Early Computer Companies
The 709 scientific computer was compatible with the earlier 704, and offered better input/output performance. It had a short life, however: a transistor-based version, the 7090, replaced it a year later.View Artifact Detail
The First Computer Companies
The stored-program electronic computer represented a breakthrough. But if you wanted one, you had to build it yourself. There were no commercial manufacturers.
As interest grew, both startups and existing companies gambled that making general-purpose computers for others might prove a viable business. Yet nobody knew how big the potential market was, whether such a venture was savvy or folly.