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ERA 1101
Inventor: Designed by ERA (Engineering Research Associates) & Built by Remington-Rand
Description: "One of the first high-speed, electronic, digital computers" manufactured as a sellable good for large organizations. It was capable of high-speed computing and it's first customer was the US Navy. It was "one of the earliest magnetic storage devices". This technology is still used today for long-term data storage solutions. -
Ferranti Mark I
Inventor: Ferranti Ltd. (a British electrical engineering firm)
Description: "World's first commercially available general-purpose digital computer”, which means it could be programmed to carry out sequences like logical and math logic. The first computer was sold to Manchester University. We still use digital computers for logical and arithmetic operations/computations. -
IBM 650
Inventor: IBM's Frank Hamilton
Description: The first mass-produced computer. Its "magnetic data-storage drum allowed much faster access to stored information". Universities used them for programming student programs.
"IBM called the 650 an automatic calculator, not a computer". It "revolutionized areas of science, engineering, business, industry, and defense", with its capability of fast calculating speeds. Technology advances have continued to improve on the speed which we use today. -
Direct Keyboard Input To Computers
Investor: MIT Researchers / Doug Ross
Description: With the use of a "Flexowriter, an electrically-controlled typewriter, connected to an MIT computer it could function as a keyboard input device due to its low cost and flexibility. It replaced computer users from having to feed their "programs into a computer using punched cards or paper tape". We still use the keyboard today. -
SAGE System goes Online
Inventor:
Description: "The first large-scale computer communications network". Its main purpose was to "detect incoming Soviet bombers and direct interceptor aircraft to destroy them". The SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) system "connected 23 hardened computer sites in the US and Canada". It was a "network of combat centers to direct any resulting air battles". Computer technology like this is still being used to keep countries safe from attacks.