The IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator

Running head : The IBM SELECTIVE SEQUENCE ELECTRONIC CALCULATOR

IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator

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IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator

It is one of the greatest landmarks in computing history . With only one of its own ever created and with no reproduction afterwards , IBM 's Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator , or simply SSEC , was the first computer that operated by combining pre-stored instructions with the desired electronic computations . It was also the last of a history of large and bulky electromechanical computers in the computing

machines world and also the last of the single production machines that preceded mass production of computers . After only two years of conceptualizations accompanied by numerous trials and failures , the SSEC was finally completed and commissioned by Professor Wallace Eckert in January 1948 and then moved to the IBM headquarters Building at 590 Madison Avenue in Manhattan where it was operated in public view of pedestrians on the sidewalk (Bashe 1982 . This paper outlines the specifications of the SSEC , the various functions it performed and how it revolutionized the world of computing

The physical installation of the machine consisted of a U shaped composition occupying a total of 180 feet when laid end to end and it occupied a room 60 feet long by 30 feet wide . Consisting of 21 ,400 relays and 12 ,500 vacuum tubes , the SSEC could operate indefinitely . It operated by means of a modifiable program that could perform at a high speed of 14 by 14 decimal multiplications...