40 years of IBM midrange!

[Mike Ross]

Forwarded from another list:

On 30 July 1969 IBM announced the IBM System/3 in the United States.

It is today fourty year ago that IBM offered the first medium-sized
computer for the small business companies.
The System/3 was not compatible with the System/360, as it featured
a complete new architecture. It also featured a complete new
punch card format, which was a small revolution within IBM.

See for the development story behind the System/3:
http://www.ibmsystem3.nl/hist.html

IBM promoted this new system with a 14 minute promotion movie.
This movie can be seen on youtube.
Be patient, it takes until 3:22 until you find out what
it's about:

"Are you getting the most out of your workforce and tools?"

And until 8:18 before you see the new S/3.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRS3eXQ9gGY
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Jrn9yNZAM

During its live span approx 50,000 System/3 where build.
Today only a few have escaped the scrapyard.
The number of still running S/3 can be counted on one hand.
See: http://www.ibmsystem3.nl/remaining.html

After the succesful S/3 IBM announced the S/32, S/34, S/36, S/38 and AS/400.
The S/38 was architecturally completely new compared to the S/3/32/34/36

All System/3 models had been withdrawn from marketing by June 1985.

And just to celebrate the day in style, a cold start of my System/3 Model 10, in
the evening so you can enjoy the blinkenlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y-7hYXZ324

Enjoy!

(and email me if you know of any S/3-era equipment squirreled away in a dark
basement, or anywhere else for that matter!)

Mike
--
http://www.corestore.org
'As I walk along these shores
I am the history within'

[Robert Comer]

My first real full time job was as a computer operator and the
computer we had was a S/3 Model 15B. (8" floppies instead of punched
cards, though we did have a card reader too.)

--
Bob Comer

On Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:46:25 -0400, Mike Ross <mi...@corestore.org>
wrote:

[goo...@miamicomputer.com]

While yes it offered the 96 column cards, many I know of and the one
we had, had regular 80 column cards with a 1442 reader punch.

I remember several different models

S/3 Model 10
S/3 Model 8 which I think was with floppies
S/3 Model 6 (was it diskless?)
S/3 Model 12
S/3 Model 15 which had the winchesters on it. And various models of
the 15.

You could on a s/3 model 10 hook up a 3741 8" floppy key device with
what was called an LCA (local communication adapter). We had one that
way.

You also could have F1, R1, F2 and R2 (fixed or removable packs). We
had just an F1 and R1. And you could also not have the console which
was an ibm selectric. We started with one and had it removed.

On Jul 31, 3:03 pm, Robert Comer <bobcomer-remove...@mindspring.com>
wrote:

> My first real full time job was as a computer operator and the
> computer we had was a S/3 Model 15B.  (8" floppies instead of punched
> cards, though we did have a card reader too.)
>
> --
> Bob Comer
>

>   On Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:46:25 -0400, Mike Ross <m...@corestore.org>

> >Mike- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Robert Comer]

R1 and R2, 3741, and a 3277 terminal is what my machine had. (and a
1403 N1 printer)

--
Bob Comer

On Sat, 1 Aug 2009 09:28:59 -0700 (PDT), goo...@miamicomputer.com
wrote: