I worked with a 3290 that had 4 mod-2 displays all visible at once. I
always thought it had 4 coax cables, but now I can't remember ever
looking at the back. It was in a tape room and had an MVS console for
each of 3 systems, with the 4th display available as a TSO terminal.
This was probably a couple of years before TN3270 emulators with
multiple windows became popular, and I used it myself a bit (I was the
tape sysprog at the time). I remember underlines instead if highlighted
text, probably because the plasma pixels just had two settings - on or
off. I also remember it being rather slow displaying text - you could
basically watch the text "paint" itself from top-to-bottom when a new
screen came in from the host. But hey, you got to type on a 3270
keyboard with real Clear and Reset and Erase-EOF keys. Now I feel bad
because the one I worked on probably ended up in the trash.
I never heard of the museum, so I googled for the address and there's a
street-view picture of a guy in a black t-shirt unloading various boxes
that must be for the museum.
It's less than an hour from a datacenter I worked at last month, so if I
need to go to Pittsburgh again I'd sure like to see the museum. And
yes, please post anything about it here! Disclaimer: I have absolutely
no authority whatsoever :)
Dave McGuire wrote:
On 04/28/2017 10:35 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
Wow. You really want to operate a 3290 in this age?
Yes I do. This is in a museum. But honestly, as a professional
developer by day, I'd happily type on that thing all day long. It's
gorgeous!
It must be 30 years old; but then I guess they were built to last.
About 35 years old, yes. And yes, built like tanks. And quite hard
to find nowadays; they cost a small fortune if you can even find one.
ISTR mine weighed in around 75 lbs.
I'd guess around 60lbs. I don't like to move it very often. ;)
(some people thought it was bolted down),
Yup, I can certainly see that. :)
and that maybe a newer
and somewhat lighter model came out later. Must have been the mid-'90s.
Yes, the 3290-2. It didn't have the big "humpback" protrusion that
contained most of the logic; it was integrated into the panel. We have
one of those too, here at the Large Scale Systems Museum in the
Pittsburgh area.
Anyway, my gut says you could buy a couple 24" displays for what that
monster will cost you in power & cooling for a year. It got pretty hot.
Yup. I haven't measured its power consumption, but it does crank out
the heat. The Museum can sometimes make it clear until mid-January
before starting the building's main boiler. :-)
Speaking of the Large Scale Systems Museum...We're actually about to
have our grand re-opening shindig after a big expansion and many months
of renovations; would it be compatible with the charter of this list to
post an announcement here? We do have quite a bit of IBM iron.
-Dave
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