The IBM 701, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was announced to the public on April 29, 1952, and was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer. Its business computer sibling was the IBM 650.
The system used electrostatic storage, consisting of 72 Williams tubes with a capacity of 1024 bits each, giving a total memory of 2048 words of 36 bits each. Memory could be expanded to a maximum of 4096 words of 36 bits by the addition of a 2nd set of 72 Williams tubes or by replacing the entire memory with magnetic core memory. The tube memory access time was 30μs. The core memory access time was 18μs.
IBM 706 - Electrostatic Storage Unit (2048 words of CRT Memory)
IBM 711 - Punched Card Reader (150 Cards/min.)
IBM 716 - Printer (150 Lines/min.)
IBM 721 - Punched Card Recorder (100 Cards/min.)
IBM 726 - Magnetic Tape Reader/Recorder (100 Bits/inch)
IBM 727 - Magnetic Tape Reader/Recorder (200 Bits/inch)
IBM 731 - Magnetic Drum Reader/Recorder
IBM 736 - Power Frame #1
IBM 737 - Magnetic Core Storage Unit (4096 words of Core Memory)
IBM 740 - Cathode Ray Tube Output Recorder
IBM 741 - Power Frame #2
IBM 746 - Power Distribution Unit
IBM 753 - Magnetic Tape Control Unit (controlled up to ten IBM 727s)
Nineteen IBM 701 systems were installed [1] (http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/701/701_customers.html). The University of California at Livermore developed a language compilation and runtime system called the KOMPILER for their 701. A Fortran compiler was not released by IBM until the IBM 704.
The successor of the 701 was the index register-equipped IBM 704, introduced 4 years after the 701. The 704 was not compatible with the 701, however, as the 704 increased the size of instructions from 18 bits to 36 bits to support the extra features.
Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, Emerson W. Pugh, IBM's Early Computers (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1986)
Cuthbert C. Hurd (editor), Special Issue: The IBM 701 Thirtieth Anniversary - IBM Enters the Computing Field, Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 5 (No. 2), 1983
External links
A Notable First: The IBM 701 (http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/701/701_intro.html)
The Williams Tube (http://www.computer50.org/kgill/williams/williams.html)
The IBM701, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was announced to the public on April 29, 1952, and was IBM’s first commercial scientific computer.
A Fortran compiler was not released by IBM until the IBM 704.
The successor of the 701 was the index register-equipped IBM 704, introduced 4 years after the 701.
The first step in preparing IBM's magical computer to repeat this human performance of a mechanical task was to write electronically, in plus and minus charges on a magnetic drum surface, 250 Russian words and their equivalents in English.
The second step in preparing the 701 to translate was to store the detailed instructions -- exactly like those the people in Washington had followed, except that these were written in electrical charges on the faces of cathode ray tubes in the 701's electrostatic memory.
What IBM's astonishing 701 actually did, in executing the Russian-English translation, was to create within itself a working model of another "brain" specially designed to handle logic instead of mathematics.
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