, we are going to:
1. Define modern information
technology.
2. Relate early technology to the
development of modern personal
computers.
Modern Technology
• Use of computer hardware and software to
manage information.
• A combination of computing and
telecommunications for the acquisition,
processing, storage, and distribution of vocal,
pictorial, textual, and numeric information.
Electromechanical Age
• Telegraph invented in 1837 (first world
communication system).
• Telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell
in 1876.
Electromechanical Age – cont’d
• Radio invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894
These inventions could communicate
information, but not store information.
The Computer
• A machine that stores and processes
information and can be programmed to carry
out instructions.
1951 – 1958
• Vacuum tubes used as internal computer
components.
- Punched cards
- Magnetic tapes for storing data
- Machine language for programming
1959 – 1964
• Transistor: Invented in 1947
Replaced vacuum tubes in computers.
It is made up of semi-conductors that controls
the amount of current or voltage used to switch
an electronic signal.
Transistors
Transistors enabled manufacturers to produce
smaller computers!
1965-1970
• Integrated circuits: electronic circuits on a
silicone chip.
• Led to even smaller computers! Software
became more sophisticated.
1971 – Present
• Microprocessor: Computer chip was
developed.
• This made PCs and other applications
possible!
Altair
• January 1975: First
Computer Kit
• The Altair 8800
computer kit sold for
$395.
• It had 246 bytes of
RAM.
History of the PC
• August 12, 1981: IBM released their new
computer the IBM PC.
• PC – “Personal Computer”
History of Apple
• On April Fool’s Day, Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniack released the Apple I computer and
started Apple computers.
Today
Exit Slip
On your flash card or piece of paper, write down
at least FIVE technological inventions that you
would be interested in researching.