On Tue, 12 May 2009 07:14:32 -0400, Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote: > >3082 waas the "service processor". One of the issues was that field >engineering required a "boot-strap" diagnostic process ... which started >with scoping failed components and going up from there. TCMs in 308x >were not "scope'able" ... so things started with a service processor >that was simpler technology and was scope'able ... then a "working" >service processor had all sorts of diagnostices instrumentation into the >TCMs.
This is similar to what Amdahl did with the 470 series. It used a Data General Nova processor for what they called the console processor. Each Multi-Chip Carrier (MCC) had circuitry to interface to the console processor. The MCC's were "scope' able" though, but it was rarely necessary to scope them. > >There were lots of issues with developing a roll-your-own operating >system and diagnostic applications for the service processor in the 308x >... so for the 3090 ... it was decided to go with a standard (low-end, >"scope' able") 370 for the service process. The 3090 effort started out >with 4331 running a customized version of vm370 release six and all the >service screens implemented in cms ios3720. Similarly, on the Amdahl 580 series, the DG Nova was replaced by a 370 processor that ran UTS (Universal Timesharing System perhaps.... I forget), which was the Unix system that Amdahl had been offering for the 370. The console processor on the 580 could not be scoped, though, as it was implemented on one MCC in the "pizza oven". The MCC's on the 580s were about 15 inches square, IIRC and slid into slots between the two side panels that were used to connect them together. We used to refer to the processor cage as a pizza oven because of the way that the MCC's slid in. -- Tom Marchant ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
