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IBM's 'dinosaur' turns 40
San Francisco Chronicle
| April 5, 2004
| Benjamin Pimentel
Posted on 04/05/2004 5:35:14 PM PDT by NCjim
Edited on 04/05/2004 5:40:44 PM PDT by Admin Moderator.
[history]
Known as drab-looking machines that sit in huge air-conditioned rooms, the IBM mainframe computer has been called the dinosaur of the technology world.
About a decade ago, pundits predicted it would soon become extinct.
But the machine, which companies all over the world have used to manage payroll and monitor expense accounts, and which enabled scientists to send the first men to the moon, is celebrating its 40th birthday this week.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: anniversary; ibm
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To: Hank Rearden
Mgd - Osborne! You wanted a portable ... They were a big hit when they first came out then .... poof.
To: TC Rider
My first experience with a mainframe was a Honeywell too! MULTICS operating system. Circa 1980.
To: Contra
IBM = I've Been Moved
To: Bobibutu
Standard response from CEs: 'it's ya'lls SPAGHETTI CODE that has y'all down.'
Nine times out of ten, you were right :)
124
posted on
04/05/2004 9:25:21 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: DuncanWaring
Yeah - $1.75 million per megabyte.
Hey - it was built by hand back then - each donut and the 5 wires that went thru it's hole to the next one.
To: txflake
You cleaned tape heads with Freon?!
To: txflake
Thank you and we'll give you the one out of 10 :-) you guys worked your brains out - but you made our lives hell ;-)
To: ApplegateRanch
Plug boards went out with the 407 - thank God - crankata wheep - cranka- ta - wheep - 360/50's RULEed - at least back in my day -60's
Man the oil we had to keep clean in the 407's - a PM on that baby took at least 4 hours and that was if you were proficient!
To: Bobibutu
I was always the chick that proved the printer/CPU problem correlation. You know what I mean, you dog. That bug where system printer stops CPU and job scheduling.
129
posted on
04/05/2004 9:41:24 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: txflake
"I was always the chick that proved the printer/CPU problem correlation. You know what I mean, you dog. That bug where system printer stops CPU and job scheduling."
Now Now - Let's let bygones be bygoens and if you are still having problems - I know a few of the big dog techs that can solve you problem -
To: VMI70
Here is a picture of the IBM 1401 control panel. When the power was turned on, the memory was blank. The computer didn't know anything until some instructions were keyed in by hand. I believe the first few instructions were in Octal. After positioning the switches for an instruction, one would press an enter button. Can't remember which button it was. I believe it took about 5 or 6 separate instructions to tell it to read the tape drive. Then a run button was pushed, I think and if you did it correctly, the tape drive would start reading the tape.
Here was the output card punch, key card punch for input, the computer, the tape drives, don't remember what the next consol was, and finally the printer. And the one I was using had 4K of memory! The good old days.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
To: All
IBM 026 bump. (My first computer job, 1983, University of Dallas).
132
posted on
04/05/2004 9:51:46 PM PDT
by
B-Chan
(Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
To: Varmint Al
"don't remember what the next consol was"
The Random Acess Disk Drive!
Nice Find!
To: Varmint Al
Octal is good - Hexadecimal is better
can anyone xlate 02FC? (Hex)
To: Bobibutu
Oh, no. I hunt arrowheads for a living now. :)
135
posted on
04/05/2004 10:00:37 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: capitan_refugio
Is that why we were so high?
136
posted on
04/05/2004 10:14:02 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: Bobibutu
02FC=764 dec
FFFF=65535 dec
00FF=255 dec
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
To: Citizen Tom Paine
I remember all of those. Remember the 650 , with a rotating drum for memory, before CORE for memory!
138
posted on
04/05/2004 10:18:12 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
To: NCjim
Nothing compares with the 360/370 ....3090 ...MVS...VM!
139
posted on
04/05/2004 10:19:15 PM PDT
by
Ernest_at_the_Beach
(The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
To: Bobibutu; Varmint Al
I don't know what or who is PDP.
I know it was not the IBM 1401 that Varmint Al put up. The console was much bigger, about 4-5 feet across, and one stood up to use it. The switches were at about mid torso level.
140
posted on
04/05/2004 10:23:49 PM PDT
by
VMI70
(...but two Wrights made an airplane)
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