You want first? Try 1994...
Take a look at ReCycle... The original slice and dice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCycle Basically, D&B music would not exist if it wasn't for that program. Not to mention all the follow up software and hardware units.
Mind you, it did one thing that STILL is rarely implemented in arranger slice and dice implementation. What do you get if you slice and dice, and play a loop SLOWER than the original...? That's right - GAPS. Speed up is no problem, but slow down, and you have tiny gaps in the sound as the slices are pulled further and further apart.
ReCycle would time-stretch just the tail end of the slice (not the whole slice) so that you could slow down a loop quite a bit without gaps appearing. This is still done in most software, nowadays. But somehow this detail hasn't made it to some hardware... and may be why it isn't quite as successful as software equivalents.