My first experience with computers goes all the way back to 1965 when I was promoted up to the data processing center at Security Mutual Insurance Company, here in Binghamton, NY. I was a vital records clerk, dealing with microfilm and general hard-copy files when an opening came up in the data center, up on the ninth floor.
That position was as a "data maintenance clerk", which meant that I keypunched name and address changes of policy holders. BORING job! But for one week, every month, I ran the "billing cycle"... which meant dragging out a dozen or more card trays (those 80-col IBM punch cards) and fed them into an assortment of machines from collators to sorters and then into the card reader of a IBM 1401 System.
I remember in my interview and first introduction to that big, glassed-in data room, that our 1401 System was the largest in the area, except what IBM itself might have up in neighboring Endicott. (Actually our system was bigger in processing power and compactness than IBM had in Endicott... despite what they were manufacturing, Endicott itself was still running a massive vacuum-tube unit that occupied a room three times bigger than our significantly smaller, transistorized 1401 processor.
The director pointed out our 1401, which stood about 5 feet high, and all of 4 or so feet wide, and about 3 to 4 feet deep. On it's left upper front was a panel with several rotating and toggle switches and a series of neon bulb lights. Behind it on the floor was a freezer-sized unit, which the director pointed out as holding and additional four-kilobytes of core memory. Together with the 1401, we had a whopping 12 kilobytes of core-memory processing power!
BTW, the input of the punch cards went into a 1402 data card reader... again a rather huge device, with two card chutes...one IN on the left side of the machine and another shute (OUT) on the right side. After setting all the switches and toggles you loaded your cards into the machine on the left and a few seconds later they would begin to exit and stack up in the right-side chute. As the operator you had to be coordinated enough to load in and at the same time load out and put the cards back into the drawer trays at the same time, constantly feeding the machine and also emptying the output back into the storage trays.
The printer was a 1403N1 chain printer, which printed one full line of copy at a time. Because of the noise, it had a hydraulically operated hood. The results was (in my project case) a large stack of accordianed paper labels which then had to be "burst" before we could send it down to the mail room... where the labels would be adhered to envelopes for mailing. (The "burster" was another machine which removed the outer edge cog holes and separate the pages.)
By 1979, a little Apple or my Atari 800, had significantly more processing power than a 1401, and NO "data processing" machines of any kind was needed. The 1401 system costs were in the hundreds of thosands of dollars, not to mention the cost of all the other equipment like keypunch machines, sorters, collators, etc.
In 1980, a typical Apple II cost about $1600, my Atari was $800. An Apple II required cards for a parallel port, a series port, etc.... about $150 each. My Atari required an 850 Inteface module... about $200. The floppy drive (about 80 kilobyte, 5-1/4") was close to $400, as was the 300-baud modem.
The IBM PC was not introduced until 1981 (in the fall, IIRC), but we didn't see them here until the following spring. Again, IIRC the purchase price of close to $3000. The 5-1/4 inch floppy was 320 kilobytes in its first version. The PC-XT (harddrive) did not arrive until around 1983 or 84.
CWS
That position was as a "data maintenance clerk", which meant that I keypunched name and address changes of policy holders. BORING job! But for one week, every month, I ran the "billing cycle"... which meant dragging out a dozen or more card trays (those 80-col IBM punch cards) and fed them into an assortment of machines from collators to sorters and then into the card reader of a IBM 1401 System.
I remember in my interview and first introduction to that big, glassed-in data room, that our 1401 System was the largest in the area, except what IBM itself might have up in neighboring Endicott. (Actually our system was bigger in processing power and compactness than IBM had in Endicott... despite what they were manufacturing, Endicott itself was still running a massive vacuum-tube unit that occupied a room three times bigger than our significantly smaller, transistorized 1401 processor.
The director pointed out our 1401, which stood about 5 feet high, and all of 4 or so feet wide, and about 3 to 4 feet deep. On it's left upper front was a panel with several rotating and toggle switches and a series of neon bulb lights. Behind it on the floor was a freezer-sized unit, which the director pointed out as holding and additional four-kilobytes of core memory. Together with the 1401, we had a whopping 12 kilobytes of core-memory processing power!
BTW, the input of the punch cards went into a 1402 data card reader... again a rather huge device, with two card chutes...one IN on the left side of the machine and another shute (OUT) on the right side. After setting all the switches and toggles you loaded your cards into the machine on the left and a few seconds later they would begin to exit and stack up in the right-side chute. As the operator you had to be coordinated enough to load in and at the same time load out and put the cards back into the drawer trays at the same time, constantly feeding the machine and also emptying the output back into the storage trays.
The printer was a 1403N1 chain printer, which printed one full line of copy at a time. Because of the noise, it had a hydraulically operated hood. The results was (in my project case) a large stack of accordianed paper labels which then had to be "burst" before we could send it down to the mail room... where the labels would be adhered to envelopes for mailing. (The "burster" was another machine which removed the outer edge cog holes and separate the pages.)
By 1979, a little Apple or my Atari 800, had significantly more processing power than a 1401, and NO "data processing" machines of any kind was needed. The 1401 system costs were in the hundreds of thosands of dollars, not to mention the cost of all the other equipment like keypunch machines, sorters, collators, etc.
In 1980, a typical Apple II cost about $1600, my Atari was $800. An Apple II required cards for a parallel port, a series port, etc.... about $150 each. My Atari required an 850 Inteface module... about $200. The floppy drive (about 80 kilobyte, 5-1/4") was close to $400, as was the 300-baud modem.
The IBM PC was not introduced until 1981 (in the fall, IIRC), but we didn't see them here until the following spring. Again, IIRC the purchase price of close to $3000. The 5-1/4 inch floppy was 320 kilobytes in its first version. The PC-XT (harddrive) did not arrive until around 1983 or 84.
CWS
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