IBM System/360 IBM System/360
Computers  IBM announced the System/360, a family of six mutually compatible computers and 40 peripherals that could work together. The initial investment of $5 billion was quickly returned as orders for the system climbed to 1,000 per month within two years. At the time IBM released the System/360, the company was making a transition from discrete transistors to integrated circuits, and its major source of revenue moved from punched-card equipment to electronic computer systems. More Topic


BASIC manual BASIC manual
Software & Languages  Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny created BASIC, an easy-to-learn programming language, for their students at Dartmouth College. More Topic




Networks  Online transaction processing made its debut in IBM's SABRE reservation system, set up for American Airlines. Using telephone lines, SABRE linked 2,000 terminals in 65 cities to a pair of IBM 7090 computers, delivering data on any flight in less than three seconds. More Topic


CDC 6600 CDC 6600
Computers  CDC's 6600 supercomputer, designed by Seymour Cray, performed up to 3 million instructions per second -- a processing speed three times faster than that of its closest competitor, the IBM Stretch. The 6600 retained the distinction of being the fastest computer in the world until surpassed by its successor, the CDC 7600, in 1968. Part of the speed came from the computer's design, which had 10 small computers, known as peripheral processors, funneling data to a large central processing unit. More Topic


JOSS configuration JOSS configuration
Networks  JOSS (Johnniac Open Shop System) conversational time-sharing service began on Rand's Johnniac. Time-sharing arose, in part, because the length of batch turn-around times impeded the solution of problems. Time sharing aimed to bring the user back into "contact" with the machine for online debugging and program development. More Topic

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