FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER

Detailed explanation-1: -IBM introduces the IBM 608 transistor calculator, the first all solid-state computing machine commercially marketed.

Detailed explanation-2: -The first fully transistorized computer was either the Harwell CADET, which first operated in February 1955, although the price paid for this was that it operated only at the slow speed of 58 kHz, or the prototype IBM 604 transistor calculator.

Detailed explanation-3: -The IBM 608 Transistor Calculator, a plugboard-programmable unit, was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is believed to be the world’s first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market. Announced in April 1955, it was released in December 1957.

Detailed explanation-4: -Egged on by its success, IBM went on to develop the first commercial calculator that was based entirely on transistor technology: the IBM 608, released in 1958. With more than 3, 000 germanium transistors inside, the 608 was too pricey to be a commercial success.

Detailed explanation-5: -History. The chief designer of the circuits used in the IBM 608 was Robert A. Henle, who later oversaw the development of emitter-coupled logic (ECL) class of circuits. The development of the 608 was preceded by the prototyping of an experimental all-transistor version of the 604.