IBM 7030 Stretch

IBM 7030 Stretch

The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. Originally designed to meet a requirement formulated by Edward Teller at Lawrence Livermore, the first example was delivered to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1961, and a second customized version, the IBM 7950 Harvest, to the National Security Agency in 1962.

Originally priced at $13.5 million, its failure to meet its aggressive performance estimates forced the price to be dropped to only $7.78 million and its withdrawal from sales to customers beyond those having already negotiated contracts. Even though the 7030 was much slower than expected, it was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 until the first CDC 6600 became operational in 1964.

In spite of Stretch's failure to meet its own performance goals, it served as the basis for many of the design features of the fantastically successful IBM System/360, which shipped in 1964. The project lead was initially blackballed for his role in the "failure", but as the success of the 360 became obvious he was given an official apology and was made an IBM Fellow.

In 2008, PCWorld magazine named Stretch as one of the biggest project failures in IT history.