The IBM 704 is the model name of a large digital mainframe computer introduced by IBM in 1954. Designed by John Backus and Gene Amdahl , it was the first mass-produced computer with hardware for floating-point arithmetic .

Over the next decade, the 700 mainframes continued to feature more optimized memory devices — and faster processing times. With the 704, for instance, the customary Williams tube storage method was replaced by a high-speed magnetic core storage.

IBM's 36-bit scientific architecture was used for a variety of computation-intensive applications. First machines were the vacuum-tube 704 and 709, followed by the transistorized 7090, 7094, 7094-II, and the lower-cost 7040 and 7044.

May 7, 2024 · IBM announces the IBM 704 Data Processing System, the world’s first mass produced computer to feature floating point arithmetic hardware. Besides this ultra-geeky distinction, the IBM 704 will leave its mark in computer history before it …

The first mass-produced computer with core memory and floating-point arithmetic, whose designers included John Backus, formerly of IBM Watson Laboratory at Columbia University (who also was the principal designer of FORTRAN, the first widespread high-level language for computer programming), as well as Gene Amdahl (who would go on to become ...

coding system for the IBM 704 EDPM. More precisely, it is a 704 program which accepts a source program written in a language - the FORTRAN language - closely resembling the ordinary language of mathematics, and which pro- duces an object program in 704 machine language, ready to be run on a 704.

…a machine in mind: the IBM 704, which had built-in floating-point math operations. That the 704 used floating-point representation made it especially useful for scientific work, and Backus believed that a scientifically oriented programming language would …

Mar 22, 2025 · In 1954 IBM announced the 704 Data Processing System. Though the company did not designate it as a computer, it was the first commercially available computer to incorporate indexing and floating point arithmetic as standard features.

The IBM 704 was IBM's first commercially successful vacuum tube scientific mainframe (built at a time when computers for scientific and business computing used separate instruction sets). It was announced in May, 1954; 136 were sold.

Nov 8, 2006 · The IBM 704 Data Processing System was, in its most general sense, a computer. It was first announced to the public on May 4, 1957 and ceased to be available for purchase (or the more common rental) on April 7, 1960. As its name indicates, it was designed, produced and sold by the International Business Machines Corporation, of Armonk, NY.