|
|
|
|
|
|
Early 1960's |
|
first mass-produced digital, all-transistorized,
affordable business computer |
|
Hardware
features |
|
5 feet high and 3 feet across |
|
4,096 characters of core memory |
|
Expandable (as shown) to 16k |
|
Multiply Divide |
|
|
|
|
Ferrite is iron. This form of computer memory
was widely used through the late 1950's to the early 1970's. This memory
block can store up to 32 bits, or four characters. The "On" or
"Off" switches are created by having an iron magnet in the shape
of a donut intersected by horizontal and vertical wires. The "1"
and "0" switch setting was created by alternating the direction
of the positive and negative currents. |
|
|
|
|
|
Programmed in |
|
Machine Language |
|
Autocoder |
|
SPS |
|
Storage |
|
80 column punch cards |
|
Tape (optional) |
|
Disk (optional) |
|
|
|
|
The device you see here provided the system with
simultaneous punched-card input and output. The read section had a rated
reading speed of 800 cards per minute, although actual reading speed was
governed by the stored program. The read feed was equipped with a device
for large capacity loading, called a file feed. With the file feed device,
the read feed could be loaded with as many as 3,000 cards, which was a
drawer and a half in a standard steel case card file. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The 1403 Printer was another output medium for
the 1401 computer. The unit had a rated printing speed of 600 lines per
minute. The standard print width was 100, but most folks sprung for the 132
character carriage. Horizontal spacing was 10 characters to the inch. This
beast was fast as well as noisy! It could gobble half a box of 14 inch
forms before you realized there was a serious flaw in your code. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 million BCD digits on a ten and a half inch
reel of 1/2 inch tape! The BCD code was recorded on 7 parallel tracks
across the tape. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The unit before you is capable of storing 10 Million
BCD characters and it's just a Model One! Those disks are two feet in
diameter, and rotate at 1200 rpm. At today's cost per megabyte, this jewel
would have cost around $2.00. The basic 1405 unit had a single access arm,
which traveled vertically to seek one of the 25 disks. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grace Murray Hopper, working in a temporary
World War I building at Harvard University on the Mark II computer, found
the first computer bug beaten to death in the jaws of a relay. She glued it
into the logbook of the computer and thereafter when the machine stops
(frequently) they tell Howard Aiken that they are "debugging" the
computer. The very first bug still exists in the National Museum of
American History of the Smithsonian Institution |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1965: IBM ships the first System 360, its first
integrated circuit-based, or third generation, computer |
|
Report Program Generator is first introduced |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A typical large installation |
|
This is what a big 360 computer room looked
like. In the front is the CPU and operator console, with selectric
typewriter. Just over the operator's head is a bank of 2311 disk drives.
This bank of 6 disk drives would have held almost 50 million bytes of
information on-line at once. This was mind-blowing back 30 years ago!
Behind the CPU you can see the tape drives. Far in the background are other
computers, storage, and control units. |
|
|
|
|
A new concept in programming |
|
Self Study courseware |
|
A move away from assembler programming |
|
|
|
|
|
July 1969 |
|
Small Business Data Processing |
|
Batch Orientation |
|
Hardware Features |
|
98mb Disk |
|
64kb Main Storage (magnetic core) |
|
2 Communications Lines |
|
Highlights |
|
96 column card |
|
RPGII language |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
January 1975 |
|
Integrated single user system |
|
batch oriented |
|
Hardware Features |
|
13.7mb disk |
|
32kb main storage (magnetic core) |
|
Highlights |
|
Extensive application support packages (wizards) |
|
Diskette I-O |
|
Cardless system |
|
|
|
|
A new storage media |
|
Stores 180,000 bytes of data! |
|
|
|
|
|
Highlights |
|
Turnkey Applications |
|
Interactive programming |
|
remote workstations |
|
diskette magazine |
|
April 1977 |
|
Workstation
oriented |
|
Multiple
interactive users |
|
Hardware features |
|
16 workstations |
|
257mb disk, 256k main memory |
|
4 communications lines |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
October 1978 |
|
Designed to replace the System/3 |
|
255 workstations |
|
Hardware Features |
|
13.2gb disk |
|
32mb main memory |
|
12 communications lines |
|
Highlights |
|
Integrated RDBMS |
|
RPGIII |
|
|
|
|
|
May 1983 |
|
End-user oriented |
|
Hardware Features |
|
64 workstations |
|
1.4gb main storage |
|
Highlights |
|
Ease of use |
|
Integrated office data processing system |
|
PC workstation support |
|
|
|
|
|
June 1988 |
|
A merging of S/38 and S/36 |
|
Hardware features |
|
Scalability |
|
192mb memory |
|
54.8gb DASD |
|
Highlights |
|
S/36 environment |
|
RPG/400 |
|
Advanced (S/38) architecture |
|
|
|
|
|
May 1994 |
|
New black box design |
|
Hardware features |
|
15,362mb memory |
|
259gb DASD |
|
96 communications lines |
|
Highlights |
|
V3 of the OS |
|
DB2/400 |
|
ILE |
|
RPGIV |
|
|
|
|
|
August 1997 |
|
Dramatic performance breakthrough |
|
Hardware features |
|
3rd generation 64bit RISC |
|
20gb memory |
|
1tb DASD |
|
250 communications lines |
|
Highlights |
|
V4 of the OS |
|
Server and system models |
|
|
|
|
|
RPGII Compiler for the MS-DOS based PC |
|
Emulates the System/36 |
|
Batch oriented |
|
Interactive |
|
Can be ported to the System/36 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RPG400 Development System for the Windows Based
PC |
|
RPG400 |
|
ILE |
|
Can access and update DB2/400 files on the
AS/400 directly |
|
Can run standalone on the PC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by R W Evans |
|
http://www.ric.edu/devans |
|
http://www.rwevans.com |
|
Notes