Mystery system

[Jim Stephens]

On 2/5/2016 8:16 AM, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 2:48 AM, Mike Loewen<mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us>  wrote:
>> >
>> >    The drives appear to be IBM 3420s, but with an additional box on top,
>> >labeled "SMS".  The system itself doesn't appear in any of the shots. Some
>> >sort of IBM 370, perhaps?
> Funny that the SMS box shows "INNPUT" - it looks like it was written
> by a Norwegian with limited English skills.
> (Norwegian "inn" is the same as English "in")
A friend who worked on a system with the SMS device software sent this:

They're 3420s with the SMS boxes on top. The SMS boxes were hooked to a 
controller that looked like a console to the 370. The console got tape 
messages and would display which tape volumes were to be mounted on each 
drive.

The picture with a volume named INNPUT is someones idea of a joke, since 
tape volume names were 6  characters. The volumes had to be labeled with 
a utility and JCL had to be written to call for the volume.

The tape label utility was IEHINITT.

Thanks
Jim