Telephony began with Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876, utilizing wired connections for voice transmission. Throughout the 20th century, various technologies emerged, including manual telephony, automatic switching systems, and wireless radio connections.
Mobile telephony took shape in the late 1940s and 1950s with the development of the first mobile communication systems. However, the first commercial mobile phones were launched in the 1980s, which were large and heavy. The real breakthrough came in the 1990s with the advent of digital technologies, leading to the development of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and the first smartphones in the early 2000s. Since then, mobile telephony has experienced exponential growth, with continuous innovations in connectivity, functionality, and wireless technologies, including the rise of 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.
After the first commercial digital computers came into operation in the 1950s, a technologically driven development followed that continues unabated at a rapid pace, still 70 years later. When we look back, we see that computer equipment and its embedding in daily life has gone through a complete renewal almost every decade. With the continuous increase in processing speed and memory storage, the development of programming languages, algorithms, storage and control techniques is taking off at a high flight. And with it the application possibilities.
A chronological walk through computer land can never fully show the variety of developments. The composition of this display case aims to typify different periods and is intended as a "feast of recognition" of earlier times.
Shifting paradigms
The insatiable need for ever more processing and storage capacity is a driving force. Boundaries are shifted depending on technological and economic possibilities and conditions. Bottlenecks are bypassed until other bottlenecks arise or reappear at a different level. This is how shifting paradigms arise and the computer landscape shows ever-changing views over the years.
From central processing on one mainframe to decentralized, personal computing. Until later the emphasis falls on distributed systems, again centrally organized at a higher level. Communication is accelerated in first instance by parallel bus structures but eventually by networks of fast serial interconnections. Naturally, different applications have different requirements. Think of the development of special supercomputers. In the early days of the personal computer, these were not powerful enough for professional users, but separate workstations with RISC processors were. Current PCs can now be used in all sizes and configurations and are even used as building blocks for supercomputers.
After the first commercial digital computers came into operation in the 1950s, a technologically driven development followed that continues unabated at a rapid pace, still 70 years later. When we look back, we see that computer equipment and its embedding in daily life has gone through a complete renewal almost every decade. With the continuous increase in processing speed and memory storage, the development of programming languages, algorithms, storage and control techniques is taking off at a high flight. And with it the application possibilities.
A chronological walk through computer land can never fully show the variety of developments. The composition of this display case aims to typify different periods and is intended as a "feast of recognition" of earlier times.
Shifting paradigms
The insatiable need for ever more processing and storage capacity is a driving force. Boundaries are shifted depending on technological and economic possibilities and conditions. Bottlenecks are bypassed until other bottlenecks arise or reappear at a different level. This is how shifting paradigms arise and the computer landscape shows ever-changing views over the years.
From central processing on one mainframe to decentralized, personal computing. Until later the emphasis falls on distributed systems, again centrally organized at a higher level. Communication is accelerated in first instance by parallel bus structures but eventually by networks of fast serial interconnections. Naturally, different applications have different requirements. Think of the development of special supercomputers. In the early days of the personal computer, these were not powerful enough for professional users, but separate workstations with RISC processors were. Current PCs can now be used in all sizes and configurations and are even used as building blocks for supercomputers.
The PDP-8 (Programmed Data Processor) became in 1964 the first successful minicomputer by the Digital Equipment Corporation. It became the start of a succesful range of minicomputers. The 12 bit range of the PDP-8 series was succeeded by the 16 bit PDP-11 series, followed by the 32 bit VAx-11 series.