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  • Author Author: phoenixcomm
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IBM 701 Plugable Modules

phoenixcomm
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IBM 701 Plug-in Unit

figure 1.

The 701's vacuum tubes were collected into "pluggable units", a concept introduced with IBM's  604. The 701 was developed in 1952 in the Poughkeepsie Laboratory. The 701 known as the Defense Calculator. The 701's used 18-bit instructions, with maximum,  memory of 4096 words of 36-bits. It used Williams tubes or magnetic core memory which had a cycle time1 of 12 microseconds, and could do 2000 Multiplies and Divides per second. 

 

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Photo from an IBM ad in CACM Vol.18 No. 8, Aug 1975, caption: "Bill Stringfellow explains how the use of a special tool, an eight-tube pluggable unit, was set into a 701 computer. Alongside is an integrated circuit many times smaller, which performs comparable logic functions thousands of times faster in today's System/370."

figure 2.

 

 

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figures 3 and 4

 

 

  1. Memory cycle time refers to the minimum period between two successive requests.
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  • Yes, technology has come a long way since then.

     

    We were still taught tube technology in the early 1970's as there was still many legacy devices were still in use.

     

    Most important, these devices worked, though the tools for software development were incredibly primitive by today's standards.

     

    DAB

Comment

  • Yes, technology has come a long way since then.

     

    We were still taught tube technology in the early 1970's as there was still many legacy devices were still in use.

     

    Most important, these devices worked, though the tools for software development were incredibly primitive by today's standards.

     

    DAB

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