A new exhibition at the Computer History Museum has brought IBM 50-year-old computers back to life.

The Computer History Museum, the world's leading organization that studies the history of computer development and their influence on society, opened its new exhibition: IBM 1401 Demo Lab.



The main feature of the new exhibition is the reconstruction of one of the most popular computers of all time - IBM 1401 Data Processing System ( IBM 1401 ). The exhibition exactly restores the computing center of the 1960s, including drills, printers, readers, and tape drives.



The IBM 1401 Mainframe was introduced to the public in 1959. Traditional methods based on the use of punched cards and mechanical equipment could not cope with the large volume and increasing complexity of operations in the world. The IBM 1401 system was the perfect solution, which led to the fact that in 1965 almost half of all computers in the world were exactly IBM 1401.

')

Two IBM 1401 cars, aged 45 and 48, were brought back to life by a team of 20 volunteers. These are mainly IBM's retired engineers, who used to design, manufacture and support systems with customers. Successful recovery is emphasized by the structural strength and high reliability of mechanical and solid components. The restoration took more than 20,000 hours over 10 years.







“Demo Lab connects the past and the future, vividly illustrating how the systems were in the 1960s, and how much society has advanced in 50 years of incredible progress.” - John Hollar, director of the Computer History Museum.



Photos from the exhibition can be found here .