The successful military application of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer, in 1946 sparks interest in the technology at universities across the United States. Researchers quickly improve upon the design with EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) in early 1950, the latter capable of handling both numbers and alphabetical characters.

These advances do not go unheeded by the government and private industry. By 1951 several federal agencies install the devices, and prominent accounting firms in New York and Los Angeles follow suit.

With growing financial support from the U.S. government and corporations hoping to cut costs by mechanizing their work forces, vacuum tubes are replaced by transistors in 1953 -- resulting in smaller, more manageable devices. The invention of the integrated circuit, or silicon chip, in 1955 continues the trend toward miniaturization. The chip has the ability to contain thousands of transistors.

By 1959, computers relying on the integrated circuit are in full production at computer firms such as IBM and Cray. An industry in itself is born as corporations snap up the new devices.