Computer History: A Look Into the 1950s

Ferranti Mark 1

1951

The oldest known recordings of computer-generated music came off of this computer. It's hoot function, that provided auditory feedback, could be exploited into playing a medley.

UNIVAC

Mar 30, 1951

The first general purpose computer, designed to handle both numeric and textual information. Invented by John Mauchly to help the US Army with calculations on artillery firings.

FORTRAN

1954

Invented by John Backus and his IBM team, FORTRAN, shortened from formula translation, is the first high level programming language ever developed.

LISP

1958

Short for List Processing, developed by John McCarthy at MIT is a programming language used in AI development.

Integrated Circuit

Sep 12, 1958

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce worked separately on the microprocessor. Robert Noyce went on to found Intel, the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue.