IBM History NY 1956 ENDICOTT POUGHKEEPSIE, build IBM 650, 705 Mainframe Computer, Walter Cronkite

[@JohnMichaelson]

Magnetic core memory of 40,000 individual characters? Who would ever need more than that. I know it's a tired joke, but the development of mass storage is something I find really interesting. The germanium slicer and sorter is also something I've never seen before. Thanks for sharing!

[@darrellludlow]

Neat video. My dad worked at the Poughkeepsie location starting in 1963 and was part of the OS/360 system development team.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @darrellludlow, that must have been quite an interesting and very busy time period. The 360 came out in 1964 or so. Very cool. Thank you for sharing that! ~ Victor, CHAP

[@UnexpectedBooks]

Cool! IBM’s investment in the 360 system paid dividends for a long long time. I was using it in 1976.

[@darrellludlow]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Don Ludlow was a principle design and developer and later manager of the Input-Output Supervisor (IOS) component of OS/360. He headed PLS/85 and PLS/86 compiler development. He also authored the program called SUPERZAP, whose file name is IMASPZAP. He worked in the development of SuperC which was first released as an IBM System/370 MVS/VM and IBM PC product and later integrated as part of ISPF/PDF V2.3 Utilities. -- We always had plenty of "Think" pencils and notepads around the house.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Sounds like he certainly was involved in some high tech development. Someone with an exceptional "IQ" as well! Exciting times, to be sure. - Thanks for sharing your info! ~ We hope to have some 370 and MVS/VM video in the future too...

[@1218omaroo]

Excellent :) My dad was there on loan from IBM Australia around that period as well, and was heavily involved in the S/360 Model 40 as a world-level support specialist in that line. Later in life, I was also based in Poughkeepsie myself, again in computing but for an Australian company setting up a US office there. What a great place - I miss Poughkeepsie.

[@iouisandersen1618]

I started at IBM January 19 74, sending typewriter parts. Saw a lot of advancements by the time I left 1991 from Charlotte plant started in Endicott. What a trip. My father worked in personnel in Endicott.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @iouisandersen1618, sounds like you would have seen many changes over time. Endicott was a very busy place in the early days! Thank you for your feedback! ~ VK

[@crumplezone1]

We thank all whos hard work technically gave us all what we have today

[@billschlafly4107]

I'd prefer to throttle back to 2004's technology.

[@frankowalker4662]

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it! ~ VK

[@paulcandiago9339]

Grazie / Thank you for the documentary.

[@MaxPower-11]

Just a little taste of how far we’ve come… 2:15 The 705 performed a billion instructions over the course of two months. An AMD Threadripper CPU released in 2020 can perform almost 2,500 billion instructions per _second._

[@RetroElijah1982]

Another amazing video, keep up the great work

[@psmyth]

What percentage of the world’s transistor logic was being produced in IBM’s Endicott plant when they were building those 608’s? 85-90%? Imagine having that kind of market share now.

[@CarlosAlberto-ii1li]

This amazing, i was 8 years old and never knew anything about this, l was more into looking through newspapers than TV but still never this was going on. The people working were really at the top of their tree. The question that l have is why did IBM not be bigger than the rest before all these other builders came along, was it to do with technology being overrun or little investment even by the government.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Not sure if this answers your question, but IBM had a massive sales force even before the "computer" age. They sold punch card accounting machines, typewriters and many other office products. They took first place in electronic computers by the mid 1950's, overtaking Remington Rand (Univac) and others (like RCA, GE, etc.). IBM did have many government contracts too.

[@CarlosAlberto-ii1li]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Thankyou.

[@bblod4896]

Cool. Thanks CHAP 😊

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @bblod4896, Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. 😊 VK

[@svsv9]

I have a bachelor in CC, I can't figure how this machine technically electronically is designed. In the faculty I designed calculators, FLIP-FLOP, logical gates, etc, lot of assembler. but this is beyond my imagination of complex can be even today. Amazing just amazing.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @svsv9. yes, you make a great observation. Seems if one picks up any computer textbook written between 1950 and 1959, it looks like pages from a calculus textbook. I think you had to love math to understand how computes actually worked back in those days. : )

[@svsv9]

​@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject❤

[@bjornmelin7610]

worked summer 1971 at 991 endicott plant tranfering 3216 train to jfa plant in sweden

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Sounds like fascinating work. ... What is "jfa" plant?

[@aurynaichi7030]

"I remember when mother used to come home from a hard day assembling transistors..."

[@QuantumParadox]

What would happen if i went back to 1956 with a computer of today; Intel 14900KS, 128 GB DDR 5 RAM, 2 TB VNME storage for OS and a synology with 8 22TB Drives and a Nvidia RTX4090 with a 34; HDR 1000, IPS, 144hz QD OLED monitor with the computer running windows 11 ENT and Linux with legecy OSes in VM and a Vive Pro 2 VR headset? and Wikipedia installed and up to date. What would happen if I just went back to 1956 and showed this to those guys? I still have a fantasy of going back in time with the latest in hardware software.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi @QuantumParadox, didn't someone once say about civilizations, "any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from Magic." - I bet you would appear to be a magician... or an alien...? but it would be fun.

[@QuantumParadox]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject that quote I believe was from Arthur C Clark. Yes, it would be fun. :)

[@infraceptor4749]

@QuantumParadox You would be detained and arrested as a threat to public safety and order

[@jamesraymond1158]

Boy, those bulky machines look ugly today.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

HI @jamesraymond1158, perhaps not "pretty" to some, but I'd love to have one in my garage.. : )