IBM 610 workstation computer 3350

Arif Khokar

All true.

But remember, this was a 1954 design intended to be cheap yet functional for a single person to use relatively easily. My impression of the 610 was that it was a cross between a calculator and a computer, that is, you could describe it as a very fancy calculator or a very low end computer. It didn't have much memory or functionality, so doing things we take for granted today (like floating point in software) wasn't so easy.

I think of the 610 as perhaps a "formula machine". That is, you prorgram it with a math formula you will use repetiively. You start end and enter the input variables. The machine calculates and prints the answer. You enter the next variables. Perhaps it keeps a cumulative total.

Programming the relatively few computers in existence in 1954 was generally very cumbersome--you were lucky if you had an buttembler and didn't have to code in machine language and keep track of memory and branch addresses yourself. Everything had to be hand coded since it was all so new. The 610 was intended to be easier to use than other computers of its era. I think it indeed was, but not easy enough.