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Flashback to S/360

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  Flashback to S/360 Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-08-04 07:54 -0500
    Re: Flashback to S/360 Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-08-04 08:01 -0500
      Development of 360/370 Architecture - A Plain Man's View Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> - 2026-08-04 08:41 -0500
    Re: Flashback to S/360 Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-08-04 10:18 -0700
      Re: Flashback to S/360 Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> - 2026-08-05 20:10 -0400
    Re: Flashback to S/360 David H Durgee <dhdurgee@privacy.net> - 2026-08-04 12:51 -0600
    Re: Flashback to S/360 "Josh Rodd" <joshua.at.rodd.dot.us@rodd.us> - 2026-08-08 14:59 +0000
      Re: Flashback to S/360 Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> - 2026-08-09 20:01 -0400
        Re: Flashback to S/360 "Josh Rodd" <joshua.at.rodd.dot.us@rodd.us> - 2026-08-10 00:14 +0000
          Re: Flashback to S/360 Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> - 2026-08-12 18:49 -0400
            Re: Flashback to S/360 Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowling@kev009.com> - 2026-08-12 16:23 -0700
              Re: Flashback to S/360 Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> - 2026-08-14 16:52 -0400

#71503 — Flashback to S/360

We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.

PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 systems 
as well.

Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect gizmo?

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#71504

Bus/Tag cables are mentioned.

Louis Ohland wrote:
> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
> 
> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 systems 
> as well.
> 
> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect gizmo?

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#71505 — Development of 360/370 Architecture - A Plain Man's View

https://www.leeandmelindavarian.com/Melinda/gribbin.pdf

Louis Ohland wrote:
> Bus/Tag cables are mentioned.
> 
> Louis Ohland wrote:
>> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
>>
>> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 
>> systems as well.
>>
>> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
>> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect 
>> gizmo?

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#71506

On 8/4/26 05:54, Louis Ohland wrote:
> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
> 
> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 systems 
> as well.
> 
> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect gizmo?

That's what the seemingly ubiquitous 3270 cards are.  They let the PS/2 
connect to a 3174, 3274, or integrated workstation controller and 
function as a terminal emulator.

There is also the bus/tag card which can be used to either "emulate" 
channel I/O (so you can hook up a mainframe tape/disk/controller to a 
P/390) or hook up as fast CTCA data path to a mainframe.

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#71511

Kevin Bowling wrote:
> On 8/4/26 05:54, Louis Ohland wrote:
>> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
>>
>> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 
>> systems as well.
>>
>> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
>> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect 
>> gizmo?
> 
> That's what the seemingly ubiquitous 3270 cards are.  They let the PS/2 
> connect to a 3174, 3274, or integrated workstation controller and 
> function as a terminal emulator.
> 
> There is also the bus/tag card which can be used to either "emulate" 
> channel I/O (so you can hook up a mainframe tape/disk/controller to a 
> P/390) or hook up as fast CTCA data path to a mainframe.

You could also hook up a PS/2 to a 360/370 system using an SDLC adapter 
as a SNA terminal (or printer) device, but almost no one did, the 3270 
adapter was more flexible and faster.  Or you could make an async modem 
connection to a 3174, though again the 3270 was "better" unless you 
needed to access a system miles away from your location.  I did this 
when I was required to provide off-hours support for a VM/HPO system 
where I was the System Programmer.

And let's not forget about Token-Ring adapters for PS/2 to 360/370 
system connectivity.  Once they were in common usage, almost everyone 
dropped the 3270 adapters, since you could do both terminal emulation 
and TCP/IP with the Token-Ring adapters -- same with an Ethernet 
adapter, but most IBM shops were Token-Ring for YEARS before switching 
to Ethernet.

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#71507

Louis Ohland wrote:
> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
> 
> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 systems 
> as well.
> 
> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect gizmo?


We had one connected to a 9370 system running VM way back when.

Dave

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#71534

Louis Ohland <ohland@charter.net> wrote:
> We know of AIX/370, AIX/RT, and AIX/PS2.
> 
> PS/2s were used as terminals or workstations connected to AS/400 systems 
> as well.
> 
> Was there ANY connection of a PS/2 to a S/360 system? Maybe not 
> directly, perhaps by using something like a 3172 or an interconnect gizmo?

IBM offices circa 1987 were a sea of XT 3270s with the occasional AT
3270 and PS/2 with a 3270 adapter card in it. If you had a PS/2, it was
really nice because it could use expanded / extended / "XMA" memory to
let you run more simultaneous 3270 sessions. By 1989 most people had a
PS/2 on their disk. My had a Model 1 Type 80, with an absurd number of
memory cards in it.

By 1989 people would also be running OS/2 Extended Edition, which made
the multitasking a lot easier and had a nice GUI for all of your 3270
sessions... and the 3270 adapter cards were getting replaced with Token
Ring cards, and the 3270 protocol spoken "natively" over that.

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#71535

Josh Rodd wrote:

> IBM offices circa 1987 were a sea of XT 3270s with the occasional AT
> 3270 and PS/2 with a 3270 adapter card in it. If you had a PS/2, it was
> really nice because it could use expanded / extended / "XMA" memory to
> let you run more simultaneous 3270 sessions. By 1989 most people had a
> PS/2 on their disk. My had a Model 1 Type 80, with an absurd number of
> memory cards in it.

Yes, I had a 3270 AT/GX with the 5379 color display and simply loved it 
as it gave me lots of 80 column, 50 row 3270 sessions (4 on the 3270 
adapter, 4 on the Token-Ring adapter) and the screen refreshes were FAST 
- a System Programmer's dream.  The powers that be dropped a 8580-A31 
with 8514 display and 8514/A adapter running OS/2 EE and told me to use 
it instead of my old "clunker".  I tried it, found it slow, and kept 
running my 3270 AT/GX until OS/2 Warp 3 came out and I finally put the 
3270 AT/GX to bed.  By then we were up to 9590-DLG units with XGA 
graphics, which was "good enough", even though the 3270 AT/GX still had 
the edge on 3270 screen updates.

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#71536

Rick Ekblaw <ekblaw@vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> Yes, I had a 3270 AT/GX with the 5379 color display and simply loved it 
> as it gave me lots of 80 column, 50 row 3270 sessions (4 on the 3270 
> adapter, 4 on the Token-Ring adapter) and the screen refreshes were FAST 
> - a System Programmer's dream.  The powers that be dropped a 8580-A31 
> with 8514 display and 8514/A adapter running OS/2 EE and told me to use 
> it instead of my old "clunker".  I tried it, found it slow, and kept 
> running my 3270 AT/GX until OS/2 Warp 3 came out and I finally put the 
> 3270 AT/GX to bed.  By then we were up to 9590-DLG units with XGA 
> graphics, which was "good enough", even though the 3270 AT/GX still had 
> the edge on 3270 screen updates.

Terminal emulation (or just an OS/2 Window) on an 8514/A is sloooow and
a sad idea. It's sad they didn't optimise the 8514/A for text. But they
just didn't.

IBM put really great hardware on people's desks back then. The 8580 I
mentioned was my dad's. I think it counted up to 16MB - it must have
been crammed full of expansion cards.

Oddly enough, when I worked for IBM, the computer on my desk was a Dell
Pentium 90, which the other IBMers who had the completely loaded Mod.
77s that had been bought a few years earlier were envious of us since
mine was just plain faster. You can probably guess which division I
worked for.

If there were anything I could go back in time and "rescue" from there,
it would have been the gas-plasma 3270 screen that could show 4 3270
sessions at once.

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#71543

Josh Rodd wrote:

> If there were anything I could go back in time and "rescue" from there,
> it would have been the gas-plasma 3270 screen that could show 4 3270
> sessions at once

The 3290 and 3295 plasma monitors were interesting and I used one as a 
system monitor for a while, but having the full range of colors was 
nice, too.

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#71546

On 8/12/26 15:49, Rick Ekblaw wrote:
> Josh Rodd wrote:
> 
>> If there were anything I could go back in time and "rescue" from there,
>> it would have been the gas-plasma 3270 screen that could show 4 3270
>> sessions at once
> 
> The 3290 and 3295 plasma monitors were interesting and I used one as a 
> system monitor for a while, but having the full range of colors was 
> nice, too.
> 

I've got a 3290 and it is to me kind of astonishing.  What was the 3295?

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#71547

Kevin Bowling wrote:

> I've got a 3290 and it is to me kind of astonishing.  What was the 3295?

Same idea as the 3290 in a slightly different form factor, it also 
included the start/stop box for use as a system monitor.

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