[SIGCIS-Members] IBM Mainframes at AT&T

[Ceruzzi, Paul]

If I am not mistaken, the main difference between the System/360 and the 370 (other than the color of the console) was that the 370 used semiconductor (IBM called it "monolithic") memory instead of core. One consequence of that change was that the memory now was volatile, so in order to initiate the system, you had to load code from an external memory device. IBM invented the floppy disk for that purpose. As Paul Harvey used to say, "that's the rest of the story."

The other thing I noticed about the video was the absence of long hair -- this was the early 1970s after all. Thompson & Ritchie were in another AT&T site, and maybe kept off-camera. 

Paul

________________________________________
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate [abbate at vt.edu]
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 5:29 PM
To: sigcis
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] IBM Mainframes at AT&T

I'd not seen that before, thanks for posting it. The soundtrack definitely puts you back in the '70s!

I agree that the pinup photo, if not actually staged for the film, must have been deliberate. Maybe they were trying to wake up the viewers from a synthesizer-induced haze.

Janet

On Nov 30, 2012, at 12:36 PM, M. Hicks wrote:

> What a great video.  Thanks for sharing it, Paul. I love how it goes through the process step-by-step, and explains the tools. I think it will be very useful to show to my history of computing class.
>
> Regarding the "inappropriate picture" I wonder if that was actually put there specifically for the video, as it has such a prominent place in the film? Certainly adds some interest to the 370, but it's pretty distracting! Would the culture of that installation have allowed such a picture to be there long term, do you think?
>
> Best,
>
> Marie
>
> ______________________
> Marie Hicks, Ph.D.
> Asst. Professor, History of Technology
> Illinois Institute of Technology
> Chicago, IL USA
> mariehicks.net | mhicks1 at iit.edu | @histoftech
>
> On Nov 30, 2012, at 10:54, "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu> wrote:
>
>> Maybe you’ve seen this resource before, but here is a video about what computing was like at AT&T in the early 1970s. Believe it or not, sometimes I actually miss those days! [Warning: there is an inappropriate photo pasted to the console at 5:40. I do not recall such things, but I do remember a very large print-out of “Snoopy” across several sheets of fan-fold paper].
>>
>> http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/11/28/AT&T-Archives-Holmdel-Computer-Center-Part-1.
>>
>> Paul E. Ceruzzi
>> Chair, Division of Space History
>> National Air & Space Museum
>> MRC 311; PO Box 37012
>> Washington, DC 20013-7012
>> 202-633-2414
>> <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24>
>>
>>
>>
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Dr. Janet Abbate
Associate Professor
Science & Technology in Society
Virginia Tech




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