History of computing
207 inventos por año: de qué evolucionó cada uno y a qué llevó.
Cómo se conectan los inventos
- Calculadora mecánica → Calculadora escalonada de Leibniz → Aritmómetro → Calculadora electrónica → Microprocesador → Microcontrolador
- Tiempo compartido → Unix → Linux → Git
- Calculadora mecánica → Máquina diferencial de Babbage → Máquina analítica de Babbage → Harvard Mark I
- Línea de comandos → Interfaz gráfica de usuario → macOS → iOS
- C → C++ → Java
- Minicomputer → Computadora personal → Portátil
| Año | Invento | Qué es | Evolucionó de | Llevó a |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2700 a. C. | Ábaco | A counting board with movable pebbles or beads. | ||
| 100 a. C. | Mecanismo de Anticitera | An ancient Greek geared mechanism for calculating the positions of celestial bodies. | ||
| 1622 | Regla de cálculo | An analogue instrument for multiplying with logarithms. | ||
| 1642 | Calculadora mecánica | The Pascaline — a machine for adding and subtracting. | Calculadora escalonada de Leibniz, Máquina diferencial de Babbage | |
| 1694 | Calculadora escalonada de Leibniz | The first calculator that multiplied, using a stepped drum. | Calculadora mecánica | Aritmómetro |
| 1725 | Control por programa Herman Hollerith, Charles Babbage | A machine’s sequence of actions is set by a replaceable medium — punched tape, punched cards, a program in memory. | ||
| 1725 | Tarjeta perforada Herman Hollerith, Charles Babbage | A card in which information is encoded by the presence or absence of holes. | ||
| 1822 | Máquina diferencial de Babbage Charles Babbage | A mechanical calculator for tabulating polynomials. | Calculadora mecánica | Máquina analítica de Babbage |
| 1837 | Máquina analítica de Babbage Charles Babbage | A design for a general-purpose mechanical computer programmed with punched cards. | Telar Jacquard, Máquina diferencial de Babbage | Harvard Mark I |
| 1843 | Programa de Ada Lovelace | An algorithm for computing Bernoulli numbers on the Analytical Engine. | Lenguaje de programación | |
| 1851 | Aritmómetro Charles Xavier Thomas | A mass-produced mechanical calculator (Thomas, Odhner). | Calculadora escalonada de Leibniz | Calculadora electrónica |
| 1868 | Teclado | A set of keys for entering characters. | ||
| 1872 | Máquina predictora de mareas | A mechanical analogue computer of tides (Kelvin). | Analizador diferencial | |
| 1879 | Caja registradora James Ritty | A machine for recording sales (Ritty). | Autoservicio de pago | |
| 1890 | Tabuladora de Hollerith | An electromechanical machine for processing census data from punched cards. | Mainframe, Base de datos | |
| 1918 | Biestable | A circuit with two stable states — a memory cell (Bonch-Bruevich, Eccles and Jordan). | ||
| 1926 | Joystick | A control lever. | Gamepad | |
| 1928 | Cinta magnética | A tape with a magnetic layer for recording sound and data (Pfleumer). | ||
| 1931 | Analizador diferencial | A mechanical analogue computer (Bush). | Máquina predictora de mareas | |
| 1936 | Máquina de Turing Alan Turing | An abstract model of computation. | ||
| 1937 | Puerta lógica | A circuit that performs a logical operation (Shannon). | ||
| 1939 | Síntesis de voz | Dudley’s Voder; modern neural synthesis. | ||
| 1940 | Bombe de Turing Alan Turing | An electromechanical device for breaking Enigma. | ||
| 1941 | Zuse Z3 | The first working programmable computer, built from relays. | ||
| 1943 | Colossus | A British electronic codebreaking machine built with vacuum tubes. | ||
| 1944 | Harvard Mark I | Howard Aiken’s electromechanical programmable computer. | Máquina analítica de Babbage | |
| 1945 | Computadora Charles Babbage | A programmable machine for processing information. | Smartphone | |
| 1945 | ENIAC | One of the first general-purpose electronic digital computers. | UNIVAC I | |
| 1945 | Arquitectura von Neumann | The program and data are stored in the same computer memory. | ||
| 1945 | Búsqueda en anchura Konrad Zuse | Traversing a graph level by level (Zuse, 1945; Moore, 1959). | ||
| 1946 | Trackball | A ball pointing device. | Ratón | |
| 1950 | Tarjeta de pago | A card for payments; with a magnetic stripe since the 1960s. | Papel moneda | Pagos móviles |
| 1950 | MESM | The first computer in the USSR and continental Europe (Lebedev). | ||
| 1951 | Memoria de núcleos magnéticos | Bits are stored in the magnetization of rings. | RAM | |
| 1951 | UNIVAC I | The first mass-produced commercial computer in the US. | ENIAC | |
| 1952 | Código de barras | A machine-readable code of bars. | Código QR | |
| 1952 | Compilador | A program that translates code into machine instructions (Hopper). | ||
| 1952 | Reconocimiento de voz | Turning speech into text. | ||
| 1953 | Impresora | A device for printing on paper. | ||
| 1953 | Función hash | Mapping data to a short fingerprint. | ||
| 1954 | Traducción automática | Automatic translation (the Georgetown experiment). | ||
| 1955 | Lápiz óptico | A pointer for drawing on a CRT. | ||
| 1956 | Disco duro | Magnetic platters with heads (IBM 350). | Solid-state drive | |
| 1956 | Sistema operativo | A program that manages a computer’s resources. | ||
| 1956 | ROM | Read-only memory. | ||
| 1957 | Fotolitografía | Transferring a circuit pattern onto silicon with light through a mask. | Cámara fotográfica | |
| 1957 | Lenguaje de programación | A formal language for writing programs (Fortran). | Programa de Ada Lovelace | |
| 1957 | Fortran | The first widely used high-level language (Backus, IBM). | ||
| 1958 | Circuito integrado | Many transistors and connections on a single chip. | ||
| 1958 | Red neuronal artificial | A model of connected “neurons”; Rosenblatt’s perceptron. | ||
| 1958 | Videojuego | A game on an electronic screen (Tennis for Two, Pong). | Juego de mesa | |
| 1958 | Perceptrón Frank Rosenblatt | The first trainable neural network machine (Rosenblatt). | ||
| 1958 | Lisp | A list-processing language (McCarthy) — the language of early AI. | ||
| 1959 | Algoritmo de Dijkstra Edsger W. Dijkstra | Finding the shortest path in a weighted graph. | Algoritmo A* | |
| 1959 | Memoria virtual | Paging to disk (Atlas). | ||
| 1959 | COBOL | A language for business applications (based on Hopper’s ideas). | ||
| 1960 | Servidor | A computer that serves requests from other computers. | ||
| 1960 | Gráficos por computadora | Creating images by computer. | ||
| 1960 | Oblea de silicio | A disc of single-crystal silicon on which chips are made. | ||
| 1960 | Sala limpia | A room with minimal dust for making chips (Whitfield). | ||
| 1961 | Calculadora electrónica | A calculator built on electronics (ANITA; pocket ones in the 1970s). | Aritmómetro | Microprocesador |
| 1961 | Tiempo compartido | Many users working at once (CTSS). | Unix, Contraseña | |
| 1961 | Contraseña | A secret for logging in (CTSS). | Tiempo compartido | |
| 1961 | Sistema de archivos | Organizing files on a storage medium. | ||
| 1963 | Sketchpad | The first interactive graphics program, with a light pen. | CAD, Interfaz gráfica de usuario | |
| 1963 | CAD | Computer-aided design (Sutherland’s Sketchpad). | Sketchpad | |
| 1963 | CMOS Frank Wanlass | Pairs of complementary transistors with low power consumption. | ||
| 1964 | Mainframe | A large computer for organizations (IBM System/360). | Tabuladora de Hollerith | |
| 1964 | Supercomputadora | A computing system of the highest performance (CDC 6600). | ||
| 1964 | Reconocimiento facial | Identifying a person from an image of their face. | ||
| 1964 | Ratón Douglas Engelbart | Engelbart’s pointing device. | Trackball | |
| 1964 | Línea de comandos | A text interface. | Máquina de escribir | Interfaz gráfica de usuario |
| 1964 | Pantalla de plasma | A display of gas-discharge cells (Bitzer). | ||
| 1964 | BASIC | A simple language for learning (Kemeny, Kurtz). | ||
| 1964 | SRAM | Memory built on flip-flops, fast and expensive. | ||
| 1965 | Pantalla táctil | A grid of transparent electrodes that registers a finger’s touch by a change in capacitance. | ||
| 1965 | Minicomputer | A compact computer (PDP-8). | Computadora personal | |
| 1965 | Encapsulado de chip | A case with leads (DIP, BGA). | ||
| 1965 | Sistema experto | An expert’s rules in a program (DENDRAL). | Computadora de ajedrez | |
| 1965 | Ley de Moore | The number of transistors on a chip doubles roughly every two years. | ||
| 1966 | Chatbot | A conversational program (ELIZA). | Asistente de IA | |
| 1966 | Visión por computadora | Image analysis by computer. | ||
| 1967 | ATM | A machine that dispenses cash. | ||
| 1967 | Virtualización | Virtual machines on one computer (IBM CP-40). | Contenedores (Docker) | |
| 1968 | Pantalla de cristal líquido | A screen built on liquid crystals. | Pantalla | |
| 1968 | Controlador lógico programable | An industrial controller (Modicon). | Relé | |
| 1968 | RAM | Fast memory for current data (Dennard’s DRAM). | Memoria de núcleos magnéticos | |
| 1968 | Pantalla | A smartphone screen: a pixel matrix under protective glass with a touch layer. | Pantalla de cristal líquido | |
| 1968 | Memoria caché | Fast memory between the processor and RAM. | ||
| 1968 | Algoritmo A* Peter E. Hart, Nils John Nilsson | Pathfinding with a heuristic. | Algoritmo de Dijkstra | |
| 1968 | API | An interface for programs to interact. | ||
| 1969 | Sensor de imagen | An array of photocells that turn light into an electrical signal (CCD, CMOS). | ||
| 1969 | Unix | The Bell Labs operating system. | Tiempo compartido | Linux, macOS |
| 1969 | Sensor CCD | A charge-coupled device (Boyle and Smith). | ||
| 1970 | Monitor | A computer’s image output device. | ||
| 1970 | Base de datos | An organized store of data; Codd’s relational model. | Tabuladora de Hollerith, Catálogo de biblioteca | |
| 1970 | MEMS | Microelectromechanical systems — mechanics on a silicon chip. | ||
| 1970 | Lector de huellas | A biometric sensor. | ||
| 1970 | Retropropagación Seppo Linnainmaa | The algorithm for training multilayer networks (Linnainmaa, 1970; popularized in 1986). | ||
| 1970 | SCADA | Supervisory control of a plant. | ||
| 1971 | Microprocesador | A computer’s central processor on a single chip; the first commercial one was the Intel 4004. | Calculadora electrónica | Microcontrolador |
| 1971 | Microcontrolador | A processor, memory and peripherals on one chip (TMS1000). | Microprocesador | |
| 1971 | Impresora láser | A printer based on xerography (Xerox). | ||
| 1971 | Disquete | A flexible magnetic disk. | Memoria USB | |
| 1971 | EPROM | ROM erasable with ultraviolet light (Frohman). | Memoria flash | |
| 1971 | Máquina recreativa | An arcade cabinet (Computer Space, Pong). | Pinball | |
| 1971 | Virus informático | A self-copying program (Creeper). | ||
| 1972 | C | The systems language of Unix (Ritchie). | C++, Python | |
| 1972 | Consola de videojuegos | A computer for games (Magnavox Odyssey). | ||
| 1972 | Control de versiones | A history of code changes (SCCS, Git). | ||
| 1973 | Interfaz gráfica de usuario Ivan Sutherland | Windows, icons and a pointer (Xerox Alto). | Línea de comandos, Sketchpad | macOS |
| 1973 | RFID | Radio-frequency identification. | ||
| 1974 | Sistema en chip | A single chip that combines the processor, graphics, modem and controllers. | ||
| 1974 | Reconocimiento óptico de caracteres | Turning an image of text into characters (Kurzweil). | ||
| 1974 | SQL | The query language of relational databases. | ||
| 1975 | Computadora personal | A computer for one person (Altair, Apple II, IBM PC). | Minicomputer | Portátil |
| 1975 | Cámara digital | A camera with an electronic sensor (Sasson, Kodak). | Cámara fotográfica | Cámara del smartphone |
| 1976 | Criptografía de clave pública | Diffie–Hellman, RSA. | ||
| 1976 | Impresora de inyección de tinta | Printing with droplets of ink. | ||
| 1978 | Procesador de señales digitales | A processor for handling signals. | ||
| 1978 | Arquitectura x86 | The processor architecture of the Intel 8086 and its descendants. | ||
| 1979 | Hoja de cálculo | VisiCalc — the PC’s “killer app”. | ||
| 1980 | Disipador de CPU | A fan with a heat sink for cooling the processor. | ||
| 1980 | ASIC | A chip designed for a specific task. | ||
| 1980 | Tarjeta de red | An Ethernet adapter. | ||
| 1980 | Arquitectura RISC | Processors with a reduced instruction set (ARM, MIPS). | ||
| 1981 | Portátil | A portable computer. | Computadora personal | |
| 1981 | Placa base | A computer’s main board. | ||
| 1981 | Tarjeta gráfica | A board with a graphics processor. | ||
| 1982 | Disco óptico | Data is read by a laser. | ||
| 1983 | Gamepad | A game controller (Nintendo’s D-pad). | Joystick | |
| 1983 | Software de código abierto | Free software (GNU, Stallman). | ||
| 1984 | Memoria flash | Non-volatile memory built on floating-gate transistors (Fujio Masuoka). | EPROM | |
| 1984 | Proyector digital | A projector with a DLP or LCD panel. | Proyector de cine | |
| 1984 | macOS | Apple’s OS (Macintosh). | Interfaz gráfica de usuario, Unix | iOS |
| 1984 | Tetris | Pajitnov’s game. | ||
| 1985 | C++ | C with classes (Stroustrup). | C | Java |
| 1985 | Arquitectura ARM | An energy-efficient RISC architecture — the basis of smartphones. | ||
| 1985 | Autoedición | Page layout on a PC (PageMaker, PostScript). | Tipografía | |
| 1985 | FPGA Xilinx | A chip with reprogrammable logic (Xilinx). | ||
| 1985 | Windows | Microsoft’s operating system. | ||
| 1986 | Lector de pantalla | Reading out the interface for blind users. | Braille | |
| 1987 | Matriz de píxeles OLED | An array of light-emitting organic diodes, each driven by its own transistor. | MicroLED | |
| 1987 | Chip DLP | An array of micromirrors (Hornbeck, TI). | ||
| 1987 | Tarjeta de sonido | A board for sound input and output. | ||
| 1987 | Antivirus | Protection against malicious programs. | ||
| 1988 | Panel táctil | A laptop’s touch-sensitive panel. | ||
| 1988 | Compresión de vídeo | MPEG and H.264 codecs. | ||
| 1988 | Firewall | Filtering network traffic. | ||
| 1989 | Consola portátil | Game Boy. | ||
| 1989 | Aprendizaje por refuerzo | Training an agent with rewards (AlphaGo). | ||
| 1990 | Centro de datos | A building with thousands of servers. | ||
| 1991 | Webcam | A camera for a computer (the coffee pot in Cambridge). | ||
| 1991 | Linux | A free OS kernel (Torvalds). | Unix | Git |
| 1991 | Solid-state drive | A drive built on flash memory. | Disco duro | |
| 1991 | Python | A language with simple syntax (van Rossum). | C | |
| 1992 | Sistema de recomendación | Picking content to match interests. | ||
| 1992 | JPEG | A standard for compressing photographs. | ||
| 1993 | MP3 | Lossy audio compression based on psychoacoustics. | ||
| 1994 | Código QR Denso Wave, Masahiro Hara | A two-dimensional barcode (Denso Wave). | Código de barras | |
| 1995 | JavaScript | The scripting language of web pages (Eich). | JSON | |
| 1995 | Java | A language with a virtual machine (“write once, run anywhere”). | C++ | |
| 1995 | Autenticación en dos pasos | Logging in with a password and a second factor. | ||
| 1996 | USB | The Universal Serial Bus. | USB-C | |
| 1997 | Computadora de ajedrez | Deep Blue beat Kasparov. | Sistema experto | |
| 1997 | Tinta electrónica | A display made of microcapsules with pigment. | ||
| 1998 | Pagos en línea | Paying on the Internet. | ||
| 1999 | Unidad de procesamiento gráfico | A processor for parallel computing of graphics and neural networks. | ||
| 1999 | Internet de las cosas | Connecting household and industrial devices to the network. | ||
| 2000 | Cámara del smartphone | A lens and a light-sensitive CMOS sensor. | Cámara fotográfica, Cámara digital | |
| 2000 | Rastreo GPS | Tracking movements with GPS. | ||
| 2000 | Memoria USB Amir Ban, IBM | Portable flash memory. | Disquete | |
| 2000 | CAPTCHA | A “human or robot” test. | ||
| 2001 | Cifrado AES | A symmetric encryption standard. | ||
| 2001 | JSON Douglas Crockford | A text data format (Crockford). | JavaScript | |
| 2002 | HDMI | A digital interface for video and sound. | ||
| 2002 | Gemelo digital | A virtual model of a physical object. | ||
| 2005 | Mapas en línea | Interactive maps in the browser. | Mapa | |
| 2005 | Arduino | An open microcontroller board for learning. | ||
| 2005 | Git | A distributed version control system (Torvalds). | Linux | |
| 2006 | Computación en la nube | Computing as a service in data centres. | ||
| 2007 | iOS | Apple’s mobile OS. | macOS | |
| 2007 | Lector electrónico | A reading device with electronic ink. | Códice | |
| 2008 | Aplicación móvil | A program for a smartphone. | ||
| 2008 | Blockchain Satoshi Nakamoto | A distributed ledger of blocks (Bitcoin). | ||
| 2008 | Android | A mobile OS built on the Linux kernel. | ||
| 2008 | Tienda de aplicaciones | A catalogue of mobile programs. | ||
| 2009 | Criptomoneda | Digital money on a blockchain (Bitcoin). | ||
| 2010 | Tableta | A portable computer with a touchscreen. | Smartphone | |
| 2011 | Asistente de voz | Speech recognition and replies (Siri, Alice). | ||
| 2012 | Aprendizaje profundo Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton | Training multilayer networks on GPUs (AlexNet). | ||
| 2012 | MicroLED | A display made of microscopic LEDs. | Matriz de píxeles OLED | |
| 2012 | Raspberry Pi | A single-board computer. | ||
| 2013 | Smartwatch | A wrist computer with a touchscreen. | Reloj de pulsera, Pulsera de actividad | |
| 2013 | Gafas de realidad aumentada | Glasses that overlay images on the world. | Gafas | |
| 2013 | Contenedores (Docker) | Isolating applications. | Virtualización | |
| 2014 | USB-C | A universal reversible connector. | USB | |
| 2014 | Pagos móviles | Paying with a smartphone via NFC. | Tarjeta de pago | |
| 2015 | Contrato inteligente | A program on a blockchain (Ethereum). | ||
| 2016 | Unidad de procesamiento tensorial | A neural network accelerator (Google TPU). | ||
| 2016 | Visor de realidad virtual | A virtual reality headset. | Estereoscopio | |
| 2017 | Transformador (arquitectura) | A neural network architecture built on attention. | ||
| 2018 | Modelo de lenguaje grande | A transformer neural network trained on text. | ||
| 2019 | Litografía EUV | Photolithography in extreme ultraviolet for processes of a few nanometres. | ||
| 2021 | Generación de imágenes | Neural networks that draw from a description. | ||
| 2022 | Asistente de IA | Conversational helpers built on large language models. | Chatbot | |
| Reproducción mecánica de información | The idea that a machine reproduces a given pattern again and again in the same way — a text, a design or a sequence of operations. |