What Happened Today, July 2nd

IBM announced its 650 series of computers, which were used during the remainder of the decade. The IBM 650 stored information on a rotating magnetic drum and received it on programmed punch cards. Its memory stored numbers with up to 10 decimal digits.

Mathematician, scientist and computer pioneer Vannevar Bush died. Bush was born in Everett, Massachusetts, on March 11, 1890. Also deeply involved with wartime computer projects, Bush invented an electromechanical differential analyzer before the war.

Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and MIPS Computer Systems merged in a stock swap valued at $333 million. SGI experienced a number of financial difficulties, leading to industry speculation about the future of the computer graphics software and hardware company that pioneered a number of techniques in widespread use. MIPS, founded by Stanford University Engineering School Dean John Hennessy, developed high-speed computer chips making use of reduced instruction set computing technology, which seeks to improve speed by simplifying the transmission of information within a computer. On April 1, 2009, SGI filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by Rackable Systems a few weeks later.

"First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC," is published. Brian Randell notes, "It is generally accepted that the first documented discussion ... of the advantages of using just one large internal memory, in which instructions as well as data could be held, was the draft report on EDVAC written by Von Neumann." In 1944, he was appointed a consultant to the EDVAC project. The draft report contains a description of the planned machine and the reasoning behind the various design decisions.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz is born in Leipzig. During his 70-year life, Leibniz would make significant contributions to the field of mathematics as well as completing some early computer work in the form of a calculator. Leibniz developed the modern forms of differential and integral calculus.

Leibniz died on November 14, 1716.

IBM announced its 650 series of computers, which were used during the remainder of the decade. The IBM 650 stored information on a rotating magnetic drum and received it on programmed punch cards. Its memory stored numbers with up to 10 decimal digits.

California's ergonomic standard took effect, dictating what employers must do to ensure that their workplaces prevent repetitive motion injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. The new law, seen as a possible measure of similar standards elsewhere in the nation, reflected increasing instances of such injuries, largely due to increased computer use.

Direct keyboard input on computers debuted on MIT's Whirlwind, which had been completed five years earlier. The now-common method of input was revolutionary at a time when programmers offered instructions to machines by inserting punched cards and changing dials and switches.

The Whirlwind also helped bring in a new form of memory for computers: core memory, which was installed in 1953.