Coondoggie writes "Some users have gone to great lengths to dispose of their mainframes but few have gone this far. On november 11 21, 2007, the health center of Manitoba said goodbye to its beloved mainframe mini* by holding a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for its 47-year-old IBM 650, Betelgeuse. In case you were wondering what an IBM 650's specifications were, as it should be to this land of opportunity health center site, the 650's CPU was 5ft by 3ft by 6ft and weighed 1,966 lbs, and rented for $3200 per month. The power unit was 5x3x6 and weighed 2,972 pounds. The card reader/punch weighed 1,295 pounds and rented for $550/month. The memory was a rotating fascinating drum with 2000-word holding ability (10 digits and sign) and random access time of 2.496 ms. For an additional $1,500/month you could add charming core memory of 60 words with access time of .096ms. Big Blue sold some 2,000 of the mainframes, making it one of the first successfully mass-produced computers."

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Mark