List of Archived Posts
2024 Newsgroup Postings (09/25 - )
- IBM Numeric Intensive
- IBM (Empty) Suits
- The joy of FORTRAN
- Emulating vintage computers
- IBM (Empty) Suits
- IBM (Empty) Suits
- IBM (Empty) Suits
- The joy of FORTRAN
- The joy of FORTRAN
- Emulating vintage computers
- Emulating vintage computers
- TYMSHARE, Engelbart, Ann Hardy
- 3270 Terminals
- The boomer generation hit the economic jackpot
- Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World
- CSC Virtual Machine Work
- The joy of FORTRAN
- The joy of FORTRAN
- The joy of RISC
- CSC Virtual Machine Work
- IBM 360/30, 360/65, 360/67 Work
- Byte ordering
- stacks are not hard, The joy of FORTRAN-like languages
- Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
- Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
- Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
- The Fall Of OS/2
- The Fall Of OS/2
- IBM Wild Ducks
- IBM 370 Virtual memory
- IBM 370 Virtual memory
- IBM 370 Virtual memory
- IBM 370 Virtual memory
- IBM 370 Virtual memory
- IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
- IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
- IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
- IBM 370/168
- IBM 370/168
- IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
- IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
- IBM Purchase NY
- IBM/PC
- IBM/PC
- PROFS & VMSG
- IBM 5100 and Other History
- IBM TCM
- Postel, RFC Editor, Internet
- IBM Telecommunication Controllers
- IBM Telecommunication Controllers
- IBM 3081 & TCM
- The joy of Democracy
- IBM Unbundling, Software Source and Priced
- The joy of Democracy
- IBM "THINK"
- The joy of Democracy
- IBM DB2 and MIP Envy
- The Joy of Patents
- The joy of Patents
- The joy of Patents
- IBM 3705
- IBM Mainframe System Meter
- Amdahl and other trivia
- Welcome to the defense death spiral
- Distributed Computing VM4341/FBA3370
- Welcome to the defense death spiral
- Welcome to the defense death spiral
- IBM "THINK"
- The joy of Patents
- The joy of FORTH (not)
- The joy of FORTH (not)
- IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
- According to Psychologists, there are four types of Intelligence
- IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
- IBM IMS
- Prodigy
- Trump's MSG event draws comparisons to 1939 Nazi rally
- IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
- IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
- The Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans
- CP67 And Source Update
- The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
- IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
- The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
- Who First Thought Of Using GMT/UTC For System Clock?
IBM Numeric Intensive
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Numeric Intensive
Date: 25 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
after the Future System implosion, I got sucked into helping with a
16-processor multiprocessor and we con'ed the 3033 processor engineers
into working on it in their spare time (a lot more interesting that
remapping 168 logic to 20% faster chips). Everybody thought it was
great until somebody told head of POK that it could be decades before
the POK favorite son operating system (MVS) had (effective) 16-way
support (at the time, MVS documentation said that MVS 2-processor
support only had 1.2-1.5 times the throughput of a single
processor). Then some of us were invited to never visit POK again and
the 3033 processor engineers told to heads down on 3033 and stop being
distracted. POK doesn't ship a 16-processor machine until after the
turn of the century. Once the 3033 was out the door, the processor
engineers start on trout/3090. Later the processor engineers had
improved 3090 scalar floating point processing so it ran as fast as
memory (and complained vector was purely marketing since it would be
limited by memory throughput).
A decade after 16-processor project, Nick Donofrio approved our
HA/6000 project, originally for NYTimes to move their newspaper system
(ATEX) off DEC VAXCluster to RS/6000. I rename it HA/CMP when I start
doing numeric/scientific cluster scale-up with the national labs and
commercial cluster scale-up with RDBMS vendors (Oracle, Sybase,
Informix, and Ingres that had RDBMS VAXCluster support in the same
source base with Unix).
IBM had been marketing a fault tolerant system as S/88 and the S/88
product administrator started taking us around to their customers
... and also got me to write a section for the corporate strategic
continuous availability document (section got pulled when both
Rochester/AS400 and POK/mainframe complained that they couldn't meet
the requirements). Early Jan1992, in meeting with Oracle CEO,
AWD/Hester told Ellison that we would have 16-system clusters by
mid-92 and 128-system clusters by ye92 ... however by end of Jan1992,
cluster scale-up had been transferred for announce as IBM
Supercomputer and we were told we couldn't work on anything with more
than four processors (we leave IBM a few months later). Complaints
from the other IBM groups likely contributed to the decision.
(benchmarks are number of program iterations compared to reference
platform, not actual instruction count)
1993: eight processor ES/9000-982 : 408MIPS, 51MIPS/processor
1993: RS6000/990 : 126MIPS; 16-system: 2016MIPs, 128-system: 16,128MIPS
trivia: in the later half of the 90s, the i86 processor chip vendors
do a hardware layer that translates i86 instructions into RISC
micro-ops for execution.
1999 single IBM PowerPC 440 hits 1,000MIPS
1999 single Pentium3 (translation to RISC micro-ops for execution)
hits 2,054MIPS (twice PowerPC 440)
2003 single Pentium4 processor 9.7BIPS (9,700MIPS)
2010 E5-2600 XEON server blade, two chip, 16 processor, aggregate
500BIPS (31BIPS/processor)
The 2010-era mainframe was 80 processor z196 rated at 50BIPS aggregate
(625MIPS/processor), 1/10th XEON server blade
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
continuous availability, disaster survivability, geographic
survivability posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM (Empty) Suits
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM (Empty) Suits
Date: 25 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
I drank the kool-aid when I graduated and joined IBM ... got white
shirts and 3-piece suits. Even tho I was in the science center, lots
of customers liked me to stop by and shoot the breeze, including the
manager of one of the largest, all-blue financial dataprocessing
centers on the east coast. Then the branch manager did something that
horribly offended the customer and the customer announced they were
ordering an Amdahl system (would be the only one in large sea of IBM
systems) in retribution.
I was asked to go sit onsite for 6-12 months to obfuscate why the
customer was ordering Amdahl system (this was back when Amdahl was
only selling into technical/university market and had yet to crack the
commercial market) as part of branch manager cover-up. I talked to the
customer and they said they would enjoy having me onsite, but that
wouldn't change their decision to order an Amdahl machine so I
declined IBM's offer. I was told that the branch manager was good
sailing buddy of IBM CEO, and if I didn't, I could forget having an
IBM career, promotions, raises. Last time I wore suits for IBM. Later
found customers commenting it was refreshing change from the usual
empty suits.
This was after (earlier) CEO Learson had tried&failed to block the
bureaucrats, careerists and MBAs from destroying Watsons'
culture/legacy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
which was accelerated during the failing Future System project
"Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World", Time Books
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Wars-The-Post-IBM-World/dp/1587981394
... and perhaps most damaging, the old culture under Watson Snr and Jr
of free and vigorous debate was replaced with *SYNCOPHANCY* and *MAKE
NO WAVES* under Opel and Akers. It's claimed that thereafter, IBM
lived in the shadow of defeat ... But because of the heavy investment
of face by the top management, F/S took years to kill, although its
wrong headedness was obvious from the very outset. "For the first
time, during F/S, outspoken criticism became politically dangerous,"
recalls a former top executive
... snip ...
some more FS detail:
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
some past post mentioning "suit kool-aid":
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#42 IBM Koolaid
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#56 IBM Empty Suits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#51 IBM Bureaucrats, Careerists, MBAs (and Empty Suits)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#66 IBM Dress Code
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#93 IBM 3278
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#81 IBM Downturn
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#82 Kinder/Gentler IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#68 IBM Suits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#27 Wearing a tie cuts circulation to your brain
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018d.html#6 Workplace Advice I Wish I Had Known
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018.html#55 Now Hear This--Prepare For The "To Be Or To Do" Moment
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTRAN
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc, alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2024 07:49:14 -1000
Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
In the early 90s, IBM was going through its troubles and selling off
and/or offloading lots of stuff (real estate, divisions, etc), including
lots of VLSI tools to industry VLSI tools vendor. However, the standard
VLSI shop was SUN machines and so everything had to be ported to SUN.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
trivia: 1972, CEO Learson tried (& failed) to block the bureaucrats,
careerists, and MBAs from destroying Watsons' culture/legacy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
it was greatly accelerated during the failing Future System effort,
Ferguson & Morris, "Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World", Time Books
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Wars-The-Post-IBM-World/dp/1587981394
... and perhaps most damaging, the old culture under Watson Snr and Jr
of free and vigorous debate was replaced with *SYNCOPHANCY* and *MAKE NO
WAVES* under Opel and Akers. It's claimed that thereafter, IBM lived in
the shadow of defeat ... But because of the heavy investment of face by
the top management, F/S took years to kill, although its wrong
headedness was obvious from the very outset. "For the first time, during
F/S, outspoken criticism became political
more FS info
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
then 1992, IBM has one of the largest losses in the history of US
companies and was being reorged into the 13 "baby blues" (take-off on
AT&T "baby bells" breakup a decade earlier) in preperation for breakup
https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
we had already left IBM but get a call from the bowels of Armonk asking
if we could help with the company breakup. Before we get started, the
board brings in the former president of Amex as CEO, who (somewhat)
reverses the breakup ... but it was difficult time saving a company that
was on the verge of going under ... IBM somewhat barely surviving as
financial engineering company
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Emulating vintage computers
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Emulating vintage computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2024 08:39:41 -1000
Lars Poulsen <lars@beagle-ears.com> writes:
Like I have been impressed that Hercules on a similar platform runs
OS/360 MVT with a performance like a 1960s mainframe.
also in the wake of the Future System implosion, I also got con'ed by
Endicott into helping with 138/148 ECPS microcode (148 was about
600KIPs 370)... told that there was 6kbytes and needed to indentify
the highest executed 6kbytes of kernel 370 execution segments. 370
instruction simulation ran avg ten native instructions per 370
instruction (about the same as some of the 80s i86 370 emulators)
... and dropping kernel 370 instructions into microcode about on
byte-for-byte ... running ten times faster. old archived (a.f.c.)
post with top 370 6kbytes accounting for 79.55% of kernel execution:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21
little over decade ago was asked to track down the IBM decision to add
virtual memory to all 370s, found staff member to executive making the
decision. Basically MVT storage management was so bad that regions
sizes had to be specified four times larger than used ... as a result
typical 1mbyte 370/165 only ran four concurrent regions, insufficient
to keep system busy and justified. Mapping MVT to 16mbyte virtual
memory would allow concurrent regions to be increased by factor of
four times (caped at 15 for the 4mbit storage protect keys) with
little or no paging (aka VS2/SVS), sort of like running MVT in a CP/67
16mbyte virtual machine.
Lat 80s got approval for HA/6000 project, originally for NYTimes to
move their newspaper system (ATEX) off DEC VAXCluster to RS/6000. I
rename it HA/CMP when I start doing numeric/scientific cluster
scale-up with the national labs and commercial cluster scale-up with
RDBMS vendors (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Ingres that had RDBMS
VAXCluster support in the same source base with Unix).
IBM had been marketing a fault tolerant system as S/88 and the
S/88 product administrator started taking us around to their customers
... and also got me to write a section for the corporate continuous
availability strategy document, section got pulled when both
Rochester (AS/400) and POK (mainframe) complained that they couldn't
meet the requirements.
Early Jan1992, in meeting with Oracle CEO, AWD/Hester told Ellison
that we would have 16-system clusters by mid-92 and 128-system
clusters by ye-92 ... however by end of Jan1992, cluster scale-up had
been transferred for announce as IBM Supercomputer and we were told we
couldn't work on anything with more than four processors (we leave IBM
a few months later). Complaints from the other IBM groups likely
contributed to the decision.
(benchmarks are number of program iterations compared to reference
platform, not actual instruction count)
1993: eight processor ES/9000-982 : 408MIPS, 51MIPS/processor
1993: RS6000/990 : 126MIPS; 16-system: 2016MIPs, 128-system: 16,128MIPS
trivia: in the later half of the 90s, the i86 processor chip vendors do
a hardware layer that translates i86 instructions into RISC micro-ops
for execution.
1999 single IBM PowerPC 440 hits 1,000MIPS
1999 single Pentium3 (translation to RISC micro-ops for execution)
hits 2,054MIPS (twice PowerPC 440)
2003 single Pentium4 processor 9.7BIPS (9,700MIPS)
2010 E5-2600 XEON server blade, two chip, 16 processor, aggregate
500BIPS (31BIPS/processor)
The 2010-era mainframe was 80 processor z196 rated at 50BIPS aggregate
(625MIPS/processor), 1/10th XEON server blade
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, power, power/pc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM (Empty) Suits
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM (Empty) Suits
Date: 27 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#1 IBM (Empty) Suits
After transfer to SJR got to wander around silicon valley, would
periodically drop in on TYMSHARE and/or see lots of people at the
monthly meetings sponsored by Stanford SLAC. In aug1976, TYMSHARE
makes their CMS-based online computer conferencing (precursor to
social media) "free" to (ibm user group) SHARE as VMSHARE ... archives
here:
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare
I cut a deal with TYMSHARE to get monthly tape dump of all VMSHARE
(and later PCSHARE) files for putting up on internal systems and the
internal network. One of the biggest problems was IBM lawyers
concerned that internal employees would be contaminated by direct
exposure to unfiltered customer information.
recent posts mentioning TYMSHARE, VMSHARE, SLAC:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#139 RPG Game Master's Guide
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#77 Other Silicon Valley
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#43 TYMSHARE, VMSHARE, ADVENTURE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#116 Computer Games
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#64 Online Computer Conferencing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#60 The Many Ways To Play Colossal Cave Adventure After Nearly Half A Century
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#9 Tymshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#6 HASP, JES, MVT, 370 Virtual Memory, VS2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#115 ADVENTURE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#62 Online Before The Cloud
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#37 Online Forums and Information
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#16 Grace Hopper (& Ann Hardy)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#25 IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#14 Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#50 z/VM 50th - part 3
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#37 What's something from the early days of the Internet which younger generations may not know about?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#8 Cloud Timesharing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#107 15 Examples of How Different Life Was Before The Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#28 Early Online
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM (Empty) Suits
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM (Empty) Suits
Date: 27 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#1 IBM (Empty) Suits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#4 IBM (Empty) Suits
... also wandering around datacenters in silicon valley, including
bldg14 (disk engineering) and bldg15 (disk product test) across the
street. They were running 7x24, stand-alone, pre-scheduled testing and
had mentioned trying MVS, but it had 15min MTBF (requiring manual
re-ipl). I offer to rewrite I/O supervisor to enable any amount of
concurrent, on-demand testing (greatly improving productivity).
Downside was they started blaming me anytime they had problem and I
had to spending increasing amount of time playing disk engineer and
diagnosing their problems. I then write an (internal only) research
report and happened to mention the MVS 15min MTBF, bringing the wrath
of the POK MVS group down on my head.
1980, STL (since renamed SVL) was bursting at the seams and were
moving 300 people from the IMS group to offsite bldg with
dataprocessing service back to the STL datacenter. They had tried
"remote 3270" but found the human factors unacceptable. I get con'ed
into do channel-extender support so they can place channel-attached
3270 controllers at the offsite bldg so there is no perceptible
difference in human factors offsite and in STL. Side-effect was 168-3
system throughput increased by 10-15%; 3270 controllers had been
spread across all channels with DASD controllers, channel-extender
significantly reduced channel busy (for same 3270 terminal traffic)
compared to the (really slow) 3270 controllers (improving DASD
throughput I/O) ... and STL considered using channel-extender for all
3270s.
Then there was attempt to release my support, but there was was group
in POK playing with some serial stuff afraid if it was in the market,
it would make it more difficult releasing their stuff (and get it
vetoed).
Mid-80s, the father of 801/RISC wants me to help him get disk
"wide-head" released. The original 3380 had 20track spacing between
each data track, which was cut in half, doubling tracks&cylinders;
then it was cut again, tripling tracks&cylinders. Disk wide-head
would transfer 16 closely data placed tracks in parallel ... however
required 50mbytes/sec channel ... and mainframe channels were still
3mbytes/sec.
Then in 1988, the IBM branch office asks if I could help LLNL
standardize some serial stuff they were working with, which quickly
becomes fibre-channel standard (FCS, 1gbit/sec, full-duplex, aggregate
200mbyte/sec, including some stuff I had done in 1980) and do FCS for
RS/6000. Then in 1990s, POK gets their serial stuff released as ESCON,
when it is already obsolete (17mbytes/sec). Then POK engineers become
involved in FCS and define a heavy-weight protocol that significantly
cuts the throughput ... which is eventually released as FICON. The
most recent public benchmark I've found is z196 "Peak I/O" benchmark
getting 2M IOPS using 104 FICON. About the same time, a FCS was
announced as E5-2600 server blades claiming over million IOPS (two
such FCS having higher throughput than 104 FICON). Also IBM pubs
recommended keeping SAPS (system assist processors that do actual I/O)
to 70% CPU (which would be 1.5M IOPS). Also with regard to mainframe
CKD DASD throughput, none have been made for decades, all being
simulated on industry standard fixed-block disks.
One of the problems was 3880 controller ... which people assumed would
be like 3830 controller but able to support 3mbyte/sec transfer
... which 3090 planned on. However while 3880 had special hardware for
3mbye/sec transfer, it had a really slow processor for everything else
... which significantly drove up channel busy. When 3090 found out how
bad it really was, they realized they had to significantly increase
the number of (3mbyte/sec) channels to achieve target system
throughput. The increase in number of channel required an additional
TCM (and the 3090 group semi-facetiously said they would bill the 3880
group for the increase in 3090 manufacturing costs). Marketing
eventually respun the large increase in 3090 channel numbers to be a
great I/O machine (but actually was to offset the 3880 increase in
channel busy).
trivia: bldg15 got early engineering system (for I/O testing) and
received early engineering 3033 (#3 or #4?). Since product testing was
only taking percent or two of CPU, we scrounge up 3830 controller and
string of 3330s, putting up our own private online service (including
running 3270 coax under the street to my office in bldg28). Then the
air-bearing simulation (originally for 3370 FBA thin-film floating
head design, but also used later for 3380 CKD heads) was getting
multiple week turn-around on SJR 370/195 (even with high priority
designation), we set it up on the bldg15 3033 and air-bearing
simulation was able to get multiple turn-arounds/day. Note that 3380
CKD was already transitioning to fixed-block, can be seen in
records/track calculations that had record size rounded up to fixed
cell-size).
getting to play disk engineer posts
https://www.garilc.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk
channel-extender posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#channel.extender
FCS &/or FICON posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ficon
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM (Empty) Suits
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM (Empty) Suits
Date: 27 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#1 IBM (Empty) Suits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#4 IBM (Empty) Suits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#5 IBM (Empty) Suits
I was repeatedly being told I had no career, no promotions, no raises
... so when head hunter asked me to interview for assistant to
president of clone 370 maker (sort of subsidiary of company on the
other side of the pacific), I thought why not. It was going along well
until one of the staff broached the subject of 370/xa documents (I had
a whole drawer full of the documents, registered ibm confidential,
kept under double lock&key and subject to surprise audits by local
security). In response I mentioned that I had recently submitted some
text to upgrade ethics in the Business Conduct Guidlines (had to be
read and signed once a year) ... that ended the interview. That wasn't
the end of it, later had a 3hr interview with FBI agent, the gov. was
suing the foreign parent company for industrial espionage (and I was
on the building visitor log). I told the agent, I wondered if somebody
in plant site security might of leaked names of individuals who had
registered ibm confidential documents.
Somebody in Endicott cons me into helping them with 138/148 ECPS
microcode (also used for 4331/4341 follow-on), find the 6kbytes of
vm370 kernel code that was the highest executed to be moved to
microcode (running ten times faster) ... archived usenet/afc post with
the analysis, 6kbytes represented 79.55% of kernel execution
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21
then he cons me into running around the world presenting the ECPS
business case to local planners and forecasters. I'm told WT
forecasters can get fired for bad forecasts because they effectively
are firm orders to the manufacturing plants for delivery to countries,
while US region forecasters get promoted for forecasting whatever
corporate tells them are strategic (and plants have to "eat" bad US
forecasts, as a result plants will regularly redo US forecasts)
much later my wife had been con'ed into co-authoring a response to
gov. agency RFI for a campus-like, super-secure operation where she
included 3-tier architecture. We were then out doing customer
executive presentations on Ethernet, TCP/IP, Internet, high-speed
routers, super-secure operation and 3-tier architecture (at a time
when the communication group was fiercely fighting off client/server
and distributed computing) and the communication group, token-ring,
SNA and SAA forces where attacking us with all sorts of
misinformation. The Endicott individual then had a top floor, large
corner office in Somers running SAA and we would drop by periodically
and tell him how badly his people were behaving.
3-tier architecture posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#3tier
some posts mentioning Business Conduct Guidelines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#35 IBM Business Conduct Guidelines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#4 Industrial Espionage
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#48 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#47 IBM Conduct
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#125 IBM Clone Controllers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#38 IBM Registered Confidential
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021g.html#42 IBM Token-Ring
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#86 Bizarre Career Events
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#12 IBM "811", 370/xa architecture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#29 IBM History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#83 The Sublime: Is it the same for IBM and Special Ops?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013e.html#42 More Whistleblower Leaks on Foreclosure Settlement Show Both Suppression of Evidence and Gross Incompetence
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009h.html#66 "Guardrails For the Internet"
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTRAN
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2024 09:55:38 -1000
Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> writes:
As Lynne will be happy to tell you, the original IBM TCP/IP implementation
was written in IBM Pascal for VM/CMS.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
The IBM communication group was fiercely fighting off client/server
and distributed computing and trying to block mainframe TCP/IP
release. When that got overturned they changed their tactic and
claimed that since they had corporate strategic responsibility for
everything that crossed datacenter walls, it had to be release through
them. What shipped got aggregate 44kbytes/sec using nearly whole 3090
processor. It was also made available on MVS by doing MVS VM370
"diagnose" instruction simulation.
I then do RFC1044 implementation and in some tuning tests at Cray
Research between Cray and IBM 4341, get 4341 sustained channel
throughput using only modest amount of 4341 CPU (something like 500
times improvement in bytes moved per instruction executed).
In the 90s, the IBM communication group hires a silicon valley
contractor to implement tcp/ip support directly in VTAM, what he
demo'ed had TCP running much faster than LU6.2. He was then told that
everybody knows that LU6.2 is much faster than a "proper" TCP/IP
implementation and they would only be paying for a "proper"
implementation.
RFC1044 posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTRAN
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2024 11:13:06 -1000
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#7 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
trivia: late 80s univ studying mainframe VTAM implementation LU6.2 had
160k instruction pathlength (and 15 buffer copies) compared to unix/bsd
(4.3 tahoe/reno) TCP had a 5k instruction pathlength (and 5 buffer
copies).
I was on Greg Chesson's XTP TAB and did further optimization with CRC
trailer protocol with outboard XTP LAN chip where CRC was
calculated as the packet flowed through and added/checked it in the
trailor. Also allowed for no buffer copy with scatter/gather (aka doing
packet I/O directly from user memory).
XTP/HSP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#xtphsp
posts mention VTAM/BSD-tcp/ip study
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#71 The IBM Way by Buck Rogers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#94 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#86 Mainframe TCP/IP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#71 The CHRISTMA EXEC network worm - 35 years and counting!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#48 Some BITNET (& other) History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006l.html#53 Mainframe Linux Mythbusting (Was: Using Java in batch on z/OS?)
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Emulating vintage computers
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Emulating vintage computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2024 13:02:48 -1000
antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) writes:
I wonder how you get those numbers? Basicaly processor speed is clock
frequency times with of processor time utilization of that.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#3 Emulating vintage computers
from original post:
(benchmarks are number of program iterations compared to reference
platform, not actual instruction count)
...
industry standard MIPS benchmark had been number of program iterations
compared to one of the reference platforms (370/158-3 assumed to be one
MIPS) ... not actual instruction count ... sort of normalizes across
large number of different architectures.
consideration has been increasing processor rates w/o corresponding
improvement in memory latency. For instance IBM documentation claimed
that half of the per processor throughput increase going from z10 to
z196 was the introduction of some out-of-order execution (attempting
some compensation for cache miss and memory latency, features that have
been in other platforms for decades).
z10, 64 processors, 30BIPS (469MIPS/proc), Feb2008
z196, 80 processors, 50BIPS (625MIPS/proc), Jul2010
aka half of the 469MIPS/proc to 625MIPS/proc ... (625-469)/2; aka 78MIPS
per processor from Z10 to z196 due to some out-of-order execution.
There have been some pubs about recent memory latency when measured in
terms of processor clock cycles is similar to 60s disk latency when
measured in terms of 60s processor clock cycles.
trivia: early 80s, I wrote a tome that disk relative system throughput
had declined by an order of magnitude since mid-60 (i.e. disks got 3-5
faster while systems got 40-50 times faster). Disk division executive
took exception and assigned the performance group to refute the
claims. After a few weeks they came back and effectively said I had
slightly understated the problem. They then respun the analysis to
about configuring disks to increase system throughput (16Aug1984,
SHARE 63, B874).
trivia2: a litle over decade ago, I was asked to track down the decision
to add virtual memory to all IBM 370s. I found staff member to executive
making the decision. Basically MVT storage management was so bad that
region sizes had to be specified four times larger than used. As a
result a typical 1mbyte, 370/165 only ran four concurrent regions at a
time, insufficient to keep 165 busy and justified. Going to MVT in
16mbyte virtual memory (VS2/SVS) allowed increasing the number of
regsions by factor of four times (caped at 15 because of 4bit storage
protect keys) with little or no paging ... similar to running MVT in a
CP67 16mbyte virtual machine (aka increasing overlapped execution while
waiting on disk I/O, and our-of-order execution increasing overlapped
execution while waiting on memory). post with some email extracts
about adding virtual memory to all 370s
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#73
some recent post mentioning B874 share presentation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#116 what's a mainframe, was is Vax addressing sane today
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#24 Public Facebook Mainframe Group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#88 Computer Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#32 ancient OS history, ARM is sort of channeling the IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#24 ARM is sort of channeling the IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#109 Old adage "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#55 backward architecture, The Design of Design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#32 Storage Management
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#92 IBM DASD 3380
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#7 HASP, JES, MVT, 370 Virtual Memory, VS2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#26 DISK Performance and Reliability
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#16 IBM User Group, SHARE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#33 IBM Punch Cards
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#6 Mainrame Channel Redrive
PC-based IBM mainframe-compatible systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC-based_IBM_mainframe-compatible_systems
flex-es (gone 404 but lives on at wayback machine)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240130182226/https://www.funsoft.com/
some posts mention both hercules and flex-es
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017e.html#82 does linux scatter daemons on multicore CPU?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012p.html#13 AMC proposes 1980s computer TV series Halt & Catch Fire
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010e.html#71 Entry point for a Mainframe?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#29 Check out Computer glitch to cause flight delays across U.S. - MarketWatch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#26 Check out Computer glitch to cause flight delays across U.S. - MarketWatch
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003d.html#10 Low-end processors (again)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003.html#39 Flex Question
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Emulating vintage computers
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Emulating vintage computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2024 14:01:37 -1000
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#3 Emulating vintage computers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#9 Emulating vintage computers
emulation trivia
Note upthread mentions helping endicott do 138/148 ECPS ... basically
manual compiling selected code into "native" (micro)code running ten
times faster. Then in the late 90s did some consulting for Fundamental
Software
https://web.archive.org/web/20240130182226/https://www.funsoft.com/
What is this zPDT? (and how does it fit in?)
https://www.itconline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/What-is-zPDT.pdf
More recent versions of zPDT have added a "Just-In-Time" (JIT)
compiled mode to this. Some algorithm determines whether a section of
code should be interpreted or whether it would be better to invest
some more initial cycles to compile the System z instructions into
equivalent x86 instructions to simplify the process somewhat). This
interpreter plus JIT compiler is what FLEX-ES used to achieve its high
performance. FLEX-ES also cached the compiled sections of code for
later reuse. I have not been able to verify that zPDT does this
caching also, but I suspect so.
... snip ...
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
TYMSHARE, Engelbart, Ann Hardy
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: TYMSHARE, Engelbart, Ann Hardy
Date: 29 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
When M/D was buying TYMSHARE,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymshare
I was asked to try and find anybody in IBM that would hire Engelbart (I failed)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart
I was also brought in to evaluate GNOSIS for its spin-off as KeyKos to
Key Logic, Ann Hardy at Computer History Museum
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102717167
Ann rose up to become Vice President of the Integrated Systems
Division at Tymshare, from 1976 to 1984, which did online airline
reservations, home banking, and other applications. When Tymshare was
acquired by McDonnell-Douglas in 1984, Ann's position as a female VP
became untenable, and was eased out of the company by being encouraged
to spin out Gnosis, a secure, capabilities-based operating system
developed at Tymshare. Ann founded Key Logic, with funding from Gene
Amdahl, which produced KeyKOS, based on Gnosis, for IBM and Amdahl
mainframes. After closing Key Logic, Ann became a consultant, leading
to her cofounding Agorics with members of Ted Nelson's Xanadu project.
... snip ...
GNOSIS
http://cap-lore.com/CapTheory/upenn/Gnosis/Gnosis.html
Tymshare (, IBM) & Ann Hardy
https://medium.com/chmcore/someone-elses-computer-the-prehistory-of-cloud-computing-bca25645f89
Ann Hardy is a crucial figure in the story of Tymshare and
time-sharing. She began programming in the 1950s, developing software
for the IBM Stretch supercomputer. Frustrated at the lack of
opportunity and pay inequality for women at IBM -- at one point she
discovered she was paid less than half of what the lowest-paid man
reporting to her was paid -- Hardy left to study at the University of
California, Berkeley, and then joined the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in 1962. At the lab, one of her projects involved an early
and surprisingly successful time-sharing operating system.
... snip ...
note: TYMSHARE made their VM370/CMS-based online computer conferencing
system "free" to (ibm mainframe user group) SHARE in Aug1976 as
VMSHARE, archives
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare
I would regularly drop in on TYMSHARE (and/or see them at monthly
meetings hosted by Stanford SLAC) and cut a deal with them to get
monthly tape dump of all VMSHARE (and later PCSHARE) files for putting
up on internal IBM systems and network (biggest hassle were lawyers
concerned that internal IBM employees would be contaminated directly
exposed to unfiltered customer information). Probably contributed to
being blamed for online computer conferencing on the IBM internal
network in the late 70s and early 80s (folklore is when corporate
executive committee was told, 5of6 wanted to fire me).
On one TYMSHARE visit, they demoed ADVENTURE that somebody found on
Stanford SAIL PDP10 system and ported to VM370/CMS and I got a full
source copy for putting up executable on internal IBM systems (I use
to send full source to anybody that demonstrated that they got all
points and shortly there were versions that had more points as well as
PLI port).
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
some past posts mentioning Tymshare, Ann Hardy, Engelbart
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#25 Tymshare & Ann Hardy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#9 Tymshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008s.html#3 New machine code
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aadsm17.htm#31 Payment system and security conference
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
3270 Terminals
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: 3270 Terminals
Date: 29 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
3277/3272 had hardware response of .086sec ... it was followed with
3278 that moved a lot of electronics back into 3274 (reducing 3278
manufacturing cost) ... drastically increasing protocol chatter and
latency, increasing hardware response to .3-.5sec (depending on amount
of data). At the time there were studies showing quarter sec response
improved productivity. Some number of internal VM datacenters were
claiming quarter second system response ... but you needed at least
.164sec system response with 3277 terminal to get quarter sec response
for the person (I was shipping enhanced production operating system
internally, getting .11sec system response). A complaint written to
the 3278 Product Administrator got back a response that 3278 wasn't
for interactive computing but for "data entry" (aka electronic
keypunch). The MVS/TSO crowd never even noticed, it was a really rare
TSO operation that even saw 1sec system response. Later IBM/PC 3277
hardware emulation card would get 4-5 times upload/download throughput
of 3278 card.
Also 3270 protocol was half-duplex ... so if you tried hitting a key
when screen was updated, it would lock keyboard and would have to stop
and reset. YKT did a FIFO box, unplug the 3277 keyboard from the 3277
display, plug the FIFO box into the display and plug the keyboard into
the FIFO box (there was enough electronics in the 3277 terminal that
it was possible to do a number of adaptations, including the 3277GA),
eliminating the keyboard lock scenario.
trivia: 1980, IBM STL (since renamed SVL) was bursting at the seams
and 300 people (w/3270 terminals) from the IMS group were being moved
to offsite bldg with dataprocessing service back to STL
datacenter. They had tried "remote 3270" but found the human factors
totally unacceptable. I get con'ed into doing channel-extender (STL
was running my enhanced systems) service so that channel-attached 3270
controllers could be placed at the offsite bldg with no perceptible
difference in human factors between offsite and in STL. Note a
side-effect was that 168 system throughput increased by 10-15%. The
3270 controllers had previously been spread across 168 channels with
DASD, moving the 3270 channel-attached controllers to
channel-extenders significantly reduced the channel busy (for same
amount of 3270 traffic) improving DASD (& system) throughput. There
was consideration moving all their 3270 controllers to
channel-extenders.
channel-extender posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#channel.extender
recent posts mentioning 3272/3277 and 3274/3278 interactive
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#26 VMNETMAP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#13 MVS/ISPF Editor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#19 IBM Millicode
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#31 HONE, Performance Predictor, and Configurators
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#68 IBM 3270
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#42 Los Gatos Lab, Calma, 3277GA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#70 MVS/TSO and VM370/CMS Interactive Response
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#78 Vintage Mainframe PROFS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#0 3270
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#42 VM/370 3270 Terminal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#4 IBM 370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#2 big and little, Can BCD and binary multipliers share circuitry?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#96 IBM 3270
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#68 IBM Mainframe market was Re: Approximate reciprocals
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#123 System Response
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#110 IBM 4341 & 3270
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#33 IBM 3270 Terminals
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#94 VM/370 Interactive Response
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#74 IBM 3278
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#69 IBM MYTE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#0 Colours on screen (mainframe history question) [EXTERNAL]
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#84 3272/3277 interactive computing
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The boomer generation hit the economic jackpot
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The boomer generation hit the economic jackpot
Date: 29 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
The boomer generation hit the economic jackpot. Young people will
inherit their massive debts
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-boomer-generation-economic-jackpot-young.html
Early last decade, the new (US) Republican speaker of the house
publicly said he was cutting the budget for the agency responsible for
recovering $400B in taxes on funds illegally stashed in overseas tax
havens by 52,000 wealthy Americans (over and above new legislation
after the turn of century that provided for legal stashing funds
overseas). Later there was news on a few billion in fines for banks
responsible for facilitating the illegal tax evasion ... but nothing
on recovering the owed taxes or associated fines or jail sentences
(significantly contributing to congress being considered most corrupt
institution on earth).
Earlier the previous decade, 2002 (shortly after turn of the century),
congress had let the fiscal responsibility act lapse (spending
couldn't exceed revenue, on its way to eliminating all federal
debt). 2010 CBO report that 2003-2009, spending increased $6T and
taxes cut $6T for $12T gap compared to fiscal responsible budget (1st
time taxes were cut to not pay for two wars) ... sort of confluence of
special interests wanting huge tax cut, military-industrial complex
wanting huge spending increase, and Too-Big-To-Fail wanting huge debt
increase (since then the US federal debt has close to tripled).
more refs:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/
http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Islands-Havens-Stole-ebook/dp/B004OA6420/
tax fraud, tax evasion, tax loopholes, tax abuse, tax avoidance, tax
haven posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#tax.evasion
too-big-to-fail (too-big-to-prosecute, too-big-to-jail) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#too-big-to-fail
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
past specific posts mentioning Paradise papers and Treasure Island Havens
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#44 The City of London Is Hiding the World's Stolen Money
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#56 U.K. Pushes for Finance Exemption From Global Taxation Deal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#99 Is America ready to tackle economic inequality?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#93 Trump Administration Scaling Back Rules Meant to Stop Corporate Inversions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#8 The LLC Loophole; In New York, where an LLC is legally a person, companies can use the vehicles to blast through campaign finance limits
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#107 The LLC Loophole; In New York, where an LLC is legally a person
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017h.html#64 endless medical arguments, Disregard post (another screwup)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#52 TV Show "Hill Street Blues"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#35 Hammond threatens EU with aggressive tax changes after Brexit
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#103 Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#35 Deutsche Bank and a $10Bn Money Laundering Nightmare: More Context Than You Can Shake a Stick at
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016.html#92 Thanks Obama
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015e.html#94 1973--TI 8 digit electric calculator--$99.95
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015c.html#56 past of nukes, was Future of support for telephone rotary dial ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014m.html#2 weird apple trivia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013m.html#66 NSA Revelations Kill IBM Hardware Sales In China
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013l.html#60 Retirement Heist
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013l.html#1 What Makes a Tax System Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013k.html#60 spacewar
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013k.html#57 The agency problem and how to create a criminogenic environment
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013k.html#2 IBM Relevancy in the IT World
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013j.html#26 What Makes an Architecture Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013j.html#3 What Makes an Architecture Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#81 What Makes a Tax System Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#65 The Real Snowden Question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#54 How do you feel about the fact that India has more employees than US?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World
Date: 29 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
CEO Learson had tried&failed to block the bureaucrats, careerists and
MBAs from destroying Watsons' culture/legacy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
... was greatly accelerated by the failing Future System project from
"Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World", Time Books
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Wars-The-Post-IBM-World/dp/1587981394
... and perhaps most damaging, the old culture under Watson Snr and Jr
of free and vigorous debate was replaced with *SYNCOPHANCY* and *MAKE
NO WAVES* under Opel and Akers. It's claimed that thereafter, IBM
lived in the shadow of defeat ... But because of the heavy investment
of face by the top management, F/S took years to kill, although its
wrong headedness was obvious from the very outset. "For the first
time, during F/S, outspoken criticism became politically dangerous,"
recalls a former top executive
... snip ...
... note: FS was completely different and was going to replace all
370s (during FS, internal politics was killing off 370 efforts, claim
is that the lack of new 370 during FS is credited with giving the
clone 370 makers their market foothold). When FS implodes, there is
mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipelines, including
kicking off the quick&dirty 3033&3081 efforts in
parallel. Trivia: I continued to work on 360&370 stuff all during
FS, including periodically ridiculing what they were doing. Some more
FS detail:
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Future_Systems_project
The damage was done in the 20yrs between Learson failed effort and
1992 when IBM has one of the largest losses in the history of US
companies and was being reorged into the 13 "baby blues" (take off on
AT&T "baby bells" breakup decade earlier) in preparation for
breaking up the company
https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
we had already left IBM but get a call from the bowels of Armonk
asking if we could help with the company breakup. Before we get
started, the board brings in the former president of Amex as CEO, who
(somewhat) reverses the breakup ... and uses some of the techniques
used at RJR (ref gone 404, but lives on at wayback machine).
https://web.archive.org/web/20181019074906/http://www.ibmemployee.com/RetirementHeist.shtml
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
Former AMEX President posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#gerstner
pension posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#pensions
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
CSC Virtual Machine Work
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: CSC Virtual Machine Work
Date: 29 Sept, 2024
Blog: Facebook
As far as I know, science center reports were trashed when the science
centers were shutdown
I got hard copy of Comeau's presentation at SEAS and OCR'ed it:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/cp40seas1982.txt
Also another version at Melinda's history site:
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist
and
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda/JimMarch/CP40_The_Origin_of_VM370.pdf
We had the IBM HA/CMP product and subcontracted a lot of work out to
CLaM, Comeau had left IBM and was doing a number of things including
founder of CLaM. When Cambridge was shutdown, CLaM took over the
science center space.
CSC had wanted 360/50 to modify with virtual memory, but all the spare
360/50s were going to FAA ATC project ... so they got a 360/40 to
modify and did CP40/CMS. It morphs into CP67/CMS when a 360/67
standard with virtual memory becomes available
I take a two credit hr into to fortran/computers. Univ was getting
360/67 for tss/360 to replace 709/1401, temporarily pending
availability of 360/67, the 1401 was replaced with 360/30 and at end
of intro class, I was hired to rewrite 1401 MPIO (unit record
front-end for 709) in 360 assembler for 360/30 (OS360/PCP). The univ
shutdown the datacenter on weekends and I would have the place
dedicated (although 48hrs w/o sleep made monday classes hard). I was
given a lot of software&hardware manuals and got to design and
implement my own monitor, device drivers, interrupt handlers, error
recovery, storage management, etc ... and within a few weeks have a
2000 card assembler program.
Within a year of taking intro class, the 360/67 arrives and univ hires
me fulltime responsible for OS/360 (running on 360/67 as 360/65,
tss/360 never came to production fruition). Student fortran had run
under second on 709 but well over a minute with os360/MFT. I install
HASP and it cuts the time in half. First sysgen was MFTR9.5. Then I
start redoing stage2 sysgen to carefully place datasets and PDS
members (to optimize arm seek and multi-track search), cutting another
2/3rds to 12.9 secs (student fortran never gets better than 709 until
I install univ of waterloo Watfor.
Jan1968, CSC came out to install CP67 at the univ (3rd after CSC
itself and MIT Lincoln Labs) and I mostly got to play with it during
my weekend dedicated times, initial 1st few months rewriting lots of
CP67 for running OS/360 in virtual machine. My OS360 test job stream
ran 322secs on bare machine, initially 856secs virtually (534secs CP67
CPU), managed to get CP67 CPU down to 113secs. I then redo
dispatching/scheduling (dynamic adaptive resource management), page
replacement, thrashing controls, ordered disk arm seek, 2301/drum
multi-page rotational ordered transfers (from 70-80 4k/sec to 270/sec
peak), bunch of other stuff ... for CMS interactive computing. Then to
further cut CMS CP67 CPU overhead I do a special CCW. Bob Adair
criticizes it because it violates 360 architecture ... and it has to
be redone as DIAGNOSE instruction (which is defined to be "model"
dependent ... and so have facade of virtual machine model diagnose).
cambrdige science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
some posts mentioning computer work as undergraduate
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#111 GNOME bans Manjaro Core Team Member for uttering "Lunduke"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#76 Some work before IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#36 This New Internet Thing, Chapter 8
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#114 EBCDIC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#97 IBM 360 Announce 7Apr1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#63 Computers and Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#60 Vintage Selectric
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#44 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#87 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#83 360 CARD IPL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#34 Vintage IBM Mainframes & Minicomputers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#54 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#34 IBM 360/67
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#88 545tech sq, 3rd, 4th, & 5th flrs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#95 Enhanced Production Operating Systems II
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#57 CMS OS/360 Simulation
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTRAN
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2024 09:29:37 -1000
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:
Intel's real 32 bit processor was supposed to be the iAPX 432, with the
x86 a rework of the 8080 as a stop gap. O think I have the preliminary
data sheets around here someplace. They threw money at it for about 10
years and failed.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#8 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#7 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
somewhat like IBM's failed "Future System" effort (replacing all 370s)
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Future_Systems_project
except FS was enormous amounts of microcode. i432 gave talk at early 80s
ACM SIGOPS at asilomar ... one of their issues was really complex stuff
in silicon and nearly every fix required new silicon.
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
some posts mentioning i432
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#114 Copyright Software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#22 Copyright Software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#38 IBM Boeblingen
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#91 IBM XT/370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#27 PC Market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019c.html#33 IBM Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#52 All programmers that developed in machine code and Assembly in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s died?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#95 The (broken) economics of OSS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#99 OS-9
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#98 OS-9
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#28 Eliminating the systems programmer was Re: IBM cuts contractor bil ling by 15 percent (our else)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017e.html#61 Typesetting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#38 British socialism / anti-trust
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016e.html#115 IBM History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016d.html#63 PL/I advertising
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016d.html#62 PL/I advertising
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014m.html#107 IBM 360/85 vs. 370/165
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014k.html#23 1950: Northrop's Digital Differential Analyzer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014c.html#75 Bloat
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013f.html#33 Delay between idea and implementation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012n.html#40 history of Programming language and CPU in relation to each other
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012k.html#57 1132 printer history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012k.html#14 International Business Marionette
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011l.html#42 i432 on Bitsavers?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011l.html#15 Selectric Typewriter--50th Anniversary
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011l.html#2 68000 assembly language programming
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#79 Selectric Typewriter--50th Anniversary
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011c.html#91 If IBM Hadn't Bet the Company
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011c.html#7 RISCversus CISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010j.html#22 Personal use z/OS machines was Re: Multiprise 3k for personal Use?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#40 Faster image rotation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#8 Far and near pointers on the 80286 and later
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#45 IA64
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010g.html#1 IA64
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009q.html#74 Now is time for banks to replace core system according to Accenture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#46 U.S. begins inquiry of IBM in mainframe market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#18 Microprocessors with Definable MIcrocode
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009o.html#13 Microprocessors with Definable MIcrocode
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009d.html#52 Lack of bit field instructions in x86 instruction set because of patents ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008k.html#22 CLIs and GUIs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008e.html#32 CPU time differences for the same job
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008d.html#54 Throwaway cores
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007s.html#36 Oracle Introduces Oracle VM As It Leaps Into Virtualization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006t.html#7 32 or even 64 registers for x86-64?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006p.html#15 "25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#44 Any resources on VLIW?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006n.html#42 Why is zSeries so CPU poor?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006c.html#47 IBM 610 workstation computer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005q.html#31 Intel strikes back with a parallel x86 design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005k.html#46 Performance and Capacity Planning
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005d.html#64 Misuse of word "microcode"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#73 Athlon cache question
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#64 Will multicore CPUs have identical cores?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004q.html#60 Will multicore CPUs have identical cores?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#52 Infiniband - practicalities for small clusters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003e.html#54 Reviving Multics
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#5 Anyone here ever use the iAPX432 ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002l.html#19 Computer Architectures
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#46 IBM Mainframe at home
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#27 iAPX432 today?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000f.html#48 Famous Machines and Software that didn't
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000e.html#6 Ridiculous
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTRAN
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTRAN
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:30:58 -1000
Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
somewhat like IBM's failed "Future System" effort (replacing all 370s)
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Future_Systems_project
except FS was enormous amounts of microcode. i432 gave talk at early 80s
ACM SIGOPS at asilomar ... one of their issues was really complex stuff
in silicon and nearly every fix required new silicon.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#16 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#8 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#7 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
I continued to work on 360/370 all during FS, even periodically
ridiculing what they were doing (which wasn't exactly career
enhancing) ... during FS, 370 stuff was being killed off and claims
lack of new 370 during FS gave the clone 370 system makers their
market foothold. when FS finally imploded (one of the final nails was
analysis that if 370/195 applications were redone for FS machine made
out of the fastest hardware available, they would have throughput of
370/145 ... about 30times slowdown) there was mad rush to get stuff
back into the 370 product pipelines, including kicking off the Q&D
3033&3081 efforts in parallel.
I have periodically claimed that John did 801/RISC to go the extreme
opposite of Future System (mid-70s there was internal adtech
conference where we presented 370 16-cpu multiprocessor and the
801/RISC group presented RISC).
I got dragged into helping with a 370 16-cpu multiprocessor and we con
the 3033 processor engineers into working on it in their spare time (a
lot more interesting than remapping 370/168 logic to 20% faster
chips). Everybody thought it was great until somebody tells the head
of POK that it could be decades before the POK favorite son operating
system ("MVS") had effective 16-cpu support (at the time MVS docs had
2-cpu system support with only 1.2-1.5 times the throughput of a 1-cpu
system (I had number of 2-cpu systems that had twice the throughput of
single cpu system) and head of POK invites some of us to never visit
POK again ... and the 3033 processor engineers to keep their heads
down and no distractions. Note: POK doesn't ship a 16-cpu system until
after the turn of the century (more than two decades later).
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of RISC
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of RISC
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:39:23 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
That was certainly a much more fruitful effort. IBM's attempt to turn ROMP
into an actual product may have been an embarrassment (the RT PC), but
they more than redeemed themselves with the later POWER line, which
remains a performance leader to this day.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#17 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#16 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#8 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#7 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
ROMP was originally targeted to be DISPLAYWRITER follow-on, written in
PL.8 and running cp.r ... when that was canceled (market moving to
personal computing), they decided to pivot to the UNIX workstation
market and got the company that had done AT&T Unix port to IBM/PC
for PC/IX ... to do one for ROMP ... some claim they had 200 PL.8
programmers and decided to use them to implement a ROMP abstract
virtual machine and tell the company doing AIX that it would be much
faster and easier to do it to VM, than to the bare hardware.
However, there was the IBM Palo Alto group doing UCB BSD port to 370
that got redirected to do BSD port to the (bare hardware) ROMP instead
(in much less time and resources than either the abstract virtual
machine or the AIX effort) as "AOS".
Late 80s, my wife and I got the HA/6000 project, originally for the
NYTimes to move their newspaper system (ATEX) off VAXCluster to
RS/6000. I rename it HA/CMP when I start doing scientific/technical
cluster scale-up with national labs and commercial cluster scale-up
with RDBMS vendors (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres that had
VAXCluster support in same source base with UNIX). Then the executive
we reported to went over to head up Somerset (AIM; apple, ibm,
motorola; single-chip RISC)
Early Jan92 in meeting with Oracle CEO, AWD/Hester tells Ellison we
would have 16-system clusters by mid92 and 128-system clusters by
ye92, however by end jan92, cluster scale-up was transferred for
announce as IBM supercomputer (for technical/scientific *ONLY*) and we
were told we couldn't work on anything with more than four systems (we
leave IBM a few months later).
There had been complaints by commercial mainframe possibly contributing
to the decision:
1993: eight processor ES/9000-982 : 408MIPS, 51MIPS/processor
1993: RS6000/990 : 126MIPS; 16-system: 2BIPS/2016MIPs,
128-system: 16BIPS/16,128MIPS
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
CSC Virtual Machine Work
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: CSC Virtual Machine Work
Date: 02 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#15 CSC Virtual Machine Work
Trivia: A little over decade ago, I was asked to track down decision
to add virtual memory to all 370s and found staff to executive making
decision, basically MVT storage management was so bad that regions had
to be specified four times larger than used so a typical 1mbyte
370/165 would only run four regions concurrently, insufficient to keep
165 busy (and justified). Going to MVT in 16mbyte virtual address
space (VS2/SVS) allowed number of regions to be increased by four
times (caped at 15 because of 4bit storage protect keys) with little
or no paging (sort of like running MVT in CP67 16mbyte virtual
machine). some of the email exchange tracking down virtual memory for
all 370s
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#73 Multiple Virtual Memory
We were visiting POK a lot ... part was trying to get CAS justified in
370 architecture, but I was also hammering the MVT performance group
about their proposed page replacement algorithm (eventually they
claimed that it didn't make any difference because paging rate would
be 5/sec or less). Also would drop in on Ludlow offshift that was
implementing VS2/SVS prototype on 360/67. It involved a little bit of
code to build the 16mbyte virtual address table, enter/exit virtual
address mode, and some simple paging. The biggest effort was EXCP/SVC0
where channel programs built in application space were passed to the
supervisor for execution. Since they had virtual addresses, EXCP/SVC0
faced the same problem as CP67, making a copy of the channel program,
replacing virtual addresses with real ... and he borrows a copy of
CP67 CCWTRAN for the implementation.
Near the end of the 70s, somebody in POK gets an award for fixing the
MVS page replacement algorithm (that I complained about in the early
70s, aka by late 70s, the paging rate had significantly increased and
it had started to make a difference).
SMP, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor (and/or compare&swap) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
posts mentioning Ludlow, EXCP, CP67 CCWTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#24 Public Facebook Mainframe Group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#24 ARM is sort of channeling the IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#27 HASP, ASP, JES2, JES3
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#77 MVT, MVS, MVS/XA & Posix support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#69 Vintage TSS/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#47 Vintage IBM Mainframes & Minicomputers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#40 Rise and Fall of IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#26 Ferranti Atlas
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#43 IBM 360/65 & 360/67 Multiprocessors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#15 Copyright Software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#4 HASP, JES, MVT, 370 Virtual Memory, VS2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#103 2023 IBM Poughkeepsie, NY
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#93 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#22 370 virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#41 MVS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#7 Vintage Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#91 Enhanced Production Operating Systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#55 CMS OS/360 Simulation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#70 165/168/3033 & 370 virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#58 Computer Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#10 360/65, 360/67, 360/75
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#48 Dynamic Adaptive Resource Management
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021g.html#6 IBM 370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#63 Early Computer Use
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#59 370 Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#18 IBM assembler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016.html#78 Mainframe Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#54 Difference between MVS and z / OS systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013l.html#18 A Brief History of Cloud Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#47 Making mainframe technology hip again
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013.html#22 Is Microsoft becoming folklore?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012l.html#73 PDP-10 system calls, was 1132 printer history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012i.html#55 Operating System, what is it?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011o.html#92 Question regarding PSW correction after translation exceptions on old IBM hardware
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#72 Multiple Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011.html#90 Two terrific writers .. are going to write a book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007f.html#6 IBM S/360 series operating systems history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#25 MVCIN instruction
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004e.html#40 Infiniband - practicalities for small clusters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002p.html#51 Linux paging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002p.html#49 Linux paging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000c.html#34 What level of computer is needed for a computer to Love?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 360/30, 360/65, 360/67 Work
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 360/30, 360/65, 360/67 Work
Date: 03 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
I take a two credit hr into to fortran/computers. Univ was getting
360/67 for tss/360 to replace 709/1401, temporarily pending
availability of 360/67, the 1401 was replaced with 360/30 and at end
of intro class, I was hired to rewrite 1401 MPIO (unit record
front-end for 709) in 360 assembler for 360/30 (OS360/PCP). The univ
shutdown the datacenter on weekends and I would have the place
dedicated (although 48hrs w/o sleep made monday classes hard). I was
given a lot of software&hardware manuals and got to design and
implement my own monitor, device drivers, interrupt handlers, error
recovery, storage management, etc ... and within a few weeks have a
2000 card assembler program ... ran stand-alone, loaded with the BPS
card loader. I then add assembler option and OS/360 system services
I/O. The stand-alone version took 30mins to assemble, the OS/360
version took an hour to assemble (each DCB macro taking over five
minutes to assemble). Later somebody claimed that the people
implementing the assembler were told they only had 256bytes to
implement op-code lookup ... so enormous amount of disk I/O.
trivia: periodically i would come in Sat. morning and find production
had finished early and the machine room was dark and everything turn
off. I would try and power on 360/30 and it wouldn't complete. Lots of
pouring over documents and trail and error, I found I could put all
controllers in CE-mode, power-on 360/30, power on individual
controllers and return each controller to normal mode.
Within a year of taking intro class, the 360/67 shows up and I was
hired fulltime responsible for OS/360 (TSS/360 hadn't come to
production fruition) ... and I continued to have my dedicated weekend
48hrs (and monday classes still difficult). My first sysgen was
MFT9.5. Note student fortran jobs took under a second on 709
(tape->tape), but over a minute with OS/360. I install HASP, cutting
the time in half. I then start redoing stage2 sysgen, carefully
placing datasets and PDS members to optimize arm seek and multi-track
search, cutting another 2/3rds to 12.9secs. Student Fortran never got
better than 709 until I install Univ. of Waterloo Watfor.
Before I graduate, I'm hired fulltime into small group in the Boeing
CFO office to help with the formation of Boeing Computer Services
(consolidate all dataprocessing in a independent business unit). I
think Renton datacenter possibly largest in the world (couple hundred
million in 360 systems), 360/65s arriving faster than they could be
installed, boxes constantly staged in the hallways around the machine
room. Renton did have one 360/75, there was black rope around the area
perimeter and guards when it was running classified jobs (and heavy
black velvet drapped over console lights and 1403 printers). Lots of
politics between Renton director and CFO, who only had a 360/30 up at
Boeing field for payroll (although they enlarge the machine room and
install a 360/67 for me to play with when I wasn't doing other
stuff). When I graduate, I join IBM (instead of staying with Boeing
CFO).
Boeing Huntsville had two processor 360/67 SMP (and several 2250
display for CAD/CAM) that was brought up to Seattle. It had been
acquired (also) for TSS/360 but ran as two systems with MVT. They had
also ran into the MVT storage management problem (that later resulted
in the decision to add virtual memory to all 370s). Boeing Huntsville
had modified MVTR13 to run in virtual memory mode (but no paging),
using virtual memory to partially compensate for the MVT storage
management problems. A little over decade ago, I was asked to track
down the 370 virtual memory decision and found staff member for
executive making decision. Basically MVT storage management was so bad
that region sizes had to be specified four times larger than used,
limiting typical 1mbyte 370/165 to four concurrent running regions,
insufficient to keep 165 busy and justified. They found that moving
MVT to 16mbyte virtual address space (VS2/SVS, similar to running MVT
in CP67 16mbyte virtual machine), they could increase number of
concurrent regions by factor of four times (caped at 15 because of
4bit storage protect key) with little or no paging.
trivia: in the early 80s, I was introduced to John Boyd and would
sponsor his briefings at IBM.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
One of his stories was about being very vocal that the electronics
across the trail wouldn't work. Then (possibly as punishment) he is
put in command of "spook base" (about the same time I'm at
Boeing). His biography has "spook base" was a $2.5B "windfall" for IBM
(ten times Renton) ... some ref:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030212092342/http://home.att.net/~c.jeppeson/igloo_white.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Igloo_White
Before TSS/360 was decomitted, there was claim that there were 1200
people on TSS at a time there were 12 people (including secretary) in
the Cambridge Science Center group on CP67/CMS. CSC had wanted a
360/50 to hardware modify with virtual memory support, but all the
spare 50s were going to the FAA ATC project, and so had to settle for
360/40. CP40/CMS morphs into CP67/CMS when 360/67 standard with
virtual memory becomes available. Some CSC people come out to the univ
to install CP67/CMS (3rd installaion after Cambridge itself and MIT
Lincoln Labs) and I mostly get to play with it in my dedicated weekend
time. Initially I rewrite a lot of CP67 to improve overhead running
OS/360 in virtual machine. My OS/360 test jobstream ran 322 seconds on
real hardware and initially 856secs virtually (534secs CP67
CPU). After a few months managed to get it down to 435secs (CP67 CPU
113secs).
I then redo dispatching/scheduling (dynamic adaptive resource
management), page replacement, thrashing controls, ordered disk arm
seek, 2301/drum multi-page rotational ordered transfers (from 70-80
4k/sec to 270/sec peak), bunch of other stuff ... for CMS interactive
computing. Then to further cut CMS CP67 CPU overhead I do a special
CCW. Bob Adair criticizes it because it violates 360 architecture
... and it has to be redone as DIAGNOSE instruction (which is defined
to be "model" dependent ... and so have facade of virtual machine
model diagnose).
Boyd postings and URL refs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html
Cambridge Scientific Center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
some recent posts mentioning 709/1401, MPIO, 360/30, 360/67, CP67/CMS,
Boeing CFO, Renton datacenter,
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#103 IBM 360/40, 360/50, 360/65, 360/67, 360/75
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#76 Some work before IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#97 IBM 360 Announce 7Apr1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#63 Computers and Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#60 Vintage Selectric
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#44 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#87 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#83 360 CARD IPL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#54 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#106 DASD, Channel and I/O long winded trivia
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Byte ordering
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Byte ordering
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2024 15:33:54 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
I would say IBM designed 32-bit POWER/PowerPC as a cut-down 64-bit
architecture, needing only a few gaps filled to make it fully 64-bit.
The PowerPC 601 was first shown publicly in 1993; I can't remember when
the fully 64-bit 620 came out, but it can't have been long after.
Motorola did a similar thing with the 68000 family: if you compare the
original 68000 instruction set with the 68020, you will see the latter
only needed to fill in a few gaps to become fully 32-bit.
Compare this with the pain the x86 world went through, over a much longer
time, to move to 32-bit.
power/pc was done at Somerset ... part of AIM; apple, ibm, motorola ...
and some of amount of motorola risc 88k contributed to power/pc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600#60x_bus
Using the 88110 bus as the basis for the 60x bus helped schedules in a
number of ways. It helped the Apple Power Macintosh team by reducing
the amount of redesign of their support ASICs and it reduced the
amount of time required for the processor designers and architects to
propose, document, negotiate, and close a new bus interface
(successfully avoiding the "Bus Wars" expected by the 601 management
team if the 88110 bus or the previous RSC buses hadn't been
adopted). Worthy to note is that accepting the 88110 bus for the
benefit of Apple's efforts and the alliance was at the expense of the
first IBM RS/6000 system design team's efforts who had their support
ASICs already implemented around the RSC's totally different bus
structure.
... snip ...
... note that RS/6000 didn't have design that supported cache
consistency, shared-memory multiprocessing ... (one of the reason ha/cmp
had to resort to cluster operation for scale-up)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600#PowerPC_620
https://wiki.preterhuman.net/The_Somerset_Design_Center
the executive we reported to when we were doing HA/CMP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_High_Availability_Cluster_Multiprocessing
went over to head up Somerset
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
stacks are not hard, The joy of FORTRAN-like languages
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: stacks are not hard, The joy of FORTRAN-like languages
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:07:09 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
Soon after dynamic memory allocation was invented, it was discovered that
keeping lookaside lists of free blocks in common sizes speeded up
allocations immensely.
This was all well-known by about the 1980s, if not before.
implemented in CP67 kernal ("subpools") code 1970 (released CP67
R3) ... following from presentation I gave at SEAS 7Oct1986 (European
SHARE on isle of jersey) lots of R3.0, R3.1, & R3.2 was after I had
graduated and joined scientific center and stuff I had done at the univ
as undergraduate in the 60s (one of my hobbies was enhanced production
systems for internal datacenters).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/hill0316g.pdf
repeated 16Mar2011 at Wash DC HILLGANG user group meeting.
In the morph from CP67->VM370, they dropped and/or simplified a lot of
stuff. 1974, I started migrating a bunch of stuff to VM370R2 base for my
internal CSC/VM ... including kernel reorganization for SMP
multiprocessor (but not the SMP support itself). Then for VM370R3-base
CSC/VM I do SMP support ... originally for the internal online
sales&marketing HONE systems (before it was released to customers in
VM370R4).
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
CSC/VM Posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
a couple posts mentioning seas/hillgang presentation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021g.html#46 6-10Oct1986 SEAS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011e.html#3 Multiple Virtual Memory
some posts mentioning CP67 R3 free/fret subpool
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#9 To Anne & Lynn Wheeler, if still observing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010h.html#21 QUIKCELL Doc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#53 Why 'pop' and not 'pull' the complementary action to 'push' for a stack
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#15 The SLT Search LisT instruction - Maybe another one for the Wheelers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006r.html#8 should program call stack grow upward or downwards?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006j.html#21 virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004m.html#22 Lock-free algorithms
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002.html#14 index searching
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2000d.html#47 Charging for time-share CPU time
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/98.html#19 S/360 operating systems geneaology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/93.html#26 MTS & LLMPS?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
Date: 05 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Amdahl wins the fight to make ACS, 360 compatible. Folklore is ACS/360
was then canceled because executives were worried that it would
advance state of the art too fast and IBM loose control of the
market. Then Amdahl leaves IBM and starts his own clone mainframe
company. Following includes some ACS/360 features that show up more
than 20yrs later with ES/9000
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_end.html
Then there is Future System effort, completely different from 370 and
was going to completely replace 370 (internal politics was killing off
370 efforts which is claimed to have given clone mainframe makers
their market foothold). I had graduated and joined IBM Cambridge
Scientific Center, not long before FS started (I continued to work on
360&370 and periodically ridiculed FS). I got to continue to attend
user group meetings and also stop by customers. The director of one of
the largest financial industry, true-blue IBM mainframe datacenters
liked me to stop by and talk technology. Then the IBM branch manager
horribly offended the customer and in retaliation they were ordering
an Amdahl system (single Amdahl system in large sea of "blue"). Up
until then Amdahl had been selling into the technical/scientific
industry, but this would be the first Amdahl install in the commercial
market. I was asked to go spend onsite for 6-12months at the customer
(to help obfuscate why the customer was installing an Amdahl
machine). I talk it over with the customer and he says he would be
happy to have me onsite, but it wouldn't change installing an Amdahl
machine ... and I decline IBM's offer. I'm then told that the branch
manager is good sailing buddy of IBM's CEO and if I don't do this, I
can forget having a career, raises and promotions.
trivia: Future System eventually implodes, more information
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
and
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Wars-The-Post-IBM-World/dp/1587981394
... and perhaps most damaging, the old culture under Watson Snr and Jr
of free and vigorous debate was replaced with *SYNCOPHANCY* and *MAKE
NO WAVES* under Opel and Akers. It's claimed that thereafter, IBM
lived in the shadow of defeat ... But because of the heavy investment
of face by the top management, F/S took years to kill, although its
wrong headedness was obvious from the very outset. "For the first
time, during F/S, outspoken criticism became politically dangerous,"
recalls a former top executive
... snip ...
One of the final nails in the FS coffin (by the IBM Houston Science
Center) was that if 370/195 applications were redone for FS machine
made out of fastest technology available, it would have throughput of
370/145 (about 30 times slow down). One of the FS features was
single-level-store, possibly inherited from TSS/360 (and there
appeared to nobody in FS that knew how to beat highly tuned OS/360 I/O
... and a large 300 disk mainframe configuration could have never
worked). I had done a page-mapped filesystem for CP67/CMS, and would
joke I learned what not to do from TSS/360.
S/38 was greatly simplified implementation and there was sufficient
hardware performance headroom to meet the S/38 market
requirements. One of S/38 simplification features was treating all
disks as single single-level-store that could include scatter
allocation of a file across all disks ... as some S/38 configurations
grew in number of disks, downtime backing-up/restoring all disks as
single entity was becoming a major issue (contributing to S/38 being
early adopter of IBM RAID technology).
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
cms page-mapped filesystem posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#mmap
some posts mentioning single-level-store, s/38, cms paged-mapped filesystem,
and RAID
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#68 The IBM Way by Buck Rogers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#29 Future System and S/38
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#3 Vintage Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#10 VM/370 Going Away
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#41 370/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#43 Transaction Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#34 Tech: we didn't mean for it to turn out like this
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#66 Is AMD Dooomed? A Silly Suggestion!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011i.html#63 Before the PC: IBM invents virtualisation (Cambridge skunkworks)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#72 Remembering the CDC 6600
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
Date: 05 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#23 Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
other trivia: shortly after joining IBM, I was also asked to help with
370/195 simulate two processor machine using multithreading:
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_end.html
Sidebar: Multithreading
In summer 1968, Ed Sussenguth investigated making the ACS/360 into a
multithreaded design by adding a second instruction counter and a
second set of registers to the simulator. Instructions were tagged
with an additional "red/blue" bit to designate the instruction stream
and register set; and, as was expected, the utilization of the
functional units increased since more independent instructions were
available.
IBM patents and disclosures on multithreading include:
US Patent 3,728,692, J.W. Fennel, Jr., "Instruction selection in a
two-program counter instruction unit," filed August 1971, and issued
April 1973.
US Patent 3,771,138, J.O. Celtruda, et al., "Apparatus and method for
serializing instructions from two independent instruction streams,"
filed August 1971, and issued November 1973. [Note that John Earle is
one of the inventors listed on the '138.]
"Multiple instruction stream uniprocessor," IBM Technical Disclosure
Bulletin, January 1976, 2pp. [for S/370]
... snip ...
Most codes only ran 370/195 at half speed. 195 had 64 instruction
pipeline with out-of-order execution but no branch prediction and
speculative execution, so conditional branches drained the
pipeline. Implementing multithreading, simulating two CPU
multiprocessor, each simulated "CPU" running at half-speed, could keep
195 fully utilized (modulo: MVT/MVS software at the time claiming a
two CPU multiprocessor only had 1.2-1.5 times the throughput of a
single processor). Then the decision was made to add virtual memory to
all 370s and it was decided that it wouldn't be justified to try and
add virtual memory to 195, and all new work on 195 was canceled.
SMP, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
some recent 370/195 posts mentioning multithread effort
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#115 what's a mainframe, was is Vax addressing sane today
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#101 Chipsandcheese article on the CDC6600
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#66 360/65, 360/67, 360/75 750ns memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#20 IBM Millicode
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#24 Tomasulo at IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#89 Vintage IBM 709
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#100 CP/67, VM/370, VM/SP, VM/XA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#32 IBM 370/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#20 IBM 360/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#6 z/VM 50th - part 7
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#0 IBM 370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#112 TOPS-20 Boot Camp for VMS Users 05-Mar-2022
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#32 do some Americans write their 1's in this way ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#17 Arguments for a Sane Instruction Set Architecture--5 years later
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#34 Retrotechtacular: The IBM System/360 Remembered
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#22 COMPUTER HISTORY: REMEMBERING THE IBM SYSTEM/360 MAINFRAME, its Origin and Technology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#12 Computer Server Market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#51 IBM History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#60 370/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#31 370/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#46 Transaction Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#51 OoO S/360 descendants
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#28 IBM 370/195
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
Date: 05 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#23 Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#24 Future System, Single-Level-Store, S/38
Single-level-store doesn't provide for application high-throughput if
done simply ... like just mapping file image and then taking
synchronous page faults.
Silverlake to combine s/36 and s/38 (including dropping some s/38
features, after S/38 implementation having greatly simplified FS
stuff)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#Silverlake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#AS/400
I-system rebranding
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#Rebranding
I had done a lot of os/360 performance work and rewrote large amount
of cp67/cms as undergraduate in the 60s. Then when I graduate, I join
the cambridge science center.
Note some of the MIT CTSS/7094 people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System
had gone to Project MAC on the 5th flr to do MULTICS (which included
high-performance single-level-store)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics
others had gone to the science center on the 4th flr, doing virtual
machines, internal network, lots of interactive and performance work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Scientific_Center
At Cambridge, I thought I could do anything that the 5th flr could do,
so I implement a high-performance virtual page-mapped filesystem for
CMS. Standard CMS filesystem was scatter allocate, single device, and
disk record transfers were synchronous (it could do multiple record
channel programs if sequential, contiguous allocation, but not likely
with scatter allocate). I wanted to be able to support contiguous
allocation as well as multiple asynchronous page transfers.
Then in early 80s, I got HSDT project, T1 and faster computer links
(both terrestrial and satellite) with both RSCS/VNET and TCP/IP
support.
RSCS/VNET leveraged 1st CP67 (and later VM370) spool file system that
shared a lot of implementation with the paging system. However, it
used a synchronous operation for 4k block transfers, limiting
RSCS/VNET to about 30kbytes/sec (or around 300kbits/sec). I needed
3mbits/sec sustained for each full-duplex T1 link. I reimplement the
VM370 spool file support in VS/Pascal running in virtual address space
and used much of the CMS page-mapped filesystem API (that I had done
more than decade earlier) .... contiguous allocation, multiple page
asynchronous transfers, as well as multiple buffer read ahead and
write behind.
As for TCP/IP was also working with NSF director and was suppose to
get $20M to interconnect the NSF Supercomputer Centers. Then Congress
cuts the budget, some other things happen and eventually an RFP (in
part based on what we already had running) is released. From 28Mar1986
Preliminary Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet.
trivia: late 80s, got the HA/6000 project, initially for NYTimes to
move their newspaper system (ATEX) from DEC VAXCluster to RS/6000. I
rename it HA/CMP when I start doing technical/scientific cluster
scale-up with national labs and commercial cluster scale-up with RDBMS
vendors (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Ingres that had VAXCluster and Unix
support in the same source base, I do distributed lock manager
supporting VAXCluster API semantics easing the move to HA/CMP). The
S/88 product administrator then starts taking us around to their
customers and also has me do a section for the corporate continuous
availability strategy document (it got pulled when both
Rochester/AS400 and POK/mainframe complain they couldn't meet the
requirements).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_High_Availability_Cluster_Multiprocessing
trivia: Executive we reported to, moves over to head up Somerset (AIM,
Apple, IBM, Motorola, single chip power/pc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600
https://wiki.preterhuman.net/The_Somerset_Design_Center
Early Jan92, there is HA/CMP meeting with Oracle CEO where AWD/Hester
tells Ellison that we would have 16-system clusters by mid92 and
128-system clusters by ye92. Then late Jan92, cluster scale-up is
transferred for announce as IBM supercomputer (for
technical/scientific *ONLY*) and we are told we can't work with
anything with more than four processors (we leave IBM a few months
later).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_High_Availability_Cluster_Multiprocessing
cambridge science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
CMS page-mapped filesystem posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#mmap
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
continuous availability, disaster survivability, geographic
survivability posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The Fall Of OS/2
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The Fall Of OS/2
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2024 09:08:57 -1000
jgd@cix.co.uk (John Dallman) writes:
The promise was a little closer in time. When the PS/2 range was launched,
the low-end machines, the Model 50 and the Model 60, were 286-based and
corporate customers bought a lot of them. IBM promised those models would
run OS/2.
Boca was making all sort of claims about PC market ... and I was posting
on internal forums, from sunday san jose mercury news, quantity one,
clone pc prices (from other side of pacific), way below IBM's large
quantity discount)). Then clone PC makers had built up big inventory of
286 machines for xmas season when 386 appeared (in part 386 chip
included functions that required several chips in 286 systems, reducing
386 system build costs), and there was enormous fire sale clearance for
the 286 systems.
some archived posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#79 a.f.c history checkup...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#80 a.f.c history checkup...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#81 a.f.c history checkup...
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001n.html#82 a.f.c history checkup...
then boca contracted with Dataquest (since bought by gartner) for
detailed study of PC market, including couple hr video taped round table
of silicon valley PC experts ... I had known the person doing the study
at Dataquest and was asked to be one of the PC experts (they promise to
garble my details so boca wouldn't recognize me as ibm employee). I did
manage to clear it with my immediate management
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The Fall Of OS/2
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The Fall Of OS/2
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2024 13:33:17 -1000
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#26 The Fall Of OS/2
the IBM communication group was fiercely fighting off client/server
and distributed computing. Late 80s, a senior engineer in the disk
division got a talk scheduled at internal, communication group,
world-wide, annual conference supposedly on 3174 performance ... but
opened the talk with statement that the communication group was going
to be responsible for the demise of the disk division. They were
seeing a drop in disk sales with data fleeing mainframe datacenters to
more distributed computing friendly platforms ... and had come up with
a number of solutions. However the communication group was constantly
vetoing the disk division solutions (with communication group
corporate strategic ownership/responsibility for everything that
crossed datacenter walls).
note that workstation division had done their own cards for the PC/RT
(PCAT-bus) including 4mbit token-ring card. Then for the RS/6000
microchannel workstations, AWD was told they couldn't do their own
cards, but had to use PS2 microchannel cards. The communication group
had severely performance kneecapped the PS2 microchannel cards
... example was that the $800 PS2 microchannel 16mbit token-ring card
had lower card throughput than the PC/RT 4mbit token-ring card ... and
significantly lower throughput than the $69 10mbit Ethernet card.
trivia: The new IBM Almaden Research bldg had been extensively
provisioned with CAT wiring, presuming use for 16mbit token-ring ...
however they found that not only (CAT wiring) 10mbit Ethernet cards had
much higher throughput than 16mbit T/R cards, also 10mbit ethernet LANs
had higher aggregate throughput and lower latency than 16mbit T/R.
Also in the aggregate cost difference between the $69 Ethernet cards and
$800 16mbit T/R cards, Almaden could get nearly half dozen
high-performance tcp/ip routers ... each with 16 10mbit Ethernet
interfaces and ibm mainframe channel interfaces with options for T1&T3
telco interfaces, and various high-speed serial fiber interfaces.
Result was they could spread all the RS/6000 machines across the large
number of Ethenet (tcp/ip) lans ... with only a dozen or so machines
sharing a LAN.
Summer 1988, ACM SIGCOMM published study that 30 10mbit ethernet
stations ... all running low-level device driver loop constantly sending
minimum sized packets, aggregate effective LAN throughput dropped off
from 8.5mbit/sec to 8mbit/sec.
For fiber "SLA", RS/6000 had re-engineered & tweaked mainframe
ESCON ... making it slightly faster (and incompatible with everything
else) ... 220mbit/sec, full-duplex; so the only thing they could use
it for was with other RS/6000s. We con one of the high-speed tcp/ip
router vendors to add a "SLA" interface option to their routers
.... giving RS/6000-based servers a high-performance entre into
distributed computing envrionment.
In 1988, the IBM branch office had asked me if I could help LLNL
(national lab) standardize some serial stuff they were playing with,
which quickly becomes fibre-channel standards (FCS, including some
stuff I had done in 1980), initially 1gbit/sec, full-duplex, aggregate
200mbyte/sec. The RS/6000 SLA engineers were planning on improving SLA
to 800mbit/sec ... when we convince them to join the FCS standard
activity instead.
posts mentioning communication group fighting off client/server and
distributed computing trying to preserve their dumb terminal paradigm
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#terminal
we were also out marketing 3-tier networking, ethernet, tcp/ip,
high-speed routers, security, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#3tier
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Wild Ducks
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Wild Ducks
Date: 06 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
1972, CEO Learson trying (and failed) to block the bureaucrats,
careerists, and MBAs from destroying Watsons' culture/legacy
... including wild ducks
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
2016 100 videos had one on "wild ducks" ... but it was customer "wild
ducks" ... apparently all IBM "wild ducks" had been expunged.
Management Briefing
Number 1-72: January 18,1972
ZZ04-1312
TO ALL IBM MANAGERS:
Once again, I'm writing you a Management Briefing on the subject of
bureaucracy. Evidently the earlier ones haven't worked. So this time
I'm taking a further step: I'm going directly to the individual
employees in the company. You will be reading this poster and my
comment on it in the forthcoming issue of THINK magazine. But I wanted
each one of you to have an advance copy because rooting out
bureaucracy rests principally with the way each of us runs his own
shop.
We've got to make a dent in this problem. By the time the THINK piece
comes out, I want the correction process already to have begun. And
that job starts with you and with me.
Vin Learson
... snip ...
30 years of Management Briefings, 1958-1988
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/generalInfo/IBM_Thirty_Years_of_Mangement_Briefings_1958-1988.pdf
I've frequently quoted Number 1-72, 18Jan, 1972, pg160-163 (includes
THINK magazine article)
20 years later IBM has one of the largest losses in the history of US
companies and was being reorganized into the 13 "baby blues" (take-off
on the AT&T "baby bells" breakup a decade earlier) in preparation to
breaking up the company.
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
we had already left IBM but get a call from the bowels of Armonk
asking if we could help with the breakup of the company. Before we get
started, the board brings in the former president of AMEX that
(somewhat) reverses the breakup.
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
1973, How to Stuff a Wild Duck
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370 Virtual memory
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370 Virtual memory
Date: 07 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Note some of the MIT CTSS/7094 people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System
had gone to Project MAC (wanted to transition from CTSS swapping to
paging) on the 5th flr to do MULTICS (which included high-performance
single-level-store)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics
others had gone to the science center on the 4th flr, doing virtual
machines, internal network, lots of interactive and performance work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Scientific_Center
IBM bid 360/67 for Project MAC but lost to GE. Science Center had wanted a 360/50 to modify with virtual memory, but they were all going to FAA ATC, so had to settle for 360/40. I got hard copy from Comeau and OCR'ed it
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/cp40seas1982.txt
also from Melinda's history site
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist
and
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda/JimMarch/CP40_The_Origin_of_VM370.pdf
When 360/67 came available CP40/CMS morphs into CP67/CMS. Single
processor 360/67 was very similar to 360/65 with addition of virtual
memory and control registers. Two processor 360/67 SMP had more
differences, multi-ported memory (allowing channel and processors to
do concurrent transfers), channel controller that included all
processors could access all channels (360/65 SMP & later 370 SMP, had
to simulate multiprocessor channel I/O by having two-channel
controllers connected to processor dedicated channels at same address)
.... much more 360/67 characteristics.
https://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/functional_characteristics/GA27-2719-2_360-67_funcChar
I had two credit hr intro to fortran/computers and at the end of
semester was hired to rewrite 1401 MPIO (unit record front end for
709/1401) in 360 assembler for 360/30 (replace 1401 temporarily until
360/67s for tss/360) ... Univ. shutdown datacenter on weekends and I
would have placed dedicated for 48hrs (although made monday class
hard). I was given a bunch of hardware and software manuals and got to
design & implement my own monitor, device drivers, interrupt handlers,
error recovery, storage management, etc. The 360/67 arrives within a
year of my taking intro class and I was hired fulltime responsible for
OS/360 (ran as 360/65, tss/360 never came to production). Student
fortran ran under second on 709, but over a minute on 360/65
OS/360. My 1st sysgen was R9.5 and then I install HASP cutting student
fortran time in half. I then start redoing stage2 SYSGEN, carefully
placing datasets and PDS members, optimizing arm seek and multi-track
search, cutting time another 2/3rds to 12.9secs. Student fortran never
got better than 709 until I install WATFOR.
CSC then comes out to install CP67 (3rd after CSC itself and MIT
Lincoln Labs) and I mostly play with it during my weekend decaded
time, reWriting lots of CP67 to optimize OS/360 running in virtual
machine. Test OS/360 ran 322secs on bare machine and initially 856secs
in virtual machine (CP67 CPU 534secs). Within a few months I got it
down to 435secs (CP67 CPU 113secs). I then redo dispatching/scheduling
(dynamic adaptive resource management), page replacement, thrashing
controls, ordered disk arm seek, multi-page rotational ordered
transfers for 2314/disk and 2301/drum (from single 4kbyte fifo to
270/sec peak), bunch of other stuff ... for CMS interactive
computing. Then to further cut CMS CP67 CPU overhead I do a special
CCW. Bob Adair criticizes it because it violates 360 architecture
... and it has to be redone as DIAGNOSE instruction (which is defined
to be "model" dependent ... and so have facade of virtual machine
model diagnose).
some more detail for 1986 SEAS (European SHARE) ... also presented in
2011 at WashDC "Hillgang" user group:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/hill0316g.pdf
After joining CSC, one of my hobbies was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters (and internal online sales&marketing
support HONE system was long time customer). I figured if 5th flr
could do paged mapped filesystem for MULTICS, I could do one for
CP67/CMS with lots of new shared segment functions. Then in the morph
of CP67->VM370 lots of stuff from CP67 was greatly simplified and/or
dropped (including SMP multiprocessor support). Then in 1974, I start
moving lots of stuff to VM370R2, including kernel re-org needed for
multiprocessor support as well as page mapped filesystem and shared
segment enhancements, a small subset of shared segments was picked up
for VM370R3 as DCSS) for my internal CSC/VM. Then for VM370R3-base
CSC/VM, I do 370 SMP support, initially for HONE (US HONE datacenterrs
had been consolidated in Palo Alto with eight systems, and they were
then able to add 2nd processor to each system).
Early last decade ago, I was asked to track down the 370 virtual
memory decision and found staff member for executive making
decision. Basically MVT storage management was so bad that region
sizes had to be specified four times larger than used, limiting
typical 1mbyte 370/165 to four concurrent running regions,
insufficient to keep 165 busy and justified. They found that moving
MVT to 16mbyte virtual address space (VS2/SVS, similar to running MVT
in a CP67 16mbyte virtual machine), they could increase number of
concurrent regions by factor of four times (caped at 15 because of
4bit storage protect key) with little or no paging. There was a little
bit of code for making virtual tables, but the biggest issue was
channel programs were built in application space with virtual address
passed to EXCP/SVC0. Ludlow was doing initial implementation on 360/67
and EXCP/SVC0 needed to make a copy of channel programs with real
addresses (similar to CP67 for virtual machines) and he borrows
CCWTRANS from CP67. Archived post with pieces of the email exchange:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#73
Trivia: Boeing Huntsville had gotten a two processor 360/67 SMP
(originally for TSS/360) but ran it as two systems with MVT. They were
already dealing with the MVT storage management problem. They modified
MVTR13 to run in virtual memory mode (w/o paging, but was partially
able to compensate for the MVT storage management problems).
I was also having dispute with the MVT performance group about the
page replacement algorithm and eventually they conclude that it
wouldn't make any difference because SVS would do hardly any page
faults (5/sec or less). Nearly decade later, POK gives somebody award
for finally fixing it in MVS.
When the decision was made to add virtual memory to all 370s, CSC
started a joint project with Endicott to simulate 370 virtual memory
machines, "CP67H" (added to my production "CP67L"). Then changes were
made to CP67H for CP67 to run in 370 virtual memory
architecture. CP67L ran on the Cambridge real 360/67, in part because
had profs, staff, and students from boston/cambridge area institutions
using the system (avoid leaking 370 details, CP67H ran in CP67L
virtual 360/67, and CP67I ran in CP67H virtual 370). CP67I was in
regular production use a year before the 1st engineering 370
(w/virtual memory) was operational. Then some people from San Jose
came out to add 3330 and 2305 device support to CP67I ... for CP67SJ,
which was in wide-spread use internally (even after vm370 was
operation). Trivia: the CP67L, CP67H, and CP67I effort was also when
the initial CMS incremental source update management was created.
Trivia: Original 370/145 had microcode for running older DOS version
(had base/extent memory bound relocation, as psuedo virtual memory,
sort of how the initial LPAR/PR/SM was implemented) and IBM SE used it
to implement virtual machine support (before 370 virtual memory).
Trivia: The original shared segment implementation was all done with
modules (executables) in the CMS filesystem (shared segment DCSS was
trivial subset of the full capability)
Trivia: My original implementation allowed same executables (including
shared segments) to appear at different virtual addresses in different
virtual address spaces ... but CMS extensively used OS
compilers/assemblers with RLD that had to be updated with fixed
address at load time. I had to go through all sort of hoops (code
modification) to simulate the TSS/360 convention that all embedded
addresses were displacements that were combined with directory that
was unique for every address space (when didn't have source to fix
RLDs, then was restricted to single fixed address).
Trivia: one of the first mainstream IBM documents done with CMS SCRIPT
was 370 principles of operation. Command line option would either
product the full 370 architecture redbook (for distribution in 3-ring
red binders) with lots of notes about justification, alternatives,
implementation, etc ... or the principles of operation subset. At some
point the 165 engineers were complaining that if they had to do the
full 370 virtual memory architecture, the announce would have to slip
six months ... eventually decision was made to drop back to 165 subset
(and all the other models that had implemented full architecture had
to drop back to subset and any software using dropped features had to
be redone).
CSC posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
CSC/VM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
SMP, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
dynamic adaptive resource management posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare
paging, thrashing, page replacement algorithm posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#wsclock
page mapped filesystem posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#mmap
OS/360 adcon issues in page mapped operation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#adcon
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370 Virtual memory
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370 Virtual memory
Date: 07 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#29 IBM 370 Virtual memory
VM Assist, provided virtual supervisor mode where microcode directly
executed some privileged instructions (using virtual machine rules)
... rather than VM370 kernel having to simulate every virtual machine
supervisor instruction.
After Future System imploded, Endicott cons me into helping with
138/148 microcode ECPS ... where the highest executed 6kbytes of
kernel 370 instructions are moved directly into microcode running ten
times faster ... old archived post with analysis for selecting the
kernel pieces (representing 79.55% of kernel execution)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21
I eventually got permission to give presentations on how ECPS was
implemented at user group meetings, including monthly BAYBUNCH hosted
by Stanford SLAC. The Amdahl people would corner me after the meeting
for more information. They said that they had done MACROCODE
... basically 370 instruction subset running in microcode mode
(originally done to quickly respond to numerous, trivial 3033
microcode changes required to run MVS) ... and was using it to
implement HYPERVISOR ("multiple domain facility", VM370 subset)
targeted at being able to run both MVS & MVS/XA concurrently (3090
wasn't able to respond with LPAR-PR/SM until nearly decade later).
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
some recent posts mentioning Amdahl macrocode/hypervisor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#113 ... some 3090 and a little 3081
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#17 IBM Millicode
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#68 IBM Hardware Stories
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#65 MVT/SVS/MVS/MVS.XA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#26 HA/CMP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#121 IBM VM/370 and VM/XA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#90 IBM, Unix, editors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#63 VM Microcode Assist
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#103 More IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#100 VM Mascot
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#78 MVT, MVS, MVS/XA & Posix support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#48 Vintage Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#114 Copyright Software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#104 MVS versus VM370, PROFS and HONE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#87 CP/67, VM/370, VM/SP, VM/XA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#74 microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframes, supercomputers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#51 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#10 IBM MVS RAS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#0 Some 3033 (and other) Trivia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#61 VM/370 3270 Terminal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#55 z/VM 50th - Part 6, long winded zm story (before z/vm)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#58 Stanford SLAC (and BAYBUNCH)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#49 z/VM 50th - part 2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#10 9 Mainframe Statistics That May Surprise You
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#102 Mainframe Channel I/O
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#9 VM/370 Going Away
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#56 CMS OS/360 Simulation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#108 TCMs & IBM Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#55 Precursor to current virtual machines and containers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#119 70s & 80s mainframes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#106 IBM Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#4 IBM Lost Opportunities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#31 What is the oldest computer that could be used today for real work?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#91 IBM XT/370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#67 Amdahl
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#52 Amdahl Computers
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370 Virtual memory
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370 Virtual memory
Date: 07 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#29 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#30 IBM 370 Virtual memory
MFT was mapped into a single 4mbyte virtual address space (VS1, sort
of like running MFT in CP67 4mbyte virtual machine).
First MVT was mapped into single 16mbyte virtual address space
(VS2/SVS, sort of like running MVT in CP67 16mbyte virtual machine,
fixing 1mbyte 370/165 caped at running four concurrent regions,
insufficient to keep system busy and justified) ... but 4bit storage
protect keys, still caped things to 15 concurrent regions ... which
was increasingly became a problem as systems got larger and more
powerful.
Both MFT and MVT EXCP/SVC0 required the equivalent of CP67 CCWTRANS to
make a copy of passed channel programs, substituting real addresses
for virtual (the initial SVS implementation borrowed CP67 CCWTRANS).
For VS2/SVS to get around the cap of 15 concurrent regions, they
eventually moved each region into private 16mbyte virtual address
space (in theory remove the limit on concurrent regions). However,
OS/360 has heavily pointer passing API, and so for MVS, they mapped an
8mbyte image of the MVS kernel into every application 16mbyte virtual
address space (leaving 8mbytes for application). However they then had
to map each OS/360 subsystem service into their own private 16mbyte
virtual address (also with kernel image taking 8mbyte). Again because
of the pointer passing API, a one mbyte common segment area was
created for API areas for passing between subsystems and
applications. However, API passing area requirements were proportional
to number of subsystems and number of concurrent applications, and CSA
becomes multi-mbyte common system area. By 3033, CSAs had grown to
5-6mbytes (plus 8mbyte kernel image) leaving only 2-3mbytes for
applications (and threatening to become 8mbytes, leaving zero for
applications). This threat was putting enormous pressure on being able
to ship and deploy 31bit MVS/XA as soon as possible (and have
customers migrate).
This has a SHARE song that divulges IBM pressure to have customers to
move from VS2/SVS to VS2/MVS.
http://www.mxg.com/thebuttonman/boney.asp
Something similar showed up with forcing customers from MVS to MVS/XA.
Note in the wake of the implosion of Future System (during FS,
internal politics was killing of 370 efforts, claims also provide
clone 370 makers like Amdahl, getting market foothold), there was mad
rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipelines, including
kicking off quick&dirty 3033&3081 efforts in parallel. The
head of POK also convinces corporate to kill the VM370 product,
shutdown the development group and transfer all the people to POK for
MVS/XA (Endicott manages to save the VM370 product mission for
mid-range, but had to recreate development from scratch; POK
executives were then out trying to browbeat internal datacenters to
migrate off VM370 to MVS).
Then in efforts to force customers to migrate to MVS/XA, Amdahl was
having better success on their machines, because their (microcoded
VM370 subset) HYPERVISOR (multiple domain facility) allowed MVS and
MVS/XA to be run concurrently on the same machine. POK had done a
minimal software virtual machine subset for MVS/XA development
and test .... and eventually deploys it as VM/MA (migration aid) and
VM/SF (system facility) trying to compete with high performance Amdahl
HYPERVISOR (note IBM doesn't respond to HYPERVISOR until almost a
decade later with LPAR/PRSM on 3090).
a few posts mentioning mvs, common segment/system area, mvs/xa
posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#91 Gordon Bell
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#12 3033
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#50 Slow MVS/TSO
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#77 MVT, MVS, MVS/XA & Posix support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#48 Vintage Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#9 IBM MVS RAS
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370 Virtual memory
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370 Virtual memory
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#29 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#30 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#31 IBM 370 Virtual memory
Note: CSC came out to install CP67 (3rd installation after CSC itself
and MIT Lincoln Labs), it was Lincoln Labs that had developed LLMPS
and contributed it to the SHARE program library (at one time I had
physical copy of LLMPS).
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/AD0650190.pdf
LLMPS was somewhat like a more sophisticated version of IBM DEBE and
Michigan had started out scaffolding MTS off LLMPS.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200926144628/michigan-terminal-system.org/discussions/anecdotes-comments-observations/8-1someinformationaboutllmps
other trivia: sophomore I took two credit hour intro to
fortran/computers and end of the semester was hired to rewrite 1401
MPIO in assembler for 360/30. The univ had 709 (tape->tape) and 1401
MPIO (unit record front end for 709, physically moving tapes between
709 & 1401 drives). The univ was getting 360/67 for tss/360 and got
360/30 replacing 1401 temporarily until 360/67 arrived. Univ. shutdown
datacenter on weekends and I had the place dedicated, although 48hrs
w/o sleep made monday classes hard. I was given bunch of
hardware&software manuals and got to design and implement monitor,
device drivers, interrupt handlers, error recovery, storage
management, etc and within a few weeks had 2000 card assembler
program. The 360/67 arrived within a year of taking intro class and I
was hired fulltime responsible for os/360 (tss never came to
production fruition). Later, CSC came out to install CP67 and I mostly
played with it during my dedicated weekend time.
CP67 came with 1052 and 2741 terminal support, including dynamically
determining terminal type and automagically switching terminal type
port scanner with controller SAD CCW. Univ. had some TTY 33&35
(trivia: TTY port scanner for IBM controller had arrived in Heathkit
box) and I added TTY/ASCII support integrated with dynamic terminal
type support. Then I wanted to have single dial-in phone number ("hunt
group") for all terminals ... didn't quite work, IBM had hardwired
controller line speed for each port. Univ. then kicks off clone
controller effort, build a channel interface board for Interdata/3
programmed to emulate IBM controller with addition of automagic line
speed. This is upgraded to Interdata/4 for channel interface and
cluster of Interdata/3s for port interfaces. Interdata and then
Perkin/Elmer markets it as IBM clone controller (and four of us get
written up responsible for some part of IBM clone controller
business).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkin-Elmer#Computer_Systems_Division
UofM: MTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Terminal_System
mentions MTS using PDP8 programed to emulate mainframe terminal
controller
https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/gallery/gallery7.html
and Stanford also did operating system for 360/67: Orvyl/Wylbur (a
flavor of Wylbur was also made available on IBM batch operating
systems).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORVYL_and_WYLBUR
CSC posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
plug compatable controller posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360pcm
a couple archived posts mentioning Interdata, MTS, LLMPS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#68 MTS, 360/67, FS, Internet, SNA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#65 CSC, Virtual Machines, Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006k.html#41 PDP-1
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370 Virtual memory
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370 Virtual memory
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#29 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#30 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#31 IBM 370 Virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#32 IBM 370 Virtual memory
Safeway trivia: US safeway datacenter was up in Oakland, had
loosely-coupled complex of multiple (I think still VS2/SVS) 168s (late
70s). They were having enormous throughput problems and brought in all
the usual IBM experts before asking me to come in. I was brought into
classroom with tables covered with large stacks of performance data
from the various systems. After about 30mins of pouring over the data,
I noticed the activity for a specific (shared) 3330 peaked at 6-7 I/Os
per second (aggregate for all systems sharing the disk) during the
same period as throughput problems. I asked what the disk was ... and
it had a large PDS library for all store controller applications
... with three cylinder PDS directory. Turns out for the hundreds of
stores, a store controller app required 1st PDS directory member
search; avg two multi-track searches, 1st a full cylinder search and
then half-cylinder search, followed by loading the member. A full
cylinder search was 19 revolutions (at 60/sec) or .317secs
... during which time the channel, controller and disk was busy and
locked up, then a 2nd half cylinder search or .158secs (again channel,
controller and disk locked up), followed by seek, load of the
module. Basically max throughput of two store controller application
loads for all the safeway stores in the US.
I said this problem with OS/360 PDS directory multi-track search, I
had encountered numerous times back to undergraduate in the 60s. So we
partition the single store controller dataset into multiple datasets
... and then replicated the dataset set on multiple (non-shared)
dedicated disks for each system.
posts mentioning FBA, CKD, multi-track search
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#dasd
posts mentioning getting to play disk engineer in bldg14 (disk enginneering)
and bldg15 (disk product test)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk
misc past posts mentioning safeway incident:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#54 Architectural implications of locate mode I/O
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#60 PDS Directory Multi-track Search
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#7 HASP, JES, MVT, 370 Virtual Memory, VS2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#96 Fortran
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#33 IBM Punch Cards
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#108 IBM Disks
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#105 IBM CKD DASD and multi-track search
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#15 Tandem Memo
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
As undergraduate back in the 60s, I extensively redid lots of CP67
(precursor to VM370), including page fault, page replacement
algorithms, page thrashing controls, etc. Part of it was Global LRU
page replacement algorithm ... at a time when a lot of academic papers
were being published on "Local LRU", page thrashing, working set,
etc. After graduating and joining IBM Cambridge Science Center, I
started integrating a lot of my undergraduate stuff into the Cambridge
production system (768kbyte 360/67, 104 pageable pages after fixed
memory requirements). About the same time IBM Grenoble Science Center
started modifying CP67 for their 1mbyte, 360/67, 155 pageable pages
with implementation (Grenoble APR1973 CACM article) that matched the
60s academic papers. Both Cambridge and Grenoble did a lot of
performance work (and Grenoble forwarded me most of their performance
data).
In late 70s and early 80s, I had worked with Vera Watson and Jim Gray
on the original SQL/relational, System/R (before Vera didn't come back
from the annapurna climb and Jim left IBM for Tandem). Also looked at
LRU simulation for paging systems, file caches, DBMS caches, etc and
pretty much confirmed the Global LRU would beat various flavors of
Local LRU (did a modification to VM370 with high performance monitor
that could capture all record level I/O of both VM370 and virtual
machine I/O). Part of the simulation was looking at various file
caches (using record level traces); disk level, controller level,
channel level, and system level. Also found a lot of commercial batch
system had collections of files that were only used together on
periodic basis (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly; aka archived after use
and brought back together as collection).
At Dec81 ACM SIGOPS meeting, Jim asked me to help a TANDEM co-worker
get his Stanford PHD that heavily involved GLOBAL LRU (and the
"local LRU" forces from 60s academic work, were heavily lobbying
Stanford to not award a PHD for anything involving GLOBAL LRU). Jim
knew I had detailed stats on the Cambridge/Grenoble CP67 global/local
LRU comparison (showing global significantly outperformed
local). Grenoble and Cambridge had similar CMS interactive workloads,
but my Cambridge system with 80-85 users out performed with better
interactive response the Grenoble system with 35 users (even though
Grenoble CP67 had 50 percent more real storage for paging).
Turns out that IBM executives blocked my sending a reply for nearly a
year ... I hoped that they felt they were doing it as punishment for
being blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal network
(folklore when the corporate executive committee was told, 5of6 wanted
to fire me), and not participating in an academic dispute.
some refs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Scientific_Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-67
presentation I did at 86SEAS (European SHARE) and repeated 2011 for
WashDC Hillgang user group meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/hill0316g.pdf
Cambridge Science Center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
paging related posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#clock
CSC/VM &/or SJR/VM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
posts mentioning Jim Gray and Dec81 ACM SIGOPS meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#88 Computer Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#94 Virtual Memory Paging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#95 Ferranti Atlas and Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#39 Tonight's tradeoff
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#105 VM Mascot
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#109 CSC, HONE, 23Jun69 Unbundling, Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#25 Ferranti Atlas
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#90 More Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#26 Global & Local Page Replacement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#76 IBM 4341
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#119 360/67 Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#45 MGLRU Revved Once More For Promising Linux Performance Improvements
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#38 Some CP67, Future System and other history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#5 Oct1986 IBM user group SEAS history presentation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#63 Is LINUX the inheritor of the Earth?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#62 LRU ... "global" vs "local"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#78 thrashing, was Re: A Computer That Never Was: the IBM 7095
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017d.html#66 Paging subsystems in the era of bigass memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017d.html#52 Some IBM Research RJ reports
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016g.html#40 Floating point registers or general purpose registers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016e.html#2 S/360 stacks, was self-modifying code, Is it a lost cause?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016c.html#0 You count as an old-timer if (was Re: Origin of the phrase "XYZZY")
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014l.html#22 Do we really need 64-bit addresses or is 48-bit enough?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014i.html#98 z/OS physical memory usage with multiple copies of same load module at different virtual addresses
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#14 23Jun1969 Unbundling Announcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013k.html#70 What Makes a Tax System Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#30 By Any Other Name
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012m.html#18 interactive, dispatching, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012l.html#37 S/360 architecture, was PDP-10 system calls
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012g.html#25 VM370 40yr anniv, CP67 44yr anniv
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012g.html#21 Closure in Disappearance of Computer Scientist
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#82 Multiple Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011c.html#8 The first personal computer (PC)
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#34 IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
Person responsible for internal network (larger than arpanet/internet
from just about beginning until sometime mid/late 80s, his technology
also used for the corporate sponsored univ. BITNET) and I transfer out
to IBM San Jose Research in 1977. Internal network started out as the
Science Center wide-area network, article by one of the inventors of
GML (1969):
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
Edson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Hendricks
In June 1975, MIT Professor Jerry Saltzer accompanied Hendricks to
DARPA, where Hendricks described his innovations to the principal
scientist, Dr. Vinton Cerf. Later that year in September 15-19 of 75,
Cerf and Hendricks were the only two delegates from the United States,
to attend a workshop on Data Communications at the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 2361 Laxenburg Austria where
again, Hendricks spoke publicly about his innovative design which
paved the way to the Internet as we know it today.
... snip ...
misc other; SJMerc article about Edson (he passed aug2020) and "IBM'S
MISSED OPPORTUNITY WITH THE INTERNET" (gone behind paywall but lives
free at wayback machine)
https://web.archive.org/web/20000124004147/http://www1.sjmercury.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg092499.htm
Also from wayback machine, some additional (IBM missed) references
from Ed's website
https://web.archive.org/web/20000115185349/http://www.edh.net/bungle.htm
We manage to put in (1st IBM) SJR (internal relay) gateway to Udel
CSNET in Oct1982 (before the big cutover to internetworking protocol
1Jan1983). Some old email
Date: 30 Dec 1982 14:45:34 EST (Thursday)
From: Nancy Mimno <mimno@Bbn-Unix>
Subject: Notice of TCP/IP Transition on ARPANET
To: csnet-liaisons at Udel-Relay
Cc: mimno at Bbn-Unix
Via: Bbn-Unix; 30 Dec 82 16:07-EST
Via: Udel-Relay; 30 Dec 82 13:15-PDT
Via: Rand-Relay; 30 Dec 82 16:30-EST
ARPANET Transition 1 January 1983
Possible Service Disruption
Dear Liaison,
As many of you may be aware, the ARPANET has been going through the
major transition of shifting the host-host level protocol from NCP
(Network Control Protocol/Program) to TCP-IP (Transmission Control
Protocol - Internet Protocol). These two host-host level protocols are
completely different and are incompatible. This transition has been
planned and carried out over the past several years, proceeding from
initial test implementations through parallel operation over the last
year, and culminating in a cutover to TCP-IP only 1 January 1983. DCA
and DARPA have provided substantial support for TCP-IP development
throughout this period and are committed to the cutover date.
The CSNET team has been doing all it can to facilitate its part in
this transition. The change to TCP-IP is complete for all the CSNET
host facilities that use the ARPANET: the CSNET relays at Delaware and
Rand, the CSNET Service Host and Name Server at Wisconsin, the CSNET
CIC at BBN, and the X.25 development system at Purdue. Some of these
systems have been using TCP-IP for quite a while, and therefore we
expect few problems. (Please note that we say "few", not "NO
problems"!) Mail between Phonenet sites should not be affected by the
ARPANET transition. However, mail between Phonenet sites and ARPANET
sites (other than the CSNET facilities noted above) may be disrupted.
The transition requires a major change in each of the more than 250
hosts on the ARPANET; as might be expected, not all hosts will be
ready on 1 January 1983. For CSNET, this means that disruption of mail
communication will likely result between Phonenet users and some
ARPANET users. Mail to/from some ARPANET hosts may be delayed; some
host mail service may be unreliable; some hosts may be completely
unreachable. Furthermore, for some ARPANET hosts this disruption may
last a long time, until their TCP-IP implementations are up and
working smoothly. While we cannot control the actions of ARPANET
hosts, please let us know if we can assist with problems, particularly
by clearing up any confusion. As always, we are <cic@csnet-sh> or
(617)497-2777.
Please pass this information on to your users.
Respectfully yours,
Nancy Mimno
CSNET CIC Liaison
... snip ... top of post, old email index
Later BITNET and CSNET merge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSNET
Early 80s, I also got funding for HSDT project, T1 and faster computer
links (both satellite and terrestrial). Note IBM communication
products had 2701 controller in the 60s that supported T1, but
transition to SNA/VTAM in mid-70s apparently had issues and
controllers were then caped at 56kbit links ... so have lots of
internal disputes with the communication group. I'm supporting both
RSCS/VNET and TCP/IP "high-speed"links ... also working with the NSF
director and was suppose to get $20M to interconnect the NSF
Supercomputer centers. Then congress cuts the budget, some other
things happen and eventually an RFP is released (in part based on what
we already had running). From 28Mar1986 Preliminary Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet.
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
bitnet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
GML, SGML, HTML, etc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
Internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
Internal network trivia: at the time of the great switch-over, ARPANET
had approx 100 IMPs and 255 hosts ... while internal network was
rapidly approaching 1000 hosts all around the world
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
The future system project was going to completely replace 370 with
something completely different (I continued to work on 360&370 all
during FS, periodically ridiculing what they were doing). When FS
finally implodes there was mad rush to get stuff back into the 370
product pipelines. One of the final nails in the FS coffin was study
by the IBM Houston Science Center that if applications from 370/195
were redone of FS machine made out of fastest available technology, it
would have throughput of 370/145 (factor of 30 times slowdown). There
are references to some of the FS retreat to Rochester and do a vastly
simplified (entry level) FS machine released as S/38 (plenty of room
between available hardware performance and 30 times slowdown still
meeting throughput requirements of the entry market). More details:
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
When FS imploded I got con'ed into helping with a 370 16-cpu
tightly-coupled, shared-memory, multiprocessor (I had added 2-cpu
multiprocessor support to VM370R3, initially for online
sales&marketing HONE datacenter that had eight systems, so they could
add a 2nd processor to each system, and was getting twice the
throughput of the single cpu systems). We then con the 3033 processor
engineers into working on it in their spare time (lot more interesting
than remapping 168 logic to 20% faster chips). Everybody it was great
until somebody told head of POK that it could be decades before POK's
favorite son operating system (MVS) had (effective) 16-cpu support (at
the time, MVS documentation was its 2-cpu support was only getting
1.2-1.5 times throughput of single cpu systems; note POK doesn't ship
16-cpu multiprocessor until after turn of the century). Then the head
of POK invites some of us to never visit POK again, and the 3033
engineers, "heads down and no distractions".
There was an internal advance technology conference where we had
presented the 370 16-cpu project and the 801/RISC group presented RISC
(I would periodic say that John Cocke did RISC to go to the opposite
extreme of FS complexity).
https://www.ibm.com/history/john-cocke
I was then asked to help with 4300 white paper that instead of
replacing 138/148 CISC microprocessors with 801/RISC (Iliad chip, for
4300s), VLSI technology had gotten to the point where 370 CPU could be
implemented directly in circuits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#Fort_Knox
In the early 1980s, IBM management became concerned that IBM's large
number of incompatible midrange computer systems was hurting the
company's competitiveness, particularly against Digital Equipment
Corporation's VAX.[10] In 1982, a project named Fort Knox commenced,
which was intended to consolidate the System/36, the System/38, the
IBM 8100, the Series/1 and the IBM 4300 series into a single product
line based around an IBM 801-based processor codenamed Iliad, while
retaining backwards compatibility with all the systems it was intended
to replace.
... snip ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#Silverlake
During the Fort Knox project, a skunkworks project was started at IBM
Rochester by engineers who believed that Fort Knox's failure was
inevitable. These engineers developed code which allowed System/36
applications to run on top of the System/38
... snip ..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_AS/400#AS/400
On June 21, 1988, IBM officially announced the Silverlake system as
the Application System/400 (AS/400). The announcement included more
than 1,000 software packages written for it by IBM and IBM Business
Partners.[18] The AS/400 operating system was named Operating
System/400 (OS/400).[12]
... snip ...
There was 801/RISC ROMP (research, opd) chip that was going to be used
for a Displaywriter followon. When that got canceled (market moving to
PCs), the decision was made to pivot to the unix workstation market
and they hired the company that did AT&T Unix port to IBM/PC as
PC/IX, to do port for ROMP ... which becomes "PC/RT" and "AIX". Also
the IBM Palo Alto group was working on UCB BSD for 370s and redirected
to do port for PC/RT instead, which ships as "AOS". IBM Palo Alto was
also in the process of doing UCB BSD UNIX port to 370 and got
redirected to PC/RT ... which ships as "AOS" (alternative to
AIX). Palo Alto was also working with UCLA Locus which ships as
AIX/370 and AIX/386. I have PC/RT with megapel display in non-IBM
booth at 1988 Internet/Interop conference. Then the follow-on to ROMP
was RIOS for RS/6000 (and AIXV3 where they merge in a lot of
BSD'isms).
Then Austin starts on RIOS chipset for RS/6000 UNIX workstation and we
get HA/6000 project, originally for the NYTimes to move their
newspaper (ATEX) system off DEC VAXCluster to RS/6000. I rename it
HA/CMP when I start doing technical/scientific scale-up with national
labs. and commercial scale-up with RDBMS vendors (Oracle, Sybase,
Informix, and Ingres that have VAXcluster support in same source base
with Unix). Then the S/88 product administrator starts taking us
around to their customers and also has me write a section for the
corporate continuous availability strategy document (it gets pulled
when both Rochester/AS400 and POK/mainframe complain that they can't
meet the requirements). The executive we reported to, goes over to
head of the Somerset (AIM, apple, ibm, motorola)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_alliance
Somerset effort to do a single-chip power/pc (including adopting the
morotola RISC M81K cache and cache consistency for supporting shared
memory, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_600
https://wiki.preterhuman.net/The_Somerset_Design_Center
In early Jan1992, AWD/Hester tells Oracle CEO that we would have
16-system clusters by mid92 and 128-system clusters by ye92. However
by the end of Jan1992, cluster scale-up is transferred for announce as
IBM Supercomputer (for technical/scientific *ONLY*) and we are told we
can't work on anything with more than four processors (we leave IBM a
few months later).
benchmarks number of program iterations compared to reference platform
(not actual instruction count)
1993: eight processor ES/9000-982 : 408MIPS, 51MIPS/processor
1993: RS6000/990 : 126MIPS; 16-way: 2016MIPs, 128-way: 16,128MIPS
late 90s, i86 cpu vendors do a hardware layer that translates i86
instructions into RISC micro-ops for actual execution, largely
negating difference between i86 & power
1999 single IBM PowerPC 440 hits 1,000MIPS
1999 single Pentium3 (translation to RISC micro-ops for execution)
hits 2,054MIPS (twice PowerPC 440)
2003 single Pentium4 processor 9.7BIPS (9,700MIPS)
2010 E5-2600 XEON server blade, two chip, 16 processor aggregate
500BIPS (31BIPS/processor)
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
801/risc, fort knox, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
Interop88 posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#interop88
ha/cmp posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370/168
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370/168
Date: 09 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
After joining IBM, one of my hobbies was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters and one of my long-time customers
(starting not long after 23jun1969 unbundling announcement) was the
online US branch office HONE systems (evolving into online world-wide
sales and marketing HONE systems). In mid-70s, the (370/168) US HONE
datacenters were consolidated in Palo Alto and the eight VM370 systems
enhanced to "single-system image", shared DASD operation with
load-balancing and fall-over across the complex. I then add
multiprocessor support to my VM370R3-based CSC/VM, initially for HONE
so they can add a 2nd CPU to each system (each 2-cpu system getting
twice the throughput of single-CPU system), for 8-systems/16-cpus in
single-system image complex. After the bay-area earthquake, the US
HONE datacenter was replicated in Dallas, and then another replicated
in Boulder. Trivia: when FACEBOOK first moved to silicon valley, it
was into a new bldg built next door to the former IBM US HONE
consolidated datacenter.
During FS, internal politics was killing off 370 efforts (credited
with giving clone 370 makers their market foothold). When FS implodes,
there is mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product pipelines,
including kicking off quick&dirty 3033&3081 in parallel.
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
I also get talked into helping with a 370 16-cpu tightly-coupled,
shared-memory, multiprocessor system and we con the 3033 processor
engineers into helping in their spare time (a lot more interesting
than remapping 168 logic to 20% faster chips). Everybody thought it
was really great until somebody tells the head of POK that it could be
decades before the POK favorite son operating system (MVS) had
(effective) 16-CPU multiprocessor support (MVS documents at the time
had 2-cpu shared-memory multiprocessor only had 1.2-1.5 times the
throughput of single processor, POK doesn't ship 16-CPU multiprocessor
until after the turn of the century). The head of POK then invites
some of us to never visit POK again, and the 3033 processor engineers,
heads down and no distractions. The head of POK had also convinced
corporate to kill the VM370 product, shutdown the development group
and transfer all the people to POK for MVS/XA. Then some of the POK
executives were trying to brow-beat internal datacenters (like HONE)
to move off VM370 to MVS (Endicott finally manages to acquire the
VM370 mission, but had to recreate a development group from scratch).
cambridge science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
csc/vm (& SJR/VM, for internal datacenters) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
HONE Posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared-memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 370/168
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 370/168
Date: 10 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#37 IBM 370/168
After FS implosion, about the same time as 16-CPU effort, Endicott
cons me into helping with 138/148 ECPS microcode. Basically they
wanted the 6kbytes of VM370 kernel pathlengths for translation
directly to native microcode, about on a byte-for-byte basis and
running ten times faster. Old archived post with the initially
analysis, aka top 6kbytes of kernel execution accounted for 79.55% of
kernel execution:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21
Also Endicott tried to convince corporate to allow them to ship every
machine with VM370 pre-installed (something like LPAR/PRSM), but with
POK convincing corporate that VM370 product should be killed, they
weren't successful.
... oh and they weren't planning on telling the vm370 group of the
shutdown/move until the very last minute (to minimize the number that
might escape into the boston area). however the details managed to
leak early and several escaped (joke was that the head of POK was a
major contributor to DEC VAX/VMS). There then was a witch hunt for the
source of the leak, fortunately for me, nobody gave up the leaker.
360(&370) microcode posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360mcode
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
Date: 10 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#36 IBM 801/RISC, PC/RT, AS/400
My wife was roped into co-authoring IBM response to gov RFI for large,
super-secure, campus-like, distributed & client/server operation
... where she including "3-tier networking". We were then out doing
customer executive presentations on Internet, TCP/IP, high-speed
routers, Ethernet, and 3-tier networking and taking lots of
misinformation barbs in the back from SNA, SAA, and token-ring forces.
After FS imploded, Endicott asks me to help with 138/148 ECPS, select
the highest executed 6kbytes of vm370 kernel code for conversion to
straight microcode, running 10 times faster. Old archive post with
analysis (6k bytes represented 79.55% of kernel CPU).
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#21
Then I got asked to run around the world presenting the 138/148 ECPS
business case to US regional and WT business planners. Later the
Endicott person con'ing me into the ECPS stuff, was executive in
charge of SAA (had large top floor corner office in Somers) and we
would periodically drop it to complain about how badly his people were
acting.
3tier networking posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#3tier
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
360(&370) microcode posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360mcode
future system posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
PC/RT AOS "C-compiler" ... blame it on me. Los Gatos lab was doing
lots of work with Metaware's TWC and two people used it to implment
370 Pascal (later released as VS/Pascal) for VLSI tools. One of them
leaves IBM and the other was looking at doing C-language front end for
the 370 pascal compiler. I leave for a summer giving customer & IBM
lab talks and classes all around Europe. When I get back, he had also
left IBM for Metaware. Palo Alto was starting work on UCB BSD Unix for
370 and needs a 370 C-compiler. I suggest they hire Metaware (& the
former IBMer). When they get redirected to PC/RT, they just have
Metaware do a ROMP backend.
trivia: some time before the Los Gatos lab had started work on
801/RISC "Blue Iliad" single chip (1st 32bit 801/RISC) ... really
large and hot and never came to production fruition (1st production
32bit 801/RISC was 6chip RIOS). Note: although I was in SJR (had
office there and later in Almaden), Los Gatos had given me part of a
wing ... which I was allowed to keep for a time even after leaving
IBM.
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, power, power/pc, fort knox, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
Frequently reposted in Internet & other IBM groups ... Early 80s, I
got the HSDT project, T1 and faster computer links (both terrestrial
and satellite) and would have lots of conflicts with the communication
group. Note in the 60s IBM had 2701 telecommunication controller that
supported T1, however in the 70s with transition to SNA/VTAM, issues
appeared to cap controllers at 56kbit/sec. Was also working with NSF
director and was suppose to get $20M to interconnect NSF supercomputer
centers. Then congress cuts the budget, some other things happen and
eventually a RFP is released (in part based on what we already had
running). From 28Mar1986 Preliminary Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet. Trivia: somebody
had been collecting executive email about how SNA/VTAM could support
NSFNET T1 ... and forwarded it to me ... heavily snipped and redacted
(to protect the guilty)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email870109
The RFP called for T1 network, but the PC/RT links were 440kbits/sec
(not T1) and they put in T1 trunks with telco multiplexers (carrying
multiple 440kbit links) to call it a T1 network. I periodically
ridiculed that why don't they call it T5 network, since it was
possible that some of the T1 trunks were in turn, carried over T5
trunks. Possibly to shutdown some of the ridicule, they ask me to be
the REDTEAM for th NSFNET T3 upgrade (a couple dozen people from half
dozen labs were the BLUETEAM). At final executive review, I presented
first and then the blue team. 5min into blue team presentation, the
executive pounded on the table and said he would lay down in front of
garbage truck before he allows anything but the blue team proposal go
forward. I get up and walk out.
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
Some posts mentioning Los Gatos, Metware, TWS, BSD, AOS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#70 IBM AIX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#68 Assembler & non-Assembler For System Programming
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#98 Fortran
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#40 Mainframe Development Language
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#45 not a 360 either, was Design a better 16 or 32 bit processor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#95 What's Fortran?!?!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#94 Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of a Pioneering Computer Language, Dies at 89
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017e.html#24 [CM] What was your first home computer?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015g.html#52 [Poll] Computing favorities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010n.html#54 PL/I vs. Pascal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004f.html#42 Infiniband - practicalities for small clusters
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
Date: 08 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#34 IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#35 IBM Virtual Memory Global LRU
Other history
IBM 23jun1969 unbundling announcement started to charge for
(application) sofware, SE services, maint, etc. SE training used to
include sort of journeyman as part of large group onsite at
customer. With unbundling, they couldn't figure out how not to charge
for trainee SEs onsite at customers. Thus was born US HONE, branch
office online acceess to US HONE cp67 datacenters, where SEs could
practice with guest operating systems running in CP67 virtual
machines. CSC also ported APL\360 to CP67/CMS as CMS\APL redoing
APL\360 storage management and changing from 16k-32k swapable
workspaces to large virtual memory demand paged operation, as well
implemented APIs for system services (like file I/O), enabling lots of
real-world applications. HONE then started also offering
sales&marketing CMS\APL-based applications, which shortly came to
dominate all HONE use (and SE practice with guest operating systems
just dwindled away) ... and HONE clones started appearing world-wide.
One of my hobbies after joining IBM was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters (and HONE as long-time customer back
to CP67 days). With the decision to add virtual memory to all 370s
... because MVT storage management was bad. I was asked to tract down
decision early last decade ... pieces of email exchange with staff
member to executive making the decision ... in this archived post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#73
and to produce VM370 product (in the morph of CP67->VM370 lots of
features were simplified or dropped, including SMP support). In 1974,
I started migrating lots of stuff from CP67 to R2-based VM370
(including kernel reorg for multiprocessor operation, but not
multiprocessor operation itself) for my CSC/VM. ... and US HONE
datacenters were consolidated in Silicon Valley across the back
parking lot from the Palo Alto Science Center. PASC had done APL
migration to VM370/CMS as APL\CMS, the APL\CMS microcode assist for
370/145 (APL\CMS throughput claims as good as 370/168) and 5100
prototype ... and provided HONE with APL improvements. US HONE
consolidation included implementing simgle-system image,
loosely-coupled, shared DASD operation with load balancing and
fall-over across the complex. I then implemented SMP, tightly-coupled
multiprocessor operation for R3-based VM370 CSC/VM,, initially for US
HONE so they could add a 2nd processor to each system in their
single-system image operations (16-cpus aggregate).
Note some of the MIT CTSS/7094 people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatible_Time-Sharing_System
had gone to Project MAC (wanted to transition from CTSS swapping to
paging) on the 5th flr to do MULTICS (which included high-performance
single-level-store)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multics
others had gone to the science center on the 4th flr, doing virtual
machines, internal network, lots of interactive and performance work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Scientific_Center
CSC had assumed that they would be the IBM center forvirtual memory
... but IBM lost to GE for Project MAX. CSC wanted to have 360/50 to
modify for virtual memory, but all the spare 50s were going to FAA
ATC, so they had to settle for 360/40, I got hardcopy from Les and
OCR'ed it
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/cp40seas1982.txt
modified 360/40 with virtual memory and creating CP40/CMS (CP -
Control Program, CMS - Cambridge Monitor System). Later when 360/67
standard with virtual memory (supposedly strategic for TSS/360)
becomes available, CP40/CMS morphs into CP67/CMS. Cambridge had been
working with people at MIT Lincoln Labs and get the 2nd CP67/CMS. Lots
of places had ordered 360/67 for TSS/360, but never met the marketing
promises (at the time TSS/360 was decommited, claims there were 1200
people on TSS/360 compared to CSC CP67/CMS group with 12 people,
including secretary).. Lots of places used the machine as 360/65 with
OS/360. Univ of Michigan and Stanford write their own virtual memory
operating systems for 360/67.
As undergraduate, univ. had 360/67 and hired me fulltime responsible
for OS/360. Then CSC comes out and installs CP67/CMS (3rd after CSC
itself and MIT Lincoln Labs) and I mostly play with it during my
stand-alone weekend windows (univ. shutdown datacenter for weekends,
and I had place dedicated, although 48hrs w/o sleep made Monday
classes hard). The next few months I rewrite large amounts of CP67
code, initially concentrated on pathlengths running OS/360 in virtual
machine. I'm then invited to Spring SHARE Houston meeting for the
"public" CP67/CMS announce. CSC then has one week CP67/CMS class at
Beverly Hills Hilton, I arrive Sunday night and asked to teach the
CP67 class. It turns out the IBM CSC employees that were to teach, had
given notice to join a commercial online CP67/CMS service
bureau. Within a year, some Lincoln Labs people form a 2nd commercial
online CP67/CMS service bureau (both specializing for services for
financial industry).
Then there is a IBM CP67/CMS conference hosted in silicon valley for
local CP67/CMS customers, trivia before MS/DOS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS
there was Seattle computer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Computer_Products
before Seattle computer, there was cp/m
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M
before developing cp/m, kildall worked on IBM cp67/cms at npg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Postgraduate_School
Then before I graduate, I'm hired fulltime in a small group in the
Boeing CFO office to help with formation with Boeing Computer Services
(consolidate all dataprocessing into independent business unit). I
think Renton datacenter is possibly largest in the world (couple
hundred million in 360 stuff), 360/65s arriving faster than they could
be installed, boxes constantly staged in the hallways around the
machine room. Lots of politics between Renton director and CFO, who
only has a 360/30 up at Boeing Field for payroll (although they
enlarge the room and install 360/67 for me to play with when I'm not
doing other stuff). When I graduate I join science center (instead
staying with Boeing CFO).
Melinda's history
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist
history given at 1986 SEAS (EU SHARE) and 2011 Wash DC "Hillgang" user
group meeting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/hill0316g.pdf
Unbundling announce posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundle
CSC posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
CSC/VM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM Purchase NY
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Purchase NY
Date: 13 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Before leaving IBM we had some number of meetings in the Purchase
building that IBM had picked up from Nestle (impressive marble(?)
edifice, supposedly had built for top executives). In 1992, we leave
IBM the year that it had one of the largest losses in history of US
companies and was being reorged into the 13 "baby blues" (take-off on
AT&T "baby bells" from AT&T breakup a decade earlier) in preparation
for breaking up IBM.
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
we had already left IBM but get a call from the bowels of Armonk
asking if we could help with the breakup of the company. Before we get
started, the board brings in the former president of AMEX that
(somewhat) reverses the breakup (trying to save the company).
After leaving IBM, we had done some work on internet electronic
commerce and having some meetings with MasterCard and Intuit
executives at MasterCard offices in Manhattan ... when MasterCard
moves meetings to their new hdqtrs (former IBM/Nestle bldg) in
Purchase. IBM apparently was very desperate to raise cash and
MasterCard claim they got the bldg for less than what they paid to
change all door handle hardware in the bldg.
bldg history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastercard_International_Global_Headquarters#History
IBM would use the facility to centralize activities in the Westchester
area from 1985 to 1992 when it began moving employees to other
facilities as part of cost containment efforts.[2][16] By 1994 the
facility was purchased by MasterCard to serve as its global
headquarters.[17][18] MasterCard moved into 2000 Purchase Street in
October 1995 and in December 2001 acquired the 100 Manhattanville Road
facility to serve as its North American Region headquarters.[19]
... snip ....
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
some internet e-commerce
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM/PC
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM/PC
Date: 14 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
... opel & ms/dos
https://www.pcworld.com/article/243311/former_ibm_ceo_john_opel_dies.html
According to the New York Times, it was Opel who met with Bill Gates,
CEO of then-small software firm Microsoft, to discuss the possibility
of using Microsoft PC-DOS OS for IBM's about-to-be-released PC. Opel
set up the meeting at the request of Gates' mother, Mary Maxwell
Gates. The two had both served on the National United Way's executive
committee.
... snip ...
... other trivia: before ms/dos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS
there was Seattle computer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Computer_Products
before Seattle computer, there was cp/m
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M
before developing cp/m, kildall worked on IBM cp/67-cms at npg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Postgraduate_School
(virtual machine) CP67 (precursor to vm370)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-67
other (virtual machine) history
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist
internally, Boca said that they weren't interested in software for
"Acorn" (IBM code-name) and a group of couple dozen IBMers in silicon
valley formed to do software (apps and operating systems) and would
every month or so double check with Boca that they still weren't
interested in doing software. Then at one point Boca tells the group
that it had changed its mind and if anybody wanted to be involved in
software for Acorn, they had to move to Boca ... only one person
tried, but returned to Silicon Valley.
AWD (Advanced Workstation Division) was an IBU (Independent Business
Unit, supposedly free from IBM bureaucracy, rules, overhead) and did
PC/RT and their own (PC/AT bus) cards including a 4mbit token-ring
card. Then for RS/6000 and microchannel, senior VP on the executive
committee instructed AWD that they couldn't do their own cards, but
had to use standard PS2 microchannel cards (some derogatory things
said about the executive). The communication group was fiercely
fighting off client/server and distributed computing and had heavily
performance kneecapped the PS2 cards. An example was the PS2 16mbit
token-ring card had lower throughput than the PC/RT 4mbit token-ring
card. Alternative were the $69 10mbit Ethernet cards (AMD "Lance",
Intel "82586", other chips) which had much higher throughput than both
the $800 PS2 16mbit token-ring and the PC/RT 4mbit token-ring.
Late 80s/early 90s, I started posting in (IBM/PC) internal, online
forums, PC adverts from Sunday SJMN showing prices way below Boca
projections (there was joke that Boca lost $5 on every PS2 sold, but
they were planning on making it up in volume). Then Boca hires
Dataquest (since bought by Gartner) to do future of PC market study
... which included a video-tape recording of multi-hour pc discussion
round table by silicon valley experts. I had known the Dataquest
person running the study for several years and was asked to be a
silicon valley "expert" (they promised to garble my intro so Boca
wouldn't recognize me as IBM employee, I also cleared it with my local
IBM management).
U2, SR71
https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/business-areas/aeronautics/skunkworks.html
U2 trivia; USAF's "bomber gap" calling for 1/3rd increase in DOD
budget to close gap. U2 showed Eisenhower that gap was fabricated,
contributed to his military-industrial(-congressional) complex warning
speech.
Similar to Watson's "wild duck" culture, 1972, CEO Learson tried (&
failed)to block bureaucrats, careerists and MBAs from destroying the
Watson culture/legacy (20yrs later, IBM has one of the largest
losses in history of US companies and was being reorged into the 13
"baby blues" in preparation for breaking up the company)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler
communication group contributed to IBM downfall posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#terminal
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
Some posts mentioning IBM/PC, MS/DOS, Opel, Gates, CP/M, Kildall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#14 50 years ago, CP/M started the microcomputer revolution
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#112 43 years ago, Microsoft bought 86-DOS and started its journey to dominate the PC market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#36 This New Internet Thing, Chapter 8
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#30 Future System and S/38
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#111 Anyone here (on news.eternal-september.org)?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#102 IBM 360 Announce 7Apr1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#25 CTSS/7094, Multics, Unix, CP/67
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#4 IBM/PC History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#75 The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'. What the tech pioneer can, and can't, teach us
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#35 Vintage TSS/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#27 Another IBM Downturn
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#100 CSC, HONE, 23Jun69 Unbundling, Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#26 Some IBM/PC History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#6 IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#99 Online Computer Conferencing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#30 IBM Change
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#2 VM/370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#107 IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#72 IBM/PC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#17 What's different, was Why did Dennis Ritchie write that UNIX was a modern implementation of CTSS?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#7 Vintage Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#44 IBM Chairman John Opel
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#90 Short-term profits and long-term consequences -- did Jack Welch break capitalism?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#44 CMS Personal Computing Precursor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#111 The Rise of DOS: How Microsoft Got the IBM PC OS Contract
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#22 MS/DOS for IBM/PC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#136 Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#71 Decline of IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#102 Netscape: The Fire That Filled Silicon Valley's First Bubble
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM/PC
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM/PC
Date: 14 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#41 IBM/PC
got a 2741 at home mar1970 until summer of 1977 when it was replaced
with 300 baud cdi miniterm, 1979 was replaced with 1200 baud ibm 3101
(topaz) glass teletype (dial into IBM pvm 3270 emulator), ordered
ibm/pc the day employee purchase was announced but employee purchases
had very long delivery, by the time it showed up the street price had
dropped below what i paid in employee purchase. IBM then had special
2400baud encrypting modem cards for the "official" travel/home
terminal program (security audits highlighted hotel phone closet
vulnerabilities) ... and sophisticated pcterm/pvm 3270 emulator
posts mentioning 2400baud encrypting modems and/or pcterm 3270
emulation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#28 Remote Work
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#49 Acoustic Coupler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#33 IBM/PC 12Aug1981
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#36 FCC proposes record fine for robocall scheme
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#101 You count as an old-timer if (was Re: Origin of the phrase "XYZZY")
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014j.html#60 No Internet. No Microsoft Windows. No iPods. This Is What Tech Was Like In 1984
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014j.html#25 another question about TSO edit command
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014i.html#11 The Tragedy of Rapid Evolution?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014h.html#71 The Tragedy of Rapid Evolution?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#49 Before the Internet: The golden age of online service
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013l.html#23 Teletypewriter Model 33
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012d.html#20 Writing article on telework/telecommuting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#6 If IBM Hadn't Bet the Company
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009c.html#30 I need magic incantation for a power conditioner
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008n.html#51 Baudot code direct to computers?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#74 What do YOU call the # sign?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#66 The use of "script" for program
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006y.html#0 Why so little parallelism?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003p.html#44 Mainframe Emulation Solutions
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#7 3270 terminal keyboard??
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
PROFS & VMSG
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: PROFS & VMSG
Date: 15 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
IBM internal network evolved out of the science center CP67 wide-area
network centered in Cambridge ... ref from one of the inventors of GML
in 1969 at Cambridge:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
Science-center/internal network larger than the arpanet/internet from
the beginning until sometime mid/late 80s, also used for the corporate
sponsored univ BITNET
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET
Edson responsible for the technology over the years (passed aug2020)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Hendricks
In June 1975, MIT Professor Jerry Saltzer accompanied Hendricks to
DARPA, where Hendricks described his innovations to the principal
scientist, Dr. Vinton Cerf. Later that year in September 15-19 of 75,
Cerf and Hendricks were the only two delegates from the United States,
to attend a workshop on Data Communications at the International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 2361 Laxenburg Austria where
again, Hendricks spoke publicly about his innovative design which
paved the way to the Internet as we know it today.
... snip ...
misc other; SJMerc article about Edson and "IBM'S MISSED OPPORTUNITY
WITH THE INTERNET" (gone behind paywall but lives free at wayback
machine)
https://web.archive.org/web/20000124004147/http://www1.sjmercury.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg092499.htm
Also from wayback machine, some additional (IBM missed) references
from Ed's website ... blocked from converting internal network to
tcp/ip (late 80s converted to sna/vtam instead)
https://web.archive.org/web/20000115185349/http://www.edh.net/bungle.htm
some number of line-oriented and 3270 fullscreen CMS apps during the
70s, including email clients. One popular in the later half of 70s was
"VMSG". Then the PROFS group was out picking up internal apps for
wrapping its menu interface around .... and picked up source for a
very early VMSG for the email client. When the VMSG author tried to
offer PROFS group a more mature, enhanced VMSG, they tried to get him
separated from the IBM company. The whole thing quieted down when the
VMSG author demonstrated his initials in every PROFS email in a
non-displayed field. After that the VMSG author only shared the source
with me and one other person.
cambridge science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
bitnet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
gml, sgml, html, etc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
recent posts mentioning PROFS & VMSG
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#99 PROFS, SCRIPT, GML, Internal Network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#48 PROFS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#27 VMNETMAP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#109 IBM->SMTP/822 conversion
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#69 3270s For Management
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#49 REXX (DUMRX, 3092, VMSG, Parasite/Story)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#71 Vintage Mainframe PROFS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#46 Vintage IBM Mainframes & Minicomputers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#78 IBM TLA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#42 VM/370 3270 Terminal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#32 30 years ago, one decision altered the course of our connected world
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#5 IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#97 Online Computer Conferencing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#62 IBM (FE) Retain
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#18 PROFS trivia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#64 Trump received subpoena before FBI search of Mar-a-lago home
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#29 IBM Cloud to offer Z-series mainframes for first time - albeit for test and dev
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#2 Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#89 IBM PROFs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#83 Happy 50th Birthday, EMAIL!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#23 Programming Languages in IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#86 IBM EMAIL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#68 IBM ITPS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#50 PROFS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#33 IBM/PC 12Aug1981
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#30 Departure Email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#48 Cloud Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#65 IBM Computer Literacy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#37 HA/CMP Marketing
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM 5100 and Other History
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 5100 and Other History
Date: 15 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
IBM 5100 and Other history
IBM 23jun1969 unbundling announcement started to charge for
(application) sofware, SE services, maint, etc. SE training used to
include sort of journeyman as part of large group onsite at
customer. With unbundling, they couldn't figure out how not to charge
for trainee SEs at customer facilities. Thus was born US HONE, branch
office online acceess to US HONE cp67 datacenters, where SEs could
practice with guest operating systems running in CP67 virtual
machines. CSC also ported APL\360 to CP67/CMS as CMS\APL redoing
APL\360 storage management and changing from 16k-32k swapable
workspaces to large virtual memory demand paged operation, as well
implemented APIs for system services (like file I/O), enabling lots of
real-world applications. HONE then started also offering
sales&marketing CMS\APL-based applications, which shortly came to
dominate all HONE use (and SE practice with guest operating systems
just dwindled away) ... and HONE clones started appearing world-wide.
One of my hobbies after joining IBM was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters (and HONE as long-time customer back
to CP67 days). With the decision to add virtual memory to all 370s
... because MVT storage management was bad. I was asked to tract down
decision early last decade ... pieces of email exchange with staff
member to executive making the decision ... in this archived post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#73
and to produce VM370 product (in the morph of CP67->VM370 lots of
features were simplified or dropped, including SMP support). In 1974,
I started migrating lots of stuff from CP67 to R2-based VM370
(including kernel reorg for multiprocessor operation, but not
multiprocessor operation itself) for my CSC/VM. ... and US HONE
datacenters were consolidated in Silicon Valley (across the back
parking lot from the Palo Alto Science Center). US HONE consolidation
included implementing simgle-system image, loosely-coupled, shared
DASD operation with load balancing and fall-over across the complex
(original done at Uithorne HONE). I then implemented SMP,
tightly-coupled multiprocessor operation for R3-based VM370 CSC/VM,,
initially for US HONE so they could add a 2nd processor to each system
in their single-system image operations (16-cpus aggregate).
PASC had done APL migration to VM370/CMS as APL\CMS, the APL\CMS
microcode assist for 370/145 (APL\CMS throughput claims as good as
370/168 APL\CMS) and 5100 prototype ... and provided HONE with APL
improvements.
IBM 5100 ... at the Palo Alto Science Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100
Note Los Gatos was ASDD lab, then GPD VLSI & VLSI tools, early 80s had
a number of GE CALMA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calma
Also had done the LSM (Los Gatos State Machine) ... ran VLSI circuit
logic simulation 50,000 times faster than 3033 (also had timer support
so could simulate asynchronous clocks and digital/analog chips (like
thin film disk heads). At the time I was in San Jose Research (bldg28
on main plant site), but LSG let me have part of wing and other space
in the basement.
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
IBM unbundling posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundle
CSC/VM and/or SJR/VM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
posts mentioning IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#55 Vintage IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#53 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#117 IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#23 IBM APL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#86 APL & IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#103 Online Computer Conferencing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#90 Silicon Valley
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#32 HONE story/history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#40 If Memory Had Been Cheaper
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#84 IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#52 All programmers that developed in machine code and Assembly in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s died?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018d.html#116 Watch IBM's TV ad touting its first portable PC, a 50-lb marvel
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018b.html#96 IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#7 SC/MP (1977 microprocessor) architecture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016d.html#34 The Network Nation, Revised Edition
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#20 IBM 8150?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013o.html#82 One day, a computer will fit on a desk (1974) - YouTube
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013n.html#82 'Free Unix!': The world-changing proclamation made30yearsagotoday
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013g.html#14 Tech Time Warp of the Week: The 50-Pound Portable PC, 1977
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013c.html#44 Lisp machines, was What Makes an Architecture Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013c.html#36 Lisp machines, was What Makes an Architecture Bizarre?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012l.html#79 zEC12, and previous generations, "why?" type question - GPU computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012e.html#100 Indirect Bit
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012.html#10 Can any one tell about what is APL language
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011j.html#48 Opcode X'A0'
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011i.html#55 Architecture / Instruction Set / Language co-design
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011e.html#58 Collection of APL documents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011d.html#59 The first personal computer (PC)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#54 Processes' memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010c.html#28 Processes' memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007d.html#64 Is computer history taugh now?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005m.html#2 IBM 5100 luggable computer with APL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005.html#44 John Titor was right? IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003n.html#8 The IBM 5100 and John Titor
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM TCM
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM TCM
Date: 15 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Future System early part of 70s was completely different from 370s and
was gong to completely replace 370s (internal politics was killing off
370 projects, claim that the lack of new IBM 370s during FS is
credited with giving clone 370 system makers their market
foothold). When FS finally implodes there is mad rush to get stuff
into the 370 product pipeline, including quick&dirty 3033&3081
... some more info (including enormous increase in circuits)
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
i.e. 3033 started out remapping 168 logic to 20% faster chips and 158
engine with just the integrated channel microcode for external
channels (3031 was two 158 engines, one with just 370 microcode and
one with just channel microcode; 3032 was 168-3 and 158 engine with
integrated channel microcode). 3081 was warmed over FS stuff with
enormous number of circuits, TCMs were required to package in
reasonable size space. Two-CPU 3081D aggregate processing was slower
than latest (air-cooled) Amdahl single CPU; they double the 3081
processor cache size for 3081K, which brings 3081K 2-CPU aggregate
processing similar to Amdahl's single processor (modulo MVS
multiprocessor overhead listed 2-CPU throughput as only 1.2-1.5 times
single processor throughput).
Also, after FS failure, I'm asked to help with a 370 16-CPU
multiprocessor project and we con the 3033 processor engineers into
working on it in their spare time (lot more interesting than remapping
168 logic to 20% faster chips). I had recently added 2-cpu
multiprocessor support to VM370, initially for US HONE consolidated
datacenter (eight system single-system image, loosely-coupled, shared
DASD with load balancing and fall-over) so they could add 2nd CPU to
each system (and 2-CPU configurations were getting twice throughput of
single CPU) for 16 CPUs total. In any case, everybody thought it was
great until somebody told head of POK that it could be decades before
POK's favorite son operating system ("MVS") had (effective) 16-cpu
tightly-coupled shared-memory operation (with SMP overhead increasing
with number of processors and 2-CPU throughput only 1.2-1.5 a single
CPU; POK doesn't ship 16-CPU SMP until after turn of century). Then
head of POK invites some of us to never visit POK again and directs
3033 processor enginers, heads down and no distractions. Once 3033 is
out the door, the 3033 processor engineers start on trout/3090.
FE had a bootstrap diagnostic/fix process, starting with scoping. With
3081 circuits all in TCMs, it was no longer scopable. They go to a
"service processor" with lots of probes into the TCMs that can be used
for diagnostics ... and the 3081 service processor could be
diagnosed/scoped (and fixed).
Note by 2010, large cloud opeations could have dozens of
megadatacenters around the world, each with half million or more
server blades (several million processors) ... at the time frequently
E5-2600 that benchmarked at 500BIPS, IBM base list price was $1815 (or
$3.63/BIPS) ... but large clouds were assembling their own server
blades for 1/3rd the cost of brand name blades, aka $603 (or
$1.21/BIPS). The server system costs were so radically reduced, that
things like power and cooling were increasingly becoming
megadatacenter major costs. By comparison, 2010 max configured z196
went for $30M and benchmarked at 50BIPS, 1/10th E5-2600 blade;
$600,000/BIPS.
The cloud operators were putting enormous pressure on server chip
makers to reduce power&cooling requirements/costs. Water could both
help with cooling costs as well as space (packing more blades into a
rack and more racks in megadatacenter physical space). Also new
generation of more power efficient chips could easily justify complete
replacement of all systems (power cost savings easily justifying the
system replacement costs).
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/energy-power-supply/data-center-power-fueling-the-digital-revolution
https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/cooling/data-center-power-cooling-in-2023-top-stories-so-far
https://www.datacenterfrontier.com/hyperscale/article/55021675/the-gigawatt-data-center-campus-is-coming
In that same time-frame, there was industry press that server chip
makers were shipping half their product directly to cloud operators
and IBM unloads its server product business.
trivia: In late 70s and early 80s, I was blamed for online computer
conferencing on the internal network, it really took off the spring of
1981 when I distributed trip report of visit to Jim Gray at
Tandem. Only about 300 actively participated but claims that upwards
of 25,000 were reading (also folklore when corporate executive
committee was told, 5of6 wanted to fire me). One of the active 300 was
manager of the 3090 service processor (3092) ... instead of building
whole thing from scratch, it started out 4331 with modified VM370R6
and all service screens were CMS IOS3270 ... which evolves into a pair
of (redundant) 4361s.
Semi-facetious: When I 1st transferred to SJR, I got to wander around
lots of IBM and customer datacenters in silicon valley, including disk
bldgs 14/engineering and 15/product-test across the street. They were
doing 7x24, prescheduled, stand-alone mainframe testing and had
mentioned they recently tried MVS, but it had 15min MTBF (requiring
manual re-ipl). I offered to rewrite input/output supervisor so it was
bullet-proof and never fail so they could do any amount of on-demand
concurrent testing, greatly improving (downside was they got into
habit of blaming me when things didn't work like they expected and I
had to spend increasing amount of time playing disk engineer). There
was lots of complaining about GPD executive that had mandating a slow,
inexpensive processor ("JIB-prime") for the 3880, while 3880 had
special 3mbye/sec hardware path for 3380 transfers, everything else
was much slower than 3830 (with associated increases in channel busy).
3090 had configured number of channels for target throughput, assuming
3880 was same as 3830, but with 3mbyte transfer. When they found out
how bad 3880 really was, they realized they had to significantly
increase the number of 3090 channels to achieve target
throughput. This required an extra TCM and they semi-facetiously
claimed they would bill the 3880 group for the increase in 3090
manufacturing costs. Eventually marketing respins the big increase in
the number of 3090 channels, as being wonderful I/O machine.
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared-memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
getting to play disk engineer in bldgs 14&15
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk
cloud megadatacenter posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#megadatacenter
some TCM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#131 3081 (/3090) TCMs and Service Processor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#107 TCMs & IBM Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#20 Service Processor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#66 Virtual Machine Debugging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#58 MAINFRAME (4341) History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#80 TCM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018d.html#48 IPCS, DUMPRX, 3092, EREP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#56 What is the most epic computer glitch you have ever seen?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#94 GREAT presentation on the history of the mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#88 GREAT presentation on the history of the mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#50 Mainframes after Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#86 3033
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014k.html#11 1950: Northrop's Digital Differential Analyzer
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#14 23Jun1969 Unbundling Announcement
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014.html#31 Hardware failures (was Re: Scary Sysprogs ...)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012e.html#38 A bit of IBM System 360 nostalgia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012c.html#23 M68k add to memory is not a mistake any more
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011m.html#21 Supervisory Processors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011f.html#42 At least two decades back, some gurus predicted that mainframes would disappear in future and it still has not happened
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011f.html#32 At least two decades back, some gurus predicted that mainframes would disappear
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#43 What was old is new again (water chilled)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#77 Z11 - Water cooling?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009b.html#22 Evil weather
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2008h.html#80 Microsoft versus Digital Equipment Corporation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004p.html#37 IBM 3614 and 3624 ATM's
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
Postel, RFC Editor, Internet
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Postel, RFC Editor, Internet
Date: 16 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Postel use to let me help with periodically updated/re-issued STD1,
which regularly had RFC numbers reserved ... even after later numbers
were in use.
I had been brought into small client/server startup as consultant, two
former Oracle people we had worked when doing IBM's HA/CMP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_High_Availability_Cluster_Multiprocessing
were there responsible for "commerce server" and they wanted to do
financial transactions on the server, the startup had also invented
this technology called "SSL" they wanted to use, the result is now
frequently called "elecctronic commerce". I had responsibility for
everything between webservers and financial industry payment
networks. I then did a talk on "Why The Internet Isn't Business
Critical Dataprocessing" on all the documentation, procedures, and
software I had to do (that Postel sponsored at ISI, was standing room
only, lots of graduate students over from USC).
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
payment gateway for electronic commerce posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
past recent posts mentioning Postel
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#85 When Did "Internet" Come Into Common Use
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#41 Netscape
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#97 Mainframe Integrity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#50 Architectural implications of locate mode I/O
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#47 E-commerce
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#92 TCP Joke
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#82 Inventing The Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#62 HTTP over TCP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#106 OSI: The Internet That Wasn't
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#73 Vintage IBM, RISC, Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#70 HSDT, HA/CMP, NSFNET, Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#35 Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#33 Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#71 IBM AIX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#38 RS/6000 Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#37 AL Gore Invented The Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#23 The evolution of Windows authentication
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#8 Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#37 IBM 360/67
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#17 Maneuver Warfare as a Tradition. A Blast from the Past
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#85 Airline Reservation System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#81 Taligent and Pink
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#56 How the Net Was Won
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#46 wallpaper updater
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#53 Conflicts with IBM Communication Group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#34 30 years ago, one decision altered the course of our connected world
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#54 Classified Material and Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#42 IBM AIX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#31 IBM Change
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#90 IBM Cambridge Science Center Performance Technology
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#26 Why Things Fail
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#46 What's something from the early days of the Internet which younger generations may not know about?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#33 IBM "nine-net"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#105 FedEx to Stop Using Mainframes, Close All Data Centers By 2024
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#28 IBM "nine-net"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#14 IBM z16: Built to Build the Future of Your Business
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#108 Attackers exploit fundamental flaw in the web's security to steal $2 million in cryptocurrency
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#68 ARPANET pioneer Jack Haverty says the internet was never finished
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#38 Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#129 Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#128 The Network Nation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#87 IBM and Internet Old Farts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#57 System Availability
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#55 ESnet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#42 IBM Business School Cases
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#10 System Availability
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#83 IBM Internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#72 IBM Research, Adtech, Science Center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#34 NOW the web is 30 years old: When Tim Berners-Lee switched on the first World Wide Web server
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#24 NOW the web is 30 years old: When Tim Berners-Lee switched on the first World Wide Web server
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021g.html#66 The Case Against SQL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#74 WEB Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#56 Hacking, Exploits and Vulnerabilities
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#7 IBM100 - Rise of the Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#16 The Rise of the Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#68 Online History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#30 IBM Recruiting
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM Telecommunication Controllers
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Telecommunication Controllers
Date: 16 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
A "baby-bell" had done a VTAM/NCP emulator running on distributed IBM
S/1s, no-single-point of failure, T1 and faster link support, all
resources "owned" out in distributed S/1 with cross-domain protocol to
mainframe VTAMs, channel-interface to mainframes simulated
3725NCP. Branch office & Boca cons me into looking at turning it
out as type-1 product, with later follow-on port to rack-mount
RS/6000s. I gave a presentation on the work at fall 1986 SNA
architecture review board in Raleigh. The communication group was
infamous for internal political dirty tricks and branch office/Boca
had done every countermeasure they could think off. What the
communication group did next could only be described as "truth is
stranger than fiction".
Archived post with part of the fall 1986 ARB presentation:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#67
Part of presentation that the "baby bell" gave at spring '86 IBM
"COMMON" user group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#70
Communication group would constantly complain the ARB presentation
numbers were invalid, but couldn't say why. The S/1s numbers were
taken from the "baby bell" production operation, the 3725/VTAM numbers
were taken from the "communication group's" configurators on HONE (I
suggested if there was some "real" problem, they needed to update
their HONE configurators).
Early 70s at the science center, there was an attempt by Edson to get
CPD to use the Series/1 much more capable "peachtree" processor for
3705 (rather than UC). Edson was responsible for the CP67-based
science center wide-area network which morphs into the non-SNA
internal network, larger than arpanet/internet from the beginning
until sometime mid/late 80s) ... also used for the corporate sponsored
univ "BITNET".
Following from one of the inventors of GML (1969) at the science center:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
Mentions Ed's work for "internet" and then trying to move the internal
nework to TCP/IP (instead of the late 80s move to SNA/VTAM)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Hendricks
misc other; SJMerc article about Edson and "IBM'S MISSED OPPORTUNITY
WITH THE INTERNET" (gone behind paywall but lives free at wayback
machine)
https://web.archive.org/web/20000124004147/http://www1.sjmercury.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg092499.htm
Also from wayback machine, some additional (IBM missed) references
from Ed's website ... blocked from converting internal network to
tcp/ip (late 80s converted to sna/vtam instead)
https://web.archive.org/web/20000115185349/http://www.edh.net/bungle.htm
I had also gotten HSDT project early 80s (T1 and faster computer
links, both terrestrial and satellite). Note in the 60s, IBM had 2701
controller which supported T1, however the move to SNA/VTAM in the
mid-70s and associated issues seemed to have caped links at 56kbits
... as a result I tended to have periodic conflicts/battles with the
communication group.
disclaimer: as undergraudate, Univ had hired me fulltime responsible
of OS/360. Univ was getting a 360/67 for TSS/360 (to replace
709/1401), temporarily they got 360/30 to replace 1401 (getting 360
experience) pending availability of 360/67. TSS/360 never met the
marketing promises and most installations used 360/67 as 360/65
running OS/360. The univ. shutdown datacenter on weekends and I would
have the machine room dedicated for 48hrs (although made monday
classes hard). Then science center came out to install CP67 (precursor
to VM370, 3rd install after CSC itself and MIT Lincoln Labs). I mostly
got to play with it during my weekend datacenter time. CP67 arrived
with 1052 and 2741 support with automagic terminal type identification
(using telecommunication controller SAD CCW to switch terminal type
port scanner). The univ. had some TTY/ASCII terminals (trivia: when
the ASCII port scanner arrive to install in the controller, it came in
a Heathkit box), so I added ASCII terminal support (integrated with
terminal type identification). I then wanted to have a single dial-in
phone number ("hunt group") for all terminals, but IBM had taken
short-cut and hard wired line speed for each port. This kicks off the
Univ clone controller project; build a channel interface board for an
Interdata/3 programmed to emulate IBM's controller, with the addition
that it could do automagic line-speed. It was later upgraded to an
Interdata/4 for the channel interface and cluster of Interdata/3s for
ports. Interdata and later Perkin-Elmer sell it as IBM clone
controller and four of us get written up for (some part of) the IBM
clone controller business.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkin-Elmer#Computer_Systems_Division
around the turn of the century, I run into a descendant of the box
handling nearly all dial-up merchant credit-card terminal calls east
of the Mississippi.
hone posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
GML, SGML, HTML, etc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
bitnet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
clone controller posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360pcm
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM Telecommunication Controllers
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Telecommunication Controllers
Date: 16 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#48 IBM Telecommunication Controllers
mid-80s communication group was fiercely fighting off client/server
and distribution computing. They were also trying to block mainframe
tcp/ip release, when that got reversed, they changed their strategy
and since they had corporate strategic responsibility for everything
that crossed datacenter walls, it had to be released through
them. What shipped got aggregrate 44kbytes/sec using nearly whole 3090
CPU (the MVS port was further degraded by using the VM370
implementation implementing VM370 DIAGNOSE simulation). I then do
RFC1044 support and in some tuning tests at Cray Research between Cray
and IBM 4341, it got sustained (4341) channel throughput using only
modest amount of 4341 CPU (something like 500 times improvement in
bytes moved per instruction executed).
Late 80s, univ. study comparing UNIX TCP and mainframe VTAM, had UNIX
TCP with 5000 instruction pathlength and five buffer copies, while
VTAM LU6.2 had 160,000 instruction pathlength and 15 buffer
copies. Then in the 90s, Raleigh hires a silicon valley contractor to
implement TCP/IP directly in VTAM. What he demo'ed had TCP much faster
LU6.2. He was then told that everybody knows that LU6.2 is much faster
than a "proper" TCP/IP implementation and they would be only paying
for a "proper" implementation.
HSDT in early 80s was also working with NSF director and suppose to
get $20M to interconnect the NSF supercomputers. Then congress cuts
the budget, some other things happen and finally an RFP is release (in
part based on what we already had running). From 28Mar1986 Preliminary
Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet. Trivia: somebody
had been collecting executive (mis-information) email about how
SNA/VTAM could support NSFNET T1 ... and forwarded it to me
... heavily snipped and redacted (to protect the guilty)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email870109
RFC1044 posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
IBM 3081 & TCM
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 3081 & TCM
Date: 17 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#46 IBM TCM
3081 was going to be multiprocessor only, enormous number of circuits
... using some warmed over Future System technology i.e. FS was to
completely replace 370 and during FS, 370 efforts were being killed
off, when FS finally implodes, there is mad rush to get stuff back
into 370 product pipelines, including quick&dirty 3033&3081 in
parallel
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
the enormous number of circuits motivating (water-cooled) TCMs to
package in reasonable physical volume.
initially 2-CPU 3081D aggregate MIPS less than Amdahl single
processor, then doubled processor cache size for 3081K and aggregate
MIPS about same as Amdahl 1-CPU (although IBM documents claimed MVS
2-CPU multiprocessor throughput was only 1.2-1.5 times throughput of
single processor). Then concern because ACP/TPF systems didn't have
multiprocessor support, that whole market would move to Amdahl ... and
came out with 3083, removing one of the 3081 CPUs (leaving just CPU0,
initially just removing CPU1 was worry it would be top-heavy and prone
to tip over, so had to rewire to get CPU0 in the middle of the
box). Then saw interconnecting two 3081s for 3084 4-CPU
multiprocessor.
Amdahl trivia: After joining IBM, I continued to go to SHARE and drop
in on IBM customers. The director of one of the largest financial
industry IBM datacenters liked me to stop in and talk technology. At
some point, the branch manager horribly offended the customer and they
were ordering a Amdahl system (single Amdahl in a vast sea of
blue). Up until then, Amdahl had been selling into the
scientific/technical/univ. market and this would be the 1st for "true
blue", commercial market. I was asked to go onsite for 6-12 months (to
help obfuscate why the customer was ordering an Amdahl machine). I
talked it over with the customer and then turned down the IBM offer. I
was then told that the branch manager was good sailing buddy of IBM
CEO and if didn't do this, I could forget career, raises, promotions.
note: Amdahl had won the battle to make ACS 360 compatible, but after
ACS/360 was killed (supposedly executives were concerned it would
advance state of the art too fast and IBM would loose control of the
market), Amdahl leaves IBM (shortly before FS started)
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_end.html
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs.html
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_legacy.html
trivia: during FS, claim the lack of new 370s gave clone 370 makers
their market foothold, also saw enormous uptic in IBM 370 marketing
FUD; I continued to work on 360&370 all during FS, including
periodically ridiculing what they were doing). Then when FS implodes
there was mad rush to get stuff back into 370 product pipelines,
including kicking off quick&dirty 3033&3081 efforts in parallel. About
same time I got asked to help with 16-cpu 370 multiprocessor and we
con the 3033 processor engineers into working on it in their spare
time (lot more interesting than remapping 370/168 circuit design to
20% faster chips). Everybody thought it was great until somebody tells
head of POK that it could be decades before POK's favorite son
operating system ("MVS") had (effective) 16-cpu support (aka
significant multiprocessor overhead, increasing with number of CPUs,
POK doesn't ship 16-CPU system until after turn of century) and some
of us were invited to never visit POK again (and the 3033 processor
engineers, heads down and no distractions). Once the 3033 was out the
door, the 3033 processor engineers start on trout/3090.
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
some posts mentioning Future System, 3033, 3081, 3083, TCM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019c.html#44 IBM 9020
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#80 TCM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#38 long-winded post thread, 3033, 3081, Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#56 What is the most epic computer glitch you have ever seen?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar197
The joy of Democracy
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Democracy
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 07:48:47 -1000
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:
The US wasn't all that triggered. The sentiment was to let the Europeans
fight amongst themselves. It took Roosevelt two years to troll the
Japanese into an attack and Hitler stupidly lived up to his agreement with
Japan and declared war on the US. Roosevelt trolled him too but he never
took the bait.
The Great Scandal: Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/04/the-great-scandal-christianitys-role-in-the-rise-of-the-nazis/
note that John Foster Dulles played major role rebuilding Germany
economy, industry, military from the 20s up through the early 40s
https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Foster-Dulles-Allen-Secret-ebook/dp/B00BY5QX1K/
loc865-68:
In mid-1931 a consortium of American banks, eager to safeguard their
investments in Germany, persuaded the German government to accept a
loan of nearly $500 million to prevent default. Foster was their
agent. His ties to the German government tightened after Hitler took
power at the beginning of 1933 and appointed Foster's old friend
Hjalmar Schacht as minister of economics.
loc905-7:
Foster was stunned by his brother's suggestion that Sullivan &
Cromwell quit Germany. Many of his clients with interests there,
including not just banks but corporations like Standard Oil and
General Electric, wished Sullivan & Cromwell to remain active
regardless of political conditions.
loc938-40:
At least one other senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, Eustace
Seligman, was equally disturbed. In October 1939, six weeks after the
Nazi invasion of Poland, he took the extraordinary step of sending
Foster a formal memorandum disavowing what his old friend was saying
about Nazism
... snip ...
From the law of unintended consequences, when US 1943 Strategic
Bombing program needed targets in Germany, they got plans and
coordinates from wallstreet.
June1940, Germany had a victory celebration at the NYC Waldorf-Astoria
with major industrialists. Lots of them were there to hear how to do
business with the Nazis
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Called-Intrepid-Incredible-Narrative-ebook/dp/B00V9QVE5O/
loc1925-29:
One prominent figure at the German victory celebration was Torkild
Rieber, of Texaco, whose tankers eluded the British blockade. The
company had already been warned, at Roosevelt's instigation, about
violations of the Neutrality Law. But Rieber had set up an elaborate
scheme for shipping oil and petroleum products through neutral ports
in South America.
... snip ...
Intrepid also points finger at Ambassador Kennedy ... they start
bugging the US embassy because classified information was leaking to
the Germans. They eventually identified a clerk as responsible but
couldn't prove ties to Kennedy. However Kennedy is claiming credit
for Chamberland capitulating to Hitler on many issues ... also making
speeches in Britain and the US that Britain could never win a war with
Germany and if he was president, he would be on the best of terms with
Hitler.
loc2645-52:
The Kennedys dined with the Roosevelts that evening. Two days later,
Joseph P. Kennedy spoke on nationwide radio. A startled public learned
he now believed "Franklin D. Roosevelt should be re-elected
President." He told a press conference: "I never made anti-British
statements or said, on or off the record, that I do not expect Britain
to win the war."
British historian Nicholas Bethell wrote: "How Roosevelt contrived the
transformation is a mystery." And so it remained until the BSC Papers
disclosed that the President had been supplied with enough evidence of
Kennedy's disloyalty that the Ambassador, when shown it, saw
discretion to be the better part of valor. "If Kennedy had been
recalled sooner," said Stephenson later, "he would have campaigned
against FDR with a fair chance of winning. We delayed him in London as
best we could until he could do the least harm back in the States."
... snip ...
The congressmen responsible for the US Neutrality Act claimed it was
in reaction to the enormous (US) war profiteering they saw during
WW1. The capitalists intent on doing business with Nazi Germany respin
that as isolationism in major publicity campaigns
... getting into the war
US wasn't in the war and Stalin was effectively fighting the Germans
alone and worried that Japan would attack from the east ... opening up
a second front. Stalin wanted US to come in against Japan (making sure
Japan had limited resources to open up a 2nd front against the Soviet
Union). US assistant SECTREAS Harry Dexter White was operating on
behalf of the Soviet Union and Stalin sends White a draft of demands
for US to present to Japan that would provoke Japan into attacking US
and drawing US into the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dexter_White#Venona_project
demands were included in the Hull Note which Japan received just prior
to decision to attack Perl Harbor, hull note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_note#Interpretations
More Venona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
Benn Stein in "The Battle of Bretton Woods" spends pages 55-58
discussing "Operation Snow".
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Bretton-Woods-Relations-University-ebook/dp/B00B5ZQ72Y/
pg56/loc1065-66:
The Soviets had, according to Karpov, used White to provoke Japan to
attack the United States. The scheme even had a name: "Operation
Snow," snow referring to White.
... snip ...
... after the war
Later somewhat replay of the 1940 celebration, there was conference of
5000 industrialists and corporations from across the US at the
Waldorf-Astoria, and in part because they had gotten such a bad
reputation for the depression and supporting Nazis, as part of
attempting to refurbish their horribly corrupt and venal image, they
approved a major propaganda campaign to equate Capitalism with
Christianity.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-God-Corporate-ebook/dp/B00PWX7R56/
part of the result by the early 50s was adding "under god" to the
pledge of allegiance. slightly cleaned up version
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
The Coming of American Fascism, 1920-1940
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-coming-of-american-fascism-19201940
and old book that covers the early era covered in "Economists and the
Powerful": "Triumphant plutocracy; the story of American public life
from 1870 to 1920" (at the moment this part of way-back machine still
offline)
https://archive.org/details/triumphantpluto00pettrich
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
perpetual war posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#perpetual.war
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Unbundling, Software Source and Priced
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Unbundling, Software Source and Priced
Date: 18 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
23jun1969 unbundling announcement, IBM starts charging for
(application) software (but able to make case that kernel software
should still be free, still shipping source), software/system
engineers, maint. etc. Then the Future System effort 1st part of 70s
was completely different from 370 and was going to completely replace
370; internal politics during FS was killing off 370s efforts ... and
the lack of new 370 products during the period is credited giving the
clone 370 system makers their market foothold. With the implosion of
FS, there was mad rush to get stuff back into the 370 product
pipelines, including kicking off the quick and dirty 3033&3081
efforts. Also with FS having given the clone 370 makers their foothold
there was a decision to start charging with kernel software (starting
initially w/kernel add-ons, but eventually culminating in the 80s,
charging for all kernel software)
One of my hobbies after joining IBM was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters. I continued to work on 360&370
stuff all during FS, including periodically ridiculing what they were
doing.
With the decision to add virtual memory to all 370s and decision to
morph CP67 into VM370 (however part of the morph was simplifying
and/or dropping lots of features). One of the things that I had done
for CP67 was automated benchmarking (easy was tens of scripts that
varied configuration, features, algorithms and workload, with
automated rebooting between each benchmarks) and then in 1974 started
moving loads of stuff to VM370R2 and the first thing was automated
benchmarking so could have a baseline. However, VM370 wasn't to
complete benchmark series w/o crashing and I then had to migrate CP67
kernel serialization and integrity features ... in order to get a
baseline benchmarks. I then migrated a bunch of pathlength operations,
dynamic adaptive resource management (scheduling & dispatching),
paging&thrashing control algorithms, I/O optimization and kernel
reorg needed for mulitprocessor support (but not the actual
support). Then in 1975 for VM370R3-base, I add a bunch more
performance stuff along with multiprocessor support (initially for
consolidated US HONE datacenter, so they could add a 2nd CPU to each
system in their eight system, single-system-image, shared DASD,
loosely-coupled operation (for aggregate 16-CPUs).
About that time, a bunch of my dynamic adaptive resource management
stuff was selected to the initial guinea pig for kernel-add software
charging and I get to spend a lot of time with lawyers and planners
talking about charging practices. Along the way I manage to slip in
various things along with multiprocessor kernel reorg (but not actual
multiprocessor support) for the VM370R3 add-on product. Then comes to
VM370R4 and they want to release multiprocessor support. However part
of policy is that hardware support is still free AND free software
can't require payed software (which is part of my performance
add-on). The eventually solution is removing nearly 90% of the code
from my priced add-on and move it into the free VM370R4 base along
with the free multiprocessor hardware support.
In 1st part of the 80s, the transition to all kernel software is
priced and done, and comes the "object code only" announcement (no
more source) and the OCO-wars with customers.
trivia: Co-worker at science center had done an APL-based analytical
system model ... which was made available on the world-wide, branch
office, online sales&marketing support HONE systems
as Performance Predictor (configuration and workload
information is entered and branch people can ask what-if questions
about effect of changing configuration and/or workloads). The
consolidated US HONE single-system-image uses a modified version
of performance predictor to make load balancing decisions. I
also use it for 2000 automated benchmarks (takes 3months elapsed
time), in preparation for my initial kernel add-on release to
customers. The first 1000 benchmarks have manually specified
configuration and workload profiles that are uniformally distributed
across known observations of real live systems (with 100 extreme
combinations outside real systems). Before each benchmark, the
modified performance predictor predicts the performance and
then compares the results with its prediction (and saves all
values). The 2nd 1000 automated benchmarks have configuration and
workload profiles generated by the modified
performance predictor (searching for possible problem combinations).
trivia2: as undergraduate I was hired fulltime by the univ. which
shutdown the datacenter on weekends, and I would have place dedicated
(48hrs w/o sleep made monday classes hard). The univ had replaced
709/1401 with 360/67 (for tss/360) but it ran with os/360 as 360/65
and my first SYSGEN was R9.5. Student Fortran ran under sec on 709
tape->tape, but over a minute on OS/360. I install HASP and it is
cut in half. Then w/R11, I start heavily customized SYSGEN STAGE2,
carefully placing datasets and PDS members to optimize (disk) arm seek
and multi-track search, cutting student fortran time by anotherr2/3rds
to 12.9secs. It never got better than 709 until I install UofWaterloo
WATFOR.
Prior to graduation, CSC comes out to install CP67 (precursor to
VM370, 3rd installation after CSC itself and MIT Lincol Labs) and I
mostly play with it during my dedicated weekend time. Initially I
rewrite lots of CP67 to optimize OS/360 running in virtual
machine. The OS/360 stand-alone job stream ran in 322 secs,
initially 856secs virtually (534secs CP67 CPU), after a few months
have CP67 CPU down to 113secs, I then redo dispatching/scheduling
(dynamic adaptive resource management), page replacement, thrashing
controls, ordered disk arm seek, 2301/drum multi-page rotational
ordered transfers (from 70-80 4k/sec to 270/sec peak), bunch of other
stuff ... for CMS interactive computing. Then to further cut CMS CP67
CPU overhead I do a special CCW. Bob Adair criticizes it because it
violates 360 architecture ... and it has to be redone as DIAGNOSE
instruction (which is defined to be "model" dependent ... and so have
facade of virtual machine model diagnose).
23jun1969 unbundling announce posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#unbundle
CSC posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
CSC/VM (and/or SJR/VM) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
HONE (& APL) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
dynamic adaptive resource management posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#fairshare
paging & thrashing optimization and control posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#clock
benchmark posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#benchmark
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Democracy
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Democracy
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2024 17:49:13 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
As usual, one law for ordinary people, another law for the elite ...
... there was whole roster
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
Plot for coup to overthrow Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as
dictator, but Butler blows the whistle
Business Plot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#Committee_reports
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#Prescott_Bush
Smedley Butler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
authored: War Is a Racket
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
perpetual war posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#perpetual.war
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM "THINK"
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM "THINK"
Date: 20 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
... also outside the box, "We are convinced that any business needs
its wild ducks. And in IBM we try not to tame them." T.J. Watson, Jr.
1972, CEO Learson trying (and failed) to block the bureaucrats,
careerists, and MBAs from destroying Watsons' culture/legacy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
I was introduced to John Boyd in the early 80s and use to sponsor his
briefings at IBM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist)
https://www.colonelboyd.com/understanding-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
1989/1990, the Commandant of the Marine Corp leverages Boyd for a
make-over of the corp (at the time IBM was desperately in need of
make-over). 1992 (20yrs after Learson was trying to save IBM), IBM has
one of the largest losses in the history of US companies and was being
re-organized into the 13 "baby blues" (take-off on break-up of
AT&T "baby bells", decade earlier) in preparation for breaking up
the company
https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
We had already left IBM, but get a call from the bowels of Armonk
asking if we could help with the break-up. Before we get started, the
board brings in the former president of AMEX as CEO, who (somewhat)
reverses the breakup; ... and uses some of the techniques used at RJR
(ref gone 404, but lives on at wayback machine).
https://web.archive.org/web/20181019074906/http://www.ibmemployee.com/RetirementHeist.shtml
2016 100 IBM Centennial videos had one on "wild ducks" ... but it was
customer "wild ducks" ... IBM "wild ducks" had been long expunged.
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
pension posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#pensions
.. periodically being told I had no career, no promotions, no
raises. After Boyd passes in 1997, (then/retired) former commandant of
Marine Corps (passed last spring) would sponsor Boyd conferences at
Marine Corps Univ. in Quantico
Boyd posts & web URLs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Democracy
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The joy of Democracy
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2024 14:19:30 -1000
Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
Later somewhat replay of the 1940 celebration, there was conference of
5000 industrialists and corporations from across the US at the
Waldorf-Astoria, and in part because they had gotten such a bad
reputation for the depression and supporting Nazis, as part of
attempting to refurbish their horribly corrupt and venal image, they
approved a major propaganda campaign to equate Capitalism with
Christianity.
"https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-God-Corporate-ebook/dp/B00PWX7R56/
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
... then "Was Harvard responsible for the rise of Putin" ... after
the fall of the Soviet Union, those sent over to teach capitalism were
more intent on looting the country (and the Russians needed a Russian to
oppose US looting). John Helmer: Convicted Fraudster Jonathan Hay,
Harvard's Man Who Wrecked Russia, Resurfaces in Ukraine
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/convicted-fraudster-jonathan-hay-harvards-man-who-wrecked-russia-resurfaces-in-ukraine.html
If you are unfamiliar with this fiasco, which was also the true
proximate cause of Larry Summers' ouster from Harvard, you must read
an extraordinary expose, How Harvard Lost Russia, from Institutional
Investor. I am told copies of this article were stuffed in every
Harvard faculty member's inbox the day Summers got a vote of no
confidence and resigned shortly thereafter.
... snip ...
How Harvard lost Russia; The best and brightest of America's premier
university came to Moscow in the 1990s to teach Russians how to be
capitalists. This is the inside story of how their efforts led to
scandal and disgrace (gone 404, but lives on at wayback machine)
https://web.archive.org/web/20130211131020/http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Article/1020662/How-Harvard-lost-Russia.html
Mostly, they hurt Russia and its hopes of establishing a lasting
framework for a stable Western-style capitalism, as Summers himself
acknowledged when he testified under oath in the U.S. lawsuit in
Cambridge in 2002. "The project was of enormous value," said Summers,
who by then had been installed as the president of Harvard. "Its
cessation was damaging to Russian economic reform and to the
U.S.-Russian relationship."
... snip ...
There was proposal to establish 5000 local bank operations around
Russia (as part of promoting capitalism), running approx @$1m, needed
sequence of financial dealings starting with $5B of Russian natural
resources ... until financing was available for the bank
institutions. All the efforts collapsed with the US-style kleptocracy
capitalism (which has a long history predating the banana republics).
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
posts mentoning "How Harvard Lost Russia"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#35 Russian Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#17 Gangsters of Capitalism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#50 US Debt Vultures Prey on Countries in Economic Distress
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#76 Why the Soviet computer failed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#37 The Lost Opportunity to Set Post-Soviet Russia on a Stable Course
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#104 Why Nixon's Prediction About Putin and Ukraine Matters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#95 Larry Summers, the Man Who Won't Shut Up, No Matter How Wrong He's Been
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#76 The "Innocence" of Early Capitalism is Another Fantastical Myth
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#132 Ukraine's Post-Independence Struggles, 1991 - 2019
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#92 OT, "new" Heinlein book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#69 Profit propaganda ads witch-hunt era
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#54 Global Warming and U.S. National Security Diplomacy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#52 The global economy is broken, it must work for people, not vice versa
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019c.html#15 Don't forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#40 Has Privatization Benefitted the Public?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#85 LUsers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#45 Why Finance Is Too Important to Leave to Larry Summers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018d.html#100 tablets and desktops was Has Microsoft
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018d.html#75 Nassim Nicholas Taleb
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018c.html#50 Anatomy of Failure: Why America Loses Every War It Starts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018b.html#60 Revealed - the capitalist network that runs the world
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018.html#82 DEC and HVAC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018.html#14 Predicting the future in five years as seen from 1983
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017k.html#66 Innovation?, Government, Military, Commercial
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#35 Tech: we didn't mean for it to turn out like this
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017i.html#82 John Helmer: Lunatic Russia-Hating in Washington Is 70 Years Old. It Started with Joseph Alsop, George Kennan and the Washington Post
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017i.html#69 When Working From Home Doesn't Work
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017h.html#39 Disregard post (another screwup; absolutely nothing to do with computers whatsoever!)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017g.html#83 How can we stop algorithms telling lies?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#69 [CM] What was your first home computer?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#65 View of Russia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#63 [CM] What was your first home computer?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017b.html#83 Sleepwalking Into a Nuclear Arms Race with Russia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#56 25th Anniversary Implementation of Nunn-Lugar Act
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#7 Malicious Cyber Activity
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016h.html#38 "I used a real computer at home...and so will you" (Popular Science May 1967)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016h.html#3 Smedley Butler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016g.html#92 The Lessons of Henry Kissinger
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#105 How to Win the Cyberwar Against Russia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016f.html#22 US and UK have staged coups before
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016e.html#59 How Putin Weaponized Wikileaks to Influence the Election of an American President
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016c.html#69 Qbasic
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016c.html#7 Why was no one prosecuted for contributing to the financial crisis? New documents reveal why
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#39 Failure as a Way of Life; The logic of lost wars and military-industrial boondoggles
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#31 Putin holds phone call with Obama, urges better defense cooperation in fight against ISIS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016.html#73 Shout out to Grace Hopper (State of the Union)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016.html#39 Shout out to Grace Hopper (State of the Union)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016.html#16 1970--protesters seize computer center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015h.html#122 For those who like to regress to their youth? :-)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015h.html#91 Happy Dec-10 Day!!!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015h.html#70 Department of Defense Head Ashton Carter Enlists Silicon Valley to Transform the Military
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015h.html#26 Putin's Great Crime: He Defends His Allies and Attacks His Enemies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015f.html#45 1973--TI 8 digit electric calculator--$99.95
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015f.html#44 No, the F-35 Can't Fight at Long Range, Either
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015f.html#30 Analysis: Root of Tattered US-Russia Ties Date Back Decades
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015b.html#8 Shoot Bank Of America Now---The Case For Super Glass-Steagall Is Overwhelming
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015b.html#5 Swiss Leaks lifts the veil on a secretive banking system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015b.html#1 do you blame Harvard for Puten
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM DB2 and MIP Envy
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM DB2 and MIP Envy
Date: 21 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
I was at SJR and worked with Jim Gray and Vera Watson on original
SQL/relational, System/R. Official next DBMS "EAGLE" was to be
follow-on to IMS ... and was able to do technology transfer to
Endicott for SQL/DS ("under the radar" while the company was
preoccupied with "EAGLE"). When "EAGLE" finally implodes, there is a
request for how fast could System/R be ported to MVS. Eventually port
is released as "DB2", originally for "decision support" only.
Note System/R was being done with (IBM's internal) PLS ... a problem
was that during "Future System", internal politics were killing off
370 efforts, including PLS 370 group.
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
Jim Gray's "MIP Envy" tome including lack of PLS support, before
leaving IBM for Tandem
https://jimgray.azurewebsites.net/papers/mipenvy.pdf
and from IBMJargon
MIP envy - n. The term, coined by Jim Gray in 1980, that began the
Tandem Memos (q.v.). MIP envy is the coveting of other's facilities -
not just the CPU power available to them, but also the languages,
editors, debuggers, mail systems and networks. MIP envy is a term
every programmer will understand, being another expression of the
proverb The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
... snip ...
note: I was blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal
network (larger than arpanet/internet from the beginning until
sometime mid/late 80s, in part because of its conversion to SNA/VTAM
2nd half of the 80s) in the late 70s and early 80s. "Tandem Memos"
actually took off spring of 1981 after I distributed a trip report of
visit to Jim at Tandem (only about 300 actively participated, but
claims 25,000 were reading; folklore is when corporate executive
committee was told, 5of6 wanted to fire me).
some more about "Tandem Memos" in this long-winded post
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler/
System/R posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Patents
Refed: **, - **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Patents
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:04:53 -1000
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
As opposed to large corporations subverting and distorting the markets,
as God intended.
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#55 The joy of Democracy
claim was constitution setup patent system to protect new innovative
players from large monopolies (that nominally protect their status quo).
patent linquistic study in the 90s, found there was 30% of
computer/technology related patents with very ambiquous language filed
by patent trolls (setup be large status quo monopolies) in
non-computer/non-technology caterories
the troll entities had no activity for which they could be sued ... but
the trolls could sue other entities that appeared and might adversely
affect the status quo of large monopolies (subverting the original
purpose of the patent system) ... in addition to the trolls that were
strictly scamming the patent system for financial gain.
previous mention of the plutocrat gilded age 1870-1920 and
countermeasures (stil offline)
https://archive.org/details/triumphantpluto00pettrich
real paper copy
https://www.amazon.com/Triumphant-Plutocracy-Government-Economics-Autobiography/dp/1789873215
then the '29 crash. in jan2009 I was asked to HTML'ize the 30s (Pecora,
had been scanned the fall of 2008) senate hearings (resulted in many
prison sentances) with lots of internal HREFS and URLs comparing what
happened this time and what happened then (comments that the new
congress might have an appetite to do something). I worked on it for
awhile and then get a call that it won't be needed after all (comment
that capital hill was totally buried under enormous mountains of
wallstreet cash). wiki (and the actual scanned hearings should also
be there when wayback machine fully returns).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecora_Commission
One of the comparisons was the 80s S&L crisis resulted in 30k criminal
referrals and 1k prison sentences. Bush senior claimed that (while VP),
he knew nothing about Iran-Contra because he was fulltime deregulating
financial industry (resulting in S&L crisis)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis
along with other members of the family (note there have been claims
that republican supporters not only paid the $50k fine, but also the
$26M settlement ... and Saudi's helped bail out the brothers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis#Silverado_Savings_and_Loan
and another
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE0D81E3BF937A25753C1A966958260
Republicans and Saudis bailing out the Bushes.
then after turn of century (one of the brothers, pres) Bush presided
over economic mess that was 70 times larger than the S&L crisis
... proportionally should have had 2.1M criminal referrals and 70K jail
terms ... but instead we got too big to fail, too big to prosecute
and too big to jail.
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
S&L crisis posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#s&l.crisis
economic mess posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#economic.mess
too big to fail, too big to prosecute, too big to jail posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#too-big-to-fail
Pecora &/or Glass-Steagall posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#Pecora&/orGlass-Steagall
posts mentioning constitution and patent system
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#66 HURD
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#99 The US Patent and Trademark Office should act now to catalyze innovation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#19 IBM's innovation: Topping the US patent list for 28 years running
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#70 Is LINUX the inheritor of the Earth?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#22 A Tea Party Movement to Overhaul the Constitution Is Quietly Gaining
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018c.html#52 We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017k.html#68 Innovation?, Government, Military, Commercial
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017h.html#83 Bureaucracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#62 [CM] What was your first home computer?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#49 Corporate malfeasance
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015.html#25 Gutting Dodd-Frank
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013n.html#88 Microsoft, IBM lobbying seen killing key anti-patent troll proposal
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013k.html#40 copyright protection/Doug Englebart
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Patents
Refed: **, - **, - **
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Patents
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2024 15:40:38 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
The original concept was called "letters patent". These were Government-
granted monopolies in particular industries (e.g. salt extraction from
seawater, or the manufacturer of gold leaf); if anybody else tried to set
up in competition with you, the legitimate monopoly holder, the Government
would send its goons round to give them a hiding.
When it became clear the system was outdated, instead of getting rid of it
completely, the idea was changed so that you needed to come up with some
kind of "invention" to get a "patent", which gave you a monopoly on the
rights to that "invention".
Though oddly, the concept of "invention" needs to be narrowly defined. For
example, Einstein couldn't get a patent on his groundbreaking General
Theory of Relativity, but microchips exploiting General Relativity to
accurately determine your position in space and time can indeed be
patented. Was the underlying enabling theory too "inventive" to be
patented, perhaps?
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#55 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#57 The joy of Patents
False Profits: Reviving the Corporation's Public Purpose
https://www.uclalawreview.org/false-profits-reviving-the-corporations-public-purpose/
I Origins of the Corporation. Although the corporate structure dates
back as far as the Greek and Roman Empires, characteristics of the
modern corporation began to appear in England in the mid-thirteenth
century.[4] "Merchant guilds" were loose organizations of merchants
"governed through a council somewhat akin to a board of directors,"
and organized to "achieve a common purpose"[5] that was public in
nature. Indeed, merchant guilds registered with the state and were
approved only if they were "serving national purposes."[6]
... snip ...
... however there has been significant pressure to give corporate
charters to entities operating in self-interest ... followed by
extending constitutional "people" rights to corporations. The supreme
court was scammed into extending 14th amendment rights to corporations
(with faux claims that was what the original authors had intended).
https://www.amazon.com/We-Corporations-American-Businesses-Rights-ebook/dp/B01M64LRDJ/
pgxiv/loc74-78:
Between 1868, when the amendment was ratified, and 1912, when a
scholar set out to identify every Fourteenth Amendment case heard by
the Supreme Court, the justices decided 28 cases dealing with the
rights of African Americans--and an astonishing 312 cases dealing with
the rights of corporations.
... snip ...
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future
https://www.amazon.com/Price-Inequality-Divided-Society-Endangers-ebook/dp/B007MKCQ30/
pg35/loc1169-73:
In business school we teach students how to recognize, and create,
barriers to competition -- including barriers to entry -- that help
ensure that profits won't be eroded. Indeed, as we shall shortly see,
some of the most important innovations in business in the last three
decades have centered not on making the economy more efficient but on
how better to ensure monopoly power or how better to circumvent
government regulations intended to align social returns and private
rewards
... snip ...
How Economists Turned Corporations into Predators
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/10/economists-turned-corporations-predators.html
Since the 1980s, business schools have touted "agency theory," a
controversial set of ideas meant to explain how corporations best
operate. Proponents say that you run a business with the goal of
channeling money to shareholders instead of, say, creating great
products or making any efforts at socially responsible actions such as
taking account of climate change.
... snip ...
A Short History Of Corporations
https://newint.org/features/2002/07/05/history
After Independence, American corporations, like the British companies
before them, were chartered to perform specific public functions -
digging canals, building bridges. Their charters lasted between 10 and
40 years, often requiring the termination of the corporation on
completion of a specific task, setting limits on commercial interests
and prohibiting any corporate participation in the political process.
... snip ...
... a residual of that is current law that can't use funds/payments from
government contracts for lobbying. After the turn of the century there
was huge upswing in private equity buying up beltway bandits and
government contractors, PE owners then transfer every cent possible to
their own pockets, which can be used to hire prominent politicians that
can lobby congress (including "contributions") to give contracts to
their owned companies (resulting in huge increase in gov. outsourcing to
private companies) ... can snowball since gov. agencies aren't allowed
to lobby (contributing to claims that congress is most corrupt
institution on earth)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/barbarians-capitol-private-equity-public-enemy/
"Lou Gerstner, former ceo of ibm, now heads the Carlyle Group, a
Washington-based global private equity firm whose 2006 revenues of $87
billion were just a few billion below ibm's. Carlyle has boasted
George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and former Secretary of State James
Baker III on its employee roster."
... snip ...
... also promoting the Success of Failure culture (especially in the
military/intelligence-industrial complex)
http://www.govexec.com/excellence/management-matters/2007/04/the-success-of-failure/24107/
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
private-equity posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#private.equity
gerstner posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#gestner
success of failure of posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#success.of.failure
military-industrial(-congressional) complex
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Patents
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Patents
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2024 01:15:21 -1000
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#55 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#57 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#58 The joy of Patents
"Why Nations Fail"
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity-ebook/dp/B0058Z4NR8/
original settlement, Jamestown ... English planning on emulating the
Spanish model, enslave the local natives to support the
settlement. Unfortunately the North American natives weren't as
cooperative and the settlement nearly starved. Then started out switching
to sending over some of the other populations from the British Isles
essentially as slaves ... the English Crown charters had them as
"leet-man" ... pg27:
The clauses of the Fundamental Constitutions laid out a rigid social
structure. At the bottom were the "leet-men," with clause 23 noting,
"All the children of leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to all
generations."
My wife's father was presented with a set of 1880 history books for some
distinction at West Point by the Daughters Of the 17th Century
http://www.colonialdaughters17th.org/
which refer to if it hadn't been for the influence of the Scottish
settlers from the mid-atlantic states, the northern/English states would
have prevailed and the US would look much more like England with monarch
("above the law") and strict class hierarchy.
Inequality posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#inequality
Capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 3705
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 3705
Date: 23 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#48 IBM Telecommunication Controllers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#49 IBM Telecommunication Controllers
sophomore I took two credit hour intro to fortran/computers and end of
the semester was hired to rewrite 1401 MPIO in assembler for
360/30. The univ had 709 (tape->tape) and 1401 MPIO (unit record front
end for 709, physically moving tapes between 709 & 1401 drives). The
univ was getting 360/67 for tss/360 and got 360/30 replacing 1401
temporarily until 360/67 arrived. Univ. shutdown datacenter on
weekends and I had the place dedicated, although 48hrs w/o sleep made
monday classes hard. I was given bunch of hardware&software manuals
and got to design and implement monitor, device drivers, interrupt
handlers, error recovery, storage management, etc and within a few
weeks had 2000 card assembler program. The 360/67 arrived within a
year of taking intro class and I was hired fulltime responsible for
os/360 (tss never came to production fruition). Note student fortran
ran under second on 709 (tape->tape), but well over a minute on
OS360. First sysgen was OS360R9.5 (MFT) and I add HASP which cuts time
in half. Then OS360R11 and I start doing custom stage2 sysgen to
carefully place datasets and PDS members to optimize arm seek and
multi-track search, cutting another 2/3rds to 12.9secs.
Later, CSC came out to install CP67 and I mostly played with it during
my dedicated weekend time.
CP67 came with 1052 and 2741 terminal support, including dynamically
determining terminal type and automagically switching terminal type
port scanner with controller SAD CCW. Univ. had some TTY 33&35
(trivia: TTY port scanner for IBM controller had arrived in Heathkit
box) and I added TTY/ASCII support integrated with dynamic terminal
type support. Then I wanted to have single dial-in phone number ("hunt
group") for all terminals ... didn't quite work, IBM had hardwired
controller line speed for each port. Univ. then kicks off clone
controller effort, build a channel interface board for Interdata/3
programmed to emulate IBM controller with addition of automagic line
speed. This is upgraded to Interdata/4 for channel interface and
cluster of Interdata/3s for port interfaces. Interdata and then
Perkin/Elmer markets it as IBM clone controller (and four of us get
written up responsible for some part of IBM clone controller
business).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkin-Elmer#Computer_Systems_Division
trivia: turn of century, tour of datacenter that had descendant of one
of the boxes that handled the majority of dial-up credit-card terminal
calls east of the Mississippi.
UofM: MTS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Terminal_System
mentions MTS using PDP8 programed to emulate mainframe terminal controller
https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/gallery/gallery7.html
and Stanford also did operating system for 360/67: Orvyl/Wylbur (a flavor of Wylbur was also made available on IBM batch operating systems).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORVYL_and_WYLBUR
After graduating, I joined science center. One of the co-workers was
responsible for the CP67-based science wide area network (that morphs
into the internal corporate nework and technology also used for the
corporate sponsored BITNET) ... reference by one of the other members
that was one of the three inventing GML in 1969:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
Person responsible then tried to get CPD to use the (much more
capable) S/1 "peachtree" processor for 3705 (instead of the UC).
One of my hobbies after joining IBM was enhanced production operating
systems and (branch office online sales&marketing) US HONE (morphing
into clones world-wide) was long time customer. In the mid-70s, the US
HONE datacenters were consolidated in Palo Alto (across back parking
lot from IBM PASC, trivia: when facebook 1st moved into silicon
valley, it was into new bldg built next door to the former US HONE
datacenter) ... where they upgrade to single-system-image,
loosely-coupled, shared DASD operation with load-balancing and
fall-over across the complex. Then added shard-memory multiprocessor
support so a 2nd processor could be added to each system in the
complex (16 CPUs total).
trivia: I got HSDT project in early 80s, T1 and faster computer links
(both satellite and terrestrial) with lots of conflicts with the
communication group. Note in the 60s, IBM had 2701 telecommunication
controller that supported T1 (1.5mbits/sec) links, but the move to
SNA/VTAM in mid-70s apparently had issues and controllers were caped
at 56kbit links. Mid-80s, I was also asked to take a "baby bell"
simulated SNA/VTAM done on S/1 and turn it out as IBM type1 product
(with objective to moving to rack mount 801/RISC RS6000) that had
significant more features, performance and priced/performance and had
supported real networking (what communication group then did can only
be described is truth is stranger than fiction) ... part of fall86
presentation at SNA Architecture Review Board meeting in Raleigh
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#67
and part of "baby bell" presentation at spring 1986 IBM COMMON user
group meeting:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/99.html#70
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
clone controller posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#360pcm
corpoate internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
csc/vm (&/or sjr/vm) posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
corporate sponsored univ bitnet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
hsdt posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Mainframe System Meter
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Mainframe System Meter
Date: 23 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
... back when systems were rented/leased, charges were based on the
system meter (ran whenever CPUs and/or channels were busy). when
moving CP67 to 7x24 operations ... lots of work for terminal channel
programs that would let system meter stop when lines were otherwise
idle, but immediately be active when there was data moving. Note
system had to be solid idle for at least 400ms before system meter
would stop ... trivia: long after transition to sales, MVS still had
timer task that woke up every 400ms.
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
recent posts mentioning system meter
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#116 IBM Mainframe System Meter
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#45 Automated Operator
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#82 Cloud and Megadatacenter
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#39 Vintage Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#98 Mainframe Tapes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#78 IBM System/360, 1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#74 IBM 4341
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#93 No, I will not pay the bill
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#71 Mainframe and/or Cloud
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#115 360/67 Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#98 Mainframe Cloud
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#23 1963 Timesharing: A Solution to Computer Bottlenecks
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#10 9 Mainframe Statistics That May Surprise You
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#2 IBM Games
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#108 System Dumps & 7x24 operation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#60 VM/370 Turns 50 2Aug2022
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#26 IBM Cambridge Science Center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#25 IBM Mainframe time-sharing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#22 IBM Cloud to offer Z-series mainframes for first time - albeit for test and dev
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#27 Mainframe System Meter
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#53 IBM Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#94 bootstrap, was What is the oldest computer that could be used today for real work?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#16 IBM Zcloud - is it just outsourcing ?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Amdahl and other trivia
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Amdahl and other trivia
Date: 23 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
After joining IBM, I continued to go to SHARE and drop in on IBM
customers. The director of one of the largest financial industry IBM
datacenters liked me to stop in and talk technology. At some point,
the branch manager horribly offended the customer and they were
ordering a Amdahl system (single Amdahl in a vast sea of blue). Up
until then, Amdahl had been selling into the
scientific/technical/univ. market and this would be the 1st for "true
blue", commercial market. I was asked to go onsite for 6-12 months (to
help obfuscate why the customer was ordering an Amdahl machine). I
talked it over with the customer and then turned down the IBM offer. I
was then told that the branch manager was good sailing buddy of IBM
CEO and if didn't do this, I could forget career, raises, promotions.
note: Amdahl had won the battle to make ACS 360 compatible, but after
ACS/360 was killed (supposedly executives were concerned it would
advance state of the art too fast and IBM would loose control of the
market), Amdahl leaves IBM (shortly before FS started)
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_end.html
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs.html
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_legacy.html
trivia: FS was completely different than 370 and was going to replace
it, also internal politics were killing off 370 efforts. claim was the
lack of new 370s during FS period, gave clone 370 makers their market
foothold, also saw enormous uptic in IBM 370 marketing FUD. I
continued to work on 360&370 all during FS, including periodically
ridiculing what they were doing). Then when FS implodes there was mad
rush to get stuff back into 370 product pipelines, including kicking
off quick&dirty 3033&3081 efforts in parallel.
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm
https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
About same time I got asked to help with 16-cpu 370 multiprocessor and
we con the 3033 processor engineers into working on it in their spare
time (lot more interesting than remapping 370/168 circuit design to
20% faster chips). Everybody thought it was great until somebody tells
head of POK that it could be decades before POK's favorite son
operating system ("MVS") had (effective) 16-cpu support (aka
significant multiprocessor overhead, increasing with number of CPUs,
at the time MVS documentation was that 2-CPU systems only had 1.2-1.5
throughput of single CPU, POK doesn't ship 16-CPU system until after
turn of century) and some of us were invited to never visit POK again
(and the 3033 processor engineers, heads down and no distractions).
Once the 3033 was out the door, the 3033 processor engineers start on
trout/3090.
trivia: later I was at IBM San Jose Research and my brother was Apple
regional marketing rep (largest physical region conus) and I would get
invited to business dinners when he came into town (got to argue MAC
design with developers even before announce). One of his ploys at
customers, was fawning over the great IBM mugs and be willing to trade
two Apple mugs for one IBM mug. He also figured out how to dial into
the IBM S/38 that ran Apple to track manufacturing and delivery
schedules.
One of my sons was at DLI over the hill and brought me a couple
("russian") mugs ... I would make mistake of bringing them into work
and leaving it on my desk (never leave anything in IBM office unless
door was locked). I also had a IBM FE tool briefcase left in the
office and individual tools kept disappearing.
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
SMP, tightly-coupled, shared memory multiprocessor posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#smp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Welcome to the defense death spiral
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Welcome to the defense death spiral
Date: 23 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Welcome to the defense death spiral. At the current spending rate, in
another generation we will have a lot of rich contractors and no
aircraft or Naval fleets to speak of
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/defense-spending-debt/
John Boyd and his friends in the Military Reform Movement during the
late Cold War years warned us about the military industrial
congressional complex 50 years ago. This small band of Pentagon
insiders saw with their own eyes how the political economy created by
the financial and political connections between the military elite,
the defense industry, and society's ruling class wasted
precious resources and produced a series of deeply flawed weapons.
... snip ...
Boyd posts & web URLs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html
False Profits: Reviving the Corporation's Public Purpose
https://www.uclalawreview.org/false-profits-reviving-the-corporations-public-purpose/
I Origins of the Corporation. Although the corporate structure dates
back as far as the Greek and Roman Empires, characteristics of the
modern corporation began to appear in England in the mid-thirteenth
century.[4] "Merchant guilds" were loose organizations of merchants
"governed through a council somewhat akin to a board of directors,"
and organized to "achieve a common purpose"[5] that was public in
nature. Indeed, merchant guilds registered with the state and were
approved only if they were "serving national purposes."[6]
... snip ...
... however there has been significant pressure to give corporate
charters to entities operating in self-interest ... followed by
extending constitutional "people" rights to corporations. The supreme
court was scammed into extending 14th amendment rights to corporations
(with faux claims that was what the original authors had intended).
https://www.amazon.com/We-Corporations-American-Businesses-Rights-ebook/dp/B01M64LRDJ/
pgxiv/loc74-78:
Between 1868, when the amendment was ratified, and 1912, when a
scholar set out to identify every Fourteenth Amendment case heard by
the Supreme Court, the justices decided 28 cases dealing with the
rights of African Americans--and an astonishing 312 cases dealing with
the rights of corporations.
... snip ...
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future
https://www.amazon.com/Price-Inequality-Divided-Society-Endangers-ebook/dp/B007MKCQ30/
pg35/loc1169-73:
In business school we teach students how to recognize, and create,
barriers to competition -- including barriers to entry -- that help
ensure that profits won't be eroded. Indeed, as we shall shortly see,
some of the most important innovations in business in the last three
decades have centered not on making the economy more efficient but on
how better to ensure monopoly power or how better to circumvent
government regulations intended to align social returns and private
rewards
... snip ...
How Economists Turned Corporations into Predators
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/10/economists-turned-corporations-predators.html
Since the 1980s, business schools have touted "agency theory," a
controversial set of ideas meant to explain how corporations best
operate. Proponents say that you run a business with the goal of
channeling money to shareholders instead of, say, creating great
products or making any efforts at socially responsible actions such as
taking account of climate change.
... snip ...
A Short History Of Corporations
https://newint.org/features/2002/07/05/history
After Independence, American corporations, like the British companies
before them, were chartered to perform specific public functions -
digging canals, building bridges. Their charters lasted between 10 and
40 years, often requiring the termination of the corporation on
completion of a specific task, setting limits on commercial interests
and prohibiting any corporate participation in the political process.
... snip ...
... a residual of that is current law that can't use funds/payments
from government contracts for lobbying. After the turn of the century
there was huge upswing in private equity buying up beltway bandits and
government contractors, PE owners then transfer every cent possible to
their own pockets, which can be used to hire prominent politicians
that can lobby congress (including "contributions") to give contracts
to their owned companies (resulting in huge increase in
gov. outsourcing to private companies) ... can snowball since
gov. agencies aren't allowed to lobby (contributing to claims that
congress is most corrupt institution on earth)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/10/barbarians-capitol-private-equity-public-enemy/
"Lou Gerstner, former ceo of ibm, now heads the Carlyle Group, a
Washington-based global private equity firm whose 2006 revenues of $87
billion were just a few billion below ibm's. Carlyle has boasted
George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and former Secretary of State James
Baker III on its employee roster."
... snip ...
... also promoting the Success of Failure culture (especially in the
military/intelligence-industrial complex)
http://www.govexec.com/excellence/management-matters/2007/04/the-success-of-failure/24107/
we were peripherally involved, summer 2002 got a call asking if we
would respond to (unclassified) BAA that was about to close (from
IC-ARDA, since renamed IARPA). We get in response, have some meetings
showing we can do what was required, and then nothing. Wasn't until
the Success of Failure articles that we had an idea what was going
on.
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
Inequality posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#inequality
Private Equity posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#private.equity
Success of Failure posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#success.of.failure
recent posts mentioning IC-ARDA BAA
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#40 Boyd OODA-loop
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#11 Ingenious librarians
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#18 Sun Tzu, Aristotle, and John Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#120 Programming By Committee
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#40 After IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#114 Watch Thy Neighbor
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#53 The Kill Chain
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021g.html#66 The Case Against SQL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#68 RDBMS, SQL, QBE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#129 Republicans abandon tradition of whistleblower protection at impeachment hearing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#54 Acting Intelligence Chief Refuses to Testify, Prompting Standoff With Congress
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#40 Acting Intelligence Chief Refuses to Testify, Prompting Standoff With Congress
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#82 The Sublime: Is it the same for IBM and Special Ops?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#49 Pentagon harbors culture of revenge against whistleblowers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#6 The Pentagon Is Building a Dream Team of Tech-Savvy Soldiers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017i.html#11 The General Who Lost 2 Wars, Leaked Classified Information to His Lover--and Retired With a $220,000 Pension
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017h.html#23 This Is How The US Government Destroys The Lives Of Patriotic Whistleblowers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#47 WikiLeaks CIA Dump: Washington's Data Security Is a Mess
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#5 NSA Deputy Director: Why I Spent the Last 40 Years In National Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017b.html#35 Former CIA Analyst Sues Defense Department to Vindicate NSA Whistleblowers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#64 Improving Congress's oversight of the intelligence community
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016h.html#96 This Is How The US Government Destroys The Lives Of Patriotic Whistleblowers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#62 The NSA's back door has given every US secret to our enemies
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#39 Failure as a Way of Life; The logic of lost wars and military-industrial boondoggles
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015.html#72 George W. Bush: Still the worst; A new study ranks Bush near the very bottom in history
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Distributed Computing VM4341/FBA3370
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Distributed Computing VM4341/FBA3370
Date: 23 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
VM4341&FBA3370: early 80s, large corporations were starting to order
hundreds of VM4341/FBA3370s systems at a time (sort of leading edge of
the coming distributed computing tsunami), placing out in
(non-datacenter) departmental areas (inside IBM, conference rooms were
becoming scarce commodity, being taken over by distributed computing
VM4341s) ... and there was lots of interest by MVS getting into the
market. One problem was new CKD disks were datacenter 3380s, while new
non-datacenter (capable) disks were FBA3370. IBM finally came out with
CKD3375 (for MVS) ... basically CKD simulation on 3370. It didn't do
MVS much good, for distributed computing, they were looking at scores
of systems per support staff while MVS was still scores of support
staff per system.
posts mentioning VM4341/FBA3370 distributed computing tsunami
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#129 IBM 4300
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#29 Wondering Why DEC Is The Most Popular
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#43 Vintage Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#65 IBM Mainframes and Education Infrastructure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#107 Cluster and Distributed Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#82 Cloud and Megadatacenter
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#61 PDS Directory Multi-track Search
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#15 Vintage IBM 4300
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#68 Vintage IBM 3380s
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#55 Vintage IBM 5100
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#12 Internet
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#52 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#93 The IBM mainframe: How it runs and why it survives
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#46 IBM DASD
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#78 IBM 158-3 (& 4341)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#74 IBM 4341
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#71 IBM 4341
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#18 PROFS trivia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#67 SHARE LSRAD Report
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#66 VM/370 Turns 50 2Aug2022
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#5 4361/3092
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#59 370 Architecture Redbook
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#51 3380 DASD
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#84 Mainframe mid-range computing market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#47 MAINFRAME (4341) History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019c.html#49 IBM NUMBERS BIPOLAR'S DAYS WITH G5 CMOS MAINFRAMES
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019c.html#42 mainframe hacking "success stories"?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018c.html#80 z/VM Live Guest Relocation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018b.html#80 BYTE Magazine Pentomino Article
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018.html#41 VSAM usage for ancient disk models
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017j.html#88 Ferranti Atlas paging
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017c.html#87 GREAT presentation on the history of the mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#32 Query: Will modern z/OS and z/VM classes suffice for MVS and VM/370
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2016b.html#23 IBM's 3033; "The Big One": IBM's 3033
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2015g.html#4 3380 was actually FBA?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014g.html#83 Costs of core
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#40 IBM 360/370 hardware unearthed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#8 The IBM Strategy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#108 The IBM Strategy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014c.html#60 Bloat
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013j.html#86 IBM unveils new "mainframe for the rest of us"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#15 Should we, as an industry, STOP using the word Mainframe and find (and start using) something more up-to-date
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013i.html#2 IBM commitment to academia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012l.html#78 PDP-10 system calls, was 1132 printer history
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012k.html#76 END OF FILE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012j.html#2 Can anybody give me a clear idea about Cloud Computing in MAINFRAME ?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Welcome to the defense death spiral
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Welcome to the defense death spiral
Date: 24 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#63 Welcome to the defense death spiral
Eisenhower goodby speech included warning about the
military-industrial(-congressional) complex ... aka take-over by
financial engineering.
Old F22 news: F22 hangar empress (2009) "Can't Fly, Won't Die"
http://nypost.com/2009/07/17/cant-fly-wont-die/
Pilots call high-maintenance aircraft "hangar queens." Well, the
F-22's a hangar empress. After three expensive decades in development,
the plane meets fewer than one-third of its specified
requirements. Anyway, an enemy wouldn't have to down a single F-22 to
defeat it. Just strike the hi-tech maintenance sites, and it's game
over. (In WWII, we didn't shoot down every Japanese Zero; we just sank
their carriers.) The F-22 isn't going to operate off a dirt strip with
a repair tent.
But this is all about lobbying, not about lobbing bombs. Cynically,
Lockheed Martin distributed the F-22 workload to nearly every state,
employing under-qualified sub-contractors to create local financial
stakes in the program. Great politics -- but the result has been a
quality collapse.
... snip ...
F22 stealth coating was subject to moisture ... and jokes about not
being able take to F22 out in the rain. Before the move of Tyndall
F22s to Hawaii (and before all the Tyndall storm damage) ... there
were articles about the heroic efforts of the Tyndall F22 stealth
maintenance bays dealing with backlog of F22 coating maintenance.
http://www.tyndall.af.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/669883/lo-how-the-f-22-gets-its-stealth/
and Boeing contaminated by financial engineering in the MD take-over
... The Coming Boeing Bailout?
https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-coming-boeing-bailout
Unlike Boeing, McDonnell Douglas was run by financiers rather than
engineers. And though Boeing was the buyer, McDonnell Douglas
executives somehow took power in what analysts started calling a
"reverse takeover." The joke in Seattle was, "McDonnell Douglas bought
Boeing with Boeing's money."
... snip ...
Crash Course
https://newrepublic.com/article/154944/boeing-737-max-investigation-indonesia-lion-air-ethiopian-airlines-managerial-revolution
Sorscher had spent the early aughts campaigning to preserve the
company's estimable engineering legacy. He had mountains of evidence
to support his position, mostly acquired via Boeing's 1997 acquisition
of McDonnell Douglas, a dysfunctional firm with a dilapidated aircraft
plant in Long Beach and a CEO who liked to use what he called the
"Hollywood model" for dealing with engineers: Hire them for a few
months when project deadlines are nigh, fire them when you need to
make numbers. In 2000, Boeing's engineers staged a 40-day strike over
the McDonnell deal's fallout; while they won major material
concessions from management, they lost the culture war. They also
inherited a notoriously dysfunctional product line from the
corner-cutting market gurus at McDonnell.
... snip ...
Boeing's travails show what's wrong with modern
capitalism. Deregulation means a company once run by engineers is now
in the thrall of financiers and its stock remains high even as its
planes fall from the sky
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/11/boeing-capitalism-deregulation
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
some recent post mentioning Boeing and financial enginneering
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#76 The Death of the Engineer CEO
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#79 Other Silicon Valley
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#9 Boeing and the Dark Age of American Manufacturing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#56 Did Stock Buybacks Knock the Bolts Out of Boeing?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#104 More IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#11 Tymshare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#18 Sun Tzu, Aristotle, and John Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#64 Massachusetts, Boeing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#91 Short-term profits and long-term consequences -- did Jack Welch break capitalism?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#117 Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#109 Not counting dividends IBM delivered an annualized yearly loss of 2.27%
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#69 'Flying Blind' Review: Downward Trajectory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#40 Boeing Built an Unsafe Plane, and Blamed the Pilots When It Crashed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#78 The Long-Forgotten Flight That Sent Boeing Off Course
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021f.html#57 "Hollywood model" for dealing with engineers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#87 Congress demands records from Boeing to investigate lapses in production quality
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#70 Boeing CEO Said Board Moved Quickly on MAX Safety; New Details Suggest Otherwise
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#40 IBM & Boeing run by Financiers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#11 "This Plane Was Designed By Clowns, Who Are Supervised By Monkeys"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#10 "This Plane Was Designed By Clowns, Who Are Supervised By Monkeys"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#153 At Boeing, C.E.O.'s Stumbles Deepen a Crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#151 OT: Boeing to temporarily halt manufacturing of 737 MAX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#39 Crash Course
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#33 Boeing's travails show what's wrong with modern capitalism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#39 The Roots of Boeing's 737 Max Crisis: A Regulator Relaxes Its Oversight
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#20 The Coming Boeing Bailout?
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Welcome to the defense death spiral
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Welcome to the defense death spiral
Date: 24 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#63 Welcome to the defense death spiral
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#65 Welcome to the defense death spiral
Sophomore in the 60s took two credit hr intro to computers, at the end
of semester, Univ hires me to implement software, datacenter shutdown
on weekends and I would have whole datacenter dedicated (although
48hrs w/o sleep made monday classes hard). Within year of taking intro
class, the 709/1401 configuration had been replaced with large 360/65
and I was hired fulltime responsible for systems (continued to have my
dedicated 48hr weekend time). Then before I graduate, I'm hired
fulltime into small group in Boeing CFO office to help with the
consolidation of all dataprocessing into an independent business unit
(at the time I thought it was largest in the world). When I graduate,
I join IBM (instead of staying with Boeing CFO). In the early 80s, I
was introduced to John Boyd and would sponsor his briefings at
IBM. Boyd biography has him at "spook base" about same time that I was
at Boeing ... and that "spook base" was a $2.5B "wind-fall" for IBM
(ten times Boeing dataprocessing when I was there).
Boyd posts & web URLs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html
some recent posts mentioning working in Boeing CFO office, John Boyd,
and "spook base"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#20 IBM 360/30, 360/65, 360/67 Work
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#58 IBM SAA and Somers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#24 Public Facebook Mainframe Group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#103 IBM 360/40, 360/50, 360/65, 360/67, 360/75
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#97 IBM 360 Announce 7Apr1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#63 Computers and Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#87 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#43 Univ, Boeing Renton and "Spook Base"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#23 The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#28 IBM FSD
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#5 Vintage Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#64 Computing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#54 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#69 Fortran, IBM 1130
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#86 IBM Commission and Quota
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#82 Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#25 IBM Downfall
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#91 360 Announce Stories
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#75 IBM Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#22 IBM Punch Cards
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#12 IBM Marketing, Sales, Branch Offices
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#49 Some BITNET (& other) History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#95 Enhanced Production Operating Systems II
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#106 IBM Quota
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#73 IBM Disks
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#27 Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#48 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#30 CP67 and BPS Loader
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#70 'Flying Blind' Review: Downward Trajectory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#89 IBM Downturn
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#6 The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#64 WWII Pilot Barrel Rolls Boeing 707
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#35 IBM/PC 12Aug1981
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#80 Amdahl
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#34 April 7, 1964: IBM Bets Big on System/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#78 Interactive Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#48 IBM Quota
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#45 Watch AI-controlled virtual fighters take on an Air Force pilot on August 18th
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#29 Online Computer Conferencing
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM "THINK"
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM "THINK"
Date: 24 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#54 IBM "THINK"
we were doing HA/6000, originally for NYTimes so they could move their
newspaper system (ATEX) off DEC VAXCluster to RS/6000. I rename it
HA/CMP
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_High_Availability_Cluster_Multiprocessing
when start doing technical/scientific cluster scale-up with national
labs and commercial cluster scale-up with RDBMS vendors (Oracle,
Sybase, Informix, and Ingres ... that happen to have VAXCluster
support in same source base with unix ... I do distributed lock
manager that supported VAXCluster lock semantics to ease the ports).
Early Jan1992, we have meeting with Oracle CEO, where AWD/Hester tells
Ellison that we would have 16-system clusters by mid-92 and 128-system
clusters by ye-92. A friend at the time was TA to FSD president and
were periodically dropping in on him (he was working 1st shift in the
pres. office and 2nd shift writing ADA code for the latest FAA effort)
and keeping FSD updated on what we were doing.
FSD then tells the Kingston supercomputer group that they were going
with HA/CMP scale-up (code name: MEDUSA) for the government
... apparently triggering decision, that HA/CMP cluster scale-up was
being transferred to Kingston for announce as IBM supercomputer (for
technical/scientific *ONLY*) and we were told we couldn't work on
anything with more than four processors (we leave IBM a few months
later).
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 18:05:00
To: wheeler
MEDUSA uber alles...I just got back from IBM Kingston. Please keep me
personally updated on both MEDUSA and the view of ENVOY which you
have. Your visit to FSD was part of the swing factor...be sure to tell
the redhead that I said so. FSD will do its best to solidify the
MEDUSA plan in AWD...any advice there?
Regards to both Wheelers...
... snip ... top of post, old email index
... and within a couple days, if not hrs of the email, (MEDUSA)
cluster scale-up was transferred (his "redhead" was reference to my
wife).
I then send out email, a little premature it turns out since we were
about to be kneecapped ... copy in this archived post from two decades
ago.
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#email920129
.... note the S/88 product administrator had started taking us around
to their customers and also had me write a section for the corporate
continuous availability strategy document (but it got pulled when both
Rochester/AS400 and POK/mainframe complained they couldn't meet the
requirements ... which likely contributed to the kneecapping).
some of the guys from multics on 5th flr left and did stratus ... ibm
logo'ed it
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
801/risc, iliad, romp, rios, pc/rt, rs/6000, power, power/pc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#801
continuous availability, disaster survivability, geographic
survivability posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of Patents
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of Patents
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2024 07:46:58 -1000
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#55 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#57 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#58 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#59 The joy of Patents
Capitalism and social democracy ... have pros & cons and can be used for
checks & balances ... example, On War
https://www.amazon.com/War-beautifully-reproduced-illustrated-introduction-ebook/dp/B00G3DFLY8/
loc394-95:
As long as the Socialists only threatened capital they were not
seriously interfered with, for the Government knew quite well that the
undisputed sway of the employer was not for the ultimate good of the
State.
... snip ....
i.e. the government needed general population standard of living
sufficient that soldiers were willing to fight to preserve their way of
life. Capitalists tendency was to reduce worker standard of living to
the lowest possible ... below what the government needed for soldier
motivation ... and therefor needed socialists as counterbalance to the
capitalists in raising the general population standard of living. Saw
this fight out in the 30s, American Fascists opposing all of FDR's "new
deals" The Coming of American Fascism, 1920-1940
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-coming-of-american-fascism-19201940
The truth, then, is that Long and Coughlin, together with the
influential Communist Party and other leftist organizations, helped
save the New Deal from becoming genuinely fascist, from devolving into
the dictatorial rule of big business. The pressures towards fascism
remained, as reactionary sectors of business began to have significant
victories against the Second New Deal starting in the late 1930s. But
the genuine power that organized labor had achieved by then kept the
U.S. from sliding into all-out fascism (in the Marxist sense) in the
following decades.
... snip ...
aka "Coming of America Fascism" shows socialists countered the "New
Deal" becoming fascist ... which had been the objective of the
capitalists ... and possibly contributed to forcing them further into
the Nazi/fascist camp. When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR
https://www.npr.org/2012/02/12/145472726/when-the-bankers-plotted-to-overthrow-fdr
The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise
of the American Right
https://www.amazon.com/Plots-Against-President-Nation-American-ebook/dp/B07N4BLR77/
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
Inequality posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#inequality
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTH (not)
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTH (not)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:59:28 -1000
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
On a PPOE's system it took 40 minutes to assemble a 2000-card source
code deck. When I got my own assembler working, it met one of my
design goals of being twice as fast - so it only took 20 minutes to
assemble the same program. For us programmers, who had rock-bottom
priority on the machine, that meant I only had to beg for half as much
machine time.
I took 2credit hr intro to fortran/computers and at end of semester I
was hired to rewrite 1401 MPIO in assembler for IBM 360/30. The univ
was getting 360/67 for tss/360 replacing 709 (tape->tape) and 1401
(unit record front end) and got 360/30 temporarily (replacing 1401)
pending availability of 360/67. univ. shutdown datacenter on weekends
and I got the whole place dedicated (although 48hrs w/o sleep made
monday classes hard). I was given a bunch of hardware and software
manuals and got to design and implement my own monitor, device
drivers, interrupt handlers, error recovery, storage management, etc
... and within a few weeks had a 2000 card assembler program.
I then used conditional assembler option to implement 2nd version with
os/360 sysstem services (get/put, dcb macros, etc). The stand-alone
version took 30mins to assemble, the OS/360 version took 60mins to
assemble (each DCB macro taking 5-6mins). Later I was told that the
IBMers implementing the assembler had been told that they only had
256bytes for instruction lookup (and DCB macro had an enormous number
of 2311 disk I/Os).
Within a year, the 360/67 shows up (replacing 709 & 360/30) but
tss/360 never came to production fruition so ran as 360/65 with os/360
... and I was hired fulltime responsible for os/360 (keeping my
dedicated weekend time). Originally student fortran ran under a second
on 709, but initially over a minute on 360/67 with os/360. My first
sysgen was R9.5 and I add HASP and it cuts student fortran in
half. Then with R11 sysgen, I start redoing stage2 to carefully place
datasets and PDS members to optimize arm seek and multi-track search,
cutting another 2/3rds to 12.9secs, Student fortran never got better
than 709 until I install Univ. of Waterloo WATFOR.
Along the way, CSC comes out to install (virtual machine) CP/67 (3rd
installation after CSC itself and MIT Lincoln Labs) and i mostly got
to play with it during my weekend dedicated time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Scientific_Center
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-67
Initially i rewrote lots of CP67 to optimize running os/360 in virtual
machine. My os/360 test stream ran 322secs on real hardware and
initially ran 856secs in virtual machine (534secs CP67 CPU), within a
few months I have CP67 CPU down to 113secs and I'm invited to the
Spring Houston IBM mainframe user group meeeting to participate in
CP67 announcement.
Then before I graduate, I'm hired fulltime into a small group in the
Boeing CFO office to help with the consolidation of all dataprocessing
into independent business unit. I thought that Renton datacenter was
possibly largest in the world, a couple hundred million in IBM 360
stuff, 360/65s were arriving faster than they could be installed,
boxes constantly being staged in the hallways around the machine
room. Also a lot of politics betweeen Renton director and CFO who only
had a 360/30 up at Boeing field for payroll (although they enlarge the
room to install a 360/67 for me to play with when I wasn't doing other
stuff).
some recent posts mentoning 709/1401, mpio, boeing cfo, renton, etc
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#20 IBM 360/30, 360/65, 360/67 Work
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#136 HASP, JES2, NJE, VNET/RSCS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#103 IBM 360/40, 360/50, 360/65, 360/67, 360/75
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#76 Some work before IBM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#22 Early Computer Use
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#93 ASCII/TTY33 Support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#15 360&370 Unix (and other history)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#97 IBM 360 Announce 7Apr1964
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#63 Computers and Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#60 Vintage Selectric
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#44 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#87 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#43 Univ, Boeing Renton and "Spook Base"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#80 MVT, MVS, MVS/XA & Posix support
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#19 OS/360 Bloat
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#83 360 CARD IPL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#64 Computing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#54 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#34 IBM 360/67
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#106 DASD, Channel and I/O long winded trivia
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#88 545tech sq, 3rd, 4th, & 5th flrs
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#69 Fortran, IBM 1130
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#32 IBM 370/195
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#82 Dataprocessing Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#73 Dataprocessing 48hr shift
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#91 360 Announce Stories
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#75 IBM Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023b.html#15 IBM User Group, SHARE
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#22 IBM Punch Cards
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#99 IBM 360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#60 Fortran
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#31 IBM OS/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#95 Enhanced Production Operating Systems II
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#31 Technology Flashback
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#110 Window Display Ground Floor Datacenters
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#95 Operating System File/Dataset I/O
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#57 CMS OS/360 Simulation
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#10 Computer Server Market
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#12 Programming Skills
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#64 addressing and protection, was Paper about ISO C
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#63 IBM 360s
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The joy of FORTH (not)
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: The joy of FORTH (not)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers, comp.os.linux.misc
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2024 09:10:57 -1000
Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> writes:
Then before I graduate, I'm hired fulltime into a small group in the
Boeing CFO office to help with the consolidation of all dataprocessing
into independent business unit. I thought that Renton datacenter was
possibly largest in the world, a couple hundred million in IBM 360
stuff, 360/65s were arriving faster than they could be installed, boxes
constantly being staged in the hallways around the machine room. Also a
lot of politics betweeen Renton director and CFO who only had a 360/30
up at Boeing field for payroll (although they enlarge the room to
install a 360/67 for me to play with when I wasn't doing other stuff).
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#69 The joy of FORTH (not)
when I graduate, I join the science center (instead of staying with
Boeing CFO).
Later I transfer out to SJR, I get to wonder around silicon valley
datacenters, including disk bldgs 14 (engineering) and 15 (product test)
across the street. They were doing 7x24, prescheduled, stand-alone
testing and mention that they had recently tried MVS, but it had 15min
MTBF (in that environment). I offer to rewrite I/O supervisor so it is
bullet proof and never fails, so they can do any amount of on-demand,
concurrent testing, greatly improving productivity. Downside I had to
spend increasing amount of time playing disk engineer diagnosing
hardware development issues. Bldg15 gets early engineering systems for
disk I/O testing and got both 3033 and 4341. In jan1979 (well before
4341 customer ship), I get con'ed into doing benchmark on the 4341 for
national lab that was looking at getting 70 for a compute farm (sort of
the leading edge of the coming cluster supercomputing tsunami).
I also get con'ed into working with Jim Gray and Vera Watson on original
SQL/relational, System/R. Official next DBMS "EAGLE" was to be follow-on
to IMS ... and was able to do technology transfer to Endicott for SQL/DS
("under the radar" while the company was preoccupied with "EAGLE"). When
Jim leaves for Tandem, he tries to palm off a bunch of stuff including
supporting BofA which was in System/R joint study and getting 60 4341s,
sort of the leading edge of the coming distributed computing tsunami
(large corporations start ordering hundreds at a time for placing out in
departmental areas, inside IBM, conference rooms were becoming in short supply
being converted to VM/4341 rooms). Note after "EAGLE" finally implodes,
there is a request for how fast could System/R be ported to
MVS. Eventually port is released as "DB2", originally for "decision
support" only.
Late 80s (decade after 4341 benchmark), got HA/6000 project, originally
for NYTimes to convert their newspaper system (ATEX) from DEC VAXcluster
to RS/6000. I rename it HA/CMP when I start doing technical/scientific
cluster scale-up with national labs and commercial cluster scale-up with
RDBMS vendors (Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Ingres that have VAXCluser
support in same source base with UNIX; I do distributed lock manager
supporting VAXCluster semantics to ease the port). Early Jan1992, have
meeting with Oracle CEO and AWD/Hester tells Ellison that we would have
16-system clusters by mid92 and 128-system clusters by ye92. Then by end
of Jan1992 we get corporate kneecapping with cluster scale-up being
transferred for announce as IBM supercomputer (for technical/scientific
*ONLY*) and we are told we can't do anything with more than four
processors (we leave IBM shortly later).
trivia: email sent out possibly just hrs before the kneecapping,
referencing that IBM FSD had agreed to strategic HA/CMP cluster scale-up
(code name: MEDUSA) for gov. customers ...
alt.folklore.computers(/comp.arch) two decade old archived posting
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#3
with copy of the email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006x.html#email920129
HA/CMP (MEDUSA) (mainframe/6000 comparison) footnote:
1993 eight processor ES/9000-982 : 408MIPS, 51MIPS/processor
1993 RS6000/990 : 126MIPS; (HA/CMP clusters) 16-system: 2016MIPS,
128-system: 16,128MIPS
posts mentioning getting to play disk engineering in bldgs 14&15
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#disk
posts mentioning original relational/sql System/R
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr
posts mentioning HA/CMP
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
recent related posts in threads
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#68 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#59 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#58 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#57 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#55 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#53 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#22 stacks are not hard, The joy of FORTRAN-like languages
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#18 The joy of RISC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#17 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#16 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#8 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#7 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#2 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#145 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#144 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#143 The joy of FORTRAN
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#142 The joy of FORTRAN
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
Date: 26 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Editing_System
The Hypertext Editing System, or HES, was an early hypertext research
project conducted at Brown University in 1967 by Andries van Dam, Ted
Nelson, and several Brown students.[1] It was the first hypertext
system available on commercial equipment that novices could use.[2]
... snip ...
copied from private facebook group posting ... and trivia note:
2250M4 .... is 2250 with 1130 computer as "controller" (rather than
mainframe direct connection, 1130 would then have some connection to
mainframe). Cambridge Science Center had one and ported the PDP1 space
war game to 1130:
https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/08ec3f1cf55d5bffeb31ff6e3741058a/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar%21
same person responsible for the 60s' CP67 science center "wide area"
network (that morphs into the corporate internal network ... larger
than arpanet/internet from just about the beginning until sometime
mid/late 80s ... technology also used for the corporate sponsored
univ. BITNET). Account by one of the inventors of GML in 1969 at the
science center:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
url ref for CP67 wide-area network, was The Reason Why and the First
Published Hint (evolution of SGML from GML)
originally CTSS RUNOFF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TYPSET_and_RUNOFF
had been re-implemented for CP67/CMS (precursor to VM370/CMS) as
"SCRIPT", after GML was invented in in 1969, GML tag processing was
added to SCRIPT
CERN was using Univ. Waterloo CMS SGML processor when HTML was
invented
http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/
first webserver in the US was on Stanford SLAC (CERN sister
institution) VM370/CMS system
https://ahro.slac.stanford.edu/wwwslac-exhibit
https://ahro.slac.stanford.edu/wwwslac-exhibit/early-web-chronology-and-documents-1991-1994
cambridge science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
GML, SGML, HTML, etc posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
internal corporate network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
bitnet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
past posts mentioning PDP1 space war ported to 2250m4 at science
center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#116 Computer Games
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#52 IBM Vintage 1130
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#118 360/67 Virtual Memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#2 IBM 2250 Graphics Display
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018f.html#72 Jean Sammet — Designer of COBOL – A Computer of One's Own – Medium
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013g.html#72 DEC and the Bell System?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#77 Spacewar! on S/360
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011n.html#9 Colossal Cave Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#45 My first mainframe experience
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2010d.html#74 Adventure - Or Colossal Cave Adventure
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2004d.html#45 who were the original fortran installations?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003m.html#14 Seven of Nine
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002o.html#17 PLX
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001b.html#71 Z/90, S/390, 370/ESA (slightly off topic)
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
According to Psychologists, there are four types of Intelligence
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: According to Psychologists, there are four types of Intelligence
Date: 26 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
According to Psychologists, there are four types of Intelligence:
1) Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
2) Emotional Quotient (EQ)
3) Social Quotient (SQ)
4) Adversity Quotient (AQ)
so I guess amoral sociopaths fall into SQ
Late 90s, I was rep to the financial industry standards organization
and at a meeting hosted by major DC K-street congressional lobbying
group. During the meeting was asked to step out, taken to a office and
introduced to somebody from a NJ ethnic group, who told me some
investment bankers asked him to talk to me; they were expecting $2B
return on upcoming Internet IPO and my (public) criticism was
predicted to have a 10% downside ($200M) and would I please shut-up. I
then went to some Federal law enforcement officers and was told that
significant percentage of investment bankers were amoral sociopaths (a
major criteria for "success").
Also some investment bankers had walked away "clean" from the 80s S&L
Crisis, were then running Internet IPO mills (invest a few million,
hype, IPO for a couple billion, needed to fail to leave the field
clear for the next round of IPOs) and were predicted next to get into
securitized loans&mortgages ("economic mess" after turn of the
century).
... 1972, IBM CEO Learson trying (but failed) to block bureaucrats,
careerists, and MBAs from destroying Watson culture/legacy.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler
two decades later, IBM has one of the largest losses in the history of
US companies and was being reorganized into the 13 "baby blues"
(take-off on the "baby bells" from the AT&T breakup a decade earlier)
in preparation for breaking up the company
https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
We had already left IBM, but get a call from the bowels of Armonk
(corp hdqtrs) asking if we could help with the break-up. Before we get
started, the board brings in the former president of AMEX as CEO, who
(somewhat) reverses the breakup.
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
S&L crisis posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#s&l.crisis
economic mess posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#economic.mess
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
Date: 28 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#71 IBM 2250 Hypertext Editing System
other trivia: early 80s got HSDT project (T1 and faster computer
links, both satellite and terrestrial), some amount of conflicts with
the communication group; note in the 60s, IBM had 2701
telecommunication controller that supported T1 (1.5mbits/sec) links,
then with move to SNA/VTAM in the 70s, issues appear to cap controller
links at 56kbits/sec. Was working with NSF director and was suppose to
get $20M to interconnect the NSF supercomputer centers. Then congress
cuts the budget, some other things happen and finally a RFP is
released (in part based on what we already had running). Preliminary
Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
NCSA was one of OASC software including
http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/enabling/mosaic
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet.
Trivia: somebody had been collecting executive (mis-information) email
about how IBM SNA/VTAM could support NSFNET T1 ... and forwarded it to
me ... heavily snipped and redacted (to protect the guilty)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#email870109
Note earlier NSF had been asking us to make presentations to the
supercomputing centers and one was Berkeley, NSF had recently made a
grant to UC for UCB supercomputing center ... but the regents bldg
plan had UCSD getting the next new bldg ... so it became the UCSD
Supercomputing Center (operated by General Atomics).
Some of the NCSA people had came out for small client/server startup,
Mosaic corporation. NCSA complained about use of the name, and it was
changed to NETSCAPE (use of "NETSCAPE" acquired from another company
in silicon valley). I had left IBM and was bought in as consultant,
two of the (former) Oracle people (that we had worked with on our
HA/CMP cluster scale-up project), were there responsible for something
called "commerce server" and wanted to do payment transactions. The
startup had also invented this technology they called "SSL" they
wanted to use, the result is now frequently called "electronic
commerce". I had responsibility for everything between webservers and
financial industry payment networks.
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
electronic commerce "gateway" posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#gateway
HA/CMP posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM IMS
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM IMS
Date: 28 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
IMS nostalgia: my wife (before we met) was in the gburg FS group
reporting tp Les Comeau (interconnect), then when FS implodes, she
goes over to the JES group reporting to Crabtree and one of the
catchers for ASP/JES3 and then co-author of JESUS (JES unified system)
specification (all the features of JES2&JES3 that the respective
customers couldn't live w/o ... for whatever reason, never came to
fruition). She was then con'ed into going to POK responsible for
loosely-coupled (her Peer-Coupled Shared Data) architecture.
She didn't remain long because 1) periodic battles with communication
group trying to force her into using SNA/VTAM for loosely-coupled
operation and 2) little uptake (until much later with SYSPLEX and
Parallel SYSPLEX) except for IMS hot-standby (she has story asking
Vern Watts who he would ask permission of to do hot-standby, he
replies nobody, he would just tell them when it was all done).
my IMS (about the same time): STL was bursting at the seams and 300
people (& 3270s) from the IMS group were being moved to offsite
bldg with dataprocessing back to STL datacenter. They had tried remote
3270, but found human factors totally unacceptable. I get con'ed into
doing channel-extender support so they can place channel-attach 3270
controllers at the offside bldg (with no perceptible difference in
human factors between in STL and offsite). trivia, 3270 controllers
had been spread across the mainframe channels with 3830 disk
controllers ... but moving the 3270 controllers to channel extenders
significantly reduced channel busy interference with disk I/O (for
same amount of 3270 activity) increasing system throughput by 10-15%
(as result, STL considered using channel-extenders for *ALL* 3270
controllers).
I had also been working with Jim Gray and Vera Watson on (original
sql/relational) System/R and when Jim leaves IBM for Tandem ... he
wanted me to pick up responsibility for System/R joint study with BofA
(getting 60 4341s for distributed operation) and DBMS consulting with
the IMS group.
Future System posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys
HASP/JES2, ASP/JES3, NJE/NJI posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#hasp
peer-coupled shared data posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#shareddata
channel-extender posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#channel.extender
original sql/relational, system/r posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr
some other IMS & Vern Watts posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024e.html#140 HASP, JES2, NJE, VNET/RSCS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024d.html#65 360/65, 360/67, 360/75 750ns memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#105 Financial/ATM Processing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#79 Mainframe and Blade Servers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#80 IBM DBMS/RDBMS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#29 DB2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#27 HASP, ASP, JES2, JES3
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#106 Shared Memory Feature
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#100 CSC, HONE, 23Jun69 Unbundling, Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#72 Vintage RS/6000 Mainframe
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023f.html#51 IBM Vintage Series/1
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#76 microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframes, supercomputers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#53 VM370/CMS Shared Segments
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#45 IBM 360/65 & 360/67 Multiprocessors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#85 Airline Reservation System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023d.html#43 AI Scale-up
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#48 Conflicts with IBM Communication Group
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023c.html#47 IBM ACIS
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#1 IMS & DB2
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#1 Iconic consoles of the IBM System/360 mainframes, 55 years old
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#26 Why Things Fail
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022f.html#74 IBM/PC
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#51 IBM Spooling
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#79 Peer-Coupled Shared Data
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#20 Telum & z16
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#102 370/158 Integrated Channel
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022b.html#11 Seattle Dataprocessing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#75 165/168/3033 & 370 virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#114 Peer-Coupled Shared Data Architecture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#19 A brief overview of IBM's new 7 nm Telum mainframe CPU
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#1 IBM Internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021h.html#90 IBM Internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021e.html#76 WEB Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#39 WA State frets about Boeing brain drain, but it's already happening
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#72 IMS Stories
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#55 IBM Quota
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011l.html#22 IBM IMS - Vern Watts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011.html#85 Two terrific writers .. are going to write a book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#14 Does software life begin at 40? IBM updates IMS database
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007e.html#41 IBM S/360 series operating systems history
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Prodigy
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Prodigy
Date: 28 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Prodigy history 1984-2001
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)
early history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)#Early_history
The roots of Prodigy date to 1980 when broadcaster CBS and
telecommunications firm AT&T Corporation formed a joint venture named
Venture One in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.[5] The company conducted a
market test of 100 homes in Ridgewood, New Jersey[6] to gauge consumer
interest in a Videotex-based TV set-top device that would allow
consumers to shop at home and receive news, sports and weather.
... snip ...
Earlier online service ... TYMSHARE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tymshare
Tymshare, Inc was a time-sharing service and third-party hardware
maintenance company. Competing with companies such as CompuServe,
Service Bureau Corporation and National CSS. Tymshare developed and
acquired various technologies, such as data networking, electronic
data interchange (EDI), credit card and payment processing, and
database technology.[1] It was headquartered in Cupertino in
California, from 1964 to 1984.
... snip ...
... in aug1976, they started providing their CMS-based online computer
conferencing system to (IBM mainframe user group) SHARE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHARE_(computing)
as VMSHARE, archives here
http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare
I cut a deal with TYMSHARE to get monthly tape dump of all VMSHARE (&
later PCSHARE) files for putting up on internal systems and internal
network (including the world-wide, branch office, sales&marketing
support HONE systems; after joining IBM, one of my hobbies was
enhanced production systems for internal datacenters and HONE was long
time customer), most difficult was lawyers who were concerned internal
employees could be contaminated exposed to unfiltered customer
information. I was also blamed for online computer conferencing in the
late 70s and early 80s on the internal network (larger than
arpanet/internet from the beginning until sometime mid/late 80s, when
they started converting the internal network to SNA/VTAM).
Genesis of internal network was the Cambridge Science Center 60s
CP67-based wide-area network ... account by one of the GML (precursor
to SGML & HTML) inventers at the science center
https://web.archive.org/web/20230402212558/http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/jasis.htm
Actually, the law office application was the original motivation for
the project, something I was allowed to do part-time because of my
knowledge of the user requirements. My real job was to encourage the
staffs of the various scientific centers to make use of the
CP-67-based Wide Area Network that was centered in Cambridge.
... snip ...
as the 60s science center wide-area network expands, it morphs into
the IBM internal network (technology also used for the corporate
sponsored univ. BITNET).
other TYMSHARE trivia:
Ann Hardy at Computer History Museum
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102717167
Ann rose up to become Vice President of the Integrated Systems
Division at Tymshare, from 1976 to 1984, which did online airline
reservations, home banking, and other applications. When Tymshare was
acquired by McDonnell-Douglas in 1984, Ann's position as a female VP
became untenable, and was eased out of the company by being encouraged
to spin out Gnosis, a secure, capabilities-based operating system
developed at Tymshare. Ann founded Key Logic, with funding from Gene
Amdahl, which produced KeyKOS, based on Gnosis, for IBM and Amdahl
mainframes. After closing Key Logic, Ann became a consultant, leading
to her cofounding Agorics with members of Ted Nelson's Xanadu project
... snip ...
Ann Hardy
https://medium.com/chmcore/someone-elses-computer-the-prehistory-of-cloud-computing-bca25645f89
Ann Hardy is a crucial figure in the story of Tymshare and
time-sharing. She began programming in the 1950s, developing software
for the IBM Stretch supercomputer. Frustrated at the lack of
opportunity and pay inequality for women at IBM -- at one point she
discovered she was paid less than half of what the lowest-paid man
reporting to her was paid -- Hardy left to study at the University of
California, Berkeley, and then joined the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in 1962. At the lab, one of her projects involved an early
and surprisingly successful time-sharing operating system.
... snip ...
trivia: I was brought in to evaluate GNOSIS as part of spin-off to Key Logic.
Cambridge Science Center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
internal network posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
post mentioning GML, SGML, HTML
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#sgml
online computer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
corporate sponsored univ BITNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#bitnet
virtual machine based, online commercial service bureaus
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#online
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Trump's MSG event draws comparisons to 1939 Nazi rally
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Trump's MSG event draws comparisons to 1939 Nazi rally
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
Trump's MSG event draws comparisons to 1939 Nazi rally
https://www.axios.com/2024/10/28/trumps-msg-rally-1939-msg-nazi-event
Americans hold a Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/americans-hold-nazi-rally-in-madison-square-garden
Donald Trump's Racist NYC Rally Was Vile. It Was Also Political Suicide
https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-donald-trump-racist-nyc-024926623.html
The media is finally calling Trump rallies what they are
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/28/2280259/-The-media-is-finally-calling-Trump-rallies-what-they-are-Racist-as-hell
Walz compares Trump's Madison Square Garden rally to 1939 pro-Nazi event
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4956168-walz-trump-madison-square-garden-rally/
Capitalism and social democracy ... have pros & cons and can be
used for checks & balances ... example, On War
https://www.amazon.com/War-beautifully-reproduced-illustrated-introduction-ebook/dp/B00G3DFLY8/
loc394-95:
As long as the Socialists only threatened capital they were not
seriously interfered with, for the Government knew quite well that the
undisputed sway of the employer was not for the ultimate good of the
State.
... snip ...
i.e. the government needed general population standard of living
sufficient that soldiers were willing to fight to preserve their way
of life. Capitalists tendency was to reduce worker standard of living
to the lowest possible ... below what the government needed for
soldier motivation ... and therefor needed socialists as
counterbalance to the capitalists in raising the general population
standard of living. Saw this fight out in the 30s, American Fascists
opposing all of FDR's "new deals" The Coming of American Fascism,
1920-1940
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-coming-of-american-fascism-19201940
The truth, then, is that Long and Coughlin, together with the
influential Communist Party and other leftist organizations, helped
save the New Deal from becoming genuinely fascist, from devolving into
the dictatorial rule of big business. The pressures towards fascism
remained, as reactionary sectors of business began to have significant
victories against the Second New Deal starting in the late 1930s. But
the genuine power that organized labor had achieved by then kept the
U.S. from sliding into all-out fascism (in the Marxist sense) in the
following decades.
... snip ...
aka "Coming of America Fascism" shows socialists countered the "New
Deal" becoming fascist ... which had been the objective of the
capitalists ... and possibly contributed to forcing them further into
the Nazi/fascist camp. When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR
https://www.npr.org/2012/02/12/145472726/when-the-bankers-plotted-to-overthrow-fdr
The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise
of the American Right
https://www.amazon.com/Plots-Against-President-Nation-American-ebook/dp/B07N4BLR77/
"Why Nations Fail"
https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity-ebook/dp/B0058Z4NR8/
original settlement, Jamestown ... English planning on emulating the
Spanish model, enslave the local natives to support the
settlement. Unfortunately the North American natives weren't as
cooperative and the settlement nearly starved. Then started out
switching to sending over some of the other populations from the
British Isles essentially as slaves ... the English Crown charters had
them as "leet-man" ... pg27:
The clauses of the Fundamental Constitutions laid out a rigid social
structure. At the bottom were the "leet-men," with clause 23 noting,
"All the children of leet-men shall be leet-men, and so to all
generations."
... snip ...
My wife's father was presented with a set of 1880 history books for
some distinction at West Point by the Daughters Of the 17th Century
http://www.colonialdaughters17th.org/
which refer to if it hadn't been for the influence of the Scottish
settlers from the mid-atlantic states, the northern/English states
would have prevailed and the US would look much more like England with
monarch ("above the law") and strict class hierarchy.
The Great Scandal: Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/04/the-great-scandal-christianitys-role-in-the-rise-of-the-nazis/
note that John Foster Dulles played major role rebuilding Germany
economy, industry, military from the 20s up through the early 40s
https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Foster-Dulles-Allen-Secret-ebook/dp/B00BY5QX1K/
loc865-68:
In mid-1931 a consortium of American banks, eager to safeguard their
investments in Germany, persuaded the German government to accept a
loan of nearly $500 million to prevent default. Foster was their
agent. His ties to the German government tightened after Hitler took
power at the beginning of 1933 and appointed Foster's old friend
Hjalmar Schacht as minister of economics.
loc905-7:
Foster was stunned by his brother's suggestion that Sullivan &
Cromwell quit Germany. Many of his clients with interests there,
including not just banks but corporations like Standard Oil and
General Electric, wished Sullivan & Cromwell to remain active
regardless of political conditions.
loc938-40:
At least one other senior partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, Eustace
Seligman, was equally disturbed. In October 1939, six weeks after the
Nazi invasion of Poland, he took the extraordinary step of sending
Foster a formal memorandum disavowing what his old friend was saying
about Nazism
... snip ...
From the law of unintended consequences, when US 1943 Strategic
Bombing program needed targets in Germany, they got plans and
coordinates from wallstreet.
June1940, Germany had a victory celebration at the NYC Waldorf-Astoria
with major industrialists. Lots of them were there to hear how to do
business with the Nazis
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Called-Intrepid-Incredible-Narrative-ebook/dp/B00V9QVE5O/
loc1925-29:
One prominent figure at the German victory celebration was Torkild
Rieber, of Texaco, whose tankers eluded the British blockade. The
company had already been warned, at Roosevelt's instigation, about
violations of the Neutrality Law. But Rieber had set up an elaborate
scheme for shipping oil and petroleum products through neutral ports
in South America.
... Intrepid also points finger at Ambassador Kennedy ... they start
bugging the US embassy because classified information was leaking to
the Germans. They eventually identified a clerk as responsible but
couldn't prove ties to Kennedy. However Kennedy is claiming credit for
Chamberland capitulating to Hitler on many issues ... also making
speeches in Britain and the US that Britain could never win a war with
Germany and if he was president, he would be on the best of terms with
Hitler ... loc2645-52:
The Kennedys dined with the Roosevelts that evening. Two days later,
Joseph P. Kennedy spoke on nationwide radio. A startled public learned
he now believed "Franklin D. Roosevelt should be re-elected
President." He told a press conference: "I never made anti-British
statements or said, on or off the record, that I do not expect Britain
to win the war."
British historian Nicholas Bethell wrote: "How Roosevelt contrived the
transformation is a mystery." And so it remained until the BSC Papers
disclosed that the President had been supplied with enough evidence of
Kennedy's disloyalty that the Ambassador, when shown it, saw
discretion to be the better part of valor. "If Kennedy had been
recalled sooner," said Stephenson later, "he would have campaigned
against FDR with a fair chance of winning. We delayed him in London as
best we could until he could do the least harm back in the States."
... snip ...
The congressmen responsible for the US Neutrality Act claimed it was
in reaction to the enormous (US) war profiteering they saw during
WW1. The capitalists intent on doing business with Nazi Germany respin
that as isolationism in major publicity campaign
... getting into the war
US wasn't in the war and Stalin was effectively fighting the Germans
alone and worried that Japan would attack from the east ... opening up
a second front. Stalin wanted US to come in against Japan (making sure
Japan had limited resources to open up a 2nd front against the Soviet
Union). US assistant SECTREAS Harry Dexter White was operating on
behalf of the Soviet Union and Stalin sends White a draft of demands
for US to present to Japan that would provoke Japan into attacking US
and drawing US into the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dexter_White#Venona_project
demands were included in the Hull Note which Japan received just prior
to decision to attack Perl Harbor, hull note
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_note#Interpretations
More Venona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project
Benn Stein in "The Battle of Bretton Woods" spends pages 55-58 discussing "Operation Snow".
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Bretton-Woods-Relations-University-ebook/dp/B00B5ZQ72Y/
pg56/loc1065-66:
The Soviets had, according to Karpov, used White to provoke Japan to
attack the United States. The scheme even had a name: "Operation
Snow," snow referring to White.
... after the war
Later somewhat replay of the 1940 celebration, there was conference of
5000 industrialists and corporations from across the US at the
Waldorf-Astoria, and in part because they had gotten such a bad
reputation for the depression and supporting Nazis, as part of
attempting to refurbish their horribly corrupt and venal image, they
approved a major propaganda campaign to equate Capitalism with
Christianity.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-God-Corporate-ebook/dp/B00PWX7R56/
part of the result by the early 50s was adding "under god" to the
pledge of allegiance. slightly cleaned up version
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
and old book that covers the early era in "Economists and the
Powerful": "Triumphant plutocracy; the story of American public life
from 1870 to 1920" (wayback machine seems to be fully back)
https://archive.org/details/triumphantpluto00pettrich
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
racism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#racism
inequality posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#inequality
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
tax fraud, tax evasion, tax loopholes, tax abuse, tax avoidance, tax
haven posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#tax.evasion
some recent posts mentioning "Coming of American Fascism"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#68 The joy of Patents
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#51 The joy of Democracy
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#108 D-Day
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#49 Left Unions Were Repressed Because They Threatened Capital
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#28 New Ken Burns Documentary Explores the U.S. and the Holocaust
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022g.html#19 no, Socialism and Fascism Are Not the Same
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#62 Empire Burlesque. What comes after the American Century?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#104 Who Knew ?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021i.html#56 "We are on the way to a right-wing coup:" Milley secured Nuclear Codes, Allayed China fears of Trump Strike
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021c.html#96 How Ike Led
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#91 American Nazis Rally in New York City
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#66 Democracy is a threat to white supremacy--and that is the cause of America's crisis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#34 Fascism
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2020.html#0 The modern education system was designed to teach future factory workers to be "punctual, docile, and sober"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#161 Fascists
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#112 When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#107 The Great Scandal: Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#96 OT, "new" Heinlein book
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#63 Profit propaganda ads witch-hunt era
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#43 Corporations Are People
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019d.html#75 The Coming of American Fascism, 1920-1940
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
I had a (double locked) full drawer of registered "811" documents
(370/xa publication dates nov1978). In period (for offending various
people) I was being told I had no career, no promotions, no raises in
IBM ... so when a head hunter called to ask me to interview for
position of TA to president of operation selling clone 370 systems
(subsidiary of operation on other side of pacific), I said what the
heck. Sometime during the interview the question of advanced next
generation architecture came up. I changed the subject to I had
recently submitted an ethics improvement for the business conduct
guidelines (that had to be read and signed every year) ... which
shutdown the interview.
However that wasn't the end of it, the US gov filed charges against
the foreign parent for industrial espionage and I got a 3hr interview
with a FBI agent (I appeared as visitor on bldg log). I related the
whole story ... and suggested somebody in IBM site security might be
leaking names of people with registered documents.
other trivia: not long after joining IBM, there was new CSO that had
come from gov. service (head of presidential detail) and I was asked
to travel some with him discussing computer security (while little
bits of physical security rubbed off on me).
circa 1980, IBM brought trade-secret lawsuit against disk clone maker
for couple billion dollars ... for having acquired detailed
unannounced new (3380) disk drive documents. Judge ruled that IBM had
to show security proportional to risk ... or "security proportional
to value" ... i.e. temptation for normal person finding something not
adequately protected and selling it for money ... couldn't be blamed
(analogous to requiring fences around swimming pools because children
couldn't be expected to not jump in unprotected pool).
Security Proportional To Risk posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#security.proportional.to.risk
posts mentioning registered confidential and 811:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#50 Slow MVS/TSO
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#59 Classified Material and Security
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022h.html#69 Fred P. Brooks, 1931-2022
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022d.html#35 IBM Business Conduct Guidelines
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#4 Industrial Espionage
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#48 Mainframe Career
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#47 IBM Conduct
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#125 IBM Clone Controllers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021j.html#38 IBM Registered Confidential
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#86 Bizarre Career Events
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021b.html#12 IBM "811", 370/xa architecture
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#75 Versioning file systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019e.html#29 IBM History
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019.html#83 The Sublime: Is it the same for IBM and Special Ops?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017f.html#35 Hitachi to Deliver New Mainframe Based on IBM z Systems in Japan
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017e.html#67 [CM] What was your first home computer?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014f.html#27 Complete 360 and 370 systems found
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#12 Clone Processors
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011g.html#2 WHAT WAS THE PROJECT YOU WERE INVOLVED/PARTICIPATED AT IBM THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011c.html#67 IBM Future System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006f.html#20 Old PCs--environmental hazard
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005s.html#26 IEH/IEB/... names?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2005f.html#42 Moving assembler programs above the line
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#9 Security Proportional to Risk (was: IBM Mainframe at home)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002d.html#8 Security Proportional to Risk (was: IBM Mainframe at home)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/aepay10.htm#20 Security Proportional to Risk (was: IBM Mainframe at home)
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#77 IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
... re: jupiter; stl had called corporate 2-day review of jupiter
1&2dec1983. unfortunately I had previously scheduled all day talk by
John Boyd on dec1 in SJR auditorium (open to all IBMers). some more
info here
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop
URLs and post referencing Boyd
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
The Fiscal Impact of the Harris and Trump Campaign Plans
https://www.crfb.org/papers/fiscal-impact-harris-and-trump-campaign-plans
Under our central estimate, Vice President Harris's plan would
increase the debt by $3.95 trillion through 2035, while President
Trump's plan would increase the debt by $7.75 trillion. These
estimates are an update of our October 7 analysis, and include
additional policy proposals.
... snip ...
2002, congress lets fiscal responsibility act lapse (spending can't
exceed tax revenue) that had been on its way to eliminating all
federal debt.
2005, Comptroller General was including in speeches that nobody in
congress was capable of middle-school arithmetic (for how badly they
were savaging the budget).
2010, CBO had report that 2003-2009, tax revenue was cut by $6T and
spending was increased by $6T for $12T gap compared to fiscal
responsible budget (first time taxes were cut to not pay for two
wars), sort of confluence of special interests wanting huge tax cut,
military-industrial complex wanting huge spending increase, and
Too-Big-To-Fail wanting huge debt increase (TBTF bailout
was done by Federal Reserve providing over $30T in ZIRP funds,
which TBTF then invested in treasuries)
fiscal responsibility act posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#fiscal.responsibility.act
comptroller general posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#comptroller.general
too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-prosecute, too-big-to-jail posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#too-big-to-fail
federal reserve chairman posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#fed.chairman
ZIRP funds posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#zirp
tax fraud, tax evasion, tax loopholes, tax abuse, tax avoidance, tax
haven posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#tax.evasion
military-industrial(-congressional) complex posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#military.industrial.complex
capitalism posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#capitalism
economic mess posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#economic.mess
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
CP67 And Source Update
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: CP67 And Source Update
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
From CP67 days, VM provided both assembled TXT decks and the source
updates. VM introduced monthly PLC tapes (aggregate collection of
updates). CP67 had "update" that would apply single UPDATE file to
source and then compile/assemble the resulting source program.
After joining IBM, one of my hobbies was enhanced production operating
systems for internal datacenters (including world-wide, online,
sales&marketing support HONE systems) ... and could distributed
updates over the internal network.
With the decision to add virtual memory to all 370s, also for morph of
CP67->VM370 (although simplified and/or eliminated lots of
features). My production CP67 was "L" level updates. Joint project
with Endicott was to update CP67 with "H" level updates that provided
370 virtual memory virtual machines (ran on CP67H in a 360/67 virtual
machine under CP67L, issue was to prevent leakage of unannounced 370
virtual memory since there were professors, staff and students from
Boston/Cambridge institutions). Then there were the "I" level updates
that changed CP67 to run with 370 virtual memory architecture
... running in a CP67H 370 virtual machine.
CP67I in CP67H 370 virtual machine in a CP67L 360/67 virtual machine
with CP67L running on real 360/67 was in regular production use a year
before the first engineering 370 with virtual memory was operation.
This also required extending source update from single file to a
ordered sequence of update files.
Later three people from san jose came out and added 3330 & 2305
device support for CP67SJ that was in use on internal real 370
virtual memory machines, long after VM370 became available
Mid-80s, Melinda contacted me about getting copy of the original
multi-level source update implementation ... which I was able to pull
off archive tape and email to her.
https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda#VMHist
she was lucky, triple redundant replicated copies of the archive were
in the Almaden Research tape library. Not long later, Almaden had an
operational problem where random tapes were mounted as scratch and I
lost nearly a dozen tapes ... including all three redundant copies of
my archive.
science center posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech
CP67L, CSC/VM, SJR/VM posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#cscvm
HONE posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hone
misc. past posts mentioning cms multi-level source update (and
almaden datacenter operational problem)
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024c.html#103 CP67 & VM370 Source Maintenance
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024b.html#7 IBM Tapes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024.html#39 Card Sequence Numbers
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023g.html#63 CP67 support for 370 virtual memory
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#98 Mainframe Tapes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023e.html#82 Saving mainframe (EBCDIC) files
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2023.html#96 Mainframe Assembler
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#94 Enhanced Production Operating Systems
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022e.html#80 IBM Quota
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022c.html#83 VMworkshop.og 2022
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2022.html#61 File Backup
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021k.html#51 VM/SP crashing all over the place
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021d.html#39 IBM 370/155
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2021.html#22 Almaden Tape Library
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2019b.html#28 Science Center
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#86 History of Virtualization
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2018e.html#65 System recovered from Princeton/Melinda backup/archive tapes
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017i.html#76 git, z/OS and COBOL
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017d.html#52 Some IBM Research RJ reports
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2017.html#87 The ICL 2900
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014e.html#28 System/360 celebration set for ten cities; 1964 pricing for oneweek
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#19 Write Inhibit
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014.html#20 the suckage of MS-DOS, was Re: 'Free Unix!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014.html#19 the suckage of MS-DOS, was Re: 'Free Unix!
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013h.html#9 IBM ad for Basic Operating System
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013f.html#73 The cloud is killing traditional hardware and software
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013e.html#61 32760?
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2013b.html#61 Google Patents Staple of '70s Mainframe Computing
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012k.html#72 Any cool anecdotes IBM 40yrs of VM
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012i.html#22 The Invention of Email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011f.html#80 TSO Profile NUM and PACK
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011c.html#3 If IBM Hadn't Bet the Company
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011b.html#89 If IBM Hadn't Bet the Company
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011b.html#39 1971PerformanceStudies - Typical OS/MFT 40/50/65s analysed
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009s.html#17 old email
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2006w.html#42 vmshare
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
Date: 29 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'. What the tech pioneer can, and
can't, teach us
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/ibm-greatest-capitalist-tom-watson/676147/
1996 MIT Sloan The Decline and Rise of IBM
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-decline-and-rise-of-ibm/?switch_view=PDF
1995 l'Ecole de Paris The rise and fall of IBM
https://www.ecole.org/en/session/49-the-rise-and-fall-of-ibm
1993 Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World
https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Wars-The-Post-IBM-World/dp/1587981394/
my 2022 rendition, 1972 CEO Learson trying (& failed) to block the
bureaucrats, careerists, and MBAs from destroying the Watson
culture/legacy
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/john-boyd-ibm-wild-ducks-lynn-wheeler
20 years later IBM has one of the largest losses in the history of US
companies and was being reorganized into the 13 "baby blues" (take-off
on the AT&T "baby bells" breakup a decade earlier) in preparation to
breaking up the company.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101120231857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977353,00.html
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,977353-1,00.html
We had already left IBM but get a call from Armonk asking if we could
help with the breakup. Before we get started, the board brings in the
former AMEX president as CEO who (somewhat) reverses the breakup.
AMEX was in competition with KKR for private equity (LBO) take-over of
RJR and KKR wins. then KKR was having trouble with RJR and hires away
the AMEX president to help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate:_The_Fall_of_RJR_Nabisco
Then IBM board hires the former AMEX president to try and save the
company, who uses some of the same techniques used at RJR
https://web.archive.org/web/20181019074906/http://www.ibmemployee.com/RetirementHeist.shtml
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
pension posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#pension
former AMEX president posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#gerstner
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
Date: 30 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#77 IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#78 IBM Registered Confidential and "811"
trivia: The communication group was fiercely fighting off
client/server and distributed computing and trying to block release of
mainframe TCP/IP support. When that was overturned, they changed their
strategy and said that since they had corporate strategic
responsibility for every thing that crossed datacenter walls, it had
to be released through them. What shipped got aggregate of
44kbytes/sec using nearly whole 3090 processor. Then a version was
ported to MVS by simulating VM370 diagnose instructions (aggravating
the CPU overhead). I then do RFC1044 support and in some tuning tests
at Cray Research between a Cray and IBM 4341 was getting sustained
4341 channel throughput using only modest amount of 4341 processor
(something like 500 times improvement in bytes moved per instruction
executed).
rfc1044 posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#1044
internet posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internet
more trivia: early 80s got HSDT project, T1 and faster computer links
(both satellite and terrestrial) ... and periodic conflicts with
communication group. Note in the 60s, IBM had 2701 telecommunication
controller that supported T1 (1.5mbits/sec) links, however with the
transition to SNA/VTAM in the 70s, issues appeared to cap controllers
at 56kbit/sec links. Was also working with the NSF director and was
suppose to get $20M to interconnect the NSF supercomputer
centers. Then congress cuts the budget, some other things happen and
eventually an RFP is released, in part based on what we already had
running. From 28Mar1986 Preliminary Announcement:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2002k.html#12
The OASC has initiated three programs: The Supercomputer Centers
Program to provide Supercomputer cycles; the New Technologies Program
to foster new supercomputer software and hardware developments; and
the Networking Program to build a National Supercomputer Access
Network - NSFnet.
... snip ...
IBM internal politics was not allowing us to bid (being blamed for
online computer conferencing inside IBM likely contributed, folklore
is that 5of6 members of corporate executive committee wanted to fire
me). The NSF director tried to help by writing the company a letter
(3Apr1986, NSF Director to IBM Chief Scientist and IBM Senior VP and
director of Research, copying IBM CEO) with support from other
gov. agencies ... but that just made the internal politics worse (as
did claims that what we already had operational was at least 5yrs
ahead of the winning bid), as regional networks connect in, it becomes
the NSFNET backbone, precursor to modern internet.
One of the 1st HSDT internal T1 links was between Los Gatos lab and
Clementi's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Clementi
E&S lab in Kingston, had a bunch of FPS boxes, some with 40mbyte/sec
disk arrays ... later Cornell proposal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Point_Systems
Cornell University, led by physicist Kenneth G. Wilson, made a
supercomputer proposal to NSF with IBM to produce a processor array of
FPS boxes attached to an IBM 3090 mainframe with the name lCAP.
... snip ...
HSDT posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#hsdt
NSFNET posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#nsfnet
conputer conferencing posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#cmc
internal network
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
Date: 30 Oct, 2024
Blog: Facebook
re:
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2024f.html#81 The Rise and Fall of the 'IBM Way'
trivia: 70s, US auto makers were being hit hard by foreign makers with
cheap imports. Congress establishes import quotas that was to provide
US makers with significant profits for completely remaking themselves
(however they just pocketed the profits and continued business as
usual, early 80s saw calls for 100% unearned profit tax). The foreign
makers determined at quotas set, they could sell as many high end cars
(with greater profits, which further reduced downward pressure on US
car prices). At the time, car business was taking 7-8yrs to come out
with new design (from initial to rolling off the line), and the
foreign makers cut it in half to 3-4yrs.
In 1990, GM had "C4 taskforce" to (finally?) completely remake
themselves and since they were planning on leveraging technology,
technology companies were invited to participat and I was one from IBM
(other was POK mainframe IBMer). At the time foreign makers were in
the process of cutting elapsed time from 3-4yrs to 18-24months (while
US was still 7-8yrs), giving foreign makers significant advantage in
transition to new designs incorporating new technologies and changing
customer preferences. Offline, I would chide the mainframe rep what
was their contribution, since they had some of the same problems.
Roll forward two decades and bailout shows they still hadn't been able
to make the transition.
C4 auto taskforce posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#auto.c4.taskforce
IBM downturn/downfall/breakup posts
https://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submisc.html#ibmdownfall
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
Who First Thought Of Using GMT/UTC For System Clock?
From: Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Subject: Re: Who First Thought Of Using GMT/UTC For System Clock?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:07:03 -1000
Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
One thing Unix (and its POSIX-based successors) did differently from most
other OSes was its system clock was not set to local time, but to UTC (and
to GMT, before UTC). This seems pointless if you are accustomed to only
dealing with one time zone, but it turned out to be a very elegant idea,
that simplified a lot of date/time headaches.
Was Unix the first to come up with this idea? Did some other OS (Multics,
perhaps?) pioneer this convention first?
joined ibm science center not long before internal 370 spec. the 370
hardware tod clock was spec'ed GMT since the start of the century. spent
a couple months in discussions about whether start of the century was
1/1/1900 or 1/1/1901 (technically it is 1/1/1901, but lots of places
were setting it to start 1/1/1900, and then found some setting it with
start 1/1/1970). the other big discussion was how to handle "leap
seconds". They finally had to further clarify the public published spec.
trivia: some of the MIT CTSS/7094 people went to project mac for multics
on the 5th flr, others went to the ibm science center on the 4th flr.
from early 370 principles of operation.
Thus, the operator can enable the setting of all clocks in the
configuration by using the switch ,of any CPU in the configuration.
time to which a clock value of zero corresponds. January 1, 1900, 0
A.M. Greenwich Mean Time is recommended as the standard epoch for the
clock, although some early support of the TOD clock is not based on
this epoch.
--
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970
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