I recall the 3540 well because the team that did the data keying would use 
them.  IIRC there was an issue in terms of getting the disks ejected and I 
ended up writing a channel program to eject the disk as part of the batch job.

I also remember the 3895 because we installed it when I worked for Sears 
Savings Bank in Burbank California.  I also programmed the 3624 (ATM machines) 
to do auto-reconfiguration when a current cart ran out of money.  Those were 
fun times and good days.

Matt Hogstrom
[email protected]
+1-919-656-0564
PGP Key: 0x90ECB270
Facebook <https://facebook.com/matt.hogstrom>  LinkedIn 
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“It may be cognitive, but, it ain’t intuitive."
— Hogstrom

> On May 13, 2020, at 10:38 PM, Tony Thigpen <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> The 3540 was the reader/punch that was to replace the card reader/punch 
> system. Which it did at both my college (while I was there) and at my first 
> job (where it replaced the 96 column card system) just before I got there.
> 
> The 3740 and 3742 were the replacement for the card punch machine. They were 
> highly programmable. You could set up programs where some characters 
> "punched" as packed decimal and other characters were punched as display 
> characters. It would also sum-check fields in a single record and 
> automatically punch final "sums records".
> 
> The 3540 had a AWSOMA:  Optical Media AttachTOC that contained a VOL1 record 
> and multiple HDR1 records which supported multiple files. It had tracks and 
> records. I am fuzzy, but I think it supported different record lengths (set 
> in the HDR1 for each file). I know you could punch both 80 and 96 (in 
> separate files).
> 
> The VTOC design was also used in the Optical Media Attach Feature, which was 
> actually 'emulated' on the P360/P390 in the AWSOMA dirver.
> 
> (All "facts" subject to dropped memory bits due to old age.)
> 
> Tony Thigpen
> 
> R.S. wrote on 5/13/20 6:59 PM:
>> I just checked bitsavers and found some information about 3540
>> 1. Capacity - it depends. There were several types and subtypes, and 
>> sub-subtypes of diskettes. Approximately 256kB to 1,2 MB, however 3540 used 
>> only those low capacity. (details available on request)
>> 2. Feeding media - automatically, not manually.
>> 3. There were two types of 3540, single and double drive.
>> 4. The purpose was to deliver data from keypunch (wrong!) data entry 
>> stations. At the times before CRT screens became popular.
>> However still I have no idea about system support. How to write data on 
>> diskette, how to read from diskette, how to recognize volume ID, etc.
>> No, I'm not going to use it, but I'm just curious.
> 
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