IBM made a number of key technological changes in the decade of the 1950s. In
1952, the company introduced the IBM 701, its first large computer based on the
vacuum tube. The tubes were quicker, smaller and more easily replaced than the
electromechanical switches in the Mark I (1944). The 701 executed 17,000
instructions per second and was used primarily for government and research work.
But vacuum tubes rapidly moved computers into business applications such as
billing, payroll and inventory control. By 1959, transistors were replacing vacuum
tubes.
The IBM 7090, one of the first fully transistorized mainframes, could perform
229,000 calculations per second. The U.S. Air Force used the 7090 to run its
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. IBM led data processing in a new direction
with the 1957 delivery of the IBM 305 Random Access Method of Accounting and
Control (RAMAC), the first computer disk storage system. Such machines became the
industry's basic storage medium for transaction processing. In less than a second,
the RAMAC's "random access" arm could retrieve data stored on any of the 50
spinning disks. At an IBM exhibit at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, the RAMAC
answered world history questions in ten languages. Also in 1957, IBM introduced
FORTRAN (FORmula TRANSlation), a computer language based on algebra, grammar and
syntax rules. It became one of the most widely used computer languages for
technical work.
A new generation of IBM leadership oversaw this period of rapid technological
change. After nearly four decades as IBM's chief executive, Thomas J. Watson, Sr.,
passed the title of president on to his son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., in 1952. He
became chief executive officer just six weeks before his father's death on June
19, 1956 at age 82.
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IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv. IBM is assigned Korean War-related
projects including bombing-navigational systems for Air Force bombers, and giant
high-speed electronic calculators for U.S. air defense.
With the beginning of the Korean War, IBM places its U.S. facilities at the
government's disposal.
