Computer Inventions of the 1960's

By caseghost

  • Spacewar!

    Spacewar!
    Developed by Steve Russell for the DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at MIT, Spacewar! is considered to be the first known video game. Its source code went on to inspire multiple ports, as well as many games as the concept of gaming came to be.

  • Telstar

    Telstar
    Launched in 1962 through a collaboration of Bell Labs, NASA, AT&T, the UK General Post Office, and France Telecom, Telstar was the first commercial satellite. It was the first device to relay phone calls, faxes, and TV pictures through space.

  • BASIC Programming Language

    BASIC Programming Language
    Standing for "Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code" and created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz, it was the first programming language to be easily teachable and accessible to its users. It allowed users to directly interact with computers for the first time using keyboards and printers.

  • DRAM

    DRAM
    Standing for "Dynamic Random Access Memory" and invented by Robert H. Dennard, this memory chip allowed computers to be built for the general public. It greatly increased the memory capacity of computers while costing less than ever to make.

  • ARPAnet

    ARPAnet
    Created by the US government's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), ARPAnet paved the way for what would eventually become our internet. It was the first system created to share data between multiple computers quickly.