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

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 25, 2017, 07:57:12 pm
content: NICE! All computers should have blinkenlights like that.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 11:54:42 am
content: I worked on this similar front panels - the IBM System/34 and System/38 many years ago, which had similar front panels. They were great days.IBM used its own terminology for many things. RAM was called main storage for example. Floppy disks were called diskettes. Most younger engineers and IT people today have no zero knowledge or appreciation of these legacy systems.PC's today are not personal, especially if they run Linux (multi-user). And what is a clone?Mobile phones or cell phones are not phones, but are more accurately "personal communications processors". Ask a young person if they have a telephone on them and they would likely not know what you are talking about.An SSD is not a solid state disk, because there is no disc inside. Solid state drive? What the heck is a drive? IBM called hard disks "hard drives". Before that they called them DASD - direct access storage devices.IBM used to call the mouse a "pointing device" because "mouse" was considered too colloquial for the blue suits.Yes the world has changed. Including terminology - for the better or worse in some cases.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 01:52:12 pm
content: And let's not forget punched cards!!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 01:58:50 pm
content: And let's forget RPG!

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 02:04:31 pm
content: Does IBM even make hardware anymore? They seem to be in the "computing services" industry now. How the mighty have fallen. The suits in Armonk seem to have been completely punkd by the PC (developed by a semi-official rogue offshoot of IBM way down in Florida). At least that is the way many historic accounts of the history go.Yes, those 360-era front panels (and earlier user interfaces like my beloved IBM 1620) were a thing of beauty and very IBM, even behind the panel. Those toggle switches, for example were to be found nowhere else in the universe but on IBM control panels.

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 02:22:39 pm
content: I finally got around to reading "The Mythical Man-Month", by Fred Brooks, who was the project leader for OS/360 as part of the System/360 project. That led to "The Design of Design", along with "Computer Architecture" by Blaauw and Brooks. All very interesting for different reasons.Brooks does approach the general question of how a technology, and the corporations who rely on it, gets supplanted by the next technology. IBM certainly played both roles. At least there is some amount of respect due for them remaining in the technology business with their identity, whereas so many other players were absorbed into other corporations or liquidated.The industry they excelled at was very exclusive; now computing power is available wholesale with a dozen computing devices with more power than any System/360 occupying mundane aspects of any typical household.

author: LazyJack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 02:32:24 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on June 26, 2017, 02:04:31 pmYes it does. IBM has completely gotten rid of the x86 based systems, all were sold to Lenovo (PCs and servers). But it still makes the System p (also known as Power or RS6000 previously), the System i (AS400) and System z (mainframe). It also make storage (disk, flash and tape). These are all stuff (especially System z) that are needed at few (compared to like x86 servers) places, but where you need it, you really need it.IBM also sold the microelectronics manufacturing to Global Foundries, but it did kept the microelectronics research, so chips for the above are manufactured by GF. This actually made sense, given the immense expenses of a chip manufacturing line.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 03:29:12 pm
content: A place I know in Hungary has an IBM Z series and the company held a competition to 'name' the machine. The winner (by a considerable margin) was Denzel as, in the words of one member of staff, "the machine was big, black and sexy". To their credit the company management actually carried through with the idea and the name Denzel actually appears on the network.

author: eugenenine
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 03:58:11 pm
content: Quote from: LazyJack on June 26, 2017, 02:32:24 pmIIRC they sold storage to Hitachi a while ago too.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 07:27:51 pm
content: And here's what to do when you happen to come across a System/360 front panel, but are lacking the machine behind it:http://ibm360-console.blogspot.de/(Best read from bottom to top. No affiliation, but I love that project!)https://youtu.be/fv6WK5QiG1Q

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2017, 08:43:44 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on June 26, 2017, 02:04:31 pmThey have an enormous amount of employees and make huge piles of money with their services, way more than selling hardware could bring in. The world is changing, almost no one wants or needs a mainframe these days, but most companies want gazillions of cloudservers with apps and services. Making money for Amazon, Google, Oracle, IBM and all the rest

author: LazyJack
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 08:51:25 am
content: Quote from: eugenenine on June 26, 2017, 03:58:11 pmNope. They sold hard disk manufacturing to Hitachi. But IBM still makes storage boxes, although they do not manufacture the drives or the flash. The DS8000 is the largest, up to several petabytes per unit.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 01:51:01 pm
content: Quote from: LazyJack on June 27, 2017, 08:51:25 amIBM sold the HDD business because it lost all credibility with their IBM Desk Star (aka the "Death Star") hard disks. Close to 100% failure rate of one 20GB model within a couple of years. No sensible PC retailer would stock any hard disk branded IBM. IBM had little choice but to flee the hard disk business and sold it off to Hitachi who should have known better.This article below says IBM paid $100 to every victim of its Deskstar 75GXP drives. What! The fact is IBM ONLY paid compensation to US residents who had the failed hard disks. People in other geographies were ignored - no compensation, no apology for selling such crap, no nothing.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskstar

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 03:20:56 pm
content: Quote from: ebastler on June 26, 2017, 07:27:51 pmDefinitively these are labors of love. Lots of love.As the blogger himself asks several times: "why did I choose this hobby?"Thanks to them, ancient computer history will not be lost.

author: vodka
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 05:27:17 pm
content: Quote from: Kjelt on June 26, 2017, 08:43:44 pmNo one wants mainframe, Are you sure? I can ensure you that mains corporations as banks, logistics, tradings,insurances and governments are using mainframes and they will follow using for many year more.Here , we have an example of a great electronic distribuitor corporation(known by all user forum) that uses a mainframe.https://www.eevblog.com/2014/02/24/element-14-holding-orders-based-on-us-government-watch-list/

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 05:35:21 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on June 27, 2017, 01:51:01 pmIBMpaidGlobal Foundries $1.5B to take their wafer fab and promised 10 years of business for their 22nm, 14nm, and 10nm semiconductors.Ref:https://www.extremetech.com/computing/192430-ibm-dumps-chip-unit-pays-globalfoundries-1-5-billion-to-take-the-business-off-its-handsQuote

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 05:45:21 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on June 27, 2017, 03:20:56 pmOh, for the Good Old Days back when processors were so slow that you could actually discern patterns in front panel lights.

author: fourtytwo42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2017, 05:59:15 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on June 27, 2017, 05:45:21 pmNoo that was because all us engineers spent ages writing code to get pretty flash sequences to accompany our line printer percussion and power supply wind section, some early hard drives were amenable to musical programming too (made enough noise if provoked).

author: med6753
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 02:02:49 am
content: I can absolutely confirm that IBM is still very much in the mainframe hardware business. My job responsibility is final systems test (also know as "Fulfillment Test") of the latest generation Z13 family of mainframes. All that mainframe assembly and test is at the IBM site in Poughkeepsie, NY USA....better known as the mainframe capital of the world. That IBM site has been involved in mainframes right from the original 701....thru S/360, S/370, 308X, 309X, ES9000....right to current Z series. Singapore also does some Z series for the Asian market. P series used to be in Poughkeepsie but was moved to Mexico and Singapore.To see the main test floor for the first time is an amazing sight. Millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment that I get to play with every day.

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2017, 03:05:33 am
content: Lucky you!The only IBM factory I was able to visit was in the RTP area in North Carolina.Wonder if that facility is still open.