IBM's 'dinosaur' turns 40

San Francisco Chronicle | April 5, 2004 | Benjamin Pimentel

[NCjim]

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.

[IronJack]

Still developing on CICS boxes.

You're not alone.

[Bobibutu]

"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 :-)

[txhurl]

No, I finally remembered. TriChloroTriFluoroEthane.

[sinkspur]

Serial number? LOL!!

636061 here.

[mlmr]

A local insurance company never put in a heating plant, they used their mainframes to heat the building.

[forsnax5]

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?

[Bobibutu]

"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)

[Bobibutu]

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.

[sinkspur]

New York (town famous for it's shoe factory - I forget the name just now

Endicott. 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.

[txhurl]

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.

[tubavil]

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. :-(

[The Duke]

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!!! :)

[StopGlobalWhining]

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.

[tubavil]

How about those 10-lb. keyboards you could spill a coke into and then drop on the floor?

[freedumb2003]

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.

[Darheel]

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!

[tubavil]

DOS/VSE/AF

[RobRoy]

Z/OS bump

[Darheel]

"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.

[Bobibutu]

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)