Remembering the good old IBM days...

[RealBlackStuff]

Came across this mainframe article today, something that a few of us still (fondly ?) remember.
Retrotechtacular: The IBM System/360 Remembered.
In there you'll find a nice short movie with some interesting history.

My brother had started working for Honeywell and he invited me for a sightseeing of his working place.
This was back in 1964, my first ever acquaintance with a computer, in this case a Honeywell 400.


In 1968 I moved to Canada and landed a job with IBM in Vancouver, BC.
The machine used in their data-centre was a 1401.
As a systems analyst/programmer I have since worked on many IBMs and also on several Univac/Unisys mainframes.
Thus my switchover to ThinkPads did not come as a surprise.

[mikemex]

Terrific memories.

[ohthinker]

Ah, memories. I also met my first computer - a UNIVAC - in '64, or maybe '65. I couldn't tell you what model, but it used drum memory, and had a front panel with a version of the legendary Stanford "blinkenlights" sign taped to it. The waste heat from the computer heated the office in the winter.

[MikalE]

My first computer experience was much later than yours.

I was introduced to the HP1000F mainframe in 1984 through the US Air Force. All of the Minuteman II and III missile wings implemented a new maintenance data analysis system to take the load off of Base Data Automation and the EMDAS was the result. Expanded Minuteman Data Analysis System.

Maintenance personnel from all different shops were pulled for duty on this new system and was a permanent assignment. We were trained in California for three weeks and then returned to our home bases.

This system did not last long as the PC took over for the mainframe system in the mid-90s. I was out by then, so I don't know how the system ran on PCs. I would imagine the EMDAS Center still maintained the server(s) and programs for the various maintenance shops.