Diode Logic makes use of the fact that the electronic device known as a diode will conduct an electrical current in one direction, but not in the other. In this manner, the diode acts as an electronic switch.
This Day In Tech History
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.
-Popular Mechanics, March 1949More Tech History
The IAS computer is operational.
The first programming compiler, A-0 Compiler, is completed by Grace Hopper.
The 702, the first high speed magnetic tape storage system, is announced by IBM. It was typically sold alongside the IBM 701.
IBM begins to emerge with the IBM 701 computer. It's use of speed coding trimmed weeks off the programming schedule, and was the company's first electronic computer. 19 were sold to research companies, the federal government, and aircraft companies.
The AVIDAC computer is operational for the first time.
The Burroughs Adding Machine Company is renamed to Burroughs Corporation. The company would be second only to IBM in the mainframe market by the mid 1960s.
The first color television broadcast hits the airwaves.