Abstract: In this paper, a survey of 45-year development of the optically pumped and optcally detected cesium beam frequency standards is given. It is pointed out that the expectation of using this kind of the atomic frequency standard as a primary standard has been broken, and it is replaced by the cold atom’s fountain clock. As for as the practical commercial frequency standard products, the performance specifications of this kind frequency standards are very close to or a little bit better than the traditional 5071A’s, but the market proportion is much lower. For the comparasion with the cesium beam frequency standards of magnetic state selection, the author indicates 5 points, where account should be taken and maken for further developments. There are as follows: 1） the semiconductor laser diodes and their system; 2） the selection of the pumping and detection transitions; 3） the noises of the laser pumping and detection; 4） the calculation of the effective velocity distribution of the atoms in beam; 5） the optical frequency shift and others. The author expects, if we could deeply understand and explore the theories of this kind of frequency standards and utilize the ingineous and exquisite technology, the performance specifications of this kind of frequency standards should probably exceed the 5071A at half or more order of magnitude and naturally have the priority on the market. The author expects deeply that some new systems of the time–frequency equipments could be developed from the study of this kind of frequency standards.