Fifty years ago -- on April 29, 1952 --- IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr., informed his company's stockholders at the annual meeting that IBM was building "the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world." Known as the Defense Calculator while in development, the new machine emerged from the IBM Poughkeepsie Laboratory later that year and was formally unveiled to the public on April 7, 1953 as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machines.*
IBM 701 Electronic analytical control unit
What was so special about the 701? Well, a few things. The 701 was a landmark product because it was:
- The first IBM large-scale electronic computer manufactured in quantity;
- IBM's first commercially available scientific computer;
- The first IBM machine in which programs were stored in an internal, addressable, electronic memory;
- Developed and produced in record time -- less than two years from "first pencil on paper" to installation;
- Key to IBM's transition from punched-card machines to electronic computers; and
- The first of the pioneering line of IBM 700 series computers, including the 702, 704, 705 and 709.