11 Nov
2010
11 Nov
'10
8:43 p.m.
From: Jerome H. Fine
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 7:23 PM
If my memory of the system is correct, the Toronto
installation had
only tape drives and a small disk drive as units which allowed input
and output. Does anyone else remember how the 7094 handled input
and output? I would guess that if the 360 could handle the user
interface, then the 360 might be a bit slow at computation.
There is no need to guess, and no, the 360 is not slow at computation
(in its universe of discourse).
A minimal System/360 system has a multiplexor channel for unit-record
devices (card readers and punches, line printers) and a selector
channel for high-speed devices (tapes, direct-access storage devices).
These channels are the equivalent of the CDC PPUs, with DMA capability
and their own programs (started by the CPU, and left to their own
devices, so to speak ;-).
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
http://www.PDPplanet.org/
http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/