24 Sep
2014
24 Sep
'14
12:25 p.m.
Christian Corti <cc at informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
Perhaps they didn't have it back then, or it was in storage and we were only shown the
4361 because that was on exhibition. I don't however remember anybody telling us about
a 4331 there.
Yep, that's what they were called :)
jwsmobile <jws at jwsss.com> wrote:
We have a 4331, too. Perhaps you already know our site/machine.
Nope, I just found out about your machine when I saw it on Henk's list.
What do you mean with "start up the main
processor"? Doing an IPL?
Hmm...I don't remember the specifics after all those years, but basically: when you
switched on the machine, the fans and some minor power transformer/PSU would power up, the
Service Processor would boot from an old squeaky 8" floppy drive and issue some
progress indications on the terminal. At one point, you could hit a key (combination?) to
get into some kind of setup menu, where you could e.g. enter what sort of device was
connected to each terminal port. You could stay there and browse that menu to your
heart's content, but if you did not enter or did quit the menu, the SP would try to
power on the main part of the machine - you heard a clunk from some large contactor, the
buzz of the main transformer(s) would kick in for like 1-2 seconds, then everything
(including the SP supply) would be shut down (several more clunks, fans spinning down),
leaving the machine powered off again - without an error indication on the terminal.
One related
machine I know of (a 4361) is kept at IBM's Museum in
Sindelfingen; we were there to get the pinout of the System Panel
They also have a 4331 AFAIK. At least they took the 3370 drives that were
part of the machine we got some years ago. We kept the 3340 and 3344
drives. machine
(manuals, schematics and faultfinding charts) but don't really
know where to start with our Problem.
MAP - Maintenance Analysis Procedures. I would rely on the MLM's and other service
documentation. They have
pretty good procedures of testing to follow and solution matrices to
follow to remedy the problems. If you are following those and have
encountered a problem, then you should have something that can be helped
with. I've brought up a few systems and you have to go thru the tedious
process of running all the tests sometimes to find something, but things
I have had wrong fell out of tests where I would not have thought to look.
Of course we tried following those procedures, but there were several entry points and
maybe we just always missed the right one. Somehow the path always went off into the
woodwork, with things like preconditions that were not met in our case.
Christian Corti <cc at informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> wrote:
You haven't asked so far, did you ? (I don't
remember)
Probably not since you joined the list. Keep in mind that of this was more than ten years
ago and I had not pursued those issues much, as the system is not in my custody, I only
get to chat with its current owner a couple times a year at most, and we both have had
other fish to fry through all those years. But after all, I still yearn to bring that
project to some rewarding conclusion :)
What drives and OS tapes do you have?
No (intact or restorable) drives except for the two internal 8" floppy drives, no
software except for two IML (bad original that had been stored inside the drive, intact
backup) and I think one diagnostic floppy that came with the system. What's there is a
3262 high speed printer and some sort of remote terminal server that came from a large
mail-order outfit (Quelle Versandhaus F?rth). I'm all for sourcing period peripherals
if possible at all, but if we can't, our alternate idea is to furnish some sort of
channel drive emulator with a modern hard drive, like Mr. Zabolitzky and his guys at
Cray-Cyber.org did for their CDC machines.
The 4361 is great because it has the storage director
integrated in, and
you can run a complete system with just a terminal, a tape drive such as
the 4311 which has the tape controller and drive integrated together,
and disk drives.
It is a great VM personal system if you have one. A friend had one to
himself for 2 years at UMSL at one time. Sad these all got broken up
for the price they brought.
I shall see whether I can get together with the owner at some time again and get some
diagnosis and work done on the machine. However I don't have any idea whether that is
even possible in the place where the machine is currently stored. Of course I'm all
ears for more suggestions and anecdotes about these machines and leads towards associated
stuff.
So long,
Arno