SSEC: Difference between revisions
(Created page with "{{OSinfobox |image = ssec.jpg |cname = SSEC |alias = IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator |debut = Aug 2010<ref>[https://www.ostan-collections.net/forum/index.php/topic,1154.msg83872.html#msg838723 Description in More IBM-tans]</ref>/Sep 2025 (rework)<ref>[https://www.ostan-collections.net/forum/index.php/topic,1817.msg177249.html#msg177249 Description in More IBM-tans III: The One With Actually More IBM-tans]</ref> |height = 5'3" |haircolor= Red |eyecolor= Bro...") |
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Revision as of 12:56, 20 September 2026
| SSEC | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | SSEC |
| Other Names | IBM Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator |
| Faction | Deceased |
| Lineage | IBM |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 5'3" |
| Hair Color | Red |
| Eye Color | Bronze |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | Aug 2010[1]/Sep 2025 (rework)[2] |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator |
| Developer(s) | IBM |
| Debut | 1948 |
| Latest release | 1952 |
Technical details
The SSEC was one of the last electromechanical computers and an object of publicity for the IBM corporation.
Character details
Physical
SSEC-tan is depicted as an automaton with medium skintone, bronze eyes, red hair, and a glass chassis with exposed machinery. She has old Hollywood good looks [3] and a sense of fashion that trends toward 1940s and 20s/art deco style.[4] She dresses in a sheer jacket studded with many red jewels, long bronze & silver gown, and red gemstone jewelry, and red high heels. Her makeup is smokey and dramatic, taking more after 1920s than 40s contemporary looks.
She is proud of herself for being a magazine cover-girl.[5]
Like Harvard Mark I, she speaks with a transatlantic accent.
Personality
SSEC-tan is intelligent, quick-witted and sociable. Considers the people of New York City her friends and gets along easily with humans, and doesn't feel particularly isolated even if she doesn't interact much with other computers. A born performer, thinks of the world as her stage and people broadly as her audience.
She is a talented mathematician and trained astronomer with particular interest in lunar & planetary mechanics,[6] who prides herself for helping man to the moon.[7] Despite this she remains more of a "visionary" inventor than a hands-on tinkerer,[8] and deeply modest about her talents.[9] She is a pacifist and thinks her cousins wasted their talents in the military.[10]
She is a bon vivant who loves socializing, nights out on the town,[11] and gambling.[12]
Relationships and family
SSEC-tan considers herself both the culmination of the IBM calculators, and the rightful founder of the IBM computer families.[13] She has no true heirs, but considers IBM 650 a protegee.[14]
SSEC-tan is an estranged cousin of the Harvard Marks[15] with particular enmity for Harvard Mark I.[16] She also dislikes IAS-tan.[17]
History and Background
 | This article is a work in progress. …well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editors’ notes. |
Notes
References
- ↑ Description in More IBM-tans
- ↑ Description in More IBM-tans III: The One With Actually More IBM-tans
- ↑ Stylish design, meant to be looked at.
- ↑ "Behind the times" like other mechanical computers, but less so than some of the others.
- ↑ Subject of a famous New Yorker cover.
- ↑ Used to calculate celestial mechanics.
- ↑ Calculated tables used by NASA including the Apollo Program.
- ↑ Used in the nuclear propelled aircraft program.
- ↑ IBM marketing heavily emphasized the SSEC as an aid to scientists, not a replacement.
- ↑ Co-designer Wallace Eckert believed HM1 failed to live up to its potential in the Navy.
- ↑ Housed behind glass at IBM HQ in Manhattan.
- ↑ Large scale application of monte carlo methods.
- ↑ Bridged IBM's older & newer technologies.
- ↑ Shared development team.
- ↑ IBM project inspired by ASCC/HM1.
- ↑ Acrimonious falling out between Watson Sr. & Aiken.
- ↑ IBM 701 (commercialized IAS computer) replaced the SSEC.