16 November 2009

Workhorse

IEEE Spectrum posts a short article and lovely slideshow documenting the restoration of IBM 1401 mainframe by volunteers at the Computer History Museum.
In the 1401's heyday, in the 1960s, some 9300 units were in use. Together with 6000-odd units of various successor models, by 1967 the 1400 line accounted for half of all the computers in the world.

The 1401 was a decimal arithmetic machine, designed expressly for business applications. It preceded the unifying System/360 line (all apps, commercial and scientific) by about five years.

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