Mainframes

IBM 709 The last of IBM's first generation of big scientific vacuum tube computers, this machine was built in 1959. It was the first computer with data channels for IO. This picture shows the Central Processing Unit, which can be opened up like a book to access the wiring. The complete system consists of seven different units including memory, data channels and power supplies plus a card reader, printer and many tape drives. The entire system originally cost $2.5 million. Large corporations, government labs and big universities would have one or two for the entire institution.