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Re: 'smttter IBMdroids

From Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
Newsgroups comp.arch
Subject Re: 'smttter IBMdroids
Date 2011-09-01 15:42 -0400
Organization Wheeler&Wheeler
Message-ID <m37h5suk0r.fsf@garlic.com> (permalink)
References <_VB7q.3677$YA4.814@newsfe14.iad> <322fbe83-3e27-45bf-be6a-6c673f4c7ec5@er4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>

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Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> writes:
> When IBM invented SMP, they called it parallel sysplex, Codd and Date
> worked for IBM, the 305 RAMAC, STRETCH, the 360/85... although I
> certainly wasn't involved, IBM did invent a *few* things... SMP,
> relational databases, hard disks, aggressive pipelining, cache. And
> they invented the vacuum column as well...
>
> On the other hand, there's the Atlas - they didn't invent Virtual
> Memory. The SDS 920/930/940 indicate that IBM didn't invent the idea
> of having a family of compatible machines, even if the 360 did take it
> further.

in the 70s ... ibm called things "tightly-coupled" (smp, shared memory)
and "loosely-coupled" (cluster, non-shared memory, shared disks) ...
then they had this thing called "closely-coupled" ... basically
"loosely-coupled" ... with special locking facility that implemented
memory access semantics for cluster coordination.

my wife got con'ed into going to POK (large mainframe land) to be in
charge of loosely-coupled architecture ... where she created 
"peer-coupled shared data" architecture ... some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#shareddata

she didn't remain long ... mostly becase of a combination of frequent
battles with the communication group over using SNA for cluster
coordination and little uptake of the architecture ... except for IMS
hotstandby in the 80s, and eventually sysplex much later in the 90s.

as i mentioned in the recent a.f.c. smp thread ... charlie invented
compare&swap instruction at the science center, while doing
multiprocessor fine-grain (virtual machine) cp67 kernel locking support
(compare&swap chosen because CAS are charlie's initials).

parallel sysplex (april 1994)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Parallel_Sysplex

in the 60s, 360/65 had two-way shared memory multiprocessor ...  but
shared I/O was simulated by having processor specific dedicated i/o
channels ... with "twin-tailed" device i/o controllers connected to two
different channels, one going to each processor.

while the uniprocessor 360/67 was nearly identical to 360/65 with the
addition of virtual memory hardware ... the multiprocessor 360/67 was
designed for up to four processors and added a "channel controller"
allowing all processors to access all channels (all processors accessing
all channels didn't reappear until 3081 in the 80s). os/360
multiprocessor support for 360/65 had global "spin-wait" kernel lock
(only one processor executing in the kernel at a time).

recent folklore in linkedin science center group ... science center only
had a single processor 360/67 ... however, lincoln labs had a
two-processor SMP 360/67 ... that mostly ran "partitioned" as two single
processor 360/67 (each processor getting half the partitioned
resources).. Lincoln labs than notified ibm it was returning the
hardware. The head of the science center called the moving company (that
was scheduled to return the hardware to Kingston, NY) and had them
deliver it instead to the science center (upgrade of the science center
machine to a two-processor 360/67 SMP). This is the machine that Charlie
was working on when he invented the compare&swap instruction.

initial attempts to get compare&swap included in 370 were rebuffed with
statement that the POK favorite son operating system considered (360)
test&set instruction sufficient for multiprocessor operation. the
challenge was then to find uses for compare&swap that weren't
multiprocessor specific ... in order to justify for 370 inclusion.  Thus
were born the examples (still in modern mainframe principles of
operation) about using compare&swap in multi-threaded applications (like
large DBMS implementations).

misc. past posts mentioning original relational/sql implementation, 
system/r
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#systemr

science center ... some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#545tech

had original done virtual machine cp40 on a custom modified 360/40 that
had virtual memory hardware added. cp40 morphed into cp67 when the
science center got a 360/67 (standard product that came with virtual
memory hardware).

a.f.c. (multiprocessor/compare&swap) thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#61 Selectric Typewriter--50th Anniversary
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#79 Selectric Typewriter--50th Anniversary
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#80 Selectric Typewriter--50th Anniversary

comp.arch thread:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#63 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#65 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#67 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#74 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#75 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011k.html#77 Somewhat off-topic: comp-arch.net cloned, possibly hacked

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

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Thread

'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-08-31 22:15 -0400
  Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-08-31 22:20 -0400
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-08-31 22:31 -0400
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-01 07:30 -0700
  Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-09-01 09:48 -0700
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-01 17:58 +0100
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-09-01 10:58 -0700
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-01 18:51 +0100
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-09-01 15:42 -0400
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-09-01 18:19 -0500
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-09-01 20:57 -0400
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-02 09:17 +0100
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-02 09:19 +0100
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-09-02 04:44 -0500
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-02 11:39 +0100
            Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-09-02 11:14 -0500
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2011-09-02 04:47 -0500
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-02 11:26 +0100
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-09-02 08:48 -0400
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-09-02 09:29 -0400
  Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Del Cecchi <delcecchi@gmail.com> - 2011-09-01 17:15 -0500
    Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-02 10:10 -0700
      Re: innovation from Armonk, was 'smttter IBMdroids John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-09-02 21:21 +0000
        Re: innovation from Armonk, was 'smttter IBMdroids nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-09-02 21:56 +0100
        Re: innovation from Armonk, was 'smttter IBMdroids Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-09-02 17:49 -0400
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Del Cecchi <delcecchi@gmail.com> - 2011-09-02 18:04 -0500
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Thomas Womack <twomack@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2011-09-03 00:16 +0100
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-03 14:25 -0400
            Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Thomas Womack <twomack@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2011-09-03 20:09 +0100
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-03 22:02 -0400
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Del Cecchi <delcecchi@gmail.com> - 2011-09-03 21:50 -0500
            Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-03 23:52 -0400
      Re: 'smttter IBMdroids "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-09-05 08:26 -0700
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-09-05 11:14 -0700
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Terje Mathisen <"terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"> - 2011-09-05 22:05 +0200
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-05 17:27 -0400
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-05 17:16 -0400
          Re: 'smttter IBMdroids "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-09-05 14:40 -0700
            Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-09-05 15:45 -0700
        Re: 'smttter IBMdroids Del Cecchi <delcecchi@gmail.com> - 2011-09-06 21:47 -0500

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