Excellent points! System/360 is indeed interesting because (if my memory serves me) it was one of the first computational architectures to implement microcode

Excellent points! System/360 is indeed interesting because (if my memory serves me) it was one of the first computational architectures to implement microcode (also, if I recall correctly, the necessity of updating of this microcode was one of the reasons that floppy drives were invented...) I'm also a fan of the Motorola 68000 -- I used to have an Amiga 1000 "back in the day". I'd choose it over any 8 or 16 bit CPU of the time period, but (correct me if I am wrong) it didn't have an MMU -- which would have made it a less-than-ideal candidate for writing a modern-day Unix compatible operating system, although the authors of AmigaOS managed to pull off quite an impressive multitasking OS on it, despite this fact, nonetheless... Also, as a 32-bit architecture (as opposed to discrete single-package IC CPU) we'd probably additionally want to remember the VAX 11/780 (1977) -- whose CPU was implemented as circuits of multiple simpler TTL IC's... (Oh sure, IBM might have done something like that earlier -- but the VAX 11/780 brought down the cost of IBM's comparable computing offerings by at least one order of magnitude! -- Although, even so, the 11/780 still would have been ridiculously expensive to the average person of that time period... (and yes, I know it was intended for mid-sized to large businesses, not people! :-)) But anyway, great article, and yes, the IBM System/360 and 68000 were indeed groundbreaking!