The RCA 501 was a

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

manufactured by RCA beginning in 1958.

History

RCA's pioneering work in transistors in other products provided its engineers with the basis needed to design effective use of transistors in early solid-state electronic computer systems as well. After three years of development, RCA introduced by 1959 the all-transistor RCA 501, a medium- to large-scale computer which according to the sales brochures was "the world's most advanced electronic data processing system".via YouTube: Vintage RCA Computers - A Brief Look at the RCA 501 - History Archives
/ref> It was designed by industrial designer

John Vassos John Vassos (born John Plato Vassacopoulos; 23 October 1898 – 6 December 1985) whose career as an American industrial designer and artist helped define the shape of radio, television, broadcasting equipment, and computers for the Radio Corpora ...

, who employed a modular design strategy, framing the computer and its components as a system and not as individual units. He also used color coding to assist the operator to run the machine in an "orderly and fully controlled manner" according to the advertisement. The

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

purchased a 501 system in 1959 for $121,698. Other customers included the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, State Farm Life Insurance, and General Tire and Rubber Company. A compatible version of the RCA 501 was sold by

English Electric N.º UIC: 9094 110 1449-3 (Takargo Rail) The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, armistice of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during th ...

as their model KDP10/KDF8.

Features

The RCA 501 utilized advanced manufacturing techniques such as pluggable card units or

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...

s. It also included a centralized operating console, from which the operator could control all aspects of the computer from one location, including starting and stopping of programs. It also used high-speed

magnetic-core memory Magnetic-core memory was the predominant form of random access, random-access computer memory for 20 years between about 1955 and 1975. Such memory is often just called core memory, or, informally, core. Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a ...

, expandable from 16k to 260k characters. An optional drum memory unit could provide up to 1.5 million characters of storage, and up to 63 magnetic tape units could be installed. The tape drives utilized variable length records, whereby the "data on hetape sin proportion to the length of the data in each entry." It weighed about .

References

{{Reflist 1950s computers

History

Features

See also

References