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All System/3 models had been withdrawn from marketing by June 1985.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