 right|thumb|ibm system/34 (model 5340) the ibm system/34 was an ibm midrange computer introduced in 1977. it was withdrawn from marketing in february, 1984. it was a multi-user, multi-tasking successor to the single-user system/32. most notably, it included two very different processors, one based on system/32 and the second based on older system/3. like the system/32 and the system/3, the system/34 was primarily programmed in the rpg ii language. one of the machine's interesting features was an off-line storage mechanism that utilized "magazines" - boxes of 8-inch floppies that the machine could load and eject in a nonsequential fashion. borrowing mainframe features such as programmable job queues and priority levels, the system/34 ran on 64k of memory. ==physical appearance and requirements== the system/34 5340 system unit resembled a huge washer-dryer in appearance, and was noisy, due to its internal cooling fans. it had several access doors on both sides. inside, were swing-out assemblies where the circuit boards and memory cards were mounted. it weighed 700 pounds and used standard household 220v power. the system cost us$100,000-plus. ==ibm abbreviations== ipl - initial program load starting or restarting the system. this acronym was pronounced eye-pee-ell and was used as a verb ("ipl the system") with past tense ("then we ipled") and present tense ("while we were ipling") and so forth - as well as a noun ("after the next ipl.") aparâauthorized program analysis report an apar announced the entry of each new system/34 bug into the ibm process. if it was a genuine problem, the details would be sent for resolution to rochester (for system problems) or menlo park / rayners lane (for application problems in mmas, cmas or dmas). eventually the apar would be fixed by a corresponding ptf (see below). ptf - program temporary fix ibm would distribute bug fixes on diskettes called ptf diskettes. by applying ptfs, the user could address software problems. when the next release was issued (s/34's last release was release 9 in 1981) the old ptfs were incorporated into the release update diskettes the user received, and the old diskettes became useless. since ptfs were only temporary in the sense that they were superseded by later releases of ssp, using the name "ptf" was considered odd. ==f1, i1, s1-s3, and m1.01 - m2.10== these are proper names given to system equipment. f1 is the fixed disk (the hard drive.) i1 is the diskette drive. s1, s2, and s3 are the three single diskette slots (if a magazine drive is connected.) m1.01-m1.10 are diskette slots 1 through 10 on m
IBM_minicomputers