#Mainframe

[dinosaurspen]

IBM System/360

[vintageslideshow]

The state of computer technology in 1968.

[byruit]

Working in a datacenter in the 70s

[nixcraft]

start them young

[humanoidhistory]

Cyber 70 mainframe computer system by Control Data Corporation, circa 1974.

[yodaprod]

RCA Spectra 70/45

[discopaws]

Little thing from an arc where Agent Caspar infiltrates a research lab and works undercover as a mainframe operator :>

[mistfunk]

Mistigram: @blippypixel has drawn this #BBCMicro animation of a #mainframe computer suite (and its 9-track vacuum column magnetic tape drives!) from the flexible #IBMSystem360 family of machines, sold for a bit over a decade starting in 1965. This piece was included in the MIST1121 artpack collection.

[sabsleung]

The next 3D thing I do will be Hexadecimal from Reboot!

I grew up watching this show, and it really holds up even now. Hex terrified me as a kid, but I fully appreciate her character arc now. If only the series didn't end on that massive cliffhanger...

(Do not speak to me about any recent addition to the franchise. It does not exist.)

[justseventeen]

August 1993. 'Whatever your frame of mind'

[opendirectories]

[dinosaurspen]

Vintage technology Lego sets by LegoJalex

[univac1219]

1962 Mainframe with Bluetooth

This old computer is comprised of four big boxes, three of which are ever actually used.

The UNIVAC 1219. This is the brains of the system. It controls the operations of every other device. This is what I'm referring to when I'm not gesturing to the UNIVAC 1219 as a whole.

The UNIVAC 1540. This is the DDR, or Digital Data Recorder. It holds, writes, and reads the magnetic tape operators load into the machine.

The Digital to Analog Converter. The UNIVAC 1219 was the first digital computer on most U.S. Navy ships, most of which had analog weapons systems. This hulking mass of steel translated the digital signals from the computer to the analog signals of the weapon systems and vice versa in regards to the radar.

The UNIVAC 1532. The I/O console managed the...you guessed it, input and output of the UNIVAC 1219. You can load and punch paper tape for programs more bite-sized than would be used for magnetic tape.

In addition, we have two teletype machines. You can think of them like typewriters that don't receive human input (except the one that can if we want), but instead output what the computer tells it to.  We have a Teletype Corporation teletype that is optimized for character compatability and a Kleinschmidt teletype that is optimized for speed. Both rely on the I/O console to send and receive data.

The real ingenuity begins with the floppy drive. Duane, who's career revolved around this system, developed a way for a floppy drive to imitate the I/O console. The computer thinks it is reading and writing to a paper tape, when it is in fact reading and writing to a 5.25in floppy inside an ancient CNC machine floppy drive.

And this, dear reader, is where the magic happens. This framework was originally built for interfacing with the 1219 via BIN files over Serial port and was easily changed to support BIN files over floppy. Duane has been working on an off adapting our purple converter box with a raspi to let the 1219 read and write BIN files over Bluetooth.

Make no mistake, you cannot simply SSH into this machine as tons of setup and channel changes must be performed to ready it to receive and send data. That being said, I don't see any other UNIVAC mainframes with Bluetooth [or any other running UNIVAC 1219s at all :(], so I will take what I can get.

Can someone tell me how to Tumblr properly?

[science70]

Man seated at a RCA Spectra 70 mainframe workstation, 1969.

Photography: H. Armstrong Roberts

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

TFA Mainframe