View source for IBM 7090

{{Infobox Machine
| name = IBM 7090
| manufacturer = [[International Business Machines]]
| year announced = December, 1958
| year first shipped = November, 1959
| year discontinued = July, 1969
| form factor = [[mainframe]]
| word size = 36 bits
| physical address = 15 bits (32K words)
<!-- | virtual address = x bits -->
| logic type = [[Standard Modular System|SMS]] cards using alloy-junction [[transistor]]s
<!-- | design type = -->
| instruction speed = 4.4 µsec (basic add)
| memory speed = 2.2 µsec
<!-- | memory mgmt = bounds register -->
| operating system = SOS, IBSYS, IBJOB, FMS, [[CTSS]]
| predecessor = [[IBM 709]]
| successor = [[IBM 7094]]
| price = US$2.9M (and up)
}}

The '''IBM 7090''' was IBM's first commercial [[transistor]] scientific [[mainframe]] (built at a time when computers for scientific and business computing used separate [[instruction set]]s).

It was upwardly compatible with its [[vacuum tube]] technology predecessor, the [[IBM 709]]. It had a performance of six times that of a 709, but only cost one third more.

It was designed hurriedly to meet the requirements of Sylvania, the data processing subcontractor for the [[BMEWS]] missile warning [[radar]] network, which was under a mandate to use transistor computers.

For this reason, it relied heavily on engineering from the [[IBM 7030 Stretch]] project; units such as power supplies, back panels and the memory unit were transplanted from Stretch.

In addition to its use for the ground-breaking [[Compatible Time-Sharing System‎‎|CTSS]] [[operating system]], a pair of 7090's were used in the equally influential American Airlines [[SABRE]] [[real-time]] airline reservation system.

==Further reading==

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

==External links==

* [http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP7090.html 7090 Data Processing System] - IBM Archive page
* [http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/cp0309.htm From the IBM 704 to the IBM 7094]
* [http://www.frobenius.com/7090.htm IBM 7090/94 Architecture]
* [https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/firsts-history-computing-paul-g-allen-collection/ibm-7090-mainframe-computer-107/230044 An IBM 7090 mainframe computer] - from Paul Allen's collection at the [[Living Computer Museum|LCM]], includes several images

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[[Category: IBM Mainframes]]