September 20, 1957
IBM 610: New York, 21 – The company International Business Machines (IBM) has announced that it has succeeded in making a small-scale electronic brain capable of solving the most difficult problems. Known as the IBM 610, the computer is the size of a small piano and can easily fit in an office. It has the advantage of being able to execute calculations that until now have been very difficult for similar machines. The new apparatus is equipped with wheels that allow it to be moved about. The firm emphasizes that any technical school student of average intelligence can be trained to operate it within an hour. During a demonstration for the press, the computer solved within 20 minutes a problem related to a transformer that would take an engineer an hour to solve using a calculator. THAILAND: Bangkok, 21 – Pote Sarasin has been nominated Thailand’s new prime minister by the temporary assembly by 78 to 22 votes. Half the new government will consist of military officers. Meanwhile, the previous prime minister, Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram has reached Phnom Penh on a warship put at his disposal by the Cambodian government and which picked him up on the islet of Koh Kong where he had taken refuge.
