Just as Henry Ford introduced the automobile to the masses, the first relatively affordable and widely popular mainframe, the IBM 1401 Data Processing System opened the information age to thousands of small and medium-size businesses. It changed the construct and outlook of the computer industry, from design to production to use.
Introduced in 1959, the IBM 1401 quickly made inroads into the business community. By the mid-1960s, it comprised more than half of the world’s computers. The 1401 family spawned an entire generation of programmers who first learned computing on these machines.
Follow on more about the Development of the 1401 and of a recent project bringing 2 of these computers back to life at the California History Museum
Click on the link to the attached PDF to download the Museum article.
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