Computer History: IBM 1401 Mainframe Data Processing System 1960 ENGLISH version (HD)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Computer History: 1960 IBM 1401 Computer Announcement. IBM sold over 12,000 of these machines, making it the most successful large computer of that time period. This is an ENGLISH language version of the 1960 French film, followed by a 1401 Photo Gallery. Many thanks go to Marc Verdiell, Robert Garner, Randy Thelen and Max Campbell (IBM) for finding the original French version and helping this film be shared. (Sadly, we do not have access to the original 16mm film, which may be lost to time, but if we obtain it, we plan to redo this film and bring it further back to life.) Color, Run time: approx. 7 mins.
There are some great resources (see below) on the history of the 1401 and the major 1401 restoration project that was done at Computer History Museum Mountain View, California in 2013.
Computer History Museum Mountain View, California (restorations)
computerhistor...
IBM 1401 Videos and References
The IBM 1401 Demo Lab and Restoration Project
ibm-1401.info/
Ken Schirriff’s Blog (IBM 1401)
www.righto.com/...
Acknowledgements:
Film, Photos and Info Courtesy of:
Max Campbell, IBM Archives, U.S.
IBM France (1401 film)
Additional Photos: IBM 1401 Demo Lab & Restoration Project,
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
Dag Spicer, Robert Garner, Ed Thelen, Randy Thelen, Marc Verdiell,
Carl Claunch, Ken Shirriff, and many others.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California (home page)
computerhistor...
Video, English Narration: Chris Hernandez
Computer History Archives Project (CHAP), is an independent research activity.
Provided for educational value and historical commentary only.
I've seen a 1401 in real life when I began working as an IBM Customer Engineer 1972 in Stockholm Sweden. I've repaired many 1403 printers and later on 3211 and huge 3800 laser printers 😎 Things have changed a lot since then 😀
In 1974 we were emulating 1401 on a 370/165 running under o/s and also running a separate 360/MFT system … Never thought we would live to see a high speed buffer having more than 100x the amount of core we used back then for main storage …
Wow, I'm definitely the "kid" here ! I first learned to program in Fortran, using punch cards, in 1977. CRT terminals hooked up with RS-232 cables, were the norm back then, but the school had an old machine. Later, at the same school (college), I would run BASIC programs, from a Teletype (used as a terminal), connected to the "unseen" computer, in another building.
@@michaelmoorrees3585 WayCool …
Ahh, the 1403 printer. What a workhorse. It was a movie star, too! It's where a transistor radio was left in "Dr Strangelove"
We customized the print chain to turn the characters sideways to print out serials on labels.
@Frobard: Your comment brought back memories. I started as a CE in 1973 in the U.S. 1401s were still around but by then the 370 was the hot machine. Because I was "the new guy" I got trained on the already obsolete 360s, The 360 model 25 was put into the 40 foot long 3890 check sorters, so I worked on them along with the 3800 for a number of years. To bring back some memories do you remember MAPS? They were a rack of 12 to 24+ large books used to diagnose problems to the component level on the 370 and prior systems. I spent many hours buried in those books.
Five years later (1965) I was hired by Honeywell to maintain their new H200 product line. This was essentialy a newer, and more modern version of the 1401. Pretty much similar configurations - card reader/punch, a couple of 1/2 inch magnetic tape drives, a 132 column line printer, 16K to 32K of core memory. Random access (disk) storage came a few years later. No operating system, just basic program loaders. Load a program, run the job, go to next program.
In 1974 we were emulating 1401 on a 370/165 running under o/s and also running a separate 360/MFT system … Never thought we would live to see a high speed buffer having more than 100x the amount of core we used back then for main storage …
You all do a great job. I have watched many of your vids here. Thank you!!
Hi Bob, thank you for the kind words, much appreciated! ~ Victor, CHAP
I remember this puppy.. I used to program on one using autocoder.. before I started 360 assembler.. wow, I’m older than dirt !
I started programming this monster in SPS. We used punched cards and had 2 tape drives. Then we made into to the modern world when IBM released Autocoder. A few years later we got a disk drive. We could do random processing! The disk drive box was about 5 feet square and had 10 circular platters about three feet wide. It had one read/write arm that moved between platters on a single arm. We could add a record to a master file without needing to process all records from a tape master file onto an output tape with the new record inserted in the proper sequence. A decade later we were on a 360 writing in Cobol with 8 disk drives and tape was used only to back-up disk drives. After 40 years I retired as a data base administrator writing in SQL.
Hi @Iforgotme, a fascinating story and an historical machine. Sound you had lots of experience, including DBA for SQL, very cool! Thank you! ~ Victor, CHAP
My first Data Processing job was operating a 370/138, I was chained to a card reader 8 hours a day.
Thank you for these videos. I enjoy them a lot.
I would be happy to volunteer as a voice actor to help narrate videos for you guys.
During my electrical engineering education we got a used one donated by IBM in 1972.
Marc Verdiell, as in CuriouMarc? Awesome!
Wonderful , thanks for the translation
Anoop, thank you for the feedback, glad you liked it. ~
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject these are important documents that are well worth preserving, thank you again
Nice share - thanks! B)
That blue installation in the end gallery sure was sharp ...
Hi @robertlock5501, glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for the great feedback! ~
I've always wondered why the takeup spool (right) is wound clockwise rather than anticlockwise like an audio reel to reel machine.
"The 1401 consists of three units"...he mentions four.
He mentions card reader, card punch, CPU and printer. Card reader and punch are the same device, so 3 units.
That is pure minimum system.
@@macieksoft Multi-function card unit (MFCU) would be beefed up later and scaled back to handle 96 column cards, with some sorting ability.
@@loginregional That was for the 360 model 20, not the 1401.
@@macieksoft I see a woman at 7:10 at a keyboard, not a keypunch Maybe that's the fourth.
@@roachtoasties That's IBM 1407 data entry station. It consisted of a keyboard and a teleprinter. It was optional, minimum system didn't included it. It was extremally rare in fact.
The 1403 printer became pretty much standard. Every 360 shop I ever visited had them, and most 370 shops too. Some had "1403 compatible" printers from other makers.
It appears to have been intended as just another piece of card processing equipment, fitting right in with all the old punch card gear that businesses relied on. Also, it was something to see how those tape stands had to be manually threaded. Back when I was a computer tech (1978-89), all that had to be done was to run the tape from the supply to take up reel, and when the load button was pressed, the tape would be automagically loaded.
Wow! I came in later, with a mixture of 24 and 31-bit assembly on 370 XA and then ESA.
I had no idea how lucky I was that IBM put in /real effort/ to keep the system and documentation in line.
OMG, I remember this. Right before the 360's and COBOL.
COBOL is still alive. 👍
Back when a byte was a byte.
this was way before byte standardisation. byte could mean anything from 1 to 48 bits according to wikipedia
Very interesting film! A real time document.
I was worried about that person removing the circuit board while the computer was doing a print job.
1:17 I'm sure I've heard that before... somewhere... in time. Oh no, not that jingle again!
This was early computer control of the masses.
Just think, this is an example of the technology available back then to create the computer programs that would run on the guidance systems for the Apollo spacecraft. IBM was a primary contractor for the Apollo program.
The Apollo program used 5 IBM 360s in a special building, a bit more advanced than what we see here, but its Big Blue nonetheless. The guidance computer was actually designed by the MIT instrumentation lab and made by Raytheon, and featured the brand new integrated circuit, an amazing achievement that one of the first computers with ICs was actually sent into space.
@@rdubb77 I was thinking of the instrument unit in the Saturn V but yes, the guidance computers for the CSM and LEM were designed at MIT and built by Raytheon.
@@dmac7128 On LinkedIn, I recently saw this sample of programming for those computers: fermatslibrary.com/s/apollo-11-implementation-of-trigonometric-functions
@@dmac7128 oh right. You were referring to that really cool computer that was in a ring on the launch vehicle
We've developed alot
Very cool... Do you have any videos about the IBM 1620 or IBM 1130?
Hi Bob, no videos about the 1620 or 1130 specifically yet. Hope do find or create one for the 1620, it was a fascinating machine. In the next week or so, we plan to published an IBM Corp. video on the IBM 2770 Data Processing System of 1969. We are just restoring it now. Thanks for your support! ~ Victor, CHAP
Ooooooo -- the 1130! West Irondequoit High School taught "Computer Science" on those prior to 1982.
@@mc4bbs What did they teach at your school? They taught RPG!! at mine. but I learned a lot about them at college. Great little machine! (First personal computer ::D)
@@semuhphor RPG II, RPG III, COBOL and later, Basic on a Prime Computer (Prime 520) which replaced the 1130.
@@semuhphor today, I have EMULATORS on my laptop for IBM 370, Prime (various versions of Primos) and Atari. It's amazing that our mobile phones have more power than the mainframes of the 70s.
16k memory...!
My first PC in High School in 1971-72. Learned Autocoder and many other things...
I need One...
the question is silicon or germanium transistors
Is the french version available ?
Greetings! Yes, There is a French language version available here: th-cam.com/video/xUQnVt5qS-Y/w-d-xo.html
Anyone remember the 1401 at BOCES #1, Fairport, NY?
What can this computer do? How was it used?
High speed data processing; data storage and retrieval; financial information processing; inventory tracking; payroll tracking; and other similar applications.
Around 3:00 IT'S CORE MEMORY CONSISTS OF ONE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED TO SIXTEEN THOUSAND CHARACTERS.
Ha ha
Portable computer at 7:40
I fixed alot of those tape drives.
They look sooooo cool :)
Being back punch cards!
LOL, I remember my local insurance company using them into the 90s!
@@drboze6781 90's .. wow. I got to run some into a 1442 in 2019 at The National Museum of Computing in the UK. What a cool memory.
The Home knitting machines that are still produced use punch cards for the patterning. the cards are 24 stitches wide. One hole = 1 stitch.
Its a shame this film looks like junk.. Its below standard definition video.. so im guessing it was Telecine'd to SD video and ended up on VHS tape then got digitized. 16mm film is capable of much more than this, it really needed to be Telecine'd to 1080p...
Thanks for your comment. The "original" was a very poor quality "DVD" capture. The 16mm film is long gone, unfortunately. It was either this version, or nothing at all. Yes, we wish we had the 16mm to do it up right. We would love to buy the 16mm film, if we could find it. : )~
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject You guys do great work! People need to focus on content, not quality, when it comes to this type of material.
@@72polara Yep! If we only wait to see pristine HD copies of ephemeral films, We'd miss out on a LOT of history! PS: My cousin had a 73 Polara in the early 80's, Being that I'm a GM guy, IDK what engine he had, But DAMN, was that sucker quick, and a BLAST to drive! It was a 4 door "muscle car" - Has was a former police chief's car, so it was a sedan. Chrysler was right about torsion bar suspension - That Dodge could really corner, Unlike any Ford of the era that would wallow and plow if "pushed" into a curve.
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I thought the quality was very good considering the state a lot of these films are in. And now it's preserved forever, Thanks guys.
Thanks very much. We spend hours ("days" really) trying to improve the quality of the original, but there's a point beyond which the end product doesn't improve. What we "dream" about is the high-end equipment they have at National Archives where they can do magical things with film restoration and digital restoration. It remains very important to keep whatever content format is available, as the software tools keep getting better for future viewers. Thanks again, great comments as always! ~ Victor