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UNIMATE
This is the first mass produced industrial robot invented by Joe Engelberger and George Devol. This was the first initial step towards automation in the workplace and created a large change moving forward for simple repeatable tasks that could be replaced. -
Card Random Access Memory (CRAM)
This later became what is now known as Random Access Memory (RAM). Predating todays RAM, these cards produced by the National Cash Register were created to store multiple users and data. At the time, a deck could hold about 5.5 MB of data. This allow for computers to store easily retrievable data and functionally "sped" up common computations. -
ASCII
ASCII — American Standard Code for Information Interchange — permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data. -
IBM SABRE
While not the earliest to attempt this, SABRE is the most likely the most successful. SABRE is a reservation software that was used until the late 1990s. This software is the basis for many travel sites and utilizes the transfer of data over telephone lines. Predating the internet by many years. -
Apollo Guidance Computer
Not the first of it's kind by no means, however one of the most known. The task for the engineers was to size down the computer to something manageable due to weight and balance restrictions onto an aircraft. This computer used integrated circuits and allowed the astronauts to enter code for calculations and trajectory.
