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Category Archives: Computer history
From the Archives: Bob Metcalfe Gives Birth to the Ethernet
Today in 1973, twenty-seven-year-old Bob Metcalfe turned on his IBM Selectric, “pulled out a wad of Ko-Rec-Type, snapped on an Orator ball, and banged out the memo inventing Ethernet,” (from Internet Collapses) at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). As Metcalfe explained to Scott Kirsner years later in … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, This day in information
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50 Years of Memory Management
50 years ago today, one of the first software patent applications is filed by the British Petroleum Company. It proposes to “solve automatically a linear programming problem by means of an iterative algorithm whereby it (a) transfers data representations from the … Continue reading
From the Archives: The IBM 701 and Software-as-a-Service
Sixty years ago today, the IBM 701 was formally announced. Its official name was the Defense Calculator, “specifically selected to appeal to the patriotism of the older Watson and to avoid the use of the unacceptable word, computer,” according to Emerson Pugh … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, IBM, This day in information
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15th Anniversary of Deep Blue Glory
Today in 1997, an IBM computer called IBM Deep Blue beat the world chess champion after a six-game match: two wins for IBM, one for the champion and three draws. The match lasted several days and received massive media coverage around the … Continue reading
1895 Computer
Today in 1895, Otto Steiger was issued a patent for his Millionaire calculating machine. For the next 40 years, Switzerland’s Hans Egli manufactured 4,700 machines, which weighed 120 pounds each. The Millionaire was notable in its ability to perform direct multiplication, … Continue reading
From the Archives: Sony Established
Today in 1946, more than twenty members of the Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute, founded by Masaru Ibuka in the previous year, attended the inauguration ceremony which officially established the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation. Ibuka’s father-in-law, Tamon Maeda was appointed president of the … Continue reading
First Disk Drive Announced
Today in 1955, IBM made an announcement that went largely unnoticed outside the computer community and other technical circles. The company reported that a team of engineers working in a small research and development laboratory in San Jose, California, had … Continue reading
From the Archives: Computer Programming Born
Today in 1949, the Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer (EDSAC), the first practical stored-program computer, ran its first program and performed its first calculation. “… a thin ribbon of paper containing the program [to print a table of the squares of the integers] … Continue reading
First Computer Exclusively Designed to Play a Game
Today in 1951, the NIMROD, a special purpose computer that played the game of Nim, was displayed at the Exhibition of Science during the Festival of Britain. Designed and built by Ferranti, it was the first digital computer exclusively designed to play a game, … Continue reading
Grace Hopper and Other Programmers
Nathan Zeldes writes about Grace Hopper: “…whenever I see this photo, I am reminded vividly of Dr. Susan Calvin, Robopsychologist at U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation, as featured in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot…. Calvin is a strict, prim, spinsterish lady who … Continue reading
Posted in Computer history, Programming, Quotes
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