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Re: IBM system/360 ad

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On 2019-11-27, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> On Monday, November 25, 2019 at 8:22:41 PM UTC-5, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> On 2019-11-25, Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Monday, November 25, 2019 at 2:20:53 PM UTC-7,
>>> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> https://archive.org/details/Nations-Business-1964-12/page/n51
>>>>
>>>> Available with up to 8 meg of memory!
>>>>
>>>> (I thought S/360 could handle up to 16 meg?  But maybe in those
>>>> days no one could see needing more than 8 meg.  Indeed, I think
>>>> if you wanted that much you had to get the "LCS" which was
>>>> core but slow core.)
>>>
>>> Yes, that's right. And 16 megabytes of slow core could be attached
>>> to the largest models in the System/360 line... which weren't
>>> available yet at the time of that advertisement.
>> 
>> Besides, hardly anyone would have been able to afford that much core.
>> I remember seeing an article in a trade rag around 1971 or so about
>> how IBM rocked the industry by slashing the price of a megabyte of
>> memory from $75,000 to a mere $15,000.
>
> In those days we talked in terms of K, not meg.  We were happy
> to have 192K on our S/360.  I think the Univac 90/30 I worked
> on had 256k, which we thought was very large.

It was.  I don't know whether I ever used a 256K 90/30 - most
of them around here had 192K.  Some had only 128K, which was
uncomfortably tight.

Univac finally broke down and said you needed at least 64K (rather
than 32K) to run a minimum IMS/90 installation (their equivalent
of CICS).  Mind you, that was three terminals making inquiries
into a single ISAM file, i.e. pretty useless.

(Actually, they said 65K, not 64K, since these statements came
from the marketroids, who live in that magical world where
32 + 32 = 65.  The customers would only find out that the
configuration they purchased on a low-balled bid was inadequate
once they tried to get it running, at which point it was cheaper
to just buy an upgrade than go somewhere else.)

> But as the 1970s wore on, technology improved and memory
> got cheaper.  Of course, at the same time, software got
> bloated.

Yup.  Consider that 10,000 times as much memory is now considered
barely adequate in a garden-variety home computer.

>> (Meanwhile, I'm slipping into my pocket a thumb drive that cost me
>> 50 cents per gigabyte...)
>
> Yes, I got a Sandisk flash drive with 32GB for $6.
> Amazing. (Though this one doesn't have the little red light
> that glows when in use.  I wish it did.  Also, I don't know
> if that is 'real' memory or compressed memory.)

I really want that red light.  I never pull a thumb drive out
of the socket until the light stops flashing, no matter what
the software says.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  "Alexa, define 'bugging'."

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IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-25 13:20 -0800
  Re: IBM system/360 ad Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2019-11-25 15:07 -0800
    Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-26 01:22 +0000
      Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-27 12:54 -0800
        Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-28 18:08 +0000
      Re: IBM system/360 ad Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2019-11-28 09:44 +0000
        Re: IBM system/360 ad Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2019-11-28 11:04 -0700
  Re: IBM system/360 ad Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2019-11-25 14:41 -1000
    Re: IBM system/360 ad scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2019-11-26 01:31 +0000
    Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-27 12:49 -0800
      Re: IBM system/360 ad Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2019-11-27 21:23 +0000
        Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-27 13:39 -0800
          Re: IBM system/360 ad J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2019-11-27 18:18 -0500
            Re: IBM system/360 ad Alexander Schreiber <als@usenet.thangorodrim.de> - 2019-12-02 00:23 +0100
              Re: IBM system/360 ad scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2019-12-02 15:37 +0000
      Re: IBM system/360 ad David LaRue <huey.dll@tampabay.rr.com> - 2019-11-28 03:16 +0000
  Re: IBM system/360 ad David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2019-11-26 21:35 +0000
    Re: IBM system/360 ad Bob Eager <news0073@eager.cx> - 2019-11-26 22:21 +0000
    Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-26 22:50 +0000
      Re: IBM system/360 ad David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2019-11-27 00:41 +0000
        Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-27 05:49 +0000
          Re: IBM system/360 ad David Wade <g4ugm@dave.invalid> - 2019-11-27 11:22 +0000
            Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-27 19:54 +0000
              Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-27 13:05 -0800
          Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-11-27 13:04 -0800
            Re: IBM system/360 ad Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2019-11-27 13:11 -1000
            Re: IBM system/360 ad Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2019-11-28 18:08 +0000
              Re: IBM system/360 ad J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2019-11-28 13:28 -0500
                Re: IBM system/360 ad Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2019-12-01 13:16 -0800
                Re: IBM system/360 ad Niklas Karlsson <anksil@yahoo.se> - 2019-12-03 15:14 +0000
                Re: IBM system/360 ad hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2019-12-04 13:01 -0800
              Re: IBM system/360 ad Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2019-11-28 19:41 -0500

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