PB 250

The word size was 22 bits and the memory could be expanded to a maximum of 16,000 words. The performance was 40,000 operations per second.[4] It had the ability to operate as an I/O processor in tandem with another computer; at the time this was considered a "radically new feature" for a less expensive system.[4] The Central Computer weighed 110 pounds (50 kg).[5][6][7]

The design started in November 1959. The computer was intended as a component in special purpose systems,[2] for example, to control electric power plants.[8] The logic design has similarities with the Bendix G-15 computer, which in turn was based on Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE.[9][10][11] The circuits were derived from the TRICE[12] digital differential analyzer.[5][13]

People involved in development:

• Max Palevsky – general manager, started the development process.[10]
• Stanley Frankel – consultant on the design of the computer logic
• Robert Beck – designer of the computer logic[10][11]
• Smil Ruhman – circuit design
• Jack Mitchell and Donald Cooper – management and coordination of the overall engineering project[14]

The PB250 used a Flexowriter as a console.[15][16][17]

It could be operated entirely from a battery power supply.[5][18][19]

• SNAP I (Symbolic Non-optimizing Assembly Program) assembler[20]
• ATRAN (Algebraic TRANslator), process oriented language[21]
• CINCH Interpreter, a floating point interpretive system, designed to permit rapid programming of scientific and engineering problems.[5][22]
• OUP III (Octal Utility Package III)[23] which "allowed the operator to perform certain transfer functions, printout locations of memory, store single words into memory, and begin the execution of programs that had been stored in memory."[1]
• NELIAC compiler[24]
• Fortran II[25]

By WANEF (Westinghouse Astronuclear Experiment Facility), whose task was to perform basic research and reactor analysis on the NRX series of nuclear reactors to be used in nuclear rocket engine.[26]

In Saturn 1 first stage checkout.[1]

In TRICE models TC5108/250 and TC5036/250[27] hybrid computers.

In Hycomp 250 hybrid computer, later replaced by PB440.[28]

In nuclear submarine training systems[29] and in antisubmarine warfare trainers.[30]

PB 250 was licensed to SETI (French: Société européenne de traitement de l'information, lit. 'European Information Processing Company').[31] It could be connected to SETI 2000 process control system.[16]

In mobile (by van) monitoring and data processing services.[32][33][34]

• Beck, Robert Mark (30 December 1960). "PB-250 – A High Speed Serial General Purpose Computer Using Magnetostrictive Delay Line Storage". Managing Requirements Knowledge, International Workshop On(AFIPS): 283. doi:10.1109/afips.1960.58. The first production computer was delivered in October 1960.
• "The PB 250 General Purpose Digital Computer" (PDF). Computers and Automation. 9 (8): 1B–3B (9–11). Aug 1960. [...] was introduced by Packard Bell Computer Corporation at the Western Joint Computer Conference in May
• "PB-250 documents". www.bitsavers.org.
• "PB 250" (PDF). AUERBACH Standard EDP Reports. 7: 165–251.
• "Descriptions of Digital Computers" (PDF). Computers and Automation. XII (6): 72, 82. Jun 1963.
• "A Survey of New West-European Digital Computers (Part 1): FRANCE" (PDF). Computers and Automation. XII (9): 23. Sep 1963.
• Kaisler, Stephen H. (2017). "Chapter Thirteen – Packard Bell". Birthing the Computer: From Drums to Cores. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 304–317. ISBN 978-1-4438-9625-2.

• "the pb250 ad" (PDF). Computers and Automation. 9 (6): 76. Jun 1960. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
• "The PB-250". www.cca.org.
• "The Retro-Computing Society of RI, Inc". www.rcsri.org.