In 1957, Seymour Cray and William Norris form the Control Data Corp (CDC), to design and build supercomputers. Intended to be used for scientific calculation, many considered it a risky endeavor. Originally working for Sperry Rand designing the successors to the UNIVAC, Cray’s desire to push the limits of computing…
From Westinghouse’s Company History: It began in the Age of Steam, a 19th century success story that resonates in the 21st century. George Westinghouse, a spunky teenager with a head full of ideas, seizes opportunity after opportunity to make technology better, faster, more efficient. In the process, he helps improve…
From an IBM press release, 1956 | IBM History. The 650 RAMAC and 305 RAMAC both utilize the magnetic disk memory device announced as experimental by IBM a year ago. Both machines are the first of a planned line of equipment designed for high-volume, in-line processing of business data. Transactions…
From MIT’s Mission and Origins The Institute admitted its first students in 1865, four years after the approval of its founding charter. The event marked the culmination of an extended effort by William Barton Rogers, a distinguished natural scientist, to establish a new kind of independent educational institution relevant to…
The SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Enviroment) computer was one of the largest computers ever built, standing two stories tall. It required over 1 million watts of power, and held 200,000 vacuum tubes. When it became operational in 1955, it was the first digital computer used for a major military operation….
In 1954 IBM released the next evolution in their 700 series mainframes with the 704. It featured significant improvements over it’s predecessor the 701, including the use of core memory and an expanded instruction set. It wasn’t compatible with it’s older cousin, having a completely new architecture. The 704 was…