In late 1953, Backus wrote a memo to his boss that outlined the design of a programming language for IBM’s new computer, the 704. This computer had a built-in scaling factor, also called a floating point, and an indexer, which significantly reduced operating time. However, the inefficient computer programs of the time would hamper the 704’s performance, and Backus wanted to design not only a better language, but one that would be easier and faster for programmers to use when working with the machine. IBM approved Backus’s proposal, and he hired a team of programmers and mathematicians to work with him.