[12] The purchase price for the bare IBM 650 console, without the reader punch unit, was $150,000 in 1959,[13] or roughly $1,500,000 as of 2023.

[15] Donald Knuth's series of books The Art of Computer Programming is famously dedicated to a 650.

[15] The first 650 was installed on December 8, 1954 in the controller's department of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston.

[17] The IBM 1620 (variable-length decimal), introduced in 1959, addressed the lower end of the market.

The UNIVAC Solid State (a two-address computer, signed 10-digit decimal words) was announced by Sperry Rand in December 1958 as a response to the 650.

The basic 650 system consisted of three units:[18] Weight: 5,400–6,263 pounds (2.7–3.1 short tons; 2.4–2.8 t).

Each word had 10 bi-quinary coded decimal digits, representing a signed 10-digit number or five characters.

IBM provided a form with ten columns and 200 rows to allow programmers to keep track of where they put instructions and data.

The optional IBM 653 Storage Unit, was introduced on May 3, 1955, ultimately providing up to five features:[35] The 650 instructions consisted of a two-digit operation code, a four-digit data address and the four-digit address of the next instruction.

[citation needed] The base machine operation codes were:[36] Then store distributor into memory Then store distributor into memory Notes: The IBM 653 options could implement additional instruction codes.

To begin, a load card is keypunched with 80 consecutive digits (the second column below) so that, when read, drum locations 0001 through 0008 contents will be as shown.

Execution begins then, from the console with the reading of the eight words on the load card into locations 0001-0008 of the first memory band.