IBM 7090


IBM 7090

(computer)A transistorised version of the IBM 709 which wasa very popular high end computer in the early 1960s. The 7090had 32Kbytes of 36-bit core memory and a hardware floating point unit. Fortran was its most popular language, but itsupported many others. It was later upgraded to the IBM 7094, and a scaled down version, the IBM 7040 was alsointroduced.

IBM 7090s controlled the Mercury and Gemini space flights, theBalistic Missile Early Warning System (until well into the1980s), and the CTSS time sharing system at MIT.

The 7090 was not good at unit record I/O, so in smallconfigurations an IBM 1401 was used for SPOOL I/O and inlarge configurations (such as a 7090/94) a 7040/44 would bedirectly coupled and dedicated to handling printers and card readers. (See the film Dr Strangelove).