IBM 7090 console

The IBM 7090 was a second-generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computers and was designed for "large-scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 was the third member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation was in November 1959. In 1960, a typical system sold for $2,900,000 or could be rented for for $63,500 a month. IBM 7090 Console Screen shot from a US Government (NASA) video clip about Project Mercury. ... IBM 7090 Console Screen shot from a US Government (NASA) video clip about Project Mercury. ... Assorted component transistors The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device which can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions. ... The IBM 709 was an early computer system introduced by IBM in August, 1958. ... A 1990 Honeywell-Bull DPS 7 mainframe Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for mission critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and financial transaction processing. ... The IBM 700/7000 series was a series of incompatible large scale (mainframe) computer systems made by IBM through the 1950s and early 1960s. ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The 7090 used a 36-bit word length, with an address-space of 32K (32,768) words. It operated with a basic memory cycle of 2.18 μs, using the IBM 7302 Core Storage core memory technology from the IBM 7030 (Stretch) project. 36-bit word length describes the number of bits, 36, used in some early computers to represent data in the form of words—their basic units of addressing and calculation. ... The IBM 7302 Core Storage unit was designed in 1957-1958 for the IBM 7030 (Stretch). ... A 16×16 cm area core memory plane of 128×128 bits, i. ... The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBMs first attempt at building a supercomputer. ...

IBM 7094 and IBM 7040/7044

An upgraded version, the IBM 7094, was first installed in September 1962. It had seven index registers, instead of three on the earlier machines. The 7094 console had a distinctive box on top that displayed lights for the four new index registers. The 7094 introduced double-precision floating point and additional instructions, but was largely backward compatible with the 7090. Minor changes in instruction formats, particularly the way the additional index registers were addressed, sometimes caused problems. Look up September in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... In technology, especially computing, a product is said to be backward compatible (or downward compatible) when it is able to take the place of an older product, by interoperating with other products that were designed for the older product. ...

In 1963, IBM introduced lower cost machines with a similar architecture, but fewer instructions and simplified I/O, called the IBM 7040 and 7044. In April 1964, the first 7094 II was installed, which had almost twice as much general speed as the 7090 due to a faster clock cycle and introduction of overlapped instruction execution. 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... An IBM 7040 in operation from 1964 to 1974 at the German university Technische Hochschule Darmstadt The IBM 7040, a scaled down version of the IBM 7090 introduced by IBM in April, 1963, was a later member of the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers. ... Template:AprillCalendar Look up Aprill in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ...

Instruction and data formats

The basic instruction format was a 3-bit prefix, 15-bit decrement, 3-bit tag, and 15-bit address. The prefix field specified the class of instruction. The decrement field often contained an immediate operand to modify the results of the operation, or was used to further define the instruction type. The three bits of the tag specified three index registers (seven in the 7094), the contents of which were subtracted from the address to produce an effective address. The address field either contained an address or an immediate operand. An index register in a computer CPU is a processor register used for modifying operand addresses during the run of a program, typically for doing vector/array operations. ...

• Fixed point numbers were stored in binary sign/magnitude format.
• Single precision floating point numbers had a magnitude sign, an 8-bit excess-128 exponent and a 29 bit magnitude
• Double precision floating point numbers, introduced on the 7094, had a magnitude sign, a 17-bit excess-65536 exponent, and a 54 bit magnitude
• Alphanumeric characters were 6-bit BCD, packed six to a word.

Octal notation was used in documentation and programming. The term computer numbering formats refers to the schemes implemented in digital computer and calculator hardware and software to represent numbers. ... A floating-point number is a digital representation for a number in a certain subset of the rational numbers, and is often used to approximate an arbitrary real number on a computer. ... Binary-coded decimal (BCD) is, after character encodings, the most common way of encoding decimal digits in computing and in electronic systems. ... The octal numeral system is the base-8 number system, and uses the digits 0 to 7. ...

Input/Output

The 7090 series featured a data channel architecture for input and output, a forerunner of modern direct memory access I/O. Up to 10 data channels could be attached. The datachannels had their own instruction set. These were used with tape and later disk storage and offered high performance for the time. Printing and punch card I/O, however, employed modified unit record equipment and was slow. It became common to use a less expensive IBM 1401 computer to read cards onto magnetic tape for transfer to the 7090/94. Output would be spooled onto tape and transferred to the 1401 for printing or card punching using its much faster peripherals, notably the IBM 1403 line printer. Later IBM introduced the 7094/7044 Direct Coupled System, using data channel to data channel communication, with the 7094 primarily performing computations and the 7044 performing I/O operations. Direct memory access (DMA) allows certain hardware subsystems within a computer to access system memory for reading and/or writing independently of the CPU. Many hardware systems use DMA including disk drive controllers, graphics cards, network cards, and sound cards. ... The punch card (or Hollerith card) is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. ... Before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using electromechanical devices called unit record equipment, electric accounting machines (EAM) or A data processing shop would have at least one of most of the machine types. ... The IBM 1401 was a variable wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959 and marketed as an inexpensive Business Computer. It was withdrawn on February 8, 1971. ... Magnetic tape is a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. ... A spool is a bobbin: a cylinder or reel for winding yarn, thread, cable, film, etc. ... The IBM 1403 Printer was introduced as part of the IBM 1401 computer in 1959, but had an especially long life in the IBM product line. ...

Notable applications

Dual 7090's at NASA during Project Mercury

• The Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), one of the first time-sharing operating systems, was developed at MIT's Project MAC using a 7094 with an extra bank of memory, among other modifications.

• NASA used 7090s, and, later, 7094s to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights. During the early Apollo Program, a 7094 was kept operational to run flight planning software that had not yet been ported to mission control's newer System/360 computers.

• The US Air Force retired its last 7094s in service from the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System ("BMEWS") in the 1980s after almost 30 years of use.

• The US Navy continued to use a 7094 at Pacific Missile Test Center, Point Mugu, California through much of the 1980s, although a "retirement" ceremony was held in July 1982. Not all of the applications had been ported to its successor, a dual-processor CDC Cyber 175.

• In 1961 Alexander Hurwitz used a 7090 to discover two Mersenne primes, with 1281 and 1332 digits - the largest prime numbers known at the time.

• In 1961, the 7094 became the first computer to sing, singing the song Daisy Bell. Vocals were programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum and the accompanyment was programmed by Max Mathews. This performance was the inspiration for a similar scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• A 7090/1401 installation is featured in the motion picture Doctor Strangelove, with the 1403 printer playing a pivotal role in the plot.

NASA mission control computer room with dual IBM 7090s, apparently taken around the time of the Mercury 6 (MA-6) mission in 1962. ... NASA mission control computer room with dual IBM 7090s, apparently taken around the time of the Mercury 6 (MA-6) mission in 1962. ... This article is about the MIT Project MAC operating system. ... Alternate uses: see Timesharing Time-sharing is an approach to interactive computing in which a single computer is used to provide apparently simultaneous interactive general-purpose computing to multiple users by sharing processor time. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a world leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... Project MAC, later the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), was a research laboratory at MIT. Project MAC would become famous for groundbreaking research in operating systems, artificial intelligence, and the theory of computation. ... NASA logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... Description Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot Dimensions Height: 36. ... System 360 Model 65 operators console, with register value lamps and toggle switches (middle of picture) and emergency pull switch (upper right). ... Phased array BMEWS Installation at Thule, Greenland The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) was the first operational ballistic missile detection radar. ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... The former name of Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division. ... Point Mugu is a town in Ventura County, California, near Port Hueneme. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... The Cyber range of mainframe computers were Control Data Corporations primary products during the 1970s and 1980s. ... Alexander Hurwitz is an American mathematician who discovered the 19th and 20th largest Mersenne primes in 1961. ... In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. ... Daisy Bell is a popular song whose famous lines (Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do. ... Max Vernon Mathews was born in Columbus, Nebraska, on November 13, 1926. ... For the hit 1987 single by Depeche Mode, see the album Music for the Masses Film poster for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is a 1964 satirical film directed by Stanley Kubrick. ...

See also

• IBM 704
• IBM 7040
• IBM 716 line printer
• IBM 729 tape drive
• Early IBM disk storage
• IBSYS operating system
• 9PAC

The IBM 704, the first mass-produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware, was introduced by IBM in April, 1956. ... An IBM 7040 in operation from 1964 to 1974 at the German university Technische Hochschule Darmstadt The IBM 7040, a scaled down version of the IBM 7090 introduced by IBM in April, 1963, was a later member of the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers. ... An IBM 716 printer at NASA The IBM 716 line printer was used with IBM 700/7000 series computers. ... IBM 729s in action The IBM 729 Magnetic Tape Unit was IBMs iconic tape mass storage system from the late 1950s through the mid 1960s. ... Magnetic disk storage is a critical component of the computer revolution. ... IBSYS was the tape based operating system that IBM supplied with its IBM 7090 and IBM 7094 computers. ... 9PAC is a common abbreviation for 709 PACkage. ...

Reference

• Reference Manual, IBM 7090 Data Processing System, 1961, IBM A22-6528-3

External links

• IBM Archives - 7090
• IBM 7090 Data Processing System from BRL61 Report
• IBM 7090/94 Architecture page
• IBM 7094 singing Daisy (mp3)