The Early Years (1940-1959)

Remote Computing Experiment

Bell Laboratories, 1946

From a teletype console in McNutt Hall on the Dartmouth campus, research mathematician at Bell Laboratories George Stibitz demonstrated the first remote access to a digital computer using standard phone lines. Stibitz's mainframe, an automatic calculator located at Bell Labs' Headquarters in New York, was the first electric digital computer that would evolve into today's modern electronic computer. His was the first computer to perform arithmetic operations in binary fashion, the first placed in routine operation, and the first with either remote or multi-station terminals.

• Pioneer's Day Featured Stibitz (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1974)

Artificial Intelligence

George Stibitz (L) and Tom Kurtz in Kiewit Machine Room

The term artificial intelligence (AI) was coined by Dartmouth mathematician John McCarthy. Foundations were laid for AI research during a two-month conference, "Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence."

First Computer

Systems Programmers

Dartmouth computing began in earnest with the acquisition of a rudimentary LGP-30 computer. The creativity of "bright undergraduate students adept at computer programming" was first revealed.

• Computation Center, Time Sharing System Proposed (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1962)
• Funding of DTSS and BASIC (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1964)
• Birth of DTSS Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1964)
• First DTSS Upgrade Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1964)
• DTSS Upgraded (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1966)
• The GE-635 Facts (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1966)
• GE Donated System (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1969)
• DTSS Incorporated (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1972)
• DTSS Sold to Met Life (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1978)
• Computing History Recounted (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1978)
• The Computer and the Campus: An Interview with John Kemeny (1991) (Dartmouth Computing History)
• Dartmouth Time-Sharing System Phased Out (Dartmouth Computing Timeline 1993)