On Hardware, there’s a great illustrated history of computers here (and timeline). For econometrics software, I relied on Charles Renfro’s massive history. I have tried to classify the various ways in which computerization affected the development of economics here and I list further research questions here. Comments welcome.
1930s
Leontief tries to solve 44 simultaneous equations on a mechanical computer developed by John Wilbur at MIT and fails. The computing capacities at that time, Dorfman recalls, enabled econs to solve 9 simultaneous equations in 3/4 hours.
Late 1940s
The ENIAC
While the first general-purpose computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) becomes operational in 1946, economists’ fascination with machine is then still related to the utilization of physics metaphors and tools to build economic models. In 1949, for instance, engineers Walter Newlyn and Bill Phillips (of the Phillips curve) built an hydromechanical analogue computer to simulate monetary and…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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