The Beginnings of Computing Activities at the Atomic Energy Authority, 1952-1972

The French Atomic Energy Authority (Commissariat àl\´Énergie Atomique or CEA) started to investigate electronic computing in 1952 and in 1956 created a specialized team, trained in England. It bought its first digital computers in 1957. From then on it continually acquired the most powerful computing equipment available (IBM Stretch, IBM 360/91, CDC 7600) to meet the needs of both civilian and military nuclear research. For many years, the CEA was IBM\´s largest customer outside the United States. In 1972 the Computer Division of the "Civilian CEA" was subsidiarized into a leading European software company, the CISI.