Issue 10: Tech from the Military

WWII COMPUTING TODAY | 41
FROM WWII:
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COMPUTING
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FOR THE 21 ST
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the first compiler for it created until 1998. Zuse
fled to Switzerland after his company and the
early models, Z1 to Z3, were destroyed during
the Second World War. Zuse finished his work
on the Z4 at the Federal Polytechnical Institute
of Lausanne, Switzerland, where it was used until
1955.
In 1939, Hewlett-Packard was founded in a
Palo Alto garage. The HP 200A Audio Oscillator
was used by engineers as test equipment. The
HP200B was sold to Walt Disney Studios, who
bought eight to use for the film Fantasia. During
WWII, the Navy approached MIT Project Whirlwind:
a flight simulator to train bomber pilots.
The first model was inaccurate and led MIT to
develop the first digital computer. The project
was not complete until 1951, switching to Air
Force support after the Navy lost interest.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC) was completed in 1946, comprised
of plug boards and switches, using cards,
lights, switches, and plugs as input/output at a
speed of 5,000 operations per second. The IBM
CENTURY
1401, introduced in 1959, certified the company
as a computer maker. The famous UNIVAC I
was delivered to the US Census Bureau in 1951.
Remington Rand sold 46 machines at $750,000
each and high speed printers for $185,000 each.
The computer era began with new components
and designs each year. In 1969, XEROX bought
Scientific Data Systems for nearly $1 billion and
logged more sales than Digital Equipment Corporation
until the division was closed in 1975
and XDS computer manufacturing ceased.
Following Hewlett-Packard, many ubiquitous
inventions created by entrepreneurs birthed
from garages, restaurants, subways or the English
countryside. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniak built 50 computers out of a garage and
sold them for $500 each. Bill Gates created a
basic programming language called MITTS in a
motel room at the Sundowner off Route 66. In
1984, Michael Dell upgraded PCs in his University
of Texas dorm room. His first month in business
earned him $180,000. Jeff Bazos started Amazon
by selling books out of his garage. Google was
created when Stanford students Larry Page and
Origins Scientific Research Society