IBM System 360 1964 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Delta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2016, 11:13:48 pm
content: Great video!

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 18, 2016, 11:29:21 pm
content: OMG OMG OMG OMG Everything I love in one video!The clarity and pace of the presentation and optimism in these old films is fantastic. I know it's "just" a marketing film but wow, I wanna live in 1964.

author: raptor1956
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 19, 2016, 03:32:35 am
content: When I joined IBM in 1982 we were still using equipment running on SLT logic. The first uP tool I worked on, an SVG brush cleaner, used a Z-80 cpu. That uP controlled tool was running along side tools running on SLT.Brian

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 04:21:48 am
content: Narrator: HAL 9000?

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 10:56:44 am
content: Excellent video. The IBM 360 program almost sent IBM bankrupt.In those days there were no IT departments, when the term IT did not exist. They were called EDP departments. I was privileged to have worked on some on the equipment shown in the video, and work with EDP people who seemed to be far more professional in their mannerisms and style than you get these days.The start of my career at IBM was at the end of that technology. I was trained by on SLT (solid logic technology) and my first job included debugging faults in IBM 129 card punches that used SLT, often using a logic probe or meter. In the video is some unit record equipment and DASD which I also worked on. The unit record equipment was debugged to BELOW component level and was quite challenging, with nothing more than a circuit diagram, a dynamic timer, a meter and books.Very few people left alive would know what a dynamic timer is, in the context of IBM unit record equipment. There is no reference to one on the Internet. But it was one of the most powerful and handy tools around. It was effectively an oscilloscope with a mechanical sweep! It had a high voltage vibrator to light up a neon lamp which lit in synchronisation with the machine cycle and was often used to check bouncing, noisy or badly timed relay contacts. The dynamic timer is lost to history.The first hard disk I worked on was a whopping 5.1 MB in size and it took two men to lift it. It cost in today's money, about $200,000. I remember doing 128K to 256K RAM upgrades on a System/34 that would take an entire day to do and it cost a fortune.Those were the days. High salaries, great perks, rewards and recognition. Then along came Louis Gerstner and he was the beginning of the end.

author: Don Hills
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 20, 2016, 11:47:23 pm
content: Memories... thanks for the video.I started at IBM on somewhat older technology. 024 card punches, which used valves (tubes) to drive the relays and clutches. 082 card sorters. Even an 011 card punch (an 001 with a solenoid to drive the punches, rather than being hand powered). A 421 accounting machine. I later progressed to 4-digit machines, such as 1311 disc drives that rotated so slowly you could almost read the lettering on the pack hubs...@VK3DRB, I don't recall "high salaries, great perks". I did get "rewards and recognition" - a Service Award and a trip to Singapore. I got that for maintaining 360 systems, including 1419 cheque sorters (SMS technology, all discrete transistors and resistors etc.).I fondly remember the scopes... Tek 454, and 465 with the digital meter on top. I often used one on my own projects. One was a JLH tape preamp, which appeared to have a persistent low-level RF oscillation / instability. Which, oddly, was still there when I removed the preamp power... (breakthrough from the local AM radio station.)

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 08:59:06 am
content: Quote from: Don Hills on October 20, 2016, 11:47:23 pmWow, I also started on the odd 024, 026, 029, 059 and the 082, 083, 514, 519 and the terrifying 557 Alphabetic Interpreter, as well as a host of other machines. The oldest machine I worked on was an ICT (pre IBM) card sorter made in 1924, which was like an early 082 with Queen Anne legs and cork rollers instead of rubber. I also worked on an 011 hand punch. The weirdest machine was a 954 posting machine, one of few in the world.All in all, it was indeed a privilege to have been trained on this old iron. Myself and another were the last people in Australia to be trained on unit record. I worked on machines with valves, relays, contactors and now I develop state of the art medical electronics and firmware. It really has been extremely broad. I have a fondness for old iron and would love to own a machine, restoring it to its former glory. The only "old iron" I own now is a Gottleib Pioneer pinball machine from 1976, but it isn't the same. I am willing to pay $$$ for any of the machines mentioned.Those old CRO's were bigger than Texas. They were remarkably reliable. Beautifully engineered too.The salary was pretty damned good for a young bloke straight out of uni and I thought it was manna from heaven considering I came from a relatively poor family. These days, I hear from insiders its pretty lousy now and the perks are all gone. Morale is rock bottom. Where were you working? I worked in Melbourne and Wangaratta mainly.

author: Don Hills
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2016, 11:28:00 am
content: "Escape, escape interlock, punch..."I was also in the last batch here (New Zealand) to be employed for my mechanical skills. (I came from several years as a telegraph technician, maintaining 30s-era teleprinters.) I went from $7500 pa to $6000 pa at IBM... I certainly didn't do it for the money.I used to while away spare time perusing the maintenance manuals of the old scopes... the tricks they did to get the bandwidth... nuvistor tubes... I have an old Yamaha receiver awaiting restoration that uses 6CW4s in the FM tuner.I've come a bit further from my beginnnings, I moved into software support in the 80s. These days I test systems for telco infrastructure - the big routers and photonic switches that move the data round.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 08:44:04 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on October 20, 2016, 10:56:44 amBy the sounds of it nobody knows what it is because the rest of the world outside IBM called that a stroboscope.IBM really was its strange own world with its strange own language and own culture. I don't know if it's still like that as the last IBMer I had for reference left Hursley in the '90s.IBMRest of worldDASDDisk drive/Magnetic drumUnit record deviceCard reader/punchTo which we can now add:Dynamic timerStroboscope

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 22, 2016, 11:06:24 pm
content: Nice video. Thanks for posting.I remember learning assembly language and FORTRAN and several others on an IBM 1130 (still have a few boxes of cards). Then moving on a CDC, IBM 360 and IBM 370, the introduction of virtual memory and such.Proud to say I managed to crash them all....I was mostly doing nonlinear problems in optics and surface ultrasonic surface waves.Writing this on my Intel 5960x, Asus X99 motherboard that blows the whole thing away......

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 02:01:11 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on October 22, 2016, 08:44:04 pmAdd a few more...IBMRest of worldHardfileHard diskIPOPower on/off switchPointing deviceMousePlanar boardMotherboardDisketteFloppy diskIBM's logic diagrams were also different to that of the rest of the world. Mostly computer generated printouts in voluminous manuals, everything had a standardised block. AND, OR, XOR etc were all blocks with letters in them - none of the standard symbols. It made it just that bit harder to read.The dynamic timer had a machine type, although I not know what it was. I did find a reference to the dynamic timer in this very detailed and comprehensive service manual for the RAMAC 305, although it does not show a photo of the dynamic timer or show how it works. They don't make manuals like this anymore.http://ed-thelen.org/RAMAC/IBM-305-227-3533-1-mostlyRAMAC-CE-RefMan.pdf.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_305_RAMAC

author: android
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 23, 2016, 07:03:08 am
content: And a few more...IBMRest of worldMain storageMemory or RAMIPLBootAMDFanAPARBugPTFFix