An IBM 650 found in the basement of Learned Hall is believed to be the University's first computer. It was bought in 1957.
An emeritus professor of computer science was told about the discovery, and has been taking the components to his home, where he plans to restore the computer to its full magnetic drum glory. When it was fully functional, the computer could store a whopping 1,000 ten digit numbers.
The lab director who discovered the computer estimates that the computer science department's 500 2 gigahertz desktop computers have 100 million times the processing power of the 6 foot tall 650.
You can pretend you have your own 650 with the IBM 650 simulator.
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