IBM 7090: Екінші буынды транзисторлық ЭЕМ

Mainframe computer
the tape based operating system

The IBM 7090 is a second generation transistorized version of the earlier IBM 709 vacuum tube mainframe computer that was designed for "large scale scientific and technological applications". The 7090 is the fourth member of the IBM 700/7000 series scientific computers. The first 7090 installation was in December 1959. In 1960, a typical system sold for $2.9 million (equivalent to $2.9 in 1960 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years million in ) or could be rented for $63,500 a month (63500.0 in 1960 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years). The 7090 uses a 36 bit word length, with an address space of 32,768 words (15 bit addresses). It operates with a basic memory cycle of 2.18 μs, using the IBM 7302 Core Storage core memory technology from the IBM 7030 (Stretch) project. With a processing speed of around 100 Kflop/s, the 7090 is six times faster than the 709, and could be rented for half the price. An upgraded version, the 7094, was up to twice as fast. Both the 7090 and the 7094 were withdrawn from sale on July 14, 1969, but systems remained in service for more than a decade after.

Although the 709 was a superior machine to its predecessor, the 704, it was being built and sold at the time that transistor circuitry was supplanting vacuum tube circuits. Hence, IBM redeployed its 709 engineering group to the design of a transistorized successor. That project became called the 709 T (for transistorized), which because of the sound when spoken, quickly shifted to the nomenclature 7090 (i. e., seven oh ninety). Similarly, the related machines such as the 7070 and other 7000 series equipment were sometimes called by names of digit digit decade (e. g., seven oh seventy).

In 1963, IBM introduced two new, lower cost machines called the IBM 7040 and 7044. They have a 36 bit architecture based on the 7090, but with some instructions omitted or optional, and simplified input/output that allows the use of more modern, higher performance peripherals from the IBM 1400 series.

The 7094/7044 Direct Coupled System (DCS) was initially developed by an IBM customer, the Aerospace Corporation, seeking greater cost efficiency and scheduling flexibility than IBM's IBSYS tape operating system provided. DCS used a less expensive IBM 7044 to handle input/output (I/O) with the 7094 performing mostly computation. Aerospace developed the Direct Couple operating system, an extension to IBSYS, which was shared with other IBM customers. IBM later introduced the DCS as a product.

The Compatible Time Sharing System (CTSS), the first general purpose time sharing operating system, developed at MIT's Computation Center on three successive computers, an IBM 709, 7090 and 7094 with RPQs for additional features. It eventually ran on two separate 7094s, one of them at Project MAC. It was the first computer to sing, singing Daisy Bell. NASA used 7090s, and, later, 7094s to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights. Goddard Space Flight Center operated three 7094s. During the early Apollo Program, a 7094 was kept operational to run flight planning software that had not yet been ported to mission control's newer System/360 computers. Caltech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory had three 7094s in the Space Flight Operations Facility (SFOF, building 230), fed via tape using several 1401s, and two 7094/7044 direct coupled systems (in buildings 125 and 156). Erhard Glatzel used an IBM 7090 to assist in calculations for the design of the Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lens commissioned by NASA. This lens was also used by Stanley Kubrick to shoot candlelit scenes in Barry Lyndon. An IBM 7090 was installed at LASL, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (Now Los Alamos National Laboratory). In 1961, Alexander Hurwitz used a 7090 to discover two Mersenne primes, with 1,281 and 1,332 digits—the largest known prime number at the time. In 1961, Michael Minovitch used UCLA's 7090 to tackle the three body problem. His research was the scientific foundation of NASA's Planetary Grand Tour project. On February 13, 1961, an IBM 7090 was installed at the Woomera Long Range Weapons Establishment in Southern Australia. In 1962, a pair of 7090s in Briarcliff Manor, New York, were the basis for the original version of the SABRE airlines reservation system introduced by American Airlines. The composer Iannis Xenakis wrote his piece "Atrées" using an IBM 7090 at Place Vendôme, Paris. In 1962, Daniel Shanks and John Wrench used an IBM 7090 to compute the first 100,000 digits of In 1963, three 7090 systems were imported into and installed in Japan, one each at Mitsubishi Nuclear Power Co. (whose DP division later merged with Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.), IBM Japan's data center in Tokyo, and Toshiba in Kawasaki. They were mainly used for scientific computing. In 1964, an early version of TRACE, a high precision orbit determination and orbit propagation program, was used on an IBM 7090 computer. Operation Match, the first computer dating service in the U. S., begun in 1965, used a 7090 at the Avco service bureau in Wilmington, Massachusetts. In 1967, Roger N. Shepard adapted M. V. Mathews' algorithm using an IBM 7090 to synthesize Shepard tones. The US Air Force retired its last 7090s in service from the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System ("BMEWS") in the 1980s after almost 30 years of use. 7090 serial number 1 and serial number 3 were installed at Thule Air Base in Greenland for this application. The US Navy continued to use a 7094 at Pacific Missile Test Center, Point Mugu, California through much of the 1980s, although a "retirement" ceremony was held in July 1982. Not all of the applications had been to its a dual processor CDC Cyber 175.

A 7090/1401 installation is featured in the motion picture Dr. Strangelove, with the 1403 printer playing a pivotal role in the plot
An IBM 7090 is featured in the 2016 American biographical film Hidden Figures. IBM 7094 specs are visible scrolling on a screen in the 1997 film Event Horizon.