The Enduring Legacy of the IBM 1130: A 60th Anniversary Reflection
The impact of IBM 1130 and education at BITS Pilani
Next month, the IBM 1130 turns 60. This remarkable machine, though not widely known among IBMers today, has played a pivotal role in educating millions of computer professionals. Introduced by IBM as an affordable educational system for universities and engineers, the IBM 1130 has a legacy worth celebrating.
As an alumnus of BITS Pilani (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan), I have a personal connection to this historic machine. Coincidentally, BITS celebrated its 60th anniversary last year, having been deemed a university by the UGC Act of 1964. In the mid-sixties, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, BITS developed in association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.
This collaboration led to the adoption of many practices common among Western universities.
Around this time, BITS acquired the IBM 1130, along with various peripherals including a card reader/punch, disks, tape, and a line printer.
The BITS curriculum included a course in Fortran during the first two years, later replaced by PASCAL. This allowed every student, regardless of discipline, to gain exposure to computer programming and become familiar with the science. The programming exercises were mathematical in nature to test ability to write logic or solve data structure problems such as the creation of matrix equations, linked lists, spanning tree or binary search.
The book “Introduction to Microprocessors” by A.P. Mathur was a standard in many universities. In later years, a course in Electronic Data Processing was introduced to teach COBOL as an elective.
No other university in India had made computers so accessible to students like BITS until the advent of PCs and laptops.
Many of my batchmates, including myself, were hobby programmers. Some would write programs to play bridge or chess and diligently punch them into 80x24 column x row cards. There were two or three runs a day, mainly at 11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and possibly one at night. In addition to running student programs, the system handled significant administrative tasks for the university. These included issuing priority numbers to students for course and teacher selection, printing mark-sheets, evaluating papers, and more.
A Great Impact on Education at BITS
The 1130 also left an enduring imprint on campus culture. Punch cards and computer paper were so popular that they found other uses. Punched cards, once crucial for program input, found unexpected uses as makeshift notepads and bookmarks. Similarly, computer paper transitioned from its intended purpose to become a versatile material for note-taking and even shelf liners. The punch card machine rooms were also a relief from the summer heat, as they were housed in air-conditioned rooms.
My exposure to programming and concepts enabled me to get my practice school II (final year graded internship) at Commerce Research Bureau and Computer Maintenance Corporation (an IBM legacy).
The impact of the IBM 1130 extended far beyond the walls of BITS Pilani. It served as a springboard for countless graduates, launching them into successful careers in the burgeoning field of information technology. For many, including myself, the 1130 ignited a lifelong passion for computing, shaping our professional trajectories and contributing to the remarkable advancements we witness today.
A good history about the machines is available from the following links:
- http://ibm1130.org/
- https://www.tnmoc.org/ibm1130
- 1130 Technical Information
- Using the IBM 1130 : Bork, Alfred M : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
- IBM 1130 — Wikipedia
Happy 60th Birthday IBM 1130
I am presently serving as the CTO of Chainyard, a blockchain and AI company. The opinions in this article reflects my experience at BITS Pilani and the subsequent impact it has had on my career and growth. This article has also been published on my LinkedIn page.