They called it an "electronic brain," and it took up most of the room. It was the latest technology available to the University or Arizona. It was an IBM Type 650 Computer being installed at the UA.
Here is the story as presented in the Arizona Daily Star Feb. 27, 1957:
No Head Scratchin'
'Brain' Hook-Up Nearly Finished
Electronic Gadget To Be Ready at UA Today, But Students Unlikely to Get Aid
Installation of an "electronic brain" at the University of Arizona should be completed today by the International Business Machines Corp.
The "brain" won't be of any assistance to students at examination time, but, if they did have its help, they'd have a friend with a "memory" of 20,000 digits or 2,000 ten-digit words, a machine that can multiply 10 digits by 10 digits in .009 of a second.
Known formally as IBM Type 650 Computer, the "brain" will be ready for work this week, according to IBM officials, who have spent the last three days installing it in the electronic computing center at the UA Engineering Experiment Station.
The computing center, of which it is a part, will play a direct role in the university's instructional program. The only other similar installations for these purposes in the West are at Stanford University and the University of Houston.
The center will also be used to solve research problems submitted by different branches of the university and by industrial, business and government offices in Arizona.
Since the IBM 650 cannot be purchased outright, the university is leasing the machine, and it is expected that a substantial part of the cost of leasing will be paid through research contracts.
The annual rental is approximately $50,000; however, IBM is giving the university a 40 per cent reduction since the machine will be used for research and instruction.
Universtiy officials pointed out that the UA computing center is completely university-financed and operated.
The IBM electronic calculating machine which Arizona State College at Tempe is installing in conjunction with General Electric Co. will be used by both the college and GE.
The "brain" at the university is the first of its type in Arizona, although Hughes Aircraft Co. is having one installed soon, the IBM officials said.
There are three parts to the IBM 650, a computer, a card feed-and-read machine and a power supply unit.
All of the equipment for the computing center will be in the UA Engineering Building, except the data reduction division, which is housed in the basement of Herring Hall. The data reduction division and an analog computer are required for the operation of the 650 Computer.
The data reduction division is being supported largely through a $40,000 grant from the Army Electronic Proving Ground at Ft. Huachuca.
Dr. Paul E. Russell, professor of electrical engineering, is acting director of the center, with John Featherstone as assistant.
For the statistical minded, the "brain" can handle 200 input cards and 100 output cards a minute, It's by means of this input and output process, that it communicates with the outside world.
Its approximate calculating speeds include 78,000 additions or subtractions of 10-digit numbers a minute, 5,000 multiplications per minute and 3,700 divisions a minute.
It can make 138,000 logical decisions a minute - all correct.
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