From the beginning of the Information Technology Age, the U.S. Government has played a major role in the development and the first use of many emerging technologies. For example, the ENIAC, the first digital computer, was invented at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943, during World War II, with government funding and with an intended military mission. This first computer occupied 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, and weighed almost 50 tons.
Over the next four decades, the U.S. Government, and particularly the Department of Defense, would play an important role in the early stages of the formation of some of the most successful technology companies in the world. A few examples of this were:
- Digital Equipment Corporation - This pioneer in mini-computer technology got its start building circuit boards for DoD early warning systems in 1957. Forty years later, this $12 Billion company was sold to Compaq which was later sold to HP.
- SUN Microsystems - Originally Stanford University Network Computers, SUN's technical workstation sales in its first few years went primarily to defense contractors working on Government programs. Eventually this company would go on to pioneer other technologies such as the SPARC chip and JAVA.
- Oracle - The Oracle database was built under contract to support of a U.S. Government Intelligence Agency mission requirement. That seed funding helped to launch one of the world's largest and most successful enterprise software companies.
- ARPANET - Few historians would argue the role that the DoD-supported ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) played as the seed that would grow into today's Internet.
During the first 40 years of the IT industry, until the Internet revolution, U.S. Government missions funded the research and development, and it was often the pre-eminent source of initial sales revenue for hundreds of IT companies. Those companies used that early revenue to develop into global commercial technology companies.
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