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Significant Inventions in Computer History
Significant Inventions in Computer History -
First Artificial Intelligence Program
The first artificial intelligence program was created in 1951 by a man named Christopher Strachey. This artificial intelligence was created and ran on the Ferranti Mark I, a computer residing at the University of Manchester in England. This artificial intelligence was designed to play a game of checkers. -
First Magnetic Core Memory (Whirlwind)
In 1953 the Whirlwind computer at MIT becomes the first computer in the world to utilize magnetic core memory. Jay Forrester of MIT pioneered this technology and type of memory for use in computers. Magnetic core memory came to an end in 1971 with Intel's creation of the DRAM integrated circuit. -
FORTRAN Created
In the year 1957, Fortran was developed by a team at IBM and the project led by John Backus. Previously to Fortran hand-coded programming was widely used. This programming language became the staple programming language because it utilized statements in English. For decades Fortran was the most widely used language for technical and scientific computing and is still used today -
The Integrated Circuit
Fully developed and patented in 1959. There had been previous iterations of various aspects that lead to the culmination of the first modern integrated circuit. Robert Noyce had taken previously ideas, concepts, and developments in relation to circuits over the prior ten years and combined them into the foundational model and example of what the integrated circuit is. This invention created the beginning of the information age. -
The First Mouse
In 1963 Doug Engelbart created the first functioning mouse. The original mouse was made of wood and rolled on an "trackball" also made of wood. This design became the mainstream standard of mouse design for the following decades.