The IBM 1400 series were second generation (transistorized) mid-range business computers that IBM sold in the early 1960s. They could be operated as an independent systems, in conjunction with IBM punched card equipment, or as auxiliary equipment to other computer systems.

1400-series machines stored information in magnetic cores as variable length character strings terminated by a special flag. Arithmetic was performed character-by-character. Input and output was on punch card, magnetic tape and high speed line printers. Disk storage was also available.

History

The 1401 was the first member of the IBM 1400 series. The IBM 1410 was a similar design, but with a larger address space. The IBM 1460 was logically but not physically identical to a fully optioned 1401 with 16,000 bytes of memory.

Members of the 1400 series included:

• IBM 1240 - 1963
• IBM 1401 - 1959
• IBM 1410 - 1960
• IBM 1420 - 1962
• IBM 1440 - 1962
• IBM 1450 - 1968
• IBM 1460 - 1963
• IBM 7010 - 1962

Programming Languages

Programming languages for the 1400 series included Symbolic Programming System (SPS, an assembly language), Autocoder (assembly language), COBOL, FORTRAN, Report Program Generator (RPG) and FARGO.

Retirement

The 1400 series was replaced by System/360 and low end machines like IBM System 3 and subsequently the System/32, System/34, System/36, System/38 and AS/400.

The 1400's were officially withdrawn in the early 1970s, however some 1400-series peripherals were still sold with third generation systems.

An IBM 1401 computer is being restored to full operational status by the Computer History Museum.

References

• IBM Archives: Pre-360 IBM Mainframe Family tree & chronology.
• A source for 1401, 1460 components.
• A source for 1410/7010 components.

External links

• Many IBM 1400 series manuals are online (pdf files) at http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/14xx/.

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