The IBM 5880, also known as the IBM 5880 Electrocardiograph System, is a computerized electrocardiograph and diagnostic tool. It was developed by IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 scientist Ray Bonner in the early 1970s and announced in 1978.

The IBM 5880 was designed to analyze electrocardiogram

Electrocardiogram

Electrocardiography is a transthoracic interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, as detected by electrodes attached to the outer surface of the skin and recorded by a device external to the body...

s, measurements of the electrical activity of the heart

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

, and provide diagnostic advice to the same standards as a cardiologist. Similar programs already ran on mainframe computer

Mainframe computer

Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...

s, but the 5880 was the first version that could be placed in a cart and taken into hospital conditions.