History
By 1959 the growing use of computers, built by several different manufacturers, showed the necessity for standardization in operational techniques, such as programming, and also input and output codes.
By 1959 the growing use of computers, built by several different manufacturers, showed the necessity for standardization in operational techniques, such as programming, and also input and output codes.
Standards would offer the possibility to use data prepared for, or even by, a computer made by one manufacturer to be on a computer made by another with the minimum of alteration. Also it would avoid duplication of work in the preparation of, for example, programming languages by several manufacturers. Though certain National Bodies had, before 1960, started work on standards in this field, e.g. paper tape and codes, there did not appear to be collaboration between them, nor between the manufacturers themselves. Different countries may have different requirements, so that it may not be necessary to have the same standards everywhere, but the standards should at least be compatible.
With the object of coordinating such work, the Heads of the Companies of longest standing in Europe in the data processing field (Compagnie des Machines Bull, IBM World Trade Europe Corporation and International Computers and Tabulators Limited) sent a joint letter to all the known computer manufacturers within Europe, inviting these companies to send representatives to a meeting. This meeting was held on 27 April 1960 in Brussels; it was decided that an association of manufacturers should be formed which would be called European Computer Manufacturers Association or for short ECMA, and a Committee was nominated to prepare the formation of the Association and to draw up By-laws and Rules.
By December 1960 the form that the Association would take was fairly well defined and it had been decided that the headquarters should be in Geneva to be near the headquarters of other standards developing organizations such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). On 17 May 1961, the Association officially came into being and all those companies which attended the original meeting became members. The constituent assembly was held on 17 June 1961.
To reflect the global activities of the Europe-based Ecma organization, the name of the association was changed in 1994 to: Ecma International – European association for standardizing information and communication systems. Though before 1994, ECMA was known as “European Computer Manufacturers Association”, after 1994, when the organization became global, the “trademark” “Ecma” was kept for historical reasons.
By December 1960 the legal form that the Association would take was fairly well defined and it had been decided that it should be headquartered in Geneva to be near the headquarters of other standards developing organizations such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). On 17 May 1961, the Association officially came into being and all those companies which attended the original meeting became members. The constituent assembly was held on 17 June 1961.
ICT
1961-1962
EL
1963-1964
IBM
1965-1966
Bull
1969-1970
AEG-Tfk
1971-1972
Philips
1975
Siemens
1976-1977
Ferranti
1978-1979
Philips
1980-1981
Cii HB
1982-1983
Digital
1984-1985
STET
1986-1987
Bull
1998-1999
Philips
1990
Siemens Nixdorf
1991-1992
IBM
1993-1994
HP
1995-1996
BT
1997-1998
Xerox
1999-2000
IBM
2001-2002
Intel
2003-2004
Avaya
2005-2006
Toshiba
2007-2008
Philips
2009-2010
HP
2011-2012
Microsoft
2013-2014
Hitachi
2015-2017
IBM
2018-2019
Microsoft
2020-2021
IBM
2022-2023
1961-1991
(† 18 February 2002)
1992-2007
2007-2019
2019-2023