To meet this need for high speed data processing, the scientists and technicians of the Eckert-Mauchly division of Remington Rand have created a miracle of electronic development: UNIVAC! [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Oct 7, 2011 -
8 comments
50 years ago today, IBM announced the
1401 Data Processing System.
Originally designed as a spooling system for the larger machines, the 1401 became very popular as a mainframe in its own right, eventually being called 'The Model T of Computers'. By the end of 1961, the number of 1401s installed in the United States alone had reached 2,000 - representing about one fourth of all computers installed by all manufacturers at that time. 15- 20,000 were eventually built.
The
Computer History Museum in Mountain View is having a
50th anniversary celebration on November 10th.
Here's what $125,600 (or $2500/month rent) would get you:
[more inside]
posted by MtDewd
on Oct 4, 2009 -
52 comments
"In 1964, a computer - the IBM 1401 Data Processing System - arrived in Iceland, one of the very first computers to be imported into the country… The chief maintenance engineer for this machine was Jóhann Gunnarsson, my father. A keen musician, he learned of an obscure method of making music on this computer - a purpose for which this business machine was not at all designed… When the IBM 1401 was taken out of service in 1971, it wasn't simply thrown away like an old refrigerator, but was given a little farewell ceremony, almost a funeral, when its melodies were played for one last time. This "performance" was documented on tape along with recordings of the sound of the machine in operation." The whole story with samples, pictures and video at
Jóhann Jóhannsson's site.
[via]
posted by tellurian
on Feb 26, 2007 -
15 comments
Hercules! Not the
shiny muscle man from the past, but a handy emulator for
IBM S/360, S/370, S/390, and z/Arch mainframes. Unfortunately, because of IBM's bullheadedness, you can only run
operating systems released when the
world was young, unless, for whatever reason, you decide to run
something released after the Reagan Administration.
You, too, can learn how easy we young whippersnappers have it now, but beware: to effectively use most of these systems, you will need to
descend into Hell.
posted by Captain_Tenille
on Nov 24, 2004 -
10 comments
Electronic music buffs cite Radiohead's Kid A as their best work. How many know that Idioteque, arguably the stand-out track
owes a debt to
Paul Lansky, sampling as it does Lansky's
Mild Und Leise [mp3 file], a track composed in 1973 on an
IBM 360/91 mainframe. I didn't. Should you find your interest piqued, you might want to read an
interview with Lansky. If that was then, this is now: The excellent
music video to Zeal [Quicktime] by
Plaid, which, although a very different beast, is an excellent indicator of how far electronic music has come. [Probably NSFW].
posted by nthdegx
on Feb 9, 2004 -
42 comments
I know you're all probably missing that old mini-mainframe you used to program on as a kid, right? Ok, maybe that's just me... But darn it, I can do it again using
this PDP-8/E simulator for the Mac. You can even write your own simulated DEC I/O devices like paper tape readers via a plug-in API. And for the techno-frankenstein in me, it'll run using
SheepShaver on my BeBox too.
posted by grant
on Nov 30, 1999 -
0 comments
