1945 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Computer Graphic Timeline 1945-2000

This definitive accumulation of knowledge from 1945 to 21th century, traces
the milestones & pioneers which shaped the visual landscape of all aspects relevant to computer graphic imagery viewed from today's perspective.


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1960
1957-65 Oscillon 1206 by Ben F. Laposky. Laposky created Oscillons until 1965.
1960 Oscillon 281 by Ben F. Laposky.
The original PDP-1 introduced, an 18-bit machine prominent in early hacker culture. One of the first computer games, Spacewar, was developed from this.
1960 First Planar Integrated Circuit (IC) is developed. Aerospace & military systems were among the first to use ICs, used in computers which advanced CGI.
 
William A. Fetter of Boeing coins the term "computer graphics" for his human factors cockpit drawings.
PDP-1 Cathode Ray Tube Displays (CRT) Information is plotted point by point to form either graphical or tabular data. Bob Savelle checks out a PDP-1 CRT (1963).
1960 First Planar Integrated Circuit is created. Announced to the public in March 1961 conference at the IRE Show in New York and photograph in LIFE magazine.
In 1960 Bela julesz, at Bell Laboratories experiments with texture and 3D visual perception using computer techniques to generate random patterns.
Kurd Alsleben and Cord Passow, Analogue graphics, produced on a mechanical drawing machine. The point of this series was a differential equation.
1959-64 X-15 Flight simulator (First complete ground based simulator)
At Bell Labs, in 1960 Robert M. McClure made a classified movie of a cloud of incoming enemy missiles and decoys.
 
Random Dot Stereogram at Bell Labs (1960). Bela Julesz showed that binocular vision enables depth perception.
GM and IBM started to develop the DAC-1 graphic system
1960 Paper: Digital Simulation of Discrete Flow Systems.


Smith, Albert F., Method for Computer Visualization, Technical Memorandum 8436-TM-2, Electronic Systems Laboratory,
MIT, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 1960.

Coons, Steven A., Notes on Graphical Input Methods, Memorandum 8436-M17, Dynamic and Control Laboratory,
MIT, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 4 May 1960.

Johnston, L. E., A Graphical Input Device and Shape Description Interpretation Routines, Memorandum to Prof. Mann,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge, Mass., May 4, 1960.

Loomis, H. H. Jr., Graphical Manipulation Techniques Using the Lincoln TX-2 Computer, Group Report 51G-0017,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Mass., November 10, 1960.

1961
1961-62 Spacewar, first popular computer graphics game written by Steve Russell
Herbert W Franke work with oscillogram images
John Whitney's Catalog (Collection of Computer Graphic effects)
1961 Feb 11, The New Yorker features computer cover.
 
Serie (1961-1962), by Herbert W. Franke (Germany), creater of hundreds of pictures from 1956 until 1998.
IBM 7090 computer system was installed at GMR to support the DAC-1 project and to provide batch processing for GM scientific applications.
1961 2N709 die - epitaxial gold-doped switching transistor. First Silicon Transistor used in the CDC 6600 computer exceeds speed.
1961 TX-0 computer Mouse and Maze program by Doug Ross & John Ward at Lincoln Labs. Users placed cheeses in a maze and a mouse would run to fetch it.
Larry Breed and Earl Boebert created the first Raster Color Animation System bit-mapped language (MACS) for The Stanford Card Stunt Program (1961).
DECUS, the "DIGITAL Equipment Computer Users Society", meets for the first time to share PDP-1 program ideas i.e. Spacewar, in Massachusetts.
1961 Bell Labs start using the Stromberg Carlson 4020 microfilm printer for computer graphics


L. Hodes, "Machine Processing of Line Drawing" Report 54G-0028[U], Lincoln Laboratory, M.I. T. (March 1961).

Ross, D. T., and S. A. Coons, Investigations in Computer Aided Design, MIT Rep. 8436-IR-2, November, 1961, Ad-269573.

1962
Ivan Sutherland creates Sketchpad at MIT.
1962 Cockpit Simulation of human factor by William Fetter at Boeing
1961-62 TX-0 first computer game Tic-Tac-Toe, which users playing the computer was designed by Doug Ross and John Ward at Lincoln Labs.
1961-62 Herbert W Franke, Electronic Graphics (oscilloscope-type images)
 
1962-67 Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs) leading research in computer graphics & animation
1962 Livermore physicist Berni Alder's pioneering computer simulation was published
Mr. Computer Image ABC, created by Lee Hrrison III with the Scanimate System by Computer Image Corporation.
The SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment), based on earlier work at MIT and IBM, is fully deployed as a early warning system using CRT/light pen.
1962 User interacting with an early Computer Aided Design (CAD) program running on a PDP-1 computer.
1962 December, IBM demonstration of the DAC-1 system hardware & software in operation was shown to GM. All tests were completed to satisfaction.
Computer- Generated Music at Bell Labs (1962). The production of musical sounds with a digital computer is done by Max V. Mathews & Lawrence Rosler.


C. DeBoor, "Bi-Cubic Spline Interpolation," J. Mathematics and Physics, Vol. 41, 1962, pp. 212-218.

Licklider, J. C. R., and Clark, W., "On-line Man-Computer Communication," Proceedings of the Spring Joint
Computer Conference, San Francisco, California, May 1-3, 1962, vol. 21, pp. 113-128.

Vogeler, Robert, "How Automation Came to Drafting," Graphic Sci. Magazine, December, 1962.

1963
1963 DAC-1 Graphic System by GM & IBM
1963 Larry Roberts writes the first effective hidden line removal algorithm
1963-66 "Propagation of Shock Waves in a Solid Form" movie, by Nelson Max at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California.
1963-66 "Flow of a Viscous Fluid" movie by Nelson Max (Images from a 1966 Scientific American article)
 
1963 "Simulation of a two-giro gravity attitude control system" by Edward Zajac at Bell Labs
1963 Sketchpad III by Timothy Johnson
"Gaussian Quadratic", by Micheal Noll (Bell Labs) starts his Gaussian Quadratic series of artwork.
The PDP-4, introduced in 1963, DIGITAL's second 18-bit computer, begin Shipments in July.
After delivery of the DAC-1 system in April 1963, IBM setup project “Alpine,” resulting in three new commercial graphics products: IBM 2250, IBM 2280 & IBM 2281
1963 (LARC) Livermore Automatic Research Computer used in calculating weather models
Random Polygon, by Frieder Nake at The Computer Institute, using the Graphomat Zuse Z 64 drawing machine to produce four-color plotter drawings.
 
 
 
 
1964
The 1964 TV program with Ivan Sutherland demonstrating Sketchpad III and Larry Roberts shown his hidden line removal algorithm at MIT.
1964 August, Paul Baran envisioned a communications network (today's Internet) that would survive a major enemy attack shown three topologies.
1964 IBM System 360 booklet titled "Converting to IBM System/360".
1964 The highest volume hybrid circuit program was Solid Logic Technology (SLT) developed by IBM for the System/360 computer family.
 
Ninety computer-generated sinusoids, Michael Noll 1965. Photograph plotter drawing. Top sinusoid was expressed mathematically then repeated.
 
1964 IBM System 360 computer center installation.
In 1964, H. Philip Peterson of Control Data Corporation (CDC) used a CDC 3200 computer and a "flying-spot" scanner to create a digital image of Mona Lisa.
 
 
The first online "intelligent terminal," a Packard Bell 250 computer, was connected to an IBM 7090 at Bell Labs in 1964 for graphic use.
1965
Larry Roberts create homogenous coordinate systems to represent 3D transformations, which is still the used mathematical code of all graphics today.
1965 GRAPHIC by Frieder Nake (computer Standard Electric ER 56, peripheral 680 x 490 mm).
1965 105-130 by Frieder Nake (paper Standard Electric ER 56, peripheral 314 x 225 mm).
1965 Car outline display on oscilloscope screen.
 
1965 Work Nr. 1 by Hiroshi Kawano, Computergestutzte Gestaltung (Farbe / Papier, 19,5 x 20 cm).
Frieder Nake & fellow pioneers Michael Noll and George Nees organised the first seminal computer art exhibition at the Technische Hochschule in 1965.
1965 Fairchild’s R&D Director Moore predicts the rate of increase of transistor density (doubling every 12 months) on an integrated circuit called “Moore's Law”.
"Corridor", by Georg Nees, (Germany)
1965. He, together with Herbert Franke and Frieder Nake is the pioneer of ComputerArt in Europe.
1965 Burroughs character generation and related display techniques
 
1965 IBM 7090 electronic computer in the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit. Used to process weather data for short and long-range forecasts.
 
1965 Force, Mass and Motion (Educational CGI movie) by Frank Sindon at Bell Labs
1965 Stereographic threedimensional movie by Michael Noll at Bell Labs.
 


Michael Noll, "Computer Generated Three Dimensional Movies," Computers and Automation 14 (November 1965), pp. 2023.

1966
1966 Lapis by James Whitney is finished (16mm. Color. 10 min.)
1966 Mihai Nadin, Free Form Construction by Iteration (lead tip on paper, 25 x 32 cm). The program was written by IBM machine language.
1966 One of the earliest mainframes to use monolithic ICs were Burrough B2500 & 3500 for business and scientific use called “mainframe” computers.
1966 IBM 360-67 CAD system designs on graphical displays at Fairchild. IBM engineers automation tools for reducing errors and speeding design time.
 
1963-66 Cibernetik 5.3 by John Stehura
 
1966 Semiconductor RAMs Developed for High-Speed Storage. Metal mask plot for a 16-bit bipolar TTL RAM. Screen image from a 1967 TV documentary.
 
1966 EAI 640 Digital Computing System.
In 1966 Larry Roberts was the inventor of perhaps the first interactive device for 3D input, the Lincoln Wand (light pen) at MIT.
1966 Graphical programming by Bert Sutherland at Lincoln Labs. Interactively define a program by graphically laying out a data-flow diagram of its structure.
1967
1967 Matrix Multiplication Series by Frieder Nake (Plotter drawings: felt tip pen on paper, each 10 x 10).
1967 Hommage to Rameau by John Whitney (Computer Graphics) 3 min Color
1967 Experiments in Motion Graphics by John Whitney (Silent film to accompany his lecture to the 1967 Aspen Design conference) 13 min Color
The world's first Hypertext Editing System (HES) built in 1967. It run on a small IBM/360 mainframe funded by a IBM research contract.
 
The Computers and Automation computer art contest for 1967 was won by Csuri and Shaffer with their picture Sine Curve Man.
 
 
"The Kitte" - 1967 First Russia Computer Animation film by Nikolay.
 
 
 
1968
In 1968 Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation was found at the University of Utah.
1968 Cyclus One by France Mark, computer ICL 1900 series 1905 (Calcomp graph plotter 364 ICL paper).
1968 Moire by dr Manfred R Schroeder (photography 610 x 516 mm).
1968 Cubane computer garphics by The Atlas Computer Laboratory.
 
1968 John Whitney uses IBM 360 to create Permutations
1968 Around Perception by Pierre Hebert. An early experiment in employing computers to animate film.
 
1967-96 GENESYS Interactive Computer-Mediated Animation
1968 October 20th, Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at ICA London.
1968 Pilot was used in studies of the Boeing 747 instrument panel by William Fetter.
 
1969
1969 September 2, the first node (todays Internet) on ARPANET at University California Los Angeles (UCLA).
1969 Computer Sculpture by George Nees (Aluminum, 40 x 40 x 1). Nees, with Herbert Franke and Frieder Nake were Computer Art pioneers in Europe.
1969 T-4 (poster) by Ivan Picelj (computer graphic, silkscreen).
1969 Rain Pattern, No. 3, digital drawing by Katherine Nash
 
1969 A Space Odyssey 2001, The Stargate Corridor slit-scan effect.
1969 "69" by Denys Irving (UK silent 8 minutes). A film by an early British pioneer of computer generated filmmaking.
Applicon (1969), created one of the first vendors of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing software called Bravo CAD/CAM.
Siemens System 4004, by Herbert Franke & Peter Henne 1969, Serigraph.
The PDP-12 introduced a dual-processor 12-bit minicomputer designed for interactive, real-time laboratory graphics.
1969 AMBIT-G Graphical Programming Language by Paul Rovner & Austin Henderson.
 
 
 
Cybernetic Serendipity: the Computer and the Arts, Frederick Praegaer, 1969. Book describes the 1968 seminal exhibition at the ICA, London.
 
 
 
 
 
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