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The most striking difference to me as an operator was that the Series 370 console was more than just the terminal/screen. You had switches and lights right out
by DrScump 9y ago
The most striking difference to me as an operator was that the Series 370 console was more than just the terminal/screen. You had switches and lights right out of a sci-fi movie, right down to rotary dials to set the address of the boot device.
With its successor, the 303x, the console was a glorified terminal. (My favorite command there was quiesce[0], where you could bring activity to an orderly freeze without ruining programs in process. I half-expected to hear it sing "Daisy, Daisy" in slowing decrescendo.)
[0] https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSLTBW_2.3.0/com.ibm.zos.v2r3.ieag100/quiesce.htm https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSLTBW_2.3.0/...
- DrScump 9y agoI've done some image searches (to no avail) hoping to find images showing the distinctive built-in screen and keyboard. The screen displayed characters using a "font" that I've never seen elsewhere, more resembling characters a human would handprint than a modern fixed font. I was hoping to find images of that. I did at least find a partial image[0] of a S/370 console with the light arrays that triggered my sci-fi comparison above. [0] https://popesixteen.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/picture-system-3701.png https://popesixteen.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/picture-syst...
- pdw 9y agoIs this it? It looks pretty nice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/370_Model_168#/media/File:HypertextEditingSystemConsoleBrownUniv1969.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/370_Model_168#/medi...
- DrScump 9y agoNo, in these S/370 models, the keyboard was built into the desk and the monitor was embedded in the console/control panel. That's from memory, which in my case has no parity bits and is vulnerable to a variety of exploits.