Questions tagged [mainframe]
for questions about retrocomputing mainframes or clusters
107 questions
3 votes
0 answers
162 views
Did you use BookManager on IBM big iron for internal documentation
I was trying to remember what I was using back in the early 90s for internal documentation at IBM back in the day. I worked at a site in Tampa that housed 3090 mainframes and was using VM/CMS. Does ...
11 votes
1 answer
1k views
Implementation details about Lotus 1-2-3/M
Does anyone have implementation details of Lotus 1-2-3 for VM/SP5 and MVS/XA? Which programming language and compiler was used? A video of a 3270 session would be interesting. Is there any source of ...
- 906
16 votes
1 answer
3k views
Can someone identify the hardware in the movie "Hard Car"?
This one is a AS/7000 Mainframe of National Advanced System I cannot identify the microcomputers (or disk cabinets, or hardware) in the second image (the three "parts" in white and blue ...
- 3,497
7 votes
2 answers
1k views
What was IBM VS/PC?
I found this 1976 Digital internal memorandum which is a competitive evaluation of IBM mainframes versus Digital's DECsystem-10 machines. Page 7 says the following: In 1976 IBM announced VS/PC which ...
- 3,978
17 votes
2 answers
4k views
Was bootloading from punch cards possible on System/370 machines?
I have been idly looking into how System 370 works, though mostly at software and VM/370 OS. As a part of the system generation process, one needs to use DMKDDR utility and others. So I was curious ...
- 173
8 votes
1 answer
721 views
Were punching tools for punch cards with rectangular holes easier to keep sharp than those for round holes?
There is a question here on retrocomputing if round punch card holes where mechanically stiffer: Were round punchcard holes mechanically stiffer? I wondered if the reason for the rectangular holes on ...
- 1,282
11 votes
1 answer
2k views
Did the IBM 1401 have much better code density than the 360?
Reading an old thread https://groups.google.com/g/alt.folklore.computers/c/53C2adEQ5jE I see a surprising claim: I told an IBM salesman once that IBM had so bollixed up the architecture that our ...
- 65.3k
8 votes
4 answers
2k views
"Mainframe" with Z80 [closed]
Maybe a silly question but has there ever been a mainframe OS running on a Z80 system, of course with sufficient memory and memory management unit? I'm thinking of a ported MVS running, with TSO, the ...
- 183