I do difficult propositions, including prying pdps away from the cold dead hands of the British ministry of defence! So tell more? You can reach me off-list at this address.
I had been told that the System/7s were part of the billing system, rather than the switch itself. My info may be defective, but that's what I was told; one per exchange. I believe I have some doc referring to that application. Mike On Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 11:33 PM, Christian Gauger-Cosgrove <captainkirk...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 2 July 2015 at 17:39, Mike Ross <tmfdm...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Take the IBM System/7. Successor to the 1800, succeeded by the >> Series/1. They were *ubiquitous* - one in every telephone exchange in >> the USA, I've heard. They even made a special ruggedised version for > Being into telephony, I can say that I've not heard anything about IBM > System/7 machines being used in exchanges. I do know that the WECo ESS > exchanges did, of course, have computers. But the ESS exchange > computers were custom systems and architectures built by Western > Electric. > > The 1ESS/1AESS computer architecture is however, nearly completely > extinct. There are, I believe, only two 1ESS/1AESS switches left. One > is a partial, and non-functional exchange at the museum of > communications in Seattle; the processor is complete, and it has one > of each requisite switching frame, but it can't be used as they need > to recompile the software that runs it (which isn't possible as > they're lacking the crucial internal compiler that ran on WECo's IBM > System/3x0 machines). The other 1ESS/1AESS switch is a complete and > functional unit, still in service, last I heard. But there are plans > to scrap it and put in a modern switch in its place. Saving it would > be a difficult proposition, to say the least. > > > Regards, > Christian > -- > Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove > STCKON08DS0 > Contact information available upon request. -- http://www.corestore.org 'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame. For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'