View source for IBM 704

{{Infobox Machine
| name = IBM 704
| manufacturer = [[International Business Machines]]
| year announced = May, 1954
<!-- | year first shipped = -->
| year discontinued = April, 1960
| form factor = [[mainframe]]
| word size = 36 bits
<!-- | physical address = x bits (K words) -->
<!-- | virtual address = x bits -->
| logic type = [[vacuum tube]]s
<!-- | design type =  -->
| instruction speed = 24 μsec (basic add)<br>
240 μsec (basic multiply)
| memory speed = 12 μsec
<!-- | operating system = SOS, IBSYS, IBJOB -->
| predecessor = [[IBM 701]]
| successor = [[IBM 709]]
<!-- | price = US$2.6M (and up) -->
}}

The '''IBM 704''' was IBM's first commercially successful [[vacuum tube]] scientific [[mainframe]] (built at a time when computers for scientific and business computing used separate [[instruction set]]s). It was announced in May, 1954; 136 were sold.

The major advances over its predecessor, the [[IBM 701]], included [[core memory]], instead of the [[Williams tube]]s previously used for [[main memory]] in the 701; and support for [[floating point]] in [[hardware]] (supposedly the first mass-produced machine to do so).

The [[instruction set]] of the 704 was not compatible with the 701; the later [[IBM 709]], [[IBM 7090]], and [[IBM 7094]] did use an upwardly-compatible instruction set, so the 704 founded a major family.

[[FORTRAN]] was produced for, and first implemented on, this computer. [[LISP]] was also first done on the 704.

==Further reading==

* Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, Emerson W. Pugh, ''IBM's Early Computers'', MIT Press, Cambridge, 1986

==External links==

* [https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP704.html 704 Data Processing System] - IBM Archive page
* [http://www.zl2al.com/category/ibm-704-computer/ IBM 704 Scientific Computer]
* [http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cp0309.htm From the IBM 704 to the IBM 7094]
* [http://www.computer-history.info/Page4.dir/pages/IBM.704.dir/ The IBM 704 and 709 Systems]

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[[Category: IBM Mainframes]]