• 1957

Hardware Description

The Philco Transac S2000 model 210/211/212 was the first ever large scale all transistorized computer in the world and outclassed the IBM competition of the day - the 7090/7094. It had a ten micro second main memory, 90KC 1 inch tape drives, a 2000 card per minute card reader, and a 900 line per minute printer. The CPU was asynchronous, not driven by a clock, which meant that progression to the next cycle would happen when all the work was done, rather than have to wait for the next clock pulse to appear. The comparable specs for the 7090 paled in comparison. The model 211 added a two micro second memory, and the 212 redesigned the CPU for even faster performance.