Hallmark events and persons who advanced the state of the art or otherwise made a significant contribution to computing and related fields.
The first electronic computer to use Boolean logic was a development of John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry of Iowa State University in 1940. Howard Aiken of Harvard University, Grace Hopper and others worked on the Mark I (1944). At the University of Pennsylvania, John von Neumann developed the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) in 1945. Also at Pennsylvania, John Eckert and John Mauchly developed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) in 1946.
The 1950s saw the introduction of the first commercial computer (UNIVAC I) and programming languages that became industry standards. FORmula TRANslation (FORTRAN) and the COmmon Business Oriented Language (COBOL) remain in use today.
The first commercially produced large-scale computer was introduced in 1954. By 1957, there were 450 digital computer systems in industry and government.
The 1960s marked the introduction of third-generation computers, minicomputers, and supercomputers and the spread of computing education to colleges and universities. By the spring of 1961, computer manufacturers had delivered nearly 5000 systems and there were orders for an additional 6500 computers. The first student chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) was established at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1961.
IBM introduced in 1964 the popular System 360 series mainframe computers. Several 360s were used to support NASA's Apollo program and the first lunar landing (1969). In 1960 Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) developed the PDP-5, the first of the popular PDP series minicomputers. DEC introduced the last model of the PDP 11 in 1985. Control Data Corporation developed the CDC 6600, the first supercomputer, in 1965.
In 1963, the SABRE system began processing reservations for American Airlines (at the conclusion of a development cycle that began in 1954). Using dual 65K IBM 7090 computers, SABRE processed 2,100 inputs per minute and stored 40,000 passenger records per day.
In 1964 at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California, Ed Sternagle programmed the first multi-player, interactive game. Sternagle developed the game as test software to verify the operational status of the computer and mission consoles used to monitor NASA's unmanned space flights.
Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore helped launched the era of the microcomputing when their company, Intel, developed the first commercial microprocessor in 1971. The design team for the 4004 included Federico Fagin, Ted Hoff and Stan Mazor. The Intel 4004 had a clock speed of 750 kHz and a memory capacity of 4 kilobytes.
The Altair, the first microcomputer manufactured for personal use, was made by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first computer store (1974) was Arrowhead Computer Company, 11656 Pico, Los Angeles, California. It stocked a line of Altair computers. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed a BASIC interpreter for the Altair.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers and helped launch the personal computer industry. Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston created VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet program. VisiCalc was the application that drove the sales of Apple Computers, and in turn the growth of personal computing.
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last update: September 28, 2000