[SIGCIS-Members] IBM 610

[Ian S. King]

A couple of years ago, there was a working 1620 at the IBM museum in
Sindelfingen, Germany (since moved to Böblingen) that they had been loaned
by a museum in Italy - I've lost the name of the latter.  The IBM group was
allowed to borrow it for five years, and only once.  They were sad to see
it go back.  But it's good to know there are a couple out there.

On Thu, Mar 3, 2016 at 9:21 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP at si.edu> wrote:

> The 1620 had very few logic circuits; it looked up sums in a table
> instead. It’s nickname was “CADET”: “can’t add; doesn’t even try!” There is
> a 1620 preserved at the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, Montana. A few
> years ago, Ted Hoff was given an award by the museum. As he walked by the
> 1620, he remarked that had used one, and that the machine’s creative use of
> memory in place of logic convinced him that it would be possible to create
> a processor on a sliver of silicon—what became the Intel 4004.
>
>
>
> Paul Ceruzzi
>
> ceruzzip at si.edu
>
> 202-633-2414
>
>
>
> *From:* Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] *On Behalf Of *Murray
> Turoff
> *Sent:* Thursday, March 3, 2016 12:06 PM
> *To:* Mounier Kuhn <mounier at msh-paris.fr>
> *Cc:* members <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] IBM 610
>
>
>
> Ahhh!   I worked on the IBM 1620 for IBM in san jose for a year 1960-1961.
>
> It was a "personal computer" about the size of a desk.   It had a
> continuous memory
>
> and you could set up the word length you wanted.  Memory was based upon
> our standard
>
> digital system to the base 10.   At that point in time there was only
> three machines at
>
> the San Jose plant and a group of us were working on applications.   I
> wrote a guide to
>
> machine level programming and debugging and worked with others on a
> Fortran System as well
>
> a numerical control application package.  It was a fun machine to work
> with.
>
>
> At the San Jose plant a lot of sales people were brought in to be educated
> in new but not yet
>
> released products.   They always sang IBM songs to start the meeting.  I
> think somehwere i have
>
> burried an IBM song book.   They were extremely loyal as some them were
> with IBM in 1929 and
>
> it was only IBM and ATT that did not fire any professional during that
> recession.  Many had nothing much
>
> to do so they started a song writing contest which resulted in the song
> book.   I have never checked
>
> if the song book is online anywhere.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion
> list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member
> posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list
> archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and
> you can change your subscription options at
> http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
>



-- 
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20160303/f947ee91/attachment.htm>