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IBM ELECTRONIC MULTIPLIER
T Y P E
6 0 3
I N T R O D U C T I O N
THE
CONVENTIONAL
mulriplying machine using
mechanical counters for the computation of pro-
ducts is considerably limited in its speed of oper-
arion because of the inertia of moving parts.
By
the use of electrical computation circuits, calculat-
ing speeds can be increased considerably. The Elec-
tronic Multiplier makes use of recently-developed
electronic circuits which
calculations at
extremely high speeds. Thus the burdensome and
usually slow-speed process of computing products
is reduced to an automatic high-speed process in
keeping with the other high-speed functions of the
IBM Accounting Machine Method.
Calculations
involving earnings, material costs, discounts, in-
ventories, and many other computations can be
effected automatically to speed up the accounting
routines which normally require much time and
ond, between the reading and punching of each
card.
OPERATING FEATURES
THE
operating controls and features of this ma-
chine, which can be seen in Figure 1, are all located
on the punch unit.
Main Line Switch
This switch must be
ON
for the machine to be
operative. I t must not be turned
OFF
while cards
are feeding through the machine.
Power Indicating Light (Green)
When this light is
ON,
the machine is ready for
operation. I t will not turn on until suficient time
has been allowed for the electronic tubes to warm
effort.
UP.
The Type 603 Electronic Multiplier consists es-
Start Key
sentially of a unit for reading and punching and
an electronic computing unit connected by a cable
This key is depressed to start the feeding of
as shown by the general view of the machine on the
cards at the beginning of a run. I t must be held
frontispiece. The factors punched in an IBM Card
down through three machine cycles, when first
are read by the reading unit, computations are
starting, before automaric operation begins.
automatically made by the electronic computing
unit, and +the result is then punched in the same
card by the punching unit. N o time is lost wait-
ing for the completion of the computing oper-
ations; all computations are performed between
the time a card leaves the reading brushes and the
time it reaches the punching position. The mach-
ine is equipped with a control panel which makes
it entirely flexible as to the reading and punching
of information.
The IBM Electronic Multiplier, Type 603, repre-
sents the first commercial use of electronics for
multiplication.
The use of electronic circuits for
computing permits operation of this multiplier at
maximusr punching speed of 6000 cards per hour.
The multiplication itself is performed in .027 sec-
Stop Key
This key is depressed for manual control of stop-
ping the feeding of cards while the machine is
through running.
Error Indicating Light (Red)
This light glows when an error is detected by the
Double Punch and Blank Column Detection De-
vice, or when a product exceeds the card field
capacity as indicated by the Product Overflow
feature.
Error Reset Push Button
This button is depressed to extinguish the error
light and restore the machine to normal operation,
after the machine has stopped because of an error.
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