IBM 701
Defense Calculator

    ("Defense Calculator") The first of the IBM 700
   series of computers.

   The IBM 701 was annouced internally on 1952-04-29 as "the most
   advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world".
   Known as the Defense Calculator while in development at IBM
   Poughkeepsie Laboratory, it went public on 1953-04-07 as the
   "IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machines" (plural because
   it consisted of eleven connected units).

   The 701 was the first IBM large-scale electronic computer
   manufactured in quantity and their first commercial
   scientific computer.  It was the first IBM machine in which
   programs were stored in an internal, addressable, electronic
   memory.  It was developed and produced in less than two years
   from "first pencil on paper" to installation.  It was key to
   IBM's transition from punched card machines to electronic
   computers.

   It consisted of four magnetic tape drives, a magnetic drum
   memory unit, a cathode-ray tube storage unit, an L-shaped
   arithmetic and control unit with an operator's panel, a
   {punched card reader, a printer, a card punch and three
   power units.  It performed more than 16,000 additions or
   subtractions per second, read 12,500 digits a second from
   tape, print 180 letters or numbers a second and output 400
   digits a second from punched-cards.

   The IBM 701 ran the following languages and systems: BACAIC,
   BAP, DOUGLAS, DUAL-607, FLOP, GEPURS, JCS-13,
   KOMPILER, LT-2, PACT I, QUEASY, QUICK, SEESAW,
   SHACO, SO 2, Speedcoding, SPEEDEX.

   <IBM History>.

   (2005-06-20)