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{{Short description|IBM mainframe computer, 1960s}}
[[File:IBM 7040 front panel.jpg|thumb|upright|Front panel of an IBM 7040 computer on exhibit at the Musée de l'informatique]]
The '''IBM 7040''' was a historic but short-lived model of [[transistor computer]] built in the 1960s.
[[Image:IBM 7040 memory.JPG|thumb|right|upright|IBM 7040 memory (2 x 16384 words)]]
[[File:IBM 7330 on white background.jpg|thumb|upright|The less-expensive IBM 7330 data tape storage unit was used in many 7040 installations.]]

==History==
It was announced by [[IBM]] in December 1961, but did not ship until April 1963.<ref name="pugh360">{{cite book |title= IBM's 360 and early 370 systems |author1= Emerson W. Pugh |author2= Lyle R. Johnson |author3= John H. Palmer |publisher= MIT Press |year= 1991 |url= https://archive.org/details/ibms360early370s0000pugh |url-access= registration |isbn= 978-0-262-16123-7 }}</ref>{{rp|124,302}} A later member of the [[IBM 700/7000 series#Scientific Architecture|IBM 700/7000 series]] of scientific computers, it was a scaled-down version of the [[IBM 7090]]. It was not fully compatible with the 7090. Some 7090 features, including index registers, character instructions and [[floating-point arithmetic]], were extra-cost options. It also featured a different input/output architecture, based on the [[IBM 7070#IBM 1414 I/O|IBM 1414]] data synchronizer, allowing more modern IBM peripherals to be used.<ref>{{cite journal |journal= IBM Systems Journal |page= 68 |year= 1962 |volume=1 |issue=1 |title= A multiprocessing approach to a large computer system |author1= F. R. Baldwin |author2= W. B. Gibson |author3=C. B. Poland |doi= 10.1147/sj.11.0064 }}</ref> A model designed to be compatible with the 7040 with more performance was announced as the '''7044''' at the same time.

Peter Fagg headed the development of the 7040 under executive [[Bob O. Evans]].<ref name="pugh360"/>{{rp|139}}A number of IBM 7040 and 7044 computers were shipped, but it was eventually made obsolete by the [[IBM System/360]] family, announced in 1964. The schedule delays caused by IBM's multiple incompatible architectures provided motivation for the unified System/360 family.<ref name="pugh360"/>

The 7040 proved popular for use at universities, due to its comparatively low price. For example, one was installed in May 1965 at [[Columbia University]].<ref>{{cite web |title= IBM 7040 |publisher= Columbia University |url= http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/7040.html |accessdate= April 3, 2011 }}</ref> 
One of the first in Canada was at the [[University of Waterloo]], bought by professor [[J. Wesley Graham]]. A team of students was frustrated with the slow performance of the [[Fortran]] compiler. In the summer of 1965 they wrote the [[WATFOR]] compiler for their 7040, which became popular with many newly formed computer science departments.<ref>{{cite news|title=U of Waterloo alumni look back on creator of Fortran variant |date=April 9, 2007 |author=Shane Schick |work=IT Business |url=http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=42952 |access-date=April 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308222309/http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=42952 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= UW computing pioneer mourned |date= September 8, 1999 |newspaper= UW Gazette |author= Chris Redmond |url= http://communications.uwaterloo.ca/Gazette/1999/sep08/graham.html |publisher= [[University of Waterloo]] |accessdate= April 3, 2011 |archive-date= October 1, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111001221302/http://communications.uwaterloo.ca/Gazette/1999/sep08/graham.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>

IBM also offered the 7040 (or 7044) as an input-output processor attached to a 7090, in a configuration known as the 7090/7040 Direct Coupled System (DCS). Each computer was slightly modified to be able to interrupt the other.<ref>{{cite journal |title= A directly coupled multiprocessing system |author= E. C. Smith |journal= IBM Systems Journal |date= September–December 1963 |volume= 2 |issue= 3 |pages= 218–229 |doi= 10.1147/sj.23.0218  }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/os/dc.html|title=The Direct Couple for the IBM 7090|last1=Patrick|first1=Robert L.|last2=Van Vranken|first2=Richard K.|publisher=Software Preservation Group, [[Computer History Museum]]|date= February 2009}}</ref>

IBM used similar numbers for a model of its eServer pSeries 690 [[IBM System p|RS/6000]] architecture much later. The 7040-681, for example, was withdrawn in 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title= pSeries 690 |publisher= IBM |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/pseries/highend/p690/index.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090309070730/http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/pseries/highend/p690/index.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= March 9, 2009 |accessdate= April 3, 2011 }}</ref>

[[File:BH-JPL-A&A1979.jpg|thumb|260x260px|Image of a black hole generated by Luminet using a computer simulation]]
In 1978, [[Jean-Pierre Luminet]] used an IBM 7040 to create the first simulation of a black hole.

==See also==
* [[List of IBM products]]
* [[IBM mainframe]]
* [[History of IBM]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web |title= IBM Mainframe: Family tree and chronology 2 |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_FT2.html  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20041215122207/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_FT2.html  |url-status= dead  |archive-date= December 15, 2004  |accessdate= April 3, 2011 }}

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[[Category:IBM transistorized computers|7040]]
[[Category:IBM 700/7000 series|7 7040]]
[[Category:36-bit computers]]

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