23 Oct
2013
23 Oct
'13
3:46 a.m.
S/390s show up periodically, and some of them are small enough for the spare bedroom
hobbyist of modest means. That how I got mine. I have a 9221. The maddening thing is the
bits to go with it. For instance, mine came without cabling, and it's a transition
model that still used bus and tag. For that reason I've never been able to do
anything with it. The cabling is rare side its scap value is huge, and making new is
insanely expensive.
The 9221 is the one item that I'm not considering for my clear out, despite its size.
That one really is going to a museum. The reason is the museum has a set of cables, and
they don't actually have an IBM architecture mainframe. With the anniversary coming up
next year. I thought it'd be jolly to try and get the system going for display in
line with that.
Sometimes, getting involved in a club or a museum is a much better option than having a
private collection due to the power and space issues. You also get to play with a much
wider range of gear. I never imagined I'd sit a class in the architecture and
operation of an Elliott 803, but I admit it was fascinating. They built it out of bit
serial magnetic core logic using pulse trains.
-Colin
On 22 Oct 2013, at 21:40, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
Anyone do much
hobbying of IBM stuff, especially S/360, S/370, and S/390?
Big Iron collectors (not that weenie large iron stuff that DEC mostly
made) are notoriously private. A few hang out here, lurking.
Anyone know where I could find some interesting
artifacts, like a 1052? Or other similar-vintage stuff?
I have a rough 1052 with the control unit, but it is not really for
sale - trade maybe for something I need. It is the only one I have
ever seen in the wild.
Basically, S/360 era gear is very difficult to find - especially the
processors. S/370 era gear is much more available, to a point, but the
processors are still maddening well hid. Unit record gear is more
common that this later stuff, but very few collectors want it. Every
year I turn up a cache of unit record gear, but beyond keypunches and
maybe a sorter or two, it all gets orphaned or scrapped.
--
Will