Unknown IBM S/360s

William Donzelli wrote: The only mentions of the model 58 are in the November 67 and March 68 issues. I don't think either machine ever happened. Nov 67 IBM now has three new members of the 360 family backstage--with one about to be pushed into the footlights. Biggest--by far--and most talked about is now known as the Model 85. It's said to have up to 6 million bytes of main storage and use some of the Mod 91 logic. Performance should be 5 to 10 times that of the 65 at about l~ times the price. Probable announcement time is early January, with deliveries scheduled to begin about 15 months later. , Next smaller may be called the Model 58. It could be about twice the speed of the 50 but sell down' with the present Mod 40. It's apparently aimed directly at the SDS Sigma 7 market. Last, and least, is the relatively tiny Mod 7-reportedly as fast as the 20 but much cheaper. Mar 68 IBM-watchers note the coming of generation 3.5 in the 360 line with the announcement of the 25 and 85. One user notes these two models are more alike than the 75 and 85. Both make more significant use of hierarchies of memory--and hence have a greater speed potential--than the rest of the line. And the writeable control store unique to these machines provides more emulation flexibility than the "hard~ wire" read-only memory on the rest. The next edition using more of these same features should be model 58. Meanwhile, some us~rs of behemoth systems for massive problem-solving are unhappy with the price of the 85; it's the standard squared increase (roughly four times the speed of the 65 for twice the price). One 6600 user says he would have rieeded at least 10 times the speed for the money to induce switch. "We really need 500 times the speed, but could never afford to pay 22 times the monthly rental." Some observers feel the lack of detailed specs for the 85, plus long lead-time (3rd quarter '69) indicates a replay of the IBM anti-6600 strategy, with the target this time the 1108~ perhaps.