Electronic data processing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:42, 20 September 2018

Revision as of 13:55, 20 January 2019

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Significant developments took place in 1959 with IBM announcing the [[IBM 1401|1401 computer]] and in 1962 with [[International Computers and Tabulators|ICT (International Computers & Tabulators)]] making delivery of the [[ICT 1301]]. Like all machines during this time the core processor together with the peripherals – magnetic tape decks, discs, drums, printers and card and paper tape input and output required considerable space in specially constructed air conditioned accommodation. Often parts of the punched card installation, in particular sorters, were retained to present the card input to the computer in a pre-sort form that reduced the processing time involved in sorting large amounts of data.

Data processing facilities became available to smaller organizationorganizations in the form of the [[computer bureau|computer services bureau]]. These offered processing of specific applications e.g. payroll and were often a prelude to the purchase of customers' own computercomputers. Organizations used these facilities for testing programs while awaiting the arrival of their own machine.

These initial machines were delivered to customers with limited software. The design staff was divided into two groups. ''[[Systems analyst]]s'' produced a systems specification and ''[[programmer]]s'' translated the specification into machine language.