{{No footnotes, date=February 2025 The IBM 1720 was a pilot project to create a

real-time Real-time, realtime, or real time may refer to: Computing * Real-time computing, hardware and software systems subject to a specified time constraint * Real-time clock, a computer clock that keeps track of the current time * Real-time Control Syst ...

process control Industrial process control (IPC) or simply process control is a system used in modern manufacturing which uses the principles of control theory and physical industrial control systems to monitor, control and optimize continuous Industrial processe ...

computer based on the IBM 1620 Model I. Only three 1720 systems were ever built: one for the

Amoco Amoco ( ) is a brand of filling station, fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and petroleum, oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company i ...

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

Whiting, Indiana 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 ...

; one for the Socal oil refinery in

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

; and one for E. I. du Pont in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

. All were installed in 1961. The Amoco and Socal systems ran for many years. The 1720 led to the

IBM 1710 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 (e.g., IBM 1711 analog-to-digital converter and digital-to-analog converter, IBM 1712 discrete ...

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

External links

"Evolution of Small Real-Time IBM Computer Systems"
(1.25 MB PDF file), from the IBM Journal of Research and Development.

1720 Events January–March * January 21 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm (Great Northern War). * February 10 – Edmond Halley is appointed as Astronomer Royal for England. * February 17 – The Treaty o ...

See also

External links