Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, wanted a new system for hydrodynamic calculations at the radiation lab in Livermore, CA.
IBM lost the bid in 1955. Fearing that other customers might also look elsewhere IBM came up with the IMB 7030, delivery slated for 1960.
Originally priced at $13.5 million it was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 to 64. And the first transistorized supercomputer.

On the broad side of the computer box, with the engineer's console, the computer had about 3,000 incandescent indicator lamps,
which glowed in a gorgeous orange, when room lighting was turned off. This was still the era when maintenance engineers came with a machine.

Originally conceived as an internal development project to improve, or "stretch," IBM's computer skills,
the first Stretch was delivered to the Los Alamos National Laboratory to aid in the design of nuclear weapons.


October 2009

www.simonlaub.net

Pics from visit to the Computer Museum, Mountain View, CA. - Visible Storage display items.