IBM 650

The IBM 650 (photo) was one of IBM’s early computers, and the world’s first mass-produced (photo) computer. It was announced in 1953, and over 2000 systems were produced between the first shipment in 1954 and its final manufacture in 1962. Support for the 650 and its component units was withdrawn in 1969.

The 650 is a two-address, bi-quinary coded decimal machine (both data and addresses were decimal), with memory on a rotating magnetic drum. The 650 was marketed to scientific and engineering users as well as users of existing IBM unit record equipment (electro-mechanical punched card-processing machines) upgrading from so-called Calculating Punches, like the IBM 604 model, to computers proper. Because of its relatively low cost and simple programming, the 650 pioneered a wide variety of applications, from modeling submarine crew performance to teaching high school and college students computer programming.