IBM 650 Dead
IBM 650
KindMachine
Introduced1953
Discontinued1962
StatusDead
ManufacturerIBM
ClassMainframe
PlatformMagnetic drum
Sourcewww.columbia.edu ↗
The first mass-produced computer — nearly 2,000 sold, the machine a generation of programmers learned on. Knuth wrote software for it; it made computing routine.
19251950197520002025
Created by IBM
The 650's magnetic drum and modest $500K price made it the first computer small businesses and universities could afford — IBM sold ~2,000 of them, a mass-production record for the era.
It trained a generation: Donald Knuth wrote a prime-factor program and a basketball ranking system on it as a student, and dedicated The Art of Computer Programming to it. The 650 made programming a profession rather than a priesthood.