Early Computers

Brief HistoryExhibits

year/month Timeline
1643 
【World】B.Pascal (France) invented adding machine (prototype)
1694 
【World】G.W.Leibniz(Germany)invented adding&multipling machine (prototype)
1833 
【World】C.Babbage (Britain) showed the concept of computing as Analytical Engine
1887 
【World】H.Hollerith completed punched card equipment (PCS):Punch Card System
1902  Yazu Ryoichi developed a Mechanical Calculating Machine (Automatic Abacus)
1906  Kawaguchi Ichitaro (Ministry of Communications and Transportation) built a prototype of the Kawaguchi electric tabulation machine
1911 
【World】The Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR) Company, the predecessor of IBM, was established
1923  Ohmoto Torajiro developed Tiger Calculating machines
1936  Nakajima Akira & Hanzawa Masao(NEC) published a paper on the switching theory
1936 
【World】A.M.Turing completed the theoretical model of a computer (Turing Machine)
1940 
【World】Bell Labs. completed Bell Labs Model I (telephone relays)
1942 Tokyo Imperial University’s Aeronautical Research Institute prototyped a mechanical differential analyzer, Japan’s first large-scale analog computer
1942  Ohhashi Kanichi (ETL:Electrotechnical Lab.) published a paper on the circuit theory for relay circuits
1942 
【World】 J.V. Atanasoff, with C.E. Berry's assistance, developed the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) between 1939 and 1942 at Iowa State University, that had a function to solve linear equations
1944  Tokyo Imperial University’s Aviation Laboratory built the nine simultaneous equation solver
1944 
【World】Harvard Univ.& IBM completed Mark I
1945 
【World】J.von.Neumann offered the logical design of electronic digital computer as a first draft of a report on the EDVAC
1946/02
【World】J.W.Mauchly & J.P.Eckert completed the first digital computer, ENIAC
1947/12
【World】Bell Labs invented the point-contact transistor
1947  Yamashita Hideo et al. built Statistical Machine of Yamashita Type
1949/05
【World】M.V.Wilkes completed the first stored-program computer, EDSAC
1949/05
【World】The U.S. National Bureau of Standards completed the SEAC, which would serve as the model for the ETL
1949  Goto Mochinori (ETL) published a paper on expanded Boolean algebra "Logic Mathematics"
1950  Joh Kenzo (Osaka Univ.) did the trial production of the ENIAC type's arithmetic system with vacuum tubes
1951/02
【World】Ferranti completed the Ferranti Mark I, the world’s first commercial computer
1951/03
【World】Remington Rand delivered the UNIVAC I to the United States Census Bureau (the Eckert-Mauchly company, which was involved with the UNIVAC I design, was acquired by Remington Rand in 1950)
1951/10
【World】The University of Pennsylvania completed the EDVAC, which was based on a 1945 paper by J.v. Neumann
1952/09
【World】Univ. of Illinois completed ILLIAC I
1952/12
【World】IBM annouced the IBM 701, its first commercial computer
1952  ETL developed a prototype of a relay computer, the ETL Mark I
1953/07
【World】IBM announced the company’s first mass-produced computer, the IBM 650, which used magnetic drum memory
1953/09
【World】IBM announced the IBM 702 for business data processing, which employed binary-coded decimal representation for letters and numbers and used magnetic tape for storage
1953  Joh Kenzo & Makinouchi Saburo published the first Japanese technical book on the electronic computer, " Digital and Analog Computers "
1953 
【World】MIT completed the Whirlwind computer, which used magnetic core memory
1954/10 Fujitsu developed a relay-computer, FACOM 100, first pratically used in Japan
1954/10
【World】IBM announced the IBM 704, which used magnetic core memory
1954  Goto Eiichi (Univ. of Tokyo) invented a majority logic element, the parametron
1954 
【World】 Burroughs announced its first general-purpose computer, the B205
1955/11 ETL developed a relay computer, ETL Mark II
1955 
【World】Remington Rand announced large scientific computer, UNIVAC Scientific 1103 (magnetic core memory)
1955 
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 608, the first transistor computer for the commercial market
1956/03 Okazaki Bunji of Fuji Photo Film Co. developed the first Japanese electronic computer, FUJIC, using vacuum tubes
1956/07 ETL developed a fully transistorized computer, the ETL Mark III, which could be the first stored program computer in the world
1956/09 Fujitsu delivered the first FACOM 128A machine, a relay-based scientific and business computer, to the Ministry of Education’s Institute of Statistical Mathematics
1956 
【World】General Motors and North American Aviation developed the GM-NAA I/O, which has been called the world’s first operating system, for the IBM 704
1956  Parametron computer PD1516 was jointly developed byThe Univ. of Tokyo and Japan Electronic Instruments Co. Ltd.
1956 
【World】 IBM announced the 305 RAMAC, which contained the IBM 350 magnetic disk unit
1957/01
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 709, the first computer with an emulator function (for the IBM 704) on the commercial market
1957/03 NTT developed its first parametron-computer, MUSASINO-1 in Japan
1957/06 Casio Computer announces the Casio 14-A, a relay-based, desktop calculator capable of 14-digit arithmetic operations
1957/11 ETL developed the ETL Mark IV using junction transisitors
1957/12 Hitachi developed its first digital computer, HIPAC MK-1 using parametron
1957 
【World】 IBM completed a FORTRAN compiler, proposed by John Backus
1958/03 Takahashi Lab. of Univ. of Tokyo developed a parametron computer, PC-1
1958/03 NEC developed its first electronic computer, NEAC-1101, which used parametron as a logic device.
1958/04 The Japan Electronics Industry Development Association was formed
1958/08
【World】 UNIVAC developed the UNIVAC Solid State Computer
1958/09 NEC developed its first transistorized computer, NEAC-2201
1958/09 Fujitsu completed the FACOM 200 prototype parametron computer
1958/09
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 7070 transistor computer
1958/11 Hitachi announced the HIPAC 101, an improved model of the MK-1
1958/11 Tohoku Univ. and NEC completed a parametron-computer, SENAC-1 (or NEAC-1102)
1958/11
【World】 Philco completed the Transac S-2000 transistor computer, which started what was dubbed the second-generation of computers
1958/12
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 7090, a second-generation computer
1958/12
【World】 Honeywell announced the H-800, a second-generation computer
1958/12
【World】 RCA announced the RCA 501, a second-generation computer and the company’s first commercial computer
1959/03 The TOSBAC-2100 was a transistor-based computer for business calculations developed in 1959 by the Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company (today, Toshiba).
1959/03 Oki Electric developed OPC-1, the company's first parametron-computer
1959/04 Matsushita Electric Industrial completed the MADIC-I, a prototype transistor-based computer
1959/05 Hitachi announced its first transistorized-computer, HITAC 301
1959/05 NEC delivered a fully transistorized-computer, NEAC-2203 to JEIDA
1959/06
【World】 The U.S. Department of Defense and others established CODASYL, a consortium to develop a standardized data processing language
1959/10
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 1401, a second-generation computer that made a huge contribution to the spread of computers
1959/10
【World】 CDC announced the CDC 1604, a second-generation computer and the company’s first general-purpose computer
1959/11 Hitachi & Japan Railroad developed the train reservation system, MARS-1
1959/12 NEC shipped the online, real-time NEAC-2202 computer
1959 
【World】North American Aviation developed the Fortran Monitor System (FMS), which processed multiple jobs consecutively on the IBM 709 (IBM used FMS as its own standard product)
1959  Univ. of Tokyo developed a tube-computer, TAC
1959  ETL developed ETL Mark IV A adopting the core memory and index register
1959  ETL developed ' YAMATO ', a computer dedicated for English-Japanese machine translation
1959  Kyushu Univ. developed a machine translation system, KT-1, for the translation between Japanese, English and German
1960/01 Japan Railroad began to operate the pioneer online system, MARS-1
1960/01
【World】 GAMM and ACM established ALGOL 60 at a meeting in Paris
1960/03 NTT developed a parametron computer, MUSASINO-1B used in Laboratories
1960/04 Univ. of Kyoto developed the first general purpose transistor-computer for university use, KDC-1 in Japan
1960/04 IPSJ (Information Processiong Society of Japan) was established
1960/04
【World】 GE started shipping the GE 225, a second-generation computer
1960/04 Kintetsu began operating a seat reservation system delivered by NEC
1960/04
【World】 CODASYL established COBOL 60, the first standard COBOL specification
1960/04
【World】 The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) was established
1960/05 ETL installed a transistor-computer, ETL Mark V
1960/09
【World】 IBM announced the mid-class IBM 1410, a second-generation computer
1960/12 Japanese computer manufacturers reach basic patent agreement with IBM
1960/12
【World】 NCR completed the NCR 390 system, a second-generation computer
1960  Toshiba developed a commercial computer, TOSBAC3100 which had ALGOL compiler fisrt in Japan
1960 
Mitsubishi Electric developed a parametron computer, MELCOM 3409
1960  Mitsubishi Electric developed a transistorized-computer, MELCOM1101
1960  Univ. of Tokyo installed a large parametron-computer, PC-2
1960 
The fourth working group of the synthetic research on mathematical science held the programming symposium for the digital computer later called 'Programming Symposium'
1960 
【World】 DEC developed the PDP-1, the company’s first model
1961/01
【World】 IBM developed the IBM 7030 (also called Stretch), which was aimed at the high-speed scientific calculation market
1961/02 Fujitsu developed its first transistor-computer, FACOM 222
1961/02
【World】 UNIVAC announced the UNIVAC III, a second-generation computer and successor to the UNIVAC I and II
1961/03 Hitachi completed the HITAC 201, a compact transistorized business computer
1961/04 NEC announced a transistorized-computer, NEAC-2205
1961/05 Oki Electric developed OKITAC-5090, the Japan's first transistorized-computer with magnetic core memory for main memory
1961/05
Hitachi made a technological agreement with RCA
1961/05 NEC: Completed the NEAC 1201, the first electronic (parametron type) accounting machine produced in Japan and the forerunner of office computers.
1961/08 Establishment of Japan Electronic Computer Company(JECC)
1961/08
JECC (Japan Electronic Computer Company) was established
1961/09 NEC shipped the online, real-time NEAC-2204 computer with stored-program memory
1961/11 Matsushita Communication developed a small transistor-computer, MADIC II A
1961  Hitachi developed a parametron-computer. HIPAC 103
1961  Kyoto Univ. & Toshiba jointly developed KT-PILOT and applied micro-programming technology practically first in Japan
1961  Unoke Electronics developed a transistorized small computer oriented for business applications, USAC 3010 and 5010
1961 
【World】 Burroughs announced the B 5000, its first model
1961  ETL developed the ETL Mark IV B, a transistor-based computer for input/output
1962/01
【World】 IBM announced the IBM 7094, a second-generation computer for scientific and engineering calculations
1962/02 NEC announced NEAC-2230, 2206, which had magnetic core memory
1962/03
Mitsubishi Electric made a technological contract with TRW
1962/06 Hitachi announced HITAC 3010, the medium-scale business computer, based on RCA301
1962/07
NEC made a technological contract with Honeywell
1962/08
【World】 CDC announced the CDC 6600, which boasted the world’s best performance at the time
1962/08
【World】 RCA announced the RCA 301, a mid-class second-generation computer for business processes
1962/12 Hitachi completed the HITAC 3030, the central processing unit for the Japanese National Railways’ MARS-101 seat reservation system
1962/12
【World】 Honeywell announced the H-200, a rival machine to the IBM 1401
1962 
【World】General Electric developed GCOS, an operating system for GE’s mainframes (later, the business was handed over to Honeywell)
1962 
【World】 FORTRAN IV was announced, a programming language for scientific and engineering calculations
1963/03 Fujitsu developed a small general purpose computer, FACOM 231
1963/04 NEC announced NEAC-2400, 3400, 2800, 3800, which were made on the base of Honeywell's technology
1963/06 NTT developed the toll calculating machine (parametron), CM-1 (experimental model)
1963/08 Mitsubishi Electric announced MELCOM 1530 based on the technology of TRW 530
1963/09
Oki Electric made a technological contract with Sperry Rand
1963/10 Hitachi announced the HITAC 4010, which was equipped with functions for real-time online processing
1963 
【World】 MIT launched Project MAC, a cutting-edge research project that examined operating systems and artificial intelligence, among other topics
1963  Oki Electric developed OKITAC-5090H, the general purpose computer, adapted for Time sharing system
1964/09 NEC announced the NEAC-1210, a parametron-based ultra-compact computer
1964/11 Hitachi completed a prototype of the HITAC 2010, a mid-sized business machine that used binary addressing
1965/01 NTT developed CM 100 for a large scale fee collection with multijob parallel processing