Preliminary Planning for the 701

Editor's Note: We are publishing a condensation of the first nine pages of a 68-page interview (taped August 12, 1980) of James W. Birkenstock conducted by Erwin Tomash and Roger Steuwer of the Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Processing. The full interview and copyright are held by CBI. Birkenstock occupied many important positions in IBM and at the time of the dedication of the 701 was director of product planning and market analysis. I hope that the entire interview of this key figure in the computing industry can be published someday.