The 1950s :: Technology and Computing's Innovations

• 1950 :: The SEAC computer is constructed, and is the first stored program computer completed in the U.S. It was also the first computer to use all diode logic, which was more reliable than vacuum tube. It's sibling machine, the SWAC would be completed shortly after.
• 1951 :: The Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) becomes England's first commercial computer. It was created at the behest of the Lyons Tea Co. president. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer to gain widespread attention when it was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau. It cost a whopping $750,000 and an additional $185,000 for a high speed printer.
• 1953 :: IBM begins to emerge with the IBM 701 computer. It's use of speed coding trimmed weeks off the programming schedule, and was the company's first electronic computer. 19 were sold to research companies, the federal government, and aircraft companies.
• 1954 :: A pivotal event came about the following year when the junction transistor, invented by a Texas Instruments employee, brought the component's price down to $2.50. Regency Electronics used it in the first transistor radio, which sold for $50. The IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator establishes itself as the first mass produced computer. It sold 450 in 1 year, and spun at 12,500 rpm. The TRADIC is introduced. The NORC (Naval Ordnance Research Calculator) is delievered to the U.S. Navy. The IBM 704 is introduced.
• 1955 :: The SAGE computer is operational, it is one of the largest ever built.
• 1956 :: M.I.T. introduces the TX-0, the first fully programmable, transistorized computer. It featured the first "bottled" transistor, hosted a 3-D tic tac toe game and a maze where mice found martinis and became increasingly drunk. IBM takes another stride with the 305 RAMAC, the first computer to use magnetic disk storage
• 1957 :: FORTRAN is created, which enabled computers to perform repetitive tasks from a single set of instructions using loops. The first commercial FORTRAN program was run at Westinghouse. Seymour Cray founds the Control Data Corp. (CDC) In response to Sputnik, ARPA is created.
• 1958 :: The Kilby integrated circuit is created, proving that capacitors and resistors can exist on the same piece of semiconductor. Researchers at Bell Labs invent the modem. Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN) is created. The company would later create some of the most fundamental pieces of today's computer age. The LISP programming language is invented.
• 1959 :: M.I.T introduces APT, a language used to instruct milling machine operations. Created by the Servomechanisms Laboratory, it demonstrated computer assisted manufacturing. The first transistorized IBM computer is introduced. The 7030, aka The Stretch, sat at the top of the heap with 64-bit word. ERMA is created. The digitized numbers on checks were created for Bank of America so that a special scanner could read numbers pre-printed in metallic ink.