Gerhard,
Actually, on my second job as a computer operator, I graduated from the
360/40 to a 1410/1401 machine. We actually had 2 of them that shared the
same 1301 (I think) disk. A huge disk around 2 to 3 feet in diameter. You
could only use the disk on one machine at a time, but that was ok as many
jobs just did tape processing and didn't use the disk. I remember many
times each day typing a long string of numbers, digits, and special
characters in each time you wanted to switch between 1401 and 1410 mode or
vice versa.
The tape drives on those machines were also kind of cool. They had a big
wheel at the top that had numbers 1 through 5 (?) on them for addressing.
If you were using tape 3, and the next job used the same tape as tape 1, you
turned the wheel and reloaded the tape. Can't remember the model number of
those tape drives either.
The company I worked at was part of Philip Morris at the time. I heard they
had a choice of getting a 2nd 1410, or a 360 mod 65 from another Philip
Morris company. They chose a 2nd 1410, because they wouldn't have to change
any of their programs.
I remember one set of sales reports used to take about 24 hours of
processing to do all of the processing and printing of reports. They
rewrote it and contracted it to AO Smith. I can't remember if they were
running on a 360 or a 370, but I remember the processing took about 1 hour,
and then it took 3 or 4 hours to print the reports on our 360 Mod 20 that
was made to run as a JES remote.
Eric Bielefeld
Sr. z/OS Systems Programmer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-475-7434
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerhard Postpischil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Eric Bielefeld wrote:
Ah, the good old days. My first job in IT was a computer operator on a
360/40.
You had it easy <g>. The first computer operators I ran into worked on a
7094, and did things like entering data and commands on the console (via
switches) to rewind the tapes and things. The lead operator wanted to
become a programmer, but couldn't afford to, because with his overtime pay
he made more than we.
Gerhard Postpischil
Bradford, VT
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