A New Digital Computer System for Commercial Data Processing

A computer system, the RCA 501, has been designed to meet the needs of commercial data processing. The equipment utilizes transistors as active elements, ferrite cores for high-speed memory, magnetic tape as primary bulk and working store, and built-in and programmable accuracy control. Input-output equipment includes paper tape (in), card (in and out), and line printer (out). The language of the computer system exploits variable-word and variable-message-length for efficiency. The instruction complement is designed to facilitate the programming of data-processing tasks, taking advantage of the variable word and message and of built-in simultaneous operation provisions. The system is adaptable in size to small and large applications.