IBM 604 Multiplying Punch Plug Board - Part of IBM CPC
date: label: Date made
content: 1948
name: label: maker
content: IBM
label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: This is a small wired plugboard from an IBM 604 multiplying punch. After World War II, IBM engineers built the one-of-a-kind Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, which used vacuum tubes. It also built and sold in large numbers a new form of calculator called the IBM 604, its first electronic product. The IBM 604 was programmed by setting plugboards like this one (programs could not be stored internally). A growing need for computations, particularly for military applications, led IBM to develop a combination of the IBM 604 with an IBM 521 card punch, an IBM 402 accounting machine, and an optional storage unit. This sold as the Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator, or CPC.
label: Description
content: According to the accession file, this was part of an IBM 604 that was part of an IBM CPC.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Accession File
label: Description
content: C. J. Bashe, L. R. Johnson, J. H. Palmer, and E. W. Pugh, <I>IBM's Early Computers</I>, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986, pp. 61-72.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of International Business Machines
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CI.328576
label: accession number
content: 1986.0779
label: catalog number
content: 328576
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mainframe Component
label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (wire covering material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6.5 cm x 17.6 cm x 28 cm; 2 9/16 in x 6 15/16 in x 11 1/32 in