IBM 704 vacuum tube module (with Mechanical Relay)
physical object
2010.1.13
Description
This is a vacuum tube module for the IBM 704 system. You can see of a row of 6 vacuum tubes with a mechanical relay in between them. In later iterations the relay was replaced by two more vacuum tubes for a total of eight. The tubes were part of the logic circuitry. IBM sold the 704 computer from 1954 to 1960. It was a 'scientific' computer, intended for complex calculations, and one of the earliest to use core memory. The FORTRAN and LISP programming languages were originally developed for the IBM 704. In Canada, Avro Aircraft Limited used an IBM 704. Perhaps this tube came from Avro, and played a part in the development of the famous Avro Arrow?Related Donors
Systems Design Undergraduate LabKina Kim
Evan Wolfe
Scott Campbell