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To most people their first choice of processor would be an Intel processor. The PC market leader has an impressive range of processors covering the basic PC with the Celeron, through to the server & workstation machine with the Pentium II Xeon. Here is a history of how Intel built up it's large market position.

Companies promote it for their employees.Parents demand it for their children . Those who have it believe they have a competitive edge. Those who don't have it seek it out. "It" is computer. We are rapidely becoming a computer society" Until recently computers were found only in environmentally controlled rooms behind locked doors. Only computer professionals dared enter these secured premises. In contrast today computers are found in millions of homes and just about every office. In fact there is a computer for one in every eight people. Eventually all of us will have at least one computer and use it every day in ourwork and leisure.

A complete history of computing would include a multitude of diverse devices such as the ancient Chinese abacus, the Jacquard loom (1805) and Charles Babbage's ``analytical engine'' (1834). It would also include discussion of mechanical, analog and digital computing architectures. As late as the 1960s, mechanical devices, such as the Marchant calculator, still found widespread application in science and engineering. During the early days of electronic computing devices, there was much discussion about the relative merits of analog vs. digital computers.

This chapter is a brief summary of the history of Computers. It is supplemented by the two PBS documentaries video tapes "Inventing the Future" And "The Paperback Computer". The chapter highlights some of the advances to look for in the documentaries.

The evolution of computer technology is a fascinating journey to review and examine. This is because with a thorough understanding of their evolution you can not only look toward the future of computers, you can also recognize other developments across the world that may in fact lead back to anticipating their future application and in turn the future of computers.

Important events in history that have affected the computers of today. 1812 – Charles Babbage began designing the “Difference Machine”, which is considered one of the first programmable computers. 1820s – Charles Babbage completed his designs on the “Difference Machine”. 1830s – Designs for the “Analytical Engine” were made by Charles Babbage. 1839 – Photography was invented by Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox. 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

1941 Although the punched card was first used in 1801 to control textile looms, they were first used as an input medium for “computing machines” in 1941. Special typewriter-like devices were used to punch holes through sheets of think paper. These sheets could then be read (usually by optically based machines) by computers. They were the first input device to load programs into computers.

One of the earliest machines designed to assist people in calculations was the abacus which is still being used some 5000 years after its invention. In 1642 Blaise Pascal (a famous French mathematician) invented an adding machine based on mechanical gears in which numbers were represented by the cogs on the wheels.

Early 80's As early as 1982 "dumb" terminals were located in a few of Residence halls and provided access to Stanford's Low Overhead Time-sharing (LOTS) computers via telephone lines and modems.

As V.Rajarman describes in his preface, this document was written as a project of the IEEE Computer Society History Committee. Itis made publicly available in thisformat as collaboration between the Computer Society and the author, who retains allrights while allowing this public version. Sorel Reisman, Computer Society 2011 President, originally suggested this projectto the History Committee. The committee is grateful V.Rajaraman agreed to join the committee and carried outthis valuable historicalresearch.