Knuth dedicated TAOCP to the IBM 650 'in remembrance of many pleasant evenings'

jwt0625 · x · 2026-11-09

A page from A New History of Modern Computing (p. 58): Thomas Watson Jr. let universities buy IBM 650 at up to 60% off if they taught computing courses, making it the machine where thousands of scientists learned to program. Donald Knuth later dedicated The Art of Computer Programming to "the Type 650 computer once installed at Case Institute of Technology, in remembrance of many pleasant evenings."

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