Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the first adopters of the 305 (soon renamed RAMAC, Random Access Memory
Accounting Machine) was United Airlines, which used the technology for its reservations
system. RAMAC proved a huge hit when savvy IBM publicists installed a unit in the U.S.
Pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (1958).
Even more important, however, was IBM's introduction in 1959 of the 7090, the tran-
sistorized direct descendant of the 709. The 7090 sold for approx. $2,900,000 and was
available on a lease for $63,500 a month (half the rental price of a 709). The 7090 was six
times faster than the 709, featured a 36-bit word length, and delivered 32,768 words of core
memory. In this IBM set a trend for almost all computer technology going forward. While
the technology grew to be more and more powerful and efficient, it at the same time des-
cended in price.
Per IBM's sales literature for the 7090: "The six-fold increase in the 7090's speed results
largely from the use of more than 50,000 transistors plus extremely fast magnetic core
storage. The new system can simultaneously read and write electronically at the rate of
3,000,000 bits of information a second, when eight data channels are in use. In 2.18 mil-
lionths of a second, it can locate and make ready for use any of 32,768 data or instruction
numbers (each of 10 digits) in the magnetic core storage. The 7090 can perform any of the
following operations in one second: 229,000 additions or subtractions, 39,500 multiplica-
tions, or 32,700 divisions."
The 7090 could use many programs already developed for the 709 as well as hundreds
of programs developed for the old 704. In addition, the 7090's input-output media were
compatible with those of all IBM data processing systems. Personnel familiar with the 709
required no formal retraining to gain a technical knowledge of the 7090. In other words,
firms could upgrade with ease.
The next upgrade of the machine, the 7094 (introduced in 1962) featured four addition-
al registers. The machine leased for approx. $30,000 per month, and could be purchased
for $1.6 million. (In 1981, the first IBM Personal Computer, priced at $1,565, offered up to
256 Kilobytes of core memory, far in excess of the core memory in the 7090, which trans-
lated to approx. 150 kilobytes.)
The 7090 and 7094 provided great speed: approx. fifty thousand to 100 thousand float-
ing operations per second. Perfectly capable of advanced scientific and engineering tasks,
these machines were as well completely efficient in the range of standard business func-
tions. As stated in an IBM press-release from 1960: "The IBM 7090 will process such
large-scale business applications as inventory control, production control, forecasting and
general accounting. The 7090 is well-suited for IBM Tele-processing, which in its most ad-
vanced form uses a powerful computer as the data processing center of a network of decent-
ralized plant and office input stations. An example is SABRE, an automatic, centralized
electronic airlines reservations system developed by IBM for American Airlines. SABRE
has two 7090s as its computing nerve center. Another IBM 7090 is solving problems for
