The TOSBAC-2100 was a transistor-based computer for business calculations developed in 1959 by the Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company (today, Toshiba).
The machine combined the functions of a paper punch and an accounting machine as part of a punch-card system. For I/O devices, it was equipped with a line printer capable of printing at 400 lpm (with 76 characters per line), a card reader-puncher (using either 80-column or 90-column cards), and a paper-tape reader-puncher. The TOSBAC-2100 used 5,000 transistors and 10,000 diodes and its memory unit consisted of an 18-word transistor counter. Its basic calculation method relied on counting pulses instead of dedicated addition and subtraction circuits as used today. And instead of a stored-program methodology, it had an external program methodology, whereby programs were entered on a 60-step plugboard. The TOSBAC-2100 was used for business calculations at the Kanagawa Prefecture’s Commerce and Industry Center and at Toshiba’s Komukai Plant.
