What was the primary goal behind the production of the IBM 7030, also known as Stretch?

The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, aimed to achieve a significant leap in computational performance, specifically targeting a speed that would make it 100 times faster than its predecessor, the IBM 704. This ambitious goal was driven by the need for more powerful computing solutions that could handle complex scientific computations and large-scale data processing more efficiently. The design and architecture of Stretch were influenced by this objective, involving innovations in technology that allowed for such improvements in speed and performance.

While Stretch did introduce some advanced features, such as concepts that were part of the evolving discussion around computer architecture, its defining characteristic was its pursuit of unprecedented performance in computing, which is encapsulated in the goal of being drastically faster than the IBM 704. This focus on speed and the capacity to tackle more intensive workloads was a crucial step towards the development of what we now understand as supercomputing capabilities, but the primary intention was not merely to create a supercomputer itself but rather to create a machine that operated on a scale of speed that had not been achieved before.