Editing IBM 701 (section)

==History==
IBM 701 competed with Remington Rand's [[UNIVAC 1103]] in the scientific computation market.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tomash |first1=Erwin |last2=Cohen |first2=Arnold A. |title=The Birth of an ERA: Engineering Associates, Inc. 1946-1955 |journal=Annals of the History of Computing |date=April 1979 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=90 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.1979.10015 |s2cid=18712001 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4648787 |access-date=29 November 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  In early 1954, a committee of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] requested that the two machines be compared for the purpose of using them for a Joint Numerical Weather Prediction project. Based on the trials, the two machines had comparable computational speed, with a slight advantage for IBM's machine,  however when it came to [[input/output]] the 701 was favored unanimously for its significantly faster input/output equipment.<ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Emerson Pugh |first1=Emerson W. |last1=Pugh |first2=Lyle R. |last2=Johnson |first3=John H. |last3=Palmer |title=IBM's 360 and early 370 systems |publisher=MIT Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-262-16123-0 |pages=23–34}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Goldstine |first1=Herman H. |title=The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann |date=2 September 2008 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-2013-9 |pages=328–329 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCSpiVBH5W0C&pg=PA329 |access-date=17 June 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smagorjnsky |first1=Joseph |title=The Beginnings of Numerical Weather Prediction and General Circulation Modeling: Early Recollections |journal=Advances in Geophysics |date=1983 |volume=25 |page=36 |doi=10.1016/S0065-2687(08)60170-3 |isbn=978-0-12-018825-3 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2687(08)60170-3 |access-date=17 June 2024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Nineteen IBM 701 systems were installed.<ref>{{cite web|title=IBM Archives: 701 Customers|url=http://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/701/701_customers.html|access-date=19 December 2020|website=IBM Archives|date=23 January 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511175147/https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/701/701_customers.html|archive-date=11 May 2021|url-status=dead }}</ref> The first 701 was delivered to IBM's world headquarters in New York. Eight went to aircraft companies. At the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]], having an IBM 701 meant that scientists could run nuclear explosives computations faster.

[[Thomas J. Watson#Famous attribution|"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers"]] is often attributed to [[Thomas J. Watson|Thomas Watson Sr.]], chairman and CEO of IBM, in 1943. This misquote may stem from a statement by his son, [[Thomas Watson Jr.]] at the 1953 IBM annual stockholders' meeting. Watson Jr. was describing the market acceptance of the IBM 701 computer. Before production began, Watson visited with 20 companies that were potential customers. This is what he said at the stockholders' meeting, "as a result of our trip, on which we expected to get orders for five machines, we came home with orders for 18”.<ref name="IBM FAQ">{{Cite web |title=Frequently Asked Questions |publisher=IBM |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/faq.pdf |page=26 |date=April 10, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621180422/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/documents/pdf/faq.pdf |archive-date=June 21, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

''[[Aviation Week & Space Technology|Aviation Week]]'' for 11 May 1953 says the 701 rental charge was about {{USD|12,000|long=no|year=1953|round=-3}} per month; ''American Aviation'' 9 Nov 1953 says "$15,000 a month per 40-hour shift. A second 40-hour shift ups the rental to $20,000 a month".{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The successor of the 701 was the [[index register]]-equipped [[IBM 704]], introduced 4 years after the 701. The 704 was not compatible with the 701, however, as the 704 increased the size of instructions from 18 bits to 36 bits to support the extra features. The 704 also marked the transition to [[magnetic-core memory]].