Variable Word length CPU

On 11/6/2005 at 5:23 PM William Donzelli wrote: I think the reality here is somewhere between "yes they did" and "no they didn't". There was never a 1401 setup was even remotely competitive with a small DP operation that used unit-record equipment. A quick perusal of the numbers shows that the lease cost of a 1401 with tape, printer and punch was in no way competitive with the lease cost for a simple set of unit record equipment (407, 519, 082). A single 1401 could be much faster and do more complex operations than the unit record equipment, but the old stuff was very robust and economical. However, for the larger DP customers, a 1401, owing to its use of tape (handling fewer trays of punched cards) and faster I/O (the 1403 printer was a comparative speed demon to the 407 printer) was a very attractive alternative for a big roomful of unit record equipment. What is more significant, it was extremely attractive as a replacement for earlier business computers, such as the vacuum-tube 650. (The 1401 could simulate 650 code). On the other hand, it meant a lot of retraining--many shops kept some of the UR equipment, such as the 082 for sorting, since it didn't necessitate re-punching cards after sorting (there are some operations that UR equipment does better). IBM was actively trying to upgrade their customer base from UR to computer for a long time. I recall that a friend in the late 60's was excited that his employer, a small Chicago area manufacturer, had just upgraded from UR equipment to a 360/20 on the advice of an IBM SE. Lots of interesting new stuff and new tricks to perform. He thought it was wonderful. Every morning, the DP head would deliver a thick bundle of paper to the president, summarizing the state of the corporate accounts. Of course, the president simply filed it without reading--he already knew, through interaction with the sales department, how things stood. But the new equipment required taking on extra employees and was a lot more expensive. After awhile, the push to add more equipment started and the president began to wonder why, since business hadn't increased all that much, why more of the corporate overhead was dedicated to DP operations. IBM was holding a seminar for prospective customers in the area, so the president (without telling the DP manager) attended. He laid out the extent of his operation as if he'd had no EDP at al to one of the SE's and received the reply that some unit record equipment should do the job just fine. He asked if perhaps a computer may not be a better choice and the sales guy replied, no, your operation isn't large enough to justify it. The 360/20 was out of the door two months later. The extra employees followed shortly thereafter. The point of this is that even during the 60's, IBM was still actively recommending and leasing UR equipment. Cheers, Chuck