IBM 1720

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The IBM 1720 was a pilot project to create a real-time process control computer based on the IBM 1620 Model I.

In computer science, real-time computing (RTC), or reactive computing describes hardware and software systems subject to a "real-time constraint", for example from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within specified time constraints, often referred to as "deadlines". The correctness of these types of systems depends on their temporal aspects as well as their functional aspects. Real-time responses are often understood to be in the order of milliseconds, and sometimes microseconds. A system not specified as operating in real time cannot usually guarantee a response within any timeframe, although typical or expected response times may be given.

Automatic process control in continuous production processes is a combination of control engineering and chemical engineering disciplines that uses industrial control systems to achieve a production level of consistency, economy and safety which could not be achieved purely by human manual control. It is implemented widely in industries such as oil refining, pulp and paper manufacturing, chemical processing and power generating plants.

Only three 1720 systems were ever built: one for the Amoco oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana; one for the Socal oil refinery in El Segundo, California; and one for E. I. du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware. All were installed in 1961. The Amoco and Socal systems ran for many years.

Amoco former global chemical and oil company

Amoco Corporation, originally Standard Oil Company (Indiana), is a global chemical and oil company that was founded in 1889 around a refinery located in Whiting, Indiana, United States.

Oil refinery industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products

Oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is transformed and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel and fuel oils. Petrochemicals feed stock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha.

Whiting, Indiana City in Indiana, United States

Whiting is a city located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in Lake County, Indiana, which was founded in 1889. The city is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It is roughly 16 miles from the Chicago Loop and two miles from Chicago's South Side. Whiting is home to Whiting Refinery, the largest oil refinery in the Midwest. The population was 4,997 at the 2010 census.

The 1720 led to the IBM 1710 Process Control systems that IBM introduced in March 1961; these were cheaper and less elaborate than the 1720.

The IBM 1710 was a process control system that IBM introduced in March 1961. It used either a 1620 I or a 1620 II Computer and specialized I/O devices.

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