| IBM 601 | |
| Successor: | IBM 602 (electromechanical) IBM 603 (vacuum tube) |
| Type: | Electromechanical calculator |
The IBM 601 Multiplying Punch was a unit record machine that could read two numbers from a punched card and punch their product in a blank field on the same card. The factors could be up to eight decimal digits long.[1] The 601 was introduced in 1931 and was the first IBM machine that could do multiplication.[2] [3]
In 1936 W. J. Eckert connected a modified 601 to a 285 tabulator and an 016 duplicating punch through a custom switch he designed and used the combined setup to perform scientific calculations.[4]