IBM 603

{{short description|Control panel programmable electronic calculating card punch}}

{{Infobox information appliance

| name = IBM 603

| logo = Original IBM Logo.png

| predecessor = IBM 601

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| release date = {{Start date and age|1946}}

| manufacturer = IBM

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| type = Vacuum-tube calculator

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| image_size = 270px

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| successor = IBM CPC with IBM 604 computing unit

| related = IBM 602

| developer = IBM

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The IBM 603 Electronic Multiplier was the first mass-produced commercial electronic calculating device; it used full-size vacuum tubes to perform multiplication and addition.[https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/ibm603/breakthroughs/ IBM 603 The First Commercial Electronic Calculator] IBM History, accessed September 21, 2020] (The earlier IBM 601 and released in the same year IBM 602 used relay logic.) The IBM 603 was adapted as the arithmetic unit in the IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator. It was designed by James W. Bryce,{{cite news |title= ASCC People and progeny: James W. Bryce |work= IBM archives |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_team2.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20050124032627/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_team2.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= January 24, 2005 |access-date= April 23, 2011}} and included circuits patented by A. Halsey Dickenson in 1937.{{cite news |title= ASCC People and progeny: Important elements and their developers |work= IBM archives |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_team6.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20051201004210/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_team6.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= December 1, 2005 |access-date= April 28, 2011}}

The IBM 603 was developed in Endicott, New York, and announced on September 27, 1946.{{cite news |title= Endicott chronology |work= IBM archives |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/endicott/endicott_chronology1940.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070129062455/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/endicott/endicott_chronology1940.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= January 29, 2007 |access-date= April 24, 2011}}

File:Vacuum tubes octal, miniature.agr.jpg

IBM's CEO Thomas J. Watson was doubtful of the product, but commercialization was pushed for by his son Thomas J. Watson Jr.{{Cite book |last1=McElvenny |first1=Ralph |title=The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived |last2=Wortman |first2=Marc |date=2023 |isbn=978-1-5417-6852-9 |pages=180|publisher=PublicAffairs }} Only about 20 were built since the bulky tubes made it hard to manufacture, but the demand showed that the product was filling a need.{{cite web |title=Herb Grosch Interview |author=Richard R. Mertz |date=November 9, 1970 |work=Computer Oral History Collection |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of American History Archives Center |url=http://invention.smithsonian.org/downloads/fa_cohc_tr_gros701109.pdf |access-date=April 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100807022648/http://invention.smithsonian.org//downloads/fa_cohc_tr_gros701109.pdf |archive-date=August 7, 2010 |url-status=dead }} Ralph Palmer and Jerrier Haddad were hired to develop a more refined and versatile version of the 603, which became the IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch. The 604 used miniature tubes and a patented design for pluggable modules, which made the product easier to manufacture and service.{{US patent |2637763 |Pluggable Support for Electron Tube and Circuit}} US patent 2637763, filed July 9, 1948, issued May 5, 1953, Ralph L. Palmer Throughout the following 10 years IBM would build and lease 5600 units of the IBM 604.