IBM CPC
Encyclopedia
The IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator or CPC was announced by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 in May 1949. Later that year an improved machine, the CPC-II was also announced.

The original CPC Calculator had the following machines interconnected by cables:
  • Electronic Calculating Punch
    • IBM 604
      IBM 604
      The IBM 604 was a control panel programmable Electronic Calculating Punch introduced in 1948, and was a machine on which considerable expectations for the future of IBM were pinned and in which a corresponding amount of planning talent was invested...

       with reader/punch unit IBM 521
  • Accounting Machine
    • IBM 402
      IBM 402
      The IBM 402 and IBM 403 Accounting Machines were tabulating machines introduced by IBM in the late 1940s. The 402 could read punched cards at a speed of up to 150 cards per minute, while printing data at a speed of up to 100 lines per minute with 43 alpha-numerical type bars and 45 numerical type...

       or
    • IBM 417


The CPC-II Calculator had the following machines interconnected by cables:
  • Electronic Calculating Punch
    • IBM 605 with punch unit IBM 527
  • Accounting Machine
    • IBM 407
      IBM 407
      The IBM 407 Accounting Machine, introduced in 1949, was one of a long line of IBM tabulating machines dating back to the days of Herman Hollerith. It was the central component of any unit record equipment shop. In the late 1950s, the 407 was adapted as an input/output device on early computers,...

       or
    • IBM 412 or
    • IBM 418
  • Optional Auxiliary Storage Unit
    • IBM 941


From the IBM Archiveshttp://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/reference/faq_0000000011.html:
The IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator was announced in May 1949 as a versatile general purpose computer designed to perform any predetermined sequence of arithmetical operations coded on standard 80-column punched cards. It was also capable of selecting and following one of several sequences of instructions as a result of operations already performed, and it could store instructions for self-programmed operation. The Calculator consisted of a Type 605 Electronic Calculating Punch and a Type 412 or 418 Accounting Machine. A Type 941 Auxiliary Storage Unit was available as an optional feature. All units composing the Calculator were interconnected by flexible cables. If desired, the Type 412 or 418, with or without the Type 941, could be operated independently of the other machines. The Type 605 could be used as a Calculating Punch and the punch unit (Type 527) could be operated as an independent gang punch.


Customer deliveries of the CPC began in late 1949, at which time more than 20 had been ordered by government agencies and laboratories and aircraft manufacturers. Nearly 700 CPC systems were delivered during the first-half of the 1950s.

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