Amaya Toman Quite a large number of computers came out of the workshop of IBM. Some were unique in their commercial success, others in their performance or price. It is in the second category that the STRETCH supercomputer falls, which we will recall in today's part of our historical series. In its second part, we will talk about the Chernobyl virus from the nineties.
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Supercomputers STRETCH (1960)
On April 26, 1960, IBM announced that it planned to come up with its own product line of supercomputers called STRETCH. These computers were also known as the IBM 7030. Behind the original idea was Dr. Edward Teller from the University of California, who at the time raised a requirement for a computer capable of performing complex calculations in the field of hydrodynamics. Among the requirements were, for example, a computing power of 1-2 MIPS and a price of up to 2,5 million dollars. In 1961, when IBM conducted the first tests of this computer, it turned out that it achieved a performance of around 1,2 MIPS. The problem was the sale price, which was originally set at $13,5 million and then reduced to less than eight million dollars. STRECH supercomputers finally saw the light of day in May 1961, and IBM managed to sell a total of nine units.
The Chernobyl Virus (1999)
On April 26, 1999, there was a massive spread of a computer virus called Chernobyl. This virus was also known as Spacefiller. It targeted computers running the Microsoft Windows 9x operating system, attacking the BIOS itself. The creator of this virus was Chen Ing-hau, a student of Taiwan's Tatung University. According to available reports, a total of sixty million computers around the world were infected by the Chernobyl virus, resulting in an estimated total damage of one billion US dollars. Chen Ing-hau later stated that he programmed the virus in response to anti-virus software makers' boasting about the effectiveness of the respective computer programs. Chen was not convicted at the time because none of the victims took legal action against him.
