IBM 1620
In 1963, WDPC acquired an IBM 1620 computer system. This system was on loan from WDPC to GSM and located in a laboratory room in the GSM building. It was a decimal machine so that it was fairly easy to write machine language programs. However, the primary programming language was FORTRAN II.
The 1620 was primarily a computer used by students in a variety of courses such as Electronic Computers, Business Statistics,Operations Research and Production Management. It also supported a Management Game, the UCLA Computer Club and even processed programs for Los Angeles High School Computer Clubs.
The 1620 was a hands-on computer, unlike the 7090 that was operated by professionals. The FORTRAN compiler was initially a two-pass compiler that physically came on two rather large decks of punch cards. Students ran the computer themselves by loading the first deck of FORTRAN compiler cards, retrieving the output from the first pass, and loading the second deck to produce their output.
The 1620 lab was under the supervision of Ms. Hiroko Kishi. Hiroko was a secretary in WDPC who wanted a career change. She learned FORTRAN and how to run the 1620 and took over the laboratory operation. She was very successful in large part, I think, because she was not an old time programmer who tended to talk and explain things in computer jargon. She spoke the language of the students. Hiroko always had some back up decks of the compiler on hand because at least once a week a student would drop a deck on the floor and she was instantly ready to replace it with a new one.
The IBM 1620 was later enhanced with a disk file and a plotter. The disk file eliminated the cards by enabling the FORTRAN compiler to reside on the disk , thus greatly increasing the efficiency with which student programs could be processed. The plotter came with FORTRAN subroutines.
PHOTO
Photo held in IBM Archives