The IBM 701, known as the Defense Calculator while in development, was announced to the public on
April 29,
1952, and was
IBM’s first commercial scientific computer. Its business computer siblings were the
IBM 702 and
IBM 650.The system used electrostatic storage, consisting of 72
Williams tubes with a capacity of 1024
bits each, giving a total memory of 2048
words of 36 bits each. Each of the 72 Williams tubes was three inches in diameter. Memory could be expanded to a maximum of 4096 words of 36 bits by the addition of a second set of 72 Williams tubes or by replacing the entire memory with magnetic
core memory. The Williams tube memory and later core memory each had a memory cycle time of 12 microseconds. The Williams tube memory required periodic refreshing, mandating the insertion of refresh cycles into the 701s timing. An addition required five 12 microsecond cycles, two of which were refresh cycles, a multiplication or division required 38 cycles (456 microseconds).
See more at Wikipedia.org...