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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.
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To: stylin19a
Still developing on CICS boxes. You're not alone.
81
posted on
04/05/2004 7:24:22 PM PDT
by
IronJack
To: sailor4321
"Anybody out there remember wiring boards?"
Yes - Brrrrrrrrrrrr
Ever see the inside of the 407 test board? So much spagetti the cover would hardly close (painted red) ah memories :-)
82
posted on
04/05/2004 7:24:37 PM PDT
by
Bobibutu
To: IronJack; null and void
No, I finally remembered. TriChloroTriFluoroEthane.
83
posted on
04/05/2004 7:24:41 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: Bobibutu
Serial number? LOL!!
636061 here.
84
posted on
04/05/2004 7:26:41 PM PDT
by
sinkspur
(Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
To: narby
A local insurance company never put in a heating plant, they used their mainframes to heat the building.
85
posted on
04/05/2004 7:35:24 PM PDT
by
mlmr
(Honest officer, I wasn't speeding. This SUV is a low-flying rocket!)
To: txflake
Is she 'black'?Sure (although there's an old white one gathering dust in the closet), she's a 9401 model 150, V4R4M0.
I do love the AS/400. Did a 2000 conversion on one of them.
I had to do a Y2K conversion on my own code! It took five years of background work (~a million lines of Cobol), but who knew a software project started in 1982 would see the turn of the century?
86
posted on
04/05/2004 7:37:35 PM PDT
by
forsnax5
(The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.)
To: sinkspur
"Serial number? LOL!!"
Yeah OK ya got me - ahem - Employee #
I was hired at Tulsa '63 - took unit record training at Rodchester MN - other schools at San Jose (the palace in the cornfield) New York (town famous for it's shoe factory - I forget the name just now) White Plains of course - watched the Moon landing there while back for another school while stationed in Viet Nam- New Orleans and others - my God we traveled. Then off to Asia in 66 assigned to MACV - spent 4 years there.
Out to Yankee Station 5 times - I do love being catapulted off a Carrier.
There were around 200 of us at the peak (including FSD - Federal Systems Division - we still get together in Vegas from time to time)
87
posted on
04/05/2004 7:41:30 PM PDT
by
Bobibutu
To: txflake
No, I finally remembered. TriChloroTriFluoroEthane.
We CE's just called it cleaning fluid and always had a few cans in our cars and tool kits.
88
posted on
04/05/2004 7:43:22 PM PDT
by
Bobibutu
To: Bobibutu
New York (town famous for it's shoe factory - I forget the name just nowEndicott. Went there for my first class in January of 1979. It was the last class there; marketing training was moved to Poughkeepsie.
I loved working for IBM, but, as I look back, I didn't realize how little money I was making in exchange for "job security" and the prestige of working for Big Blue.
89
posted on
04/05/2004 7:44:59 PM PDT
by
sinkspur
(Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)
To: forsnax5
The AS/400 was all there, compliant. It was moving an MRP/ERP application from a NON-compliant box that aged me 20 years :)
Damned near cured me of IS work.
90
posted on
04/05/2004 7:44:59 PM PDT
by
txhurl
(The Jihadists: spectacular media violence, zero military significance, huge psych significance.)
To: null and void; txflake
Oh good. 5 STC drives cleaned once a shift for 3 years and 7 months. Right index finger and middle finger tips were soaked 5 nights of 7. :-(
91
posted on
04/05/2004 7:46:15 PM PDT
by
tubavil
To: Socratic
Ah yes, I remember my college days in the mid-70's ... waiting in line with my card deck. The "card-burning party" at the end of the semester made it all worthwhile, though.
When I finally cut my teeth in the professional world, though, it was Perkin Elmer 3270 minicomputer all the way!!! :)
92
posted on
04/05/2004 7:48:04 PM PDT
by
The Duke
To: Whispering Smith
As I remember, forty years ago it was the 1401. Thirty five years ago was the 1410. Thirty years ago the 365 was going and the 370 was coming. The IBM System/360 computer series was announced in 1964. I joined the Company in 1965. The first S/370 was the IBM 145 in name only, introduced in 1972. The first real 370 was the 148 in 1973.
I worked primarily with large MVT mainframes (S/360-65 and S/360-75) until 1974 or '75 when the 370/168 grabbed a big share of the market, followed by the 3030, and later the 3090, folowed by the ES/9000.
The air went out of the sails of the water-cooled S/390 series in February 1990 when IBM introduced the RS/6000 AIX systems line. A system I could carry to my car could beat a big water-cooled mainframe with 6 Vector Facilities on a numerically intense floating point job. Today in IBM, the follow on to the RS/6000 is the pSeries p690, which borrowed and extended the ESA LPAR concept.
To: Wally_Kalbacken
How about those 10-lb. keyboards you could spill a coke into and then drop on the floor?
94
posted on
04/05/2004 7:48:44 PM PDT
by
tubavil
To: txflake
AS/400 IS a mainframe In someone's tortured dreams. It was a slightly buffed out S/36. Those of us who worked on real computers (370, 390, ES/9000, etc.) used to get a big kick out of those little departmental computers. I used to really love how IBM said that they could be maintained by department secretaries. Turns out, it was true!
Even as AS/400's grew (as part of the ill-fated attempt to make SAA real), real mainframes grew much, much larger. Lets face it, todays PCs (even the one I am on) are bigger in storage and speed than the Mainframes of the 70's (and 80's).
The AS/400 was always a toy.
95
posted on
04/05/2004 7:51:35 PM PDT
by
freedumb2003
(If your cat has babies in the oven you don't call them biscuits!)
To: NCjim
I just informed our AS400 support staff that today is the 40th anniversary, and that it's time to party!
Now get back to work!
96
posted on
04/05/2004 7:53:32 PM PDT
by
Darheel
(Visit the strange and wonderful.)
To: NCjim
DOS/VSE/AF
97
posted on
04/05/2004 7:53:42 PM PDT
by
tubavil
Z/OS bump
98
posted on
04/05/2004 7:57:07 PM PDT
by
RobRoy
(Science is about "how." Christianity is about "why.")
To: txflake
"AS/400 IS a mainframe"
In my industry, the AS400 is known as 'Midrange' processor. For Mainframe we use a 2064 Escon/Ficon, a 9672 Z47 model, and a 9672 X37 model, all OSA and escon adapted, running VM/OS390 2.10 in 32 or 64 bit.
99
posted on
04/05/2004 7:57:19 PM PDT
by
Darheel
(Visit the strange and wonderful.)
To: sinkspur
Endicott.
Thank you.
"I loved working for IBM, but, as I look back, I didn't realize how little money I was making in exchange for "job security" and the prestige of working for Big Blue."
One of our guys IBM-GEM PACOPS went on to management - took early retirement - got called back by a subsidiary worked for them for a while and now has a retirement income of 80K -I'm not saying that everyone did this - just that those who were in key positions really got taken care of.
One of the guys at NKP still works for Big Blue - they offer him more and more every year - to keep him from retiring - time off - trips you name it - he is one of the few programmers left on the planet that can still make the ancient monsters work! (we are getting together with a few old IBMers and LRL (Lawrence Rad Lab) types for Easter in Livermore - he and his wife will be there)
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