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The IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator or ''CPC'' was announced by IBM in May 1949. Later that year an improved machine, the CPC-II, was also announced. The original CPC Calculator has the following units interconnected by cables: *Electronic Calculating Punch ** IBM 604 with reader/punch unit IBM 521 *Accounting Machine ** IBM 402 or ** IBM 417 The CPC-II Calculator has the following units interconnected by cables: *Electronic Calculating Punch ** IBM 605 with punch unit IBM 527 *Accounting Machine **
IBM 407 The IBM 407 Accounting Machine, introduced in 1949, was one of a long line of IBM tabulating machines dating back to the days of Herman Hollerith. It had a card reader and printer; a summary punch could be attached. Processing was directed by ...
or ** IBM 412 or ** IBM 418 *''Optional'' Auxiliary Storage Units (up to 3) ** IBM 941, each could store 16 decimal numbers with ten digits plus sign. From the IBM Archives:
The IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator was announced in May 1949 as a versatile general purpose computer designed to perform any predetermined sequence of arithmetical operations coded on standard 80-column punched cards. It was also capable of selecting and following one of several sequences of instructions as a result of operations already performed, and it could store instructions for self-programmed operation. The Calculator consisted of a Type 605 Electronic Calculating Punch and a Type 412 or 418 Accounting Machine. A Type 941 Auxiliary Storage Unit was available as an optional feature. All units composing the Calculator were interconnected by flexible cables. If desired, the Type 412 or 418, with or without the Type 941, could be operated independently of the other machines. The Type 605 could be used as a Calculating Punch and the punch unit (Type 527) could be operated as an independent gang punch.
Customer deliveries of the CPC began in late 1949, at which time more than 20 had been ordered by government agencies and laboratories and aircraft manufacturers. Nearly 700 CPC systems were delivered during the first-half of the 1950s.


See also

*
List of vacuum tube computers Vacuum-tube computers, now called first-generation computers, are programmable digital computers using vacuum-tube logic circuitry. They were preceded by systems using electromechanical relays and followed by systems built from discrete transi ...


References

* * * Includes a 2-page listing ''Program Card Codings'' * * Many articles about the IBM CPC and 604.


External links


IBM Archives: Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator (CPC)

History of the IBM CPC at Stanford University

"IBM Card Programmed Computer (CPC)" photograph at the Computer History Museum
CPC Electro-mechanical computers IBM vacuum tube computers Programmable calculators Computer-related introductions in 1949 {{compu-hardware-stub