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| | The IBM 650 |
 | | In any case, the IBM 650 was the first general-purpose computer to be installed and used at Columbia University (the NORC was built here in 1950-54, but the only Columbians who were able to use it were a couple Watson Lab insiders [61,65]). |
 | | The 650 was a true general-purpose computer, the natural evolution of the CPC (Card Programmed Calculator) to a stored-program computer with a full set of decimal arithmetic, logical, and control instructions, plus (later) the ability to handle alphabetic data. |
 | | The 650 had a followon, the IBM 7070 (1959), architecturally similar but with transistors instead of tubes and cores instead of a drum, and which came with not only card reader and punch, but also typewriter console, and (optionally) disk and tape drives, line printers, etc. |
| www.columbia.edu /acis/history/650.html (3432 words) |
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