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The museum 1401 is insanely cool, but a mainframe it is not. The 1401 was more of a service processor for a mainframe. You could use a 1401 to order jobs and
by hapless 8y ago
The museum 1401 is insanely cool, but a mainframe it is not.
The 1401 was more of a service processor for a mainframe. You could use a 1401 to order jobs and manage card sorters and things of that nature.
The 1401 was occasionally sold as a standalone accounting machine instead of a service processor, but never as a mainframe unto itself.
It's more of a minicomputer than a mainframe. Which should say everything about its era. "Mini" meant only like, six racks of gear.
- giardini 8y agoFond memories! I learned FORTRAN on an IBM 1401. Our intro chemistry professor thought it was a good idea to incorporate IBM's FORTRAN programming coursework into our chemistry lab. I wasn't so good at chemistry but excelled in programming and so earned a decent chem grade. In the years that followed I used the FORTRAN for numerical analysis classes. It all led to a career in programming.