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IBM 610

Vacuum tube computer system

Summary

Vacuum tube computer system

Field	Value
name	IBM 610
aka	IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer
image	610b-soft.jpg
caption	Control unit of the IBM 610 with keyboard
developer	John Lentz, as part of his work for the Watson Lab at Columbia University
manufacturer	IBM
type	Personal computer
release_date
price	$55,000 (or rented for $1150 per month ($460 academic))
units_shipped	180
memory_card	Punched paper tape
weight	800 lb
successor	IBM 1620

The IBM 610 Auto-Point Computer is one of the first personal computers, in the sense of a computer to be used by one person whose previous experience with computing might only have been with desk calculators. It was controlled interactively by a keyboard. The principal designer of this machine was John Lentz, as part of his work for the Watson Lab at Columbia University.

The IBM 610 was introduced in 1957. It was small enough to easily fit in an office; it weighed about 800 lb. It was designed to be used in a normal office, without any special electrical or air conditioning requirements. It used vacuum tubes, a magnetic drum, and punched paper tape readers and punchers. The input was from a keyboard and output was to an IBM electric typewriter, at eighteen characters per second. It was one of the first computers to be controlled from a keyboard. The term "auto-point" referred to the ability to automatically adjust the decimal point in floating-point arithmetic.

Its price was $55,000, or it could be rented for $1150 per month ($460 academic). IBM made 180 units. It was a slow and limited computer, and was generally replaced by the IBM 1620.

References

(1984-03-06). "PC Mag". Ziff Davis, Inc..
Peddie, Jon. (2013-06-13). "The History of Visual Magic in Computers: How Beautiful Images are Made in CAD, 3D, VR and AR". Springer Science & Business Media.
Weik, Martin H.. (Mar 1961). "IBM 610".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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