Nostalgia for some of us - IBM 1401

[LCHIEN]

Computing in the 1960's

http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/c...-1401-computer

this roomful of stuff has 1/1,000,000 the power of todays laptop computers and pulls 20 KW to run.

I saw these mostly thru glass windows... didn't get to touch one very often. Those printers were impressively fast, I know you could bury a room in paper if you had a runaway program doing form-feeds.

[RAFlorida]

If my memory

is correct, the IRS in Kansas City used that model for several years. Remember see what appeared to be the same model in their control room. Always liked watching the tapes running and listening to the whirring! In it's day, it was THE machine. Thanks for the find and posting the link.

[cgallery]

Neat link.

I have various Cray parts if you're interested in building your own vintage supercomputer.

[avbclark]

Great Find

Thanks for posting the link.
As someone who started programming with punch cards and now could not really program to save myself, I really enjoyed it. I remember waiting with anticipation as the operator took my card deck and I waited to see if the program would run. How cool it was when I first saw interactive basic on a terminal, and even better when I scrounged up a terminal and 300 baud mode for home use. I had an email account on this weird network that the University of Utah and other sites were on in 1976, and then after I left college on CompuServe. No way I can remember the strange email addresses we had back then.
Those were fun days, but I sure am glad we got to this point. I wonder what’s next?

[southernbob]

I wonder if they have a 1419 (think that is the model number) check sorter. That was real impressive when it was running at full speed and was adusted correctly. When not adjusted correctly it was equally impressive with checks flying all over. It was a big machine. Did some work on that as well as the 1401 after machines were brought back from storage and updated for a vendor that wanted them well after their heyday.
Bob

[knotley]

www.bitsavers.org

[RodKirby]

Oh, the good old days

(It was a neat little machine for punching the form control tape )

BTW - I'm still programming - and still loving it!

[dbhost]

Wow, now that is old for IT hardware...

The first computer system I worked on professionally was an SGI Challenge. That was back in the 90's... And it was old then...

[LCHIEN]

Oh, the good old days

(It was a neat little machine for punching the form control tape )

BTW - I'm still programming - and still loving it!

I was thinking partly of you Rod, when i posted this!

[JR]

Magnetic core memory. Yikes.

Speaking of memory, where did they dig up the geezers who still remembered how to work on that thing?!

JR

[crokett]

There are a lot of those geezers still around. My dad isn't that old and I sent him that link. He remembers that machine although he didn't do a great deal of work on it.

[MilDoc]

The first one I got to work with was an IBM 360/67 in '72, programming in FORTRAN, on punch cards. HATED those cards since I am not a great typist. Stack of 100 cards, error on card 3, retype, resubmit, error on card 10, etc etc etc. Took me forever to get all 100 right, after about 20 failed runs. Had no way to run the cards through a checker before submission.

Had it's own CP/CMS processing system and the one at Penn State had 4 processors and great time-sharing. CP/CMS introduced many virtual machine and virtual memory concepts.

And now my desktop runs rings around it. Wish I could live to see the machines of year 3000.

[Rich P]

Does anyone here know why it was called "core" memory? Hint, IBM had LOLs string wire through iron rings. Also, who knows where the term "bug" came from and why? Another hint, it was a Navy lady! While we are going down memory lane, what ever happened to COBOL?

Actually in the mid 60's Burroughs made a much better check sorter than IBM. I worked my way through college nights in proof and transit so I speak from first hand experience. My favorite was the 1403 N1 printer.

The problem with the 1401 is IBM tried to palm it off on India after they came up with the 360s...result was 20 years of hostility...now I imagine a lot of IBM staff comes from India. Go figure!

Now, after so many year of dissing the "mainframe" we appear to be headed to the "cloud"? Beam me up, Scotty!

[RodKirby]

The first one I got to work with was an IBM 360/67 in '72, programming in FORTRAN, on punch cards. HATED those cards since I am not a great typist. Stack of 100 cards, error on card 3, retype, resubmit, error on card 10, etc etc etc. Took me forever to get all 100 right, after about 20 failed runs. Had no way to run the cards through a checker before submission...

And if you had a "real" friend - he would shuffle the cards before they were processed - always interesting results

[LCHIEN]

And if you had a "real" friend - he would shuffle the cards before they were processed - always interesting results

that's why i took a magic marker and made a big diagonal stripe across my deck... in an instant you could see if a card was misplaced.