Plug-In Unit From IBM 305 RAMAC
date: label: date made
content: 1957-1961
name: label: maker
content: IBM
label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: This component is from IBM's RAMAC (Random Access Memory Accounting Machine - later Random Access Method of Accounting and Control)), a product also sold as the IBM 305. The computer was announced in 1956 and sold from 1957 to 1961. The object consists of two vacuum tubes held end-to-end in a U-shaped metal frame and wired together. One end of the has several protruding prongs. The curve of the U is covered with plastic or rubber, and may serve as a handle.
label: Description
content: In 1964, after considerable delay, the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent to J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly for "an electronic numerical integrator and computer," as embodied in the ENIAC computer which had been built in the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania during World War II. Sperry Rand, the successor company to the Eckert-Mauchly Corporation that had been formed to develop commercial versions of the ENIAC, sued competing computer companies for patent infringement. The competing firm of Honeywell countersued, asserting the patent fradulent. In 1973, Honeywell was upheld by a ruling of Judge Earl Larson, who concluded that the ENIAC was derived from a prototype developed by J.V. Atanassoff and C. E. Berry at Iowa State University. Extensive documentation on the case is presently in papers at the Hagley Museum and Library.
label: Description
content: This object is one of several exhibits used by Honeywell in the case and given by Honeywell to the Smithsonian afterward. Honeywell's trial exhibit number for the object is 23435.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Honeywell Information Systems, Inc.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1975.319077.11
label: accession number
content: 319077
label: catalog number
content: 319077.11
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (tag material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (vacuum tubes material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (cover material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15.5 cm x 2.2 cm x 3 cm; 6 3/32 in x 7/8 in x 1 3/16 in