While doing reading for this project, I kept finding references to the Stretch Computer. I ran across other references during my readings for a previous class in Software Engineering. I explored some of those references and found an intriguing story.
In late 1954, a project was started at IBM to design a new computer. The entire field was still new, there had been little experience on which to base the design of such computers as the 704 (a large-scale scientific computer) and the 705 (a business data processing computer). With the experience gained in making those machines, improvements in design became apparent. Furthermore, it appeared possible to soon produce computers with transistors and diodes replacing vacumn tubes.
The project set forth to design and build a computer with a goal of reaching an over-all performance of 100 times that of the 704, then the faster computer available. This would make available the best technology that could be achieved by straining the technical resources. Hence the name Project Stretch.
The project introduced a number of new concepts into computer architecture and brought forth new terms into the language of computers. One of these terms was computer architecture [CAM62, p 5]
Computer Architecture, like other architecture, is the art of determining the needs of a user of a structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints.
-- Fred P. Brooks, Jr., 1962
Some of the other new terms introduced include "byte" and "I O interface". [BAS81, p 370-1] As mentioned previously, another term introduced by Project Stretch was pipeline. We will explore that topic in further detail in the next section.
Tony Wesley
Comments to author: tony@tonywesley.com
Last Updated: November 26, 1995