Editing Timeline of computing 1950–1979 (section)

== 1950s ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Date
! Place
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1950-04-01|Feb 1950}}
| Sweden
| [[BARK (computer)|BARK]] was finished in Sweden. Next to come was [[BESK]] in 1953.
|-
| {{sort|1950-04-01|Apr 1950}}
| US
| [[SEAC (computer)|SEAC]] (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) demonstrated at [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|US NBS]] in Washington, DC – was the first fully functional [[stored-program computer]] in the U.S.
|-
|{{sort|1950-05-10|May 1950}}
|UK
|The [[Pilot ACE]] computer, with 800 vacuum tubes, and mercury delay lines for its main memory, became operational on 10 May 1950 at the [[National Physical Laboratory, UK|National Physical Laboratory]] near London. It was a preliminary version of the full [[ACE (computer)|ACE]], which had been designed by [[Alan Turing]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1950-08-01|Aug 1950}}
| US
| [[SWAC (computer)|SWAC]] (Standards Western Automatic Computer) demonstrated at [[UCLA]] in Los Angeles; fastest computer in the world until [[IAS machine]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1950-09|Sep 1950}}
| GER
| [[Konrad Zuse]] leased his [[Z4 (computer)|Z4]] machine to the [[ETH Zurich]] for five years. Z4 was a relay-based machine. The corresponding contract was signed in the fall of 1949, and the machine reassembled in Zurich after its arrival in July 1950.
The Z4 was replaced by [[ERMETH]], a computer developed at the ETH in Switzerland from 1953 to 1956, one of the first electronic computers on the European continent.
|- valign="top"
| Oct {{sort|1950|1950}}
| UK
| [[Turing Test]]{{Snd}}The British mathematician and computer pioneer [[Alan Turing]] published a paper describing the potential development of human and computer intelligence and communication. The paper would come later to be called the Turing Test.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1950|1950}}
| US
| ''[[TIME]]'' magazine cover story on the Harvard "[[Harvard Mark III|Mark III]]: Can man build a superman?" includes a quote from [[Howard Aiken]], commenting on "calculators" (computers) then under construction: "We'll have to think up bigger problems if we want to keep them busy."
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951-03-30|30&nbsp;Mar 1951}}
| US
| The first commercially successful electronic computer, [[UNIVAC I|UNIVAC]], was also the first general-purpose computer{{Snd}}designed to handle both numeric and textual information. Designed by [[J. Presper Eckert]] and [[John Mauchly]], whose corporation subsequently passed to [[Remington Rand]]. The implementation of this machine marked the real beginning of the computer era. Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC machine to the U.S. Bureau of Census. This machine used magnetic tape for input.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951-04-21|21&nbsp;Apr 1951}}
| US
| [[MIT Whirlwind|Whirlwind]], the first real-time computer was built at [[MIT]] by the team of Jay Forrester for the US Air Defense System, became operational.
This computer is the first to allow [[interactive computing]], allowing users to interact with it using a keyboard and a cathode-ray tube. The Whirlwind design was later developed into [[Semi Automatic Ground Environment|SAGE]], a comprehensive system of real-time computers used for early warning of air attacks.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951-11-17|17&nbsp;Nov 1951}}
| UK
| J. Lyons, a United Kingdom food company, famous for its tea, made history by running the first business application on an electronic computer. A payroll system was run on [[LEO I|Lyons Electronic Office]] (LEO) a computer system designed by [[Maurice Wilkes]] who had previously worked on [[EDSAC]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951-09|Sep 1951}}
| UK
| The oldest known recordings of [[computer music|computer generated music]] were played by the [[Ferranti Mark 1]] computer.
The Mark 1 is a commercial version of the [[Manchester Mark 1]] machine from the [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]. The music program was written by [[Christopher Strachey]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951|1951}}
| US
| [[EDVAC]] (electronic discrete variable computer). The first computer to use magnetic tape.
EDVAC could have new programs loaded from the tape. Proposed by John von Neumann, it was installed at the Institute for Advance Study, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, US.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951|1951}}
| Australia
| [[CSIRAC]] used to play music{{Snd}}the first time a computer was used as a musical instrument.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1951|1951}}
| US
| The [[A-0 System|A-0]] high-level compiler is invented by [[Grace Hopper|Grace Murray Hopper]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1952-4|April 1952}}
| US
| [[IBM]] introduces the [[IBM 701]], the first computer in its [[IBM 700/7000 series|700 and 7000 series]] of large scale machines with varied scientific and commercial architectures, but common electronics and peripherals. Some computers in this series remained in service until the 1980s.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1952-6|June 1952}}
| US
| [[IAS machine]] completed at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]], Princeton, US (by Von Neumann and others).
|-
|1952
|France
|[[Compagnie des Machines Bull|Bull]] introduces the [[Bull Gamma 3|Gamma 3]]. A dual-mode decimal and binary computer that sold over 1200 units, becoming the first computer produced in over 1000 units.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1952|1952}}
| USSR
| [[BESM|BESM-1]] is completed. Only one BESM-1 machine was built. The machine used approximately 5,000 vacuum tubes.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1953|1953}}
| UK
| The [[University of Manchester]] team complete the [[Transistor computer#First transistor computer|first transistorised computer]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1953|1953}}
| US
| [[Arthur Andersen]] was hired to program the payroll for [[General Electric]] ([[GE]])'s Appliance Park manufacturing facility near Louisville, Kentucky. As a result, GE purchased [[UNIVAC I]] which became the first-ever commercial computer in the US. [[Joseph Glickauf|Joe Glickauf]] was [[Arthur Andersen]]'s project leader for the GE engagement.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1953|1953}}
| World
| Estimate that there are 100 computers in the world.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1953|1953}}
| US
| [[Magnetic-core memory]] developed.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1954|1954}}
| US
| [[FORTRAN]] (FORmula TRANslation), the first high-level programming language development, was begun by [[John Backus]] and his team at IBM.
The development continued until 1957. It is still in use for scientific programming. Before being run, a FORTRAN program needs to be converted into a machine program by a [[compiler]], itself a program.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1954|1954}}
| US
| The [[IBM 650]] is introduced. A relatively inexpensive decimal machine with drum storage, it becomes the first computer produced over 2000 units.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1954-12|December 1954}}
| US
| The [[IBM NORC|NORC]] was delivered by IBM to the [[US Navy]].
|-
|1955
|US
|[[Carl Frosch]] and Lincoln Derick discover surface passivation by silicon dioxide.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal |last1=Huff |first1=Howard |last2=Riordan |first2=Michael |date=2007-09-01 |title=Frosch and Derick: Fifty Years Later (Foreword) |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.F02073IF |journal=The Electrochemical Society Interface |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=29 |doi=10.1149/2.F02073IF |issn=1064-8208|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite patent|number=US2802760A|title=Oxidation of semiconductive surfaces for controlled diffusion|gdate=1957-08-13|invent1=Lincoln|invent2=Frosch|inventor1-first=Derick|inventor2-first=Carl J.|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2802760A}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1956|1956}}
| US
| First conference on [[artificial intelligence]] held at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1956|1956}}
| US
| The [[Bendix G-15]] computer was introduced by the [[Bendix Corporation]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1956|1956}}
| NED
| [[Edsger Dijkstra]] invented an efficient algorithm for shortest paths in graphs as a demonstration of the abilities of the [[ARMAC]] computer. The example used was the Dutch railway system. The problem was chosen because it could be explained quickly and the result checked. Dijkstra also made important contributions to many areas of computing – in particular on problems relating to concurrency, such as the invention of the ''[[semaphore (programming)|semaphore]]''.
|-
|1957
|US
|Frosch and Derick manufacture the first semiconductor oxide(SiO2) field effect transistors; the first planar transistors, in which drain and source were adjacent at the same surface.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Frosch |first1=C. J. |last2=Derick |first2=L |date=1957 |title=Surface Protection and Selective Masking during Diffusion in Silicon |url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1.2428650 |journal=Journal of the Electrochemical Society |language=en |volume=104 |issue=9 |pages=547 |doi=10.1149/1.2428650|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1957|1957}}
| US
| First [[dot-matrix printer|dot matrix printer]] marketed by IBM.
|-
|1957
|France
|The [[Bull Gamma 60|Gamma 60]] is announced by Bull, becoming the first computer featuring an architecture specially designed for parallelism.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1957|1957}}
| US
| FORTRAN development finished. See 1954.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1957|1957}}
| US
| {{blockquote|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.{{context inline|date=July 2021}}|Editor in charge of business books for [[Prentice Hall]]}}
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1958|1958}}
| US
| Programming language [[Lisp (programming language)|LISP]] (interpreted) developed, Finished in 1960. LISP stands for 'LISt Processing'. Used in AI development. Developed by [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1958|1958}}
| USSR
| [[Setun]], a [[balanced ternary]] computer developed in 1958 at [[Moscow State University]].
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1958-09-12|12&nbsp;Sep 1958}}
| US
| The [[integrated circuit]] invented by [[Jack Kilby]] at [[Texas Instruments]].
[[Robert Noyce]], who later set up [[Intel]], also worked separately on the invention. Intel later went on to perfect the microprocessor. The patent was applied for in 1959 and granted in 1964. This patent was not accepted by Japan so Japanese businesses could avoid paying any fees, but in 1989{{Snd}}after a 30-year legal battle{{Snd}}Japan granted the patent; so all Japanese companies paid fees up until the year 2001{{Snd}}long after the patent became obsolete in the rest of the world.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1959|1959}}
| World
| Computers introduced between 1959 and 1964, often regarded as ''second-generation'' computers, were based on discrete transistors and printed circuits{{Snd}}resulting in smaller, more powerful and more reliable computers. 
|-
|1959
|UK
|[[Christopher Strachey]], who became Oxford University's first professor of computation, filed a patent application for [[time-sharing]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Computer Pioneers – Christopher Strachey|url=https://history.computer.org/pioneers/strachey.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515062531/https://history.computer.org/pioneers/strachey.html|archive-date=2019-05-15|access-date=2020-01-23|website=IEEE Computer Society}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Reminiscences on the Theory of Time-Sharing|url=http://jmc.stanford.edu/computing-science/timesharing.html|access-date=2020-01-23|website=jmc.stanford.edu|archive-date=2018-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023181312/http://jmc.stanford.edu/computing-science/timesharing.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Computer – Time-sharing and minicomputers|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/computer|access-date=2020-01-23|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|archive-date=2015-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102192452/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/130429/computer/216032/Invention-of-the-modern-computer|url-status=live}}</ref> He passed the concept on to [[J. C. R. Licklider]] at a [[International Federation for Information Processing#History|UNESCO-sponsored conference on Information Processing]] in Paris that year.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gillies |first1=James M. |url=https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill |title=How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web |last2=Gillies |first2=James |last3=Gillies |first3=James and Cailliau Robert |last4=Cailliau |first4=R. |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-286207-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwebwasbornsto00gill/page/13 13] |language=en |url-access=registration}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1959|1959}}
| US
| [[COBOL]] (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) developed by Grace Murray Hopper as the successor to [[FLOW-MATIC]], finished in 1961.
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1959|1959}}
| USSR
| [[Minsk family of computers|Minsk]] [[mainframe computer]] development and production begun in the USSR. Stopped in 1975.
|-
|1959
|US
|Following Frosch and Derick research at Bell Labs,<ref name="Lojek1202">{{cite book |last1=Lojek |first1=Bo |title=History of Semiconductor Engineering |date=2007 |publisher=[[Springer Science & Business Media]] |isbn=9783540342588 |page=120}}</ref> [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] proposed a silicon MOS transistor in 1959.<ref name="Bassett22">{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Ross Knox |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA22 |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8018-8639-3 |pages=22–23}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Atalla |first1=M. |author1-link=Mohamed Atalla |last2=Kahng |first2=D. |author2-link=Dawon Kahng |date=1960 |title=Silicon-silicon dioxide field induced surface devices |journal=IRE-AIEE Solid State Device Research Conference}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1959|1959}}
| US
| The [[silicon]] [[integrated circuit]] developed by [[Robert Noyce]] at [[Fairchild Semiconductor]], using [[Jean Hoerni]]'s [[planar process]].
In contrast to Kilby's [[germanium]] [[integrated circuit]], Noyce developed a [[silicon]] integrated circuit, using [[Jean Hoerni]]'s [[planar process]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/practical-monolithic-integrated-circuit-concept-patented/|title=1959: Practical Monolithic Integrated Circuit Concept Patented &#124; the Silicon Engine &#124; Computer History Museum|access-date=2019-07-30|archive-date=2019-10-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024144046/https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/practical-monolithic-integrated-circuit-concept-patented/|url-status=live}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| {{sort|1959|1959}}
| US
| Douglas E. Eastwood and [[Douglas McIlroy]] of Bell Labs created Macro [[Symbolic Assembly Program|SAP]], the first programming language with advanced [[Macro (computer science)|macro]] capabilities. The following year McIlroy published a seminal paper in the fields of [[general-purpose macro processor|macro processors]] and programming language extensibility.
|}