History of Computing 1943 to 1971.

The second part of the list of important occurences. Short articles for some of the more important or interesting items from the main list will appear soon.

If anyone wants to add something to the list or write a short article about an item already listed feel free to send it in, all contributions gratefully received.

Article coming soon. denotes that an article related to the subject is underway.

Computers between 1943 and 1959 usually regarded as "first generation" computers.
(Some say this era did not start until 1951)
Based on valves (vacuum tubes) and wire circuits these machines were usually programmed by the use of punched cards or perforated paper tape and switches or jumper wires.
All programming was done in machine code.

1943 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.", is alleged to have been said by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in this year.
This has been proved to be a myth and untrue!

The Harvard Mark I built.

Max Newman, Charles Eryl Wynn-Williams, Alan Mathison Turing and their team complete the "Heath Robinson". This is a specialised machine for cipher-breaking, not a general purpose calculator or computer but a logic device, using a combination of electronics and relay logic.

Samuel Williams and George Stibitz complete the "Relay Interpolator", later called the Model II Relay Calculator, programmable calculator.

The first ever Programmable Electronic Computer, the Colossus. It contained 1800 (Mk II model 2400) valves (vacuum tubes) for logic. It was invented by Tommy Flowers, a Post Office engineer.

1946 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) completed.

1947 Invention of the Transistor at Bell Laboratories, USA, by John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain and William Bradford Shockley.

The first ever documented case of a computer bug.

1948 SSEM (Small Scale Experimental Machine) or "Baby" was built at Manchester University (UK).

1949 Maurice Vincent Wilkes (knighted in the 2000) and a team at Cambridge University build a stored program computer - EDSAC. It used paper tape Input / Output, and was the first stored-program computer to operate a regular computing service.

EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) - First computer to use Magnetic Tape for storage.

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science.
My research shows this quote to be true, but incomplete, the full quote is:
"Where a computer like the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
When fully quoted it is more understandable.

1950 Floppy Disk invented at the Imperial University in Tokyo by Doctor Yoshiro Nakamats. After six of Japans’ leading corporations turned down his request to have them produce the floppy disk, he granted the sales license for the disk to IBM, which now holds the patents for sixteen of his inventions.
Article coming soon.

Alan Mathison Turing declared that one day there would be a machine that could duplicate human intelligence in every way and prove it by passing a specialised test, later to be called the Turing Test.

1951 High level language compiler invented by Grace Murray Hopper.

Whirlwind, the first real-time computer was built for the US Air Defence System.

UNIVAC-1. (UNIVersal Automatic Computer 1) The first commercially sucessful electronic computer.

Joseph Lyons and Co., a UK food company famous for its tea shops, made history by running the first business application on an electronic computer. A valuation, payroll and inventory programs were run on Lyons Electronic Office 1 (LEO 1) a computer system designed by Maurice Wilkes, who had previously worked on EDSAC, and Dr. John Pinkerton.

1952 EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) completed at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA (by John von Neumann and others).

1953 Magnetic Core Memory developed.

1954 FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) development started by John Backus and his team at IBM - continuing until 1957. FORTRAN is a programming language, used for scientific programming.

1956 First conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) held at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA.

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra invented an efficient algorithm for shortest paths in graphs as a demonstration of the abilities of the ARMAC computer in Holland.

IBM 350 is the first commercialy available Hard Disk Drive. It stored 4.4 MB across 50 24 inch (61 cm) diameter platters spinning at 1200 RPM and was the size of a family car!

1957 First Dot Matrix printer marketed by IBM.

"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall.
My research shows this quote to be true, but never attributed to a named person (Prentice Hall has been a leading educational publisher since 1913).

ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) (now known as ERNIE 1), not a computer as such but a very important piece of equipment that generates random numbers for the Premium Bonds. Built at the Post Office Research Station by a team led by Sidney Broadhurst, the designers were Tommy Flowers and Harry Fensom.

1958 LISP (interpreted language) developed, Finished in 1960. LISP stands for "LISt Processing", but some call it "Lots of Irritating and Stupid Parenthesis" due to the huge number of confusing nested brackets used in LISP programs.

The integrated circuit invented by Jack St Clair Kilby at Texas Instruments.

Computers built between 1959 and 1963 are often regarded as "Second Generation" computers.
Based on transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers.
More powerful, these computers could handle interpreters such as FORTRAN (for science) or COBOL (for business), and accept English-like commands, and so were much more flexible in their applications.

1959 ERMA on display at a Bank of America Museum in Concord, California. ERMA, the Electronic Recording Method of Accounting, digitised cheque handling for the Bank of America by creating a computer readable font. A special scanner read account numbers preprinted on cheques in magnetic ink:
The characters of the computer readable font.

COBOL (Common Business-Orientated Language) was developed, the initial specifications being released in April 1960.

IBM 7000 series mainframes were the first transistorised computers for the company.

1960 ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) first structured, procedural, language to be released.

The DEC PDP1 The precursor to the minicomputer, DEC PDP-1 sold for $120,000, built by Digital Equipment Cost (DEC). The average PDP-1 included with a cathode ray tube graphic display, needed no air conditioning and required only one operator. Its' large display scope intrigued early hackers at MIT, who wrote the first computerised video game, SpaceWar!, for it. The SpaceWar! creators then used the game as a standard demonstration on all 50 computers.

AT&T designed its' Dataphone, the first commercial modem, specifically for converting digital computer data to analog signals for transmission across the long distance telephone network.

Tandy Corporation founded by Charles David Tandy.

1961 APL (A Programming Language, were they running out of names?) programming language released by Kenneth Iverson at IBM.

The IBM 1301, 28 MB Disk Storage unit. IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit announced. The IBM 1301, for use with the IBM 7000 series mainframe computer. Maximum capacity was 28 million characters (28 MB) across 20 platters, rotating at 1,800 RPM. First units delivered were in 1962. The 1301 Mk1 leased for $2,100 per month or could be purchased for $115,500 and was the size of a large commercial freezer. The drive had one read/write arm for each disk as well as flying heads, both of which are still used in disk drives today.

1962 Virtual memory emerged from a team under the direction of Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester. Virtual memory permitted a computer to use its storage capacity to switch rapidly among multiple programs or users and is a key requirement for timesharing.
1963 Tandy Radio Shack is founded (TRS), formed by the merger of Tandy Leather Company and Radio Shack.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) standard published. ASCII permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data.

Computers built between 1964 and 1971 are often regarded as "Third Generation" computers.
Based on the first integrated circuits creating even smaller machines.
Began to open up computing to smaller businesses.
1964 Programming language PL/1 (Programming Language 1, yep, they must have run out of names) released by IBM.

Launch of IBM 360 - the first series of compatible computers.

DEC PDP-8 Mini Computer. The First Minicomputer, built by Digital Equipment Cost (DEC) it cost $16,000 to buy.

1965 Moores' Law published by Gordon Earle Moore in the Electronics Magazine.

Fuzzy Logic designed by Lofti Zadeh (University of Berkeley, California), it is used to process approximate data - such as "about 100".

BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) developed at Dartmouth College, USA, by Thomas Eugene Kurtz and John Kemeny. Not implemented on microcomputers until 1975. It is often used in education to teach programming, and also at home by beginners.

The computer mouse conceived by Dr. Douglas Carl Englebart.

The first supercomputer, the Control Data CD6600, was developed.

1967 Development on PASCAL started, to be finished in 1971. Based on ALGOL. Developed by Niklaus Wirth and named in honour of the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal.

1968 Intel (Integrated Electronics Corporation ) founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Earle Moore.

LOGO programming language developed by Seymour Papert, Wally Feurzeig and Daniel Gureasko Bobrow.

1969 ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) started by the US Dept. of Defence for research into networking. It is the original basis for what now forms the Internet.

The first network working group, Request For Comment (RFC), RFC0001 published. The RFCs are a series of papers which are used to develop and define protocols for networking, originally the basis for ARPANET there are now thousands of them applying to all aspects of the Internet.

Introduction of RS-232 (serial interface) standard by EIA (Electronic Industries Association).

1970 First commercially available DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chip introduced by Intel. It was called to 1103 and had a capacity of 1 K-bit, 1024 bits.

Development of UNIX operating system started by Ken Thomson and Dennis Ritchie. UNIX and its' clones (such as Linux) are still widely used on network and Internet servers.

Forth programming language developed from Charles H. Moores' personal programming system, which had been in continuous development since 1958. Forth was first exposed to other programmers in the early 1970s, starting with Elizabeth Rather.

Steve Geller, Ray Holt and a team from Ai Research and American Microsystems completed development of a flight data processor for the US Navy F14A "TomCat" fighter jet. This processor used LSI chips to produce a fast and powerfull programmable computer that fitted into the very tight space restrictions of the aircraft.

1971 The first CPU, Intel 4004 The Intel 4004, the first complete central processing unit (CPU) on one chip, the first commercially available microprocessor, was released. It contained the equivalent of 2300 transistors and was a 4 bit processor. It was capable of around 92,000 instructions per second , and a maximum clock rate of 740 kHz.

Development of PASCAL finished.

Highfields Amateur Radio Club
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History of Computing Part 2:
1943 to 1971.

Computers between 1943 and 1959 usually regarded as "first generation" computers. (Some say this era did not start until 1951) Based on valves (vacuum tubes) and wire circuits these machines were usually programmed by the use of punched cards or perforated paper tape and switches or jumper wires. All programming was done in machine code.
1943	"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.", is alleged to have been said by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM in this year. This has been proved to be a myth and untrue! The Harvard Mark I built. Max Newman, Charles Eryl Wynn-Williams, Alan Mathison Turing and their team complete the "Heath Robinson". This is a specialised machine for cipher-breaking, not a general purpose calculator or computer but a logic device, using a combination of electronics and relay logic. Samuel Williams and George Stibitz complete the "Relay Interpolator", later called the Model II Relay Calculator, programmable calculator. The first ever Programmable Electronic Computer, the Colossus. It contained 1800 (Mk II model 2400) valves (vacuum tubes) for logic. It was invented by Tommy Flowers, a Post Office engineer.
1946	ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) completed.
1947	Invention of the Transistor at Bell Laboratories, USA, by John Bardeen, Walter Houser Brattain and William Bradford Shockley. The first ever documented case of a computer bug.
1948	SSEM (Small Scale Experimental Machine) or "Baby" was built at Manchester University (UK).
1949	Maurice Vincent Wilkes (knighted in the 2000) and a team at Cambridge University build a stored program computer - EDSAC. It used paper tape Input / Output, and was the first stored-program computer to operate a regular computing service. EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) - First computer to use Magnetic Tape for storage. "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science. My research shows this quote to be true, but incomplete, the full quote is: "Where a computer like the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." When fully quoted it is more understandable.
1950	Floppy Disk invented at the Imperial University in Tokyo by Doctor Yoshiro Nakamats. After six of Japans’ leading corporations turned down his request to have them produce the floppy disk, he granted the sales license for the disk to IBM, which now holds the patents for sixteen of his inventions. *Article coming soon.* Alan Mathison Turing declared that one day there would be a machine that could duplicate human intelligence in every way and prove it by passing a specialised test, later to be called the Turing Test.
1951	High level language compiler invented by Grace Murray Hopper. Whirlwind, the first real-time computer was built for the US Air Defence System. UNIVAC-1. (UNIVersal Automatic Computer 1) The first commercially sucessful electronic computer. Joseph Lyons and Co., a UK food company famous for its tea shops, made history by running the first business application on an electronic computer. A valuation, payroll and inventory programs were run on Lyons Electronic Office 1 (LEO 1) a computer system designed by Maurice Wilkes, who had previously worked on EDSAC, and Dr. John Pinkerton.
1952	EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) completed at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA (by John von Neumann and others).
1953	Magnetic Core Memory developed.
1954	FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) development started by John Backus and his team at IBM - continuing until 1957. FORTRAN is a programming language, used for scientific programming.
1956	First conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) held at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA. Edsger Wybe Dijkstra invented an efficient algorithm for shortest paths in graphs as a demonstration of the abilities of the ARMAC computer in Holland. IBM 350 is the first commercialy available Hard Disk Drive. It stored 4.4 MB across 50 24 inch (61 cm) diameter platters spinning at 1200 RPM and was the size of a family car!
1957	First Dot Matrix printer marketed by IBM. "I have travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall. My research shows this quote to be true, but never attributed to a named person (Prentice Hall has been a leading educational publisher since 1913). ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) (now known as ERNIE 1), not a computer as such but a very important piece of equipment that generates random numbers for the Premium Bonds. Built at the Post Office Research Station by a team led by Sidney Broadhurst, the designers were Tommy Flowers and Harry Fensom.
1958	LISP (interpreted language) developed, Finished in 1960. LISP stands for "LISt Processing", but some call it "Lots of Irritating and Stupid Parenthesis" due to the huge number of confusing nested brackets used in LISP programs. The integrated circuit invented by Jack St Clair Kilby at Texas Instruments.
Computers built between 1959 and 1963 are often regarded as "Second Generation" computers. Based on transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers. More powerful, these computers could handle interpreters such as FORTRAN (for science) or COBOL (for business), and accept English-like commands, and so were much more flexible in their applications.
1959	ERMA, the Electronic Recording Method of Accounting, digitised cheque handling for the Bank of America by creating a computer readable font. A special scanner read account numbers preprinted on cheques in magnetic ink: COBOL (Common Business-Orientated Language) was developed, the initial specifications being released in April 1960. IBM 7000 series mainframes were the first transistorised computers for the company.
1960	ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) first structured, procedural, language to be released. The precursor to the minicomputer, DEC PDP-1 sold for $120,000, built by Digital Equipment Cost (DEC). The average PDP-1 included with a cathode ray tube graphic display, needed no air conditioning and required only one operator. Its' large display scope intrigued early hackers at MIT, who wrote the first computerised video game, SpaceWar!, for it. The SpaceWar! creators then used the game as a standard demonstration on all 50 computers. AT&T designed its' Dataphone, the first commercial modem, specifically for converting digital computer data to analog signals for transmission across the long distance telephone network. Tandy Corporation founded by Charles David Tandy.
1961	APL (A Programming Language, were they running out of names?) programming language released by Kenneth Iverson at IBM. IBM 1301 Disk Storage Unit announced. The IBM 1301, for use with the IBM 7000 series mainframe computer. Maximum capacity was 28 million characters (28 MB) across 20 platters, rotating at 1,800 RPM. First units delivered were in 1962. The 1301 Mk1 leased for $2,100 per month or could be purchased for $115,500 and was the size of a large commercial freezer. The drive had one read/write arm for each disk as well as flying heads, both of which are still used in disk drives today.
1962	Virtual memory emerged from a team under the direction of Tom Kilburn at the University of Manchester. Virtual memory permitted a computer to use its storage capacity to switch rapidly among multiple programs or users and is a key requirement for timesharing.
1963	Tandy Radio Shack is founded (TRS), formed by the merger of Tandy Leather Company and Radio Shack. ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) standard published. ASCII permits machines from different manufacturers to exchange data.
Computers built between 1964 and 1971 are often regarded as "Third Generation" computers. Based on the first integrated circuits creating even smaller machines. Began to open up computing to smaller businesses.
1964	Programming language PL/1 (Programming Language 1, yep, they must have run out of names) released by IBM. Launch of IBM 360 - the first series of compatible computers. DEC PDP-8 Mini Computer. The First Minicomputer, built by Digital Equipment Cost (DEC) it cost $16,000 to buy.
1965	Moores' Law published by Gordon Earle Moore in the Electronics Magazine. Fuzzy Logic designed by Lofti Zadeh (University of Berkeley, California), it is used to process approximate data - such as "about 100". BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) developed at Dartmouth College, USA, by Thomas Eugene Kurtz and John Kemeny. Not implemented on microcomputers until 1975. It is often used in education to teach programming, and also at home by beginners. The computer mouse conceived by Dr. Douglas Carl Englebart. The first supercomputer, the Control Data CD6600, was developed.
1967	Development on PASCAL started, to be finished in 1971. Based on ALGOL. Developed by Niklaus Wirth and named in honour of the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal.
1968	Intel (Integrated Electronics Corporation ) founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Earle Moore. LOGO programming language developed by Seymour Papert, Wally Feurzeig and Daniel Gureasko Bobrow.
1969	ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) started by the US Dept. of Defence for research into networking. It is the original basis for what now forms the Internet. The first network working group, Request For Comment (RFC), RFC0001 published. The RFCs are a series of papers which are used to develop and define protocols for networking, originally the basis for ARPANET there are now thousands of them applying to all aspects of the Internet. Introduction of RS-232 (serial interface) standard by EIA (Electronic Industries Association).
1970	First commercially available DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) chip introduced by Intel. It was called to 1103 and had a capacity of 1 K-bit, 1024 bits. Development of UNIX operating system started by Ken Thomson and Dennis Ritchie. UNIX and its' clones (such as Linux) are still widely used on network and Internet servers. Forth programming language developed from Charles H. Moores' personal programming system, which had been in continuous development since 1958. Forth was first exposed to other programmers in the early 1970s, starting with Elizabeth Rather. Steve Geller, Ray Holt and a team from Ai Research and American Microsystems completed development of a flight data processor for the US Navy F14A "TomCat" fighter jet. This processor used LSI chips to produce a fast and powerfull programmable computer that fitted into the very tight space restrictions of the aircraft.
1971	The Intel 4004, the first complete central processing unit (CPU) on one chip, the first commercially available microprocessor, was released. It contained the equivalent of 2300 transistors and was a 4 bit processor. It was capable of around 92,000 instructions per second , and a maximum clock rate of 740 kHz. Development of PASCAL finished.

History of Computing Part 2:1943 to 1971.

History of Computing Part 2:
1943 to 1971.