Talk:IBM Future Systems project

message: I've just edited this page.
I joined IBM as a regular employee in the summer of 1974, just as the crisis over FS was coming to a head.
I'm not sure that the motivation given in the article is correct. Rather than wanting to make software easier to develop, I think that IBM's real motivation was more driven by wanting to develop a new architecture which other companies would be unable to copy.  At that time, several large companies, e.g. RCA had computers which were reverse-engineered versions of the S/370.
Security on the project was intense.  As pointed out in the John F. Sowa memo, which I've added as an external link, the specification was divided up into over a dozen highly classified documents, each with a separate "need-to-know."  This was intended to keep a competitor from stealing the design, but what it really did was keep anyone, inside IBM or not, from understanding it.
I'm also not sure about the relationship between FS and relational database technology.  Although Ted Codd was starting to work on relational databases around the same time at IBM, as I recall the database target for FS was concentrated on heirarchical databases, as IMS/DB, and plain ISAM were the predominant DB technologies back then.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by RickDeNatale (talk • contribs) 11:41, 16 October 2006‎ (UTC)
I can confirm the RDB link. I was recruited by IBM Peterlee Scientific Centre early in 1973 to work on the FS project, supplying a prototype relational DBMS (IS/1) to IBM ASDD (Advanced Systems Development Division) which was set up (or reconstituted?) to pioneer a range of application software to accompany the FS launch. ASDD Mohansic prototyped these product offerings mainly in the language APL. Many research projects endured the asphyxiating security and re-badged themselves "FS" to take advantage of liberal funding and protection from Sales & Marketing stamping on them as counter-strategic. The end-result however was to drop out of history when FS was cancelled. Thus visitors to Mohansic were shown one of the star exhibits: "Intelligent Grid", a spreadsheet ante-dating Visicalc by some 7 years. The end-user operated it via a transparent touch-panel taped over the screen. I challenge someone to furnish a published reference to that!
I can furnish references to IBM Peterlee RDB-related external publications 1972-75, though. IS/1 was actually sold to a couple of UK customers under the guise of a specialised data analysis package (OLAP it would be called nowadays) named BIS (Business Information System) if memory serves. There should be some mention of that in the open literature. The fact that BIS used a pukka RDB under-the-covers (Edgar F. Codd knew about it and approved) had to be kept secret for internal political reasons. Sales Division had it in for Ted Codd because he was undermining customer confidence in the flagship data base management system IMS by going around promoting the relational view of data.
ASDD Mohansic appears to be mentioned nowhere else in Wikipedia. I think it should be recorded alongside Poughkeepsie, Endicott & Rochester as a major plank of FS. 
Quacksalber 04:46, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Updates 

message: I had alerted John Sowa, who was one of the key figures in IBM ASDD architecture in the mid-1970s about this article.  He contributed some valuable background information to the article, for some reason his contribution was mistaken for vandalism.
I've reverted to his last edit, and cleaned it up.
I can vouch for John's contributions because I was there at the time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RickDeNatale (talk • contribs) 14:05, 18 October 2006‎ (UTC)
I have started new edits. At that time, I was leading the IBM World Trade representation in the FS project, and I still have a few memories. I am the author of the article referenced in the external links. --Dambernac (talk) 13:08, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  New updates 

message: Too bad  this  isn't a  real book.  I got bit by this too, once.  It would be nice to see a good history. Peter Flass (talk) 20:03, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Horst reference