Computer History

By zariahamilton

  • First Computer Program to Run on a Computer

    University of Manchester researchers Frederic Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Toothill develop the Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM), better known as the Manchester Baby. The Baby was built to test a new memory technology developed by Williams and Kilburn -- soon known as the Williams Tube – which was the first high-speed electronic random access memory for computers.This was the first program in history to run on a digital, electronic, stored-program computer.

  • CSIRAC runs first program

    Built in Sydney, Australia by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research for use in its Radio physics Laboratory in Sydney, CSIRAC was designed by British-born Trevor Pearcey, and used unusual 12-hole paper tape. It was transferred to the Department of Physics at the University of Melbourne in 1955 and remained in service until 1964.

  • First Univac 1 delivered to US Census Bureau

    The Univac 1 is the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention.One biblical scholar even used a Univac 1 to compile a concordance to the King James version of the Bible. the Univac 1 used 5,200 vacuum tubes and weighed 29,000 pounds. Remington Rand eventually sold 46 Univac 1s at more than $1 million each.

  • Direct keyboard input to computers

    At MIT, researchers begin experimenting with direct keyboard input to computers, a precursor to today´s normal mode of operation.Doug Ross wrote a memo advocating direct access in February. Ross contended that a Flexowriter -- an electrically-controlled typewriter -- connected to an MIT computer could function as a keyboard input device due to its low cost and flexibility.

  • IBM 7030 (“Stretch”) completed

    IBM´s 7000 series of mainframe computers are the company´s first to use transistors.Nine of the computers, which featured dozens of advanced design innovations, were sold, mainly to national laboratories and major scientific users. he knowledge and technologies developed for the Stretch project played a major role in the design, management, and manufacture of the later IBM System/360--the most successful computer family in IBM history.