The IBM 700/7000 series is a series of large-scale (
mainframe
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
) computer systems that were made by
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
through the 1950s and early 1960s. The series includes several different, incompatible processor architectures. The 700s use
vacuum-tube
A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. It takes th ...
logic and were made obsolete by the introduction of the
transistorized
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals f ...
7000s. The 7000s, in turn, were eventually replaced with
System/360
The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. System/360 was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applicati ...
, which was announced in 1964. However the 360/65, the first 360 powerful enough to replace 7000s, did not become available until November 1965. Early problems with
OS/360
OS/360, officially known as IBM System/360 Operating System, is a discontinued batch processing operating system developed by IBM for their then-new System/360 mainframe computer, announced in 1964; it was influenced by the earlier IBSYS/IBJOB a ...
and the high cost of converting software kept many 7000s in service for years afterward.
Architectures
The IBM 700/7000 series has six completely different ways of storing data and instructions:
*First scientific (36/18-
bit
The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...
words):
701
__NOTOC__
Year 701 ( DCCI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 701st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 701st year of the 1st millennium, the 1st year of the 8th century, and the ...
(Defense Calculator)
*Later scientific (36-bit words, hardware
floating-point
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a Sign (mathematics), signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some Radix, base) multiplied by an integer power of that ba ...
):
704,
709,
7040,
7044,
7090,
7094
*Commercial (variable-length
character string
In computer programming, a string is traditionally a sequence of characters, either as a literal constant or as some kind of variable. The latter may allow its elements to be mutated and the length changed, or it may be fixed (after creation). ...
s):
702, 705,
7080
*
1400 series (variable-length character strings): 7010
*Decimal (10-digit words, hardware
floating-point
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a Sign (mathematics), signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some Radix, base) multiplied by an integer power of that ba ...
):
7070,
7072,
7074
*Supercomputer (64-bit words, hardware
floating-point
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a Sign (mathematics), signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some Radix, base) multiplied by an integer power of that ba ...
):
7030 "Stretch"
The 700 class machines use
vacuum tube
A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...
s; the 7000 class machines are
transistorized
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals f ...
. All machines (like most other computers of the time) use
magnetic-core memory
In computing, magnetic-core memory is a form of random-access memory. It predominated for roughly 20 years between 1955 and 1975, and is often just called core memory, or, informally, core.
Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magneti ...
; except for early 701 and 702 models, which initially used
Williams tube
The Williams tube, or the Williams–Kilburn tube named after inventors Frederic Calland Williams, Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn, is an early form of computer memory. It was the first Random-access memory, random-access digital storage devi ...
CRT memory and were later converted to magnetic-core memory.
Software compatibility issues
Early computers were sold without software. As
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
s began to emerge, having four different mainframe architectures plus the
IBM 1400
The IBM 1400 series are second-generation (transistor) mid-range business decimal computers that IBM marketed in the early 1960s. The computers were offered to replace tabulating machines like the IBM 407. The 1400-series machines stored informa ...
midline architectures became a major problem for IBM since it meant at least four different programming efforts were required.
The System/360 combines the best features of the 7000 and 1400 series architectures into a single design both for commercial computing and for scientific and engineering computing. However, its architecture is not compatible with those of the 7000 and 1400 series, so some 360 models have optional features that allow them to emulate the 1400 and 7000 instruction sets in microcode. One of the selling points of the
System/370
The IBM System/370 (S/370) is a range of IBM mainframe computers announced as the successors to the IBM System/360, System/360 family on June 30, 1970. The series mostly maintains backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migrati ...
, the successor of the 360 introduced in mid-1970, was improved 1400/7000 series emulation, which could be done under operating system control rather than shutting down and restarting in emulation mode as was required for emulation of 7040/44, 7070/72/74, 7080 and 7090/94 on all of the 360s except the 360/85.
Peripherals
While the architectures differ, the machines in the same class use the same electronics technologies and generally use the same peripherals. Tape drives generally use
7-track format, with the
IBM 727 for vacuum tube machines and the
729 for transistor machines. Both the vacuum tube and most transistor models use the same
card readers, card punches, and
line printer
A line printer Printer (computing), prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were
printer (computing)#Impact printers, impact printers.
Line printers are mostly associated with unit record eq ...
s that were introduced with the 701. These units, the
IBM 711, 721, and 716, are based on IBM
accounting machine
An accounting machine, or bookkeeping machine or recording-adder, was generally a calculator and printer combination tailored for a specific commercial activity such as billing, payroll, or ledger. Accounting machines were widespread from the ear ...
technology and even include
plugboard
A plugboard or control panel (the term used depends on the application area) is an array of jack (connector), jacks or sockets (often called hubs) into which patch cords can be inserted to complete an electrical circuit. Control panels are som ...
control panels. They are relatively slow and it was common for 7000 series installations to include an
IBM 1401
The IBM 1401 is a variable word length computer, variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for pr ...
, with its much faster peripherals, to do card-to-tape and tape-to-line-printer operations off-line. Three later machines, the 7010, the 7040 and the 7044, adopted peripherals from the midline IBM 1400 series. Some of the technology for the 7030 was used in data channels and peripheral devices on other 7000 series computers, e.g.,
7340 Hypertape.
First scientific architecture (701)

Known as the Defense Calculator while in development in the IBM Poughkeepsie Laboratory, this machine was formally unveiled April 7, 1953 as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.
;Data formats
Numbers are either
36 bits or
18 bits long, only
fixed point.
*Fixed-point numbers are stored in binary
sign/magnitude format.
;Instruction format
Instructions are 18 bits long, single address.
*Sign (1 bit) – Whole-word (-) or Half-word (+) operand address
*Opcode (5 bits) – 32 instructions
*Address (12 bits) – 4096 Half-word addresses
To expand the memory from 2048 to 4096 words, a 33rd instruction was added that uses the most-significant bit of its address field to select the bank. (This instruction was probably created using the "No OP" instruction, which appears to have been the only instruction with unused bits, as it originally ignored its address field. However, documentation on this new instruction is not currently available.)
;Registers
Processor register
A processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor. Registers usually consist of a small amount of fast storage, although some registers have specific hardware functions, and may be read-only or write-onl ...
s consisted of:
*AC – 38-bit
Accumulator
*MQ – 36-bit Multiplier-Quotient
;Memory
2,048 or 4,096 – 36-bit binary words with six-bit characters
Later scientific architecture (704/709/7090/7094)

IBM's 36-bit scientific architecture was used for a variety of computation-intensive applications. First machines were the vacuum-tube
704 and
709, followed by the transistorized
7090, 7094, 7094-II, and the lower-cost
7040 and 7044. The ultimate model was the Direct Coupled System (DCS) consisting of a 7094 linked to a 7044 that handled input and output operations.
;Data formats
Numbers are
36 bits long, for both
fixed-point arithmetic
In computing, fixed-point is a method of representing fractional (non-integer) numbers by storing a fixed number of digits of their fractional part. Dollar amounts, for example, are often stored with exactly two fractional digits, represen ...
and
floating-point arithmetic
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a Sign (mathematics), signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some Radix, base) multiplied by an integer power of that ba ...
.
*Fixed-point numbers are stored in binary
sign/magnitude format.
*Single-precision
floating-point
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a Sign (mathematics), signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some Radix, base) multiplied by an integer power of that ba ...
numbers have a magnitude sign, an 8-bit excess-128 exponent and a 27-bit magnitude
*Double-precision floating-point numbers, introduced on the 7094, have a magnitude sign, a 17-bit excess-65536 exponent, and a 54-bit magnitude
*
Alphameric characters are 6-bit
BCD, packed six to a word.
;Instruction format
The basic
instruction format is a three-bit ''prefix'', fifteen-bit ''decrement'', three-bit ''tag'', and fifteen-bit ''address''. The prefix field specifies the class of instruction. The decrement field often contains an immediate operand to modify the results of the operation, or is used to further define the instruction type. The three bits of the tag specify three (seven in the 7094) ''
index register
An index register in a computer's central processing unit, CPU is a processor register (or an assigned memory location) used for pointing to operand addresses during the run of a program. It is useful for stepping through String (computer science ...
s'', the contents of which are ''subtracted'' from the address to produce an ''effective address''. The address field either contains an address or an immediate operand.
;Registers
Processor register
A processor register is a quickly accessible location available to a computer's processor. Registers usually consist of a small amount of fast storage, although some registers have specific hardware functions, and may be read-only or write-onl ...
s consisted of:
*AC – 38-bit
Accumulator
*MQ – 36-bit Multiplier-Quotient
*XR – 15-bit Index Registers (three or seven)
*SI – 36-bit Sense Indicator
The accumulator (and multiplier-quotient) registers operate in
sign/magnitude format. The accumulator has two overflow bits, labelled Q and P. Logical instructions clear or ignore S and Q; the Add and Carry Logical (ACL) instruction does an end-around carry from bit P to bit 35.
The Index registers operate using
two's complement
Two's complement is the most common method of representing signed (positive, negative, and zero) integers on computers, and more generally, fixed point binary values. Two's complement uses the binary digit with the ''greatest'' value as the ''s ...
format and when used to modify an instruction address are ''subtracted'' from the address in the instruction. On machines with three index registers, if the tag has two or three bits set (i.e. selected multiple registers) then their values are ORed together before being subtracted. The IBM 7094, with seven index registers, powers up in ''multiple tag mode'' for compatibility with earlier machines, so that programs that used this trick could continue to be used; the ''Leave Multiple Tag Mode'' (LMTM) instruction turns that mode off, so that the tag specifies which of the index registers to use, and the ''Enter Multiple Tag Mode'' (EMTM) instruction turns it back on.
The Sense Indicators permit interaction with the operator via panel switches and lights.
;Memory
*704: 4,096 or 8,192 or 32,768 – 36-bit binary words with six-bit characters
*709, 7090, 7094, 7094 II, 7040, 7044: 32,768 – 36-bit binary words with six-bit characters
;Input/output
The 709/7090 series use Data Synchronizer Channels for high-speed input/output, such as tape and disk. The basic 7-bit DSCs, e.g., 7607, execute their own simple programs from the computer memory that controls the transfer of data between memory and the I/O devices; the more advanced 9-bit 7909 supports more sophisticated channel programs. Because the
unit record equipment
Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before the advent of electronic computers, data processing was performed using Electromechanics, electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment, electric accounting ...
on the 709x was so slow,
punched card
A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a stiff paper-based medium used to store digital information via the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Developed over the 18th to 20th centuries, punched cards were widel ...
I/O and
high-speed printing were often performed by transferring magnetic tapes to and from an off-line
IBM 1401
The IBM 1401 is a variable word length computer, variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for pr ...
. Later, the data channels were used to connect a 7090 to a 7040 or a 7094 to a 7044 to form the IBM 7094/7044 Direct Coupled System (DCS). In that configuration, the 7044, which could use faster 1400 series peripherals, primarily handled I/O.
FORTRAN assembly program
The
FORTRAN Assembly Program (FAP) is an
assembler for the 709, 7090, and 7094, originally written at the Western Data Processing Center by David E. Ferguson and Donald P. Moore for the 709. It runs under IBM's
Fortran Monitor System (FMS) and
IBSYS operating systems. An earlier assembler was SHARE Compiler-Assembler-Translator (SCAT) under
SHARE Operating System (SOS). Macros were added to FAP by Bell Laboratories (BE-FAP), and the final 7090/7094 assembler was Macro Assembly Program (IBMAP), under IBSYS/IBJOB. SCAT, FAP and MAP were mutually incompatible.
Its pseudo-operation ''BSS'', used to reserve memory, is the origin of the common name of the "
BSS section", still used in many
assembly language
In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...
s today for designating reserved
memory address
In computing, a memory address is a reference to a specific memory location in memory used by both software and hardware. These addresses are fixed-length sequences of digits, typically displayed and handled as unsigned integers. This numeric ...
ranges of the type not having to be saved in the
executable
In computer science, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instruction (computer science), in ...
image.
Commercial architecture (702/705/7080)

The
IBM 702
The IBM 702 was an early generation electronic tube, tube-based digital computer produced by IBM in the early to mid-1950s. It was the company's response to Remington Rand's UNIVAC I, UNIVAC, which was the first mainframe computer to use magneti ...
and IBM 705 are similar, and the 705 can run many 702 programs without modification, but they are not completely compatible.
The
IBM 7080
The IBM 7080 was a variable word length BCD transistor computer in the IBM 700/7000 series commercial architecture line, introduced in August 1961, that provided an upgrade path from the vacuum-tube IBM 705 computer.
The 7080 weighed about ...
is a transistorized version of the 705, with various improvements. For backward compatibility it can be run in ''705 I'' mode, ''705 II'' mode, ''705 III'' mode, or full 7080 mode.
;Data format
Data is represented by a variable-length string of characters terminated by a Record mark.
;Instruction format
Five characters: one character opcode and four character address – OAAAA
;Registers
*702
**two Accumulators (A & B) – 512 characters
*705
**one Accumulator – 256 characters
**14 auxiliary storage units – 16 characters
**one auxiliary storage unit – 32 characters
*7080
**one Accumulator – 256 characters
**30 auxiliary storage units – 512 characters
**32 communication storage units – 8 characters
;Memory
*702
**2,000 to 10,000 characters in
Williams tube
The Williams tube, or the Williams–Kilburn tube named after inventors Frederic Calland Williams, Freddie Williams and Tom Kilburn, is an early form of computer memory. It was the first Random-access memory, random-access digital storage devi ...
s (in increments of 2,000 characters)
**Character cycle rate – 23 microseconds
*705 (models I, II, or III)
**20,000 or 40,000 or 80,000 characters of
core memory
Core or cores may refer to:
Science and technology
* Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages
* Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource
* Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding
* Core (optical fiber), ...
**Character cycle rate – 17 microseconds or 9.8 microseconds
*7080
**80,000 or 160,000 characters of Core memory
**Character cycle rate – 2.18 microseconds
;Input/output
The 705 and the basic 7080 use channels with a 7-bit interface. The 7080 can be equipped with 7908 data channels to attach faster devices using a 9-bit interface.
1400 series architecture (7010)
The 700/7000 commercial architecture inspired the very successful
IBM 1400 series
The IBM 1400 series are second-generation (transistor) mid-range business decimal computers that IBM marketed in the early 1960s. The computers were offered to replace tabulating machines like the IBM 407. The 1400-series machines stored infor ...
of mid-sized business computers. In turn, IBM later introduced a mainframe version of the
IBM 1410
The IBM 1410, a member of the IBM 1400 series, was a decimal computer with a variable word length that was announced by IBM on September 12, 1960 and marketed as a midrange business computer. It was withdrawn on March 30, 1970.
Overview
The 1 ...
called the IBM 7010.
;Data format
*Data is represented by a variable length string of characters terminated by a
word mark.
;Instruction format
*Variable length: 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, or 12 characters.
;Registers
Fifteen five-character fields in fixed locations in low memory can be treated as index registers, whose values can be added to the address specified in an instruction. Also, certain internal registers that would today be invisible, such as the addresses of the characters being currently processed, are exposed to the programmer; in particular, the B address register is often used for subroutine linkage.
;Memory
*100,000 characters
Decimal architecture (7070/7072/7074)
The
IBM 7070
IBM 7070 is a decimal-architecture intermediate data-processing system that was introduced by IBM in 1958. It was part of the IBM 700/7000 series, and was based on discrete transistors rather than the vacuum tubes of the 1950s. It was the compa ...
, IBM 7072, and IBM 7074 are decimal, fixed-word-length machines. They use a ten-digit word like the smaller and older
IBM 650
The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass-produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the firs ...
, but are not
instruction set
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, s ...
compatible with the 650.
;Data format
*Word length – 10 decimal digits plus sign
*Digit encoding –
two-out-of-five code
A two-out-of-five code is a constant-weight code that provides exactly ten possible combinations of two bits, and is thus used for representing the decimal digits using five bits. Each bit is assigned a weight, such that the set bits sum to the ...
*Floating point – optional, with a two-digit exponent
*Three signs for each word – Plus, Minus, and Alpha
**Plus and Minus indicate 10-digit numeric values
**Alpha indicates five characters of text coded by pairs of digits. 61 = A, 91 = 1.
;Instruction format
*All instructions use one word
*Two-digit
opcode
In computing, an opcode (abbreviated from operation code) is an enumerated value that specifies the operation to be performed. Opcodes are employed in hardware devices such as arithmetic logic units (ALUs), central processing units (CPUs), and ...
(including sign, Plus or Minus only)
*Two-digit index register
*Two-digit field control – allows selecting sets of digits, shifting left or right
*Four-digit address
;Registers
*All registers use one word and can also be addressed as memory.
*Accumulators – three (addresses 9991, 9992, and 9993 – standard; 99991, 99992, and 99993 – extended 7074)
*Program register – one (address 9995 – standard; 99995 – extended 7074)
**Addressable from console only. Stores current instruction.
*Instruction counter – one (address 9999 – standard; 99999 – extended 7074)
**Addressable from console only
*Index registers – 99 (addresses 0001-0099)
;Memory
*5000 to 9990 words (standard)
*15000 to 30000 words (extended 7074)
*Access time – 6 microseconds (7070/7072), 4 microseconds (7074)
*Add time – 72 microseconds (7070), 12 microseconds (7072), 10 microseconds (7074)
;Input/output
The 707x uses channels with a 7-bit interface. The 7070 and 7074 can be equipped with 7907 data channels to attach faster devices using a 9-bit interface.
Timeline
An
IBM 7074
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is a publicly traded company ...
was used by the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
in 1962.
The
IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System
The IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System was announced by IBM on December 2, 1963.
It is capable of collecting data from as many as 32 sources simultaneously, process the data and transmit results to up to 16 remote printers, display units or plot boa ...
is not a member of the IBM 7000 series, despite its number and its announcement date of December 2, 1963.
Performance
All of the 700 and 7000 series machines predate standard performance measurement tools such as the
Whetstone (1972),
Dhrystone
Dhrystone is a synthetic computing benchmark program developed in 1984 by Reinhold P. Weicker intended to be representative of system (integer) programming. The Dhrystone grew to become representative of general processor ( CPU) performance. T ...
(1984),
LINPACK
LINPACK is a software library for performing numerical linear algebra on digital computers.
It was written in Fortran by Jack Dongarra, Jim Bunch, Cleve Moler, and Gilbert Stewart, and was intended for use on supercomputers in the 1970s and e ...
(1979), or
Livermore loops
Livermore loops (also known as the Livermore Fortran kernels or LFK) is a benchmark for parallel computers. It was created by Francis H. McMahon from scientific source code run on computers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It consists o ...
(1986) benchmarks.
In the table below, the Gibson and Knight measurements report speed, where higher numbers are better; the TRIDIA measurement reports time, where lower numbers are better.
See also
*
IBM 650
The IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine is an early digital computer produced by IBM in the mid-1950s. It was the first mass-produced computer in the world. Almost 2,000 systems were produced, the last in 1962, and it was the firs ...
Notes
References
External links
IBM Mainframe family treeThe Architecture of IBM's Early Computers(PDF)
*
ttp://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP705.html IBM 705*
ttp://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/stretch/ IBM 7030 Stretchbr>
IBM 7070Birth of an Unwanted IBM Computer, by Bob BemerIBM 700 film
Reference manuals
;701
:
;702
:
;704
:
;705
:
;7010
:
;7030
:
;7040/7044
:
;7070/7072/7074
:
;7080
:
;7090/7094
:
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:IBM 700 7000 series
Series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used i ...
Series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used i ...