History of computing in Urcea

Unlike most other major pioneering nations, computing in Urcea was a relatively underdeveloped and unexplored field prior to the Great War. The potential usefulness and applicability of computing devices was considered limited outside of academic and some engineering capacities, and consequently new devices were largely considered technological novelties. With the outbreak of war and interest in interdicting Caphirian weapons trade with Dericania, the ability to encode and decode sensitive information became of vital importance, though throughout the late 1920s the country struggled to catch up with its neighbors in terms of computer development. The country invested considerably in acquiring foreign devices and experts, such that by 1940 Urcea was on par with the other great powers of the time and had managed to crack Caphirian codes several times throughout the latter portion of the war. Computing hardware and software developed considerably during the War, and by the end of the conflict the Collegium Scientificum was considered a world leader in academic computer development. After the war, several experts - both foreign and domestic - went into business, applying lessons learned to commercial enterprises. The major pioneer - and largest firm - was ITM, or International Tabulation Machines, which developed many business-use large computer mainframes. ITM, and its later smaller competitors, developed mainframes that became commonplace in commercial use by the late 1950s and 1960s. These computers were very large and required terminals to use while relying on complex vacuum circuits. They employed rudimentary and often proprietary encoding languages. An early adopter of these large computers was the Catholic Church for parish and diocesan registries, which had grown to considerable sizes due to Urcea's large population. By 1965, considerable efforts were made to create commercially available microprocessors, and by 1970 the first - the Integrated Systems Processor 1000 - hit the market. The development of microprocessors spawned a considerable interest in smaller computers and created a widespread phenomenon of hobbyist computer construction and development.

The Selectro 1000PC was released in 1972 with little fanfare; Selectro was a minor competitor of ITM and its 1000PC computer was primarily intended as a niche product targeted towards computer hobbyists. Historians consider it to be the first commercially available personal computer in Urcea and among one of the world's first. Early success of the product lead to increased production and advertisement, and the development of the first spreadsheet program lead to dramatically increased demand for the product by 1974.