[email protected] (Anne & Lynn Wheeler) writes:
> With regard to ACS (IBM's advance computing effort) by Amdahl ... this
> has account of many of the features ... but was killed off by IBM
> management because they were worried it would advance computing
> state-of-the-art too fast and they would loose control of the market.
> http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/acs_end.html
>
> Amdahl leaves sorthly after ACS was killed to start his own clone
> computer computing. The ACS "end" article lists several ACS features
> that don't show up in IBM processors until es/9000 over 20yrs later.

re:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#21 Write Inhibit

"The rise and fall of IBM" references that a major motivation for Future
System effort was countermeasure for clone controlleres
http://www.ecole.org/en/seances/CM07

past posts mentioning Future System effort ... including 370 efforts
being killed off and/or suspended
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#futuresys

other references to Future System
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/
http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/fs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Future_Systems_project

>From Ferguson/Morris Computer Wars (effect of Future System failure):

... and perhaps most damaging, the old culture under Watson Snr and Jr
of free and vigorous debate was replaced with sycophancy and make no
waves under Opel and Akers. It's claimed that thereafter, IBM lived in
the shadow of defeat

... and:

But because of the heavy investment of face by the top management, F/S
took years to kill, although its wrongheadedness was obvious from the
very outset. "For the first time, during F/S, outspoken criticism became
politically dangerous," recalls a former top executive.

... snip ...

discusses in the failure of FS, there was Q&D efforts to create 3033 &
3081 ... even though they weren't very competitive with clone processors
http://www.jfsowa.com/computer/memo125.htm

also the lack of 370 products during the FS period was credited with
giving clone processors market foothold.

one of the things I worked on as undergraduate in the 60s was clone
controller. CP67 was delivered to the univ. in Jan1968 with 1052 and
2741 terminal support ... including support for doing dynamic terminal
identification and dynamically switching the terminal controller
line-scanner type. the univ. had some number of tty/ascii support, so I
added tty/ascii support in a way that was consistant with doing dynamic
terminal identification (and dynamic line-scanner switching). what I
really wanted to do was have a dialup "hunt group" with a single number
for all incoming terminal types ... using a common pool of controller
ports. the problem was that while it was possible to dynamically change
line-scanner type for each port, the IBM controller took a short cut and
hard-wired each port's line-speed.

The univ. then kicked off a clone controller project, with objectives
including being able to do both dynamic terminal type and dynamic line
speed. The channel interface was reverse engineered and a channel board
built for an Interdata/3 programmed to emulate IBM controller. Later
this was enhanced to be an Interdata/4 handling the channel interface,
and cluster of multiple Interdata/3s handling port interfaces ... and
Interdata is selling it ... after Perkin/Elmer buys Interdata it
continues to be sold under the P/E logo. Four of us get written up for
(some part of) clone controller business. some past posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#360pcm

other recent posts
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014c.html#97 IBM ACS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014c.html#104 IBM ACS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#16 [OT ] Mainframe memories
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#17 Write Inhibit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#18 IBM ACS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#19 Write Inhibit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#20 Write Inhibit
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#22 [OT ] Mainframe memories
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#23 [OT ] Mainframe memories
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#24 IBM ACS
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#25 [OT ] Mainframe memories
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#26 [OT ] Mainframe memories
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2014d.html#27 [OT ] Mainframe memories

-- 
virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970

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