IBM Series/1

[Jay West]

I used to run a system at Anheuser-Busch in the late 80's, ISTR it was a 4331, 4341, or 4381. Under VM/370, It ran SMI's (Systems Management, Inc) Pick/370 OS. IBM terminals could attach direct or via an establishment controller, but dumb serial terminals could connect via the series/1's which acted as a front end processor/aggregator (via a Micom switch that just let you select the Pick/370 machine or one of the many Pr1me's about One Busch Place).

There was also a standalone series/1 next to it, which ran CDI's (forget the company name) implementation of Pick for the Series/1. They used this for connecting a bunch of serial ports to timeclocks throughout the plant. Workers coming in and out hit these and there was some Pick/BASIC code that comprised a time & attendance system. Data capture from the timeclocks involved the full character set which normal Pick I/O had issues with, so I wrote a program in Pick Assembler to deal with that and pass sanitized/escaped data back to the host.

My most distinct memory of this is the simultaneously cute and annoying 'BLEET' sound that each button on the front panel (membrane keypad) made.

Fun Times.

J