9370 is a dog! Was: Re: Re[2]: Firsts

From: Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk <(Philip.Belben_at_powertech.co.uk)>
Date: Tue Feb 3 09:24:22 1998

> At 13:15 13-01-98 -0500, William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net> wrote:
>
>>> Me too! But I think a 4381, say or even a 9370, would be easier to work
>>> on.
>>
>>Getting a 9370 should not be a problem - they are dogs that really were
>>not sucessful. I have seen quite a few in the scrap yards (none suitable
>>for taking, however).
>
> I'll agree it's no problem. I got the old 9370 from my company setting at
> home. Paid an official $1 to act as a transfer of ownership. It's just
> barely a classic now. Obsolete as heck -not too long after we paid $200k+
> for it in '86/'87. Lot of Tylenol used to sooth aching back muscles when I
> dragged it home piece-by-piece. (Should have seen the wife look at me...)

Strange how people in different (geographical) areas find different
machines. In the [year + 2 vacations] I worked for IBM, I never saw a
9370 at all. It was released at about that time - I grabbed some
marketing leaflets which I believe I still have - and I thought it
looked an interesting system, but I never saw one :-(

> It's a dog, but nevertheless, something important in the line of S/370
> lineage which I literally rescued from the dumpster.
>
> Notably, it is said to be the first actual production unit sold. Don't
> exactly recall complete serial number, but it probably is first since it is
> something like xxx0001. Will get back to the list later with SN, etc. if
> anybody interested in confirming this.

Fun if true. Do find out!

> I need OS books (VSE, I think) and help in bringing her completely up.
> Xerox, I believe, kept the OS manuals since they did all the software
> maintenace under contract. IBM did hardware maintenance, of course. We used
> the Xerox Business Management System (XBMS) product to run our company. Have
> virtually all other hardware books and most periferal books safely at home.
>
> Heard that AIX could run on the 9370 under (I think) VM or something. Any
> AIX and VM OS's around that I could scrounge for this iron??

I'll have a look in my marketing bumf and see what IBM were offering.
Alas, I have little of a technical nature.

I'd think a 9370 ought to run Phoenix/MVT at least. Do any of our
Cambridge (UK) contingent want to have a go?

> Have tried to bring it up at home but, apparently, lack of certain
> periferals it expects to see hung off the terminal ports causes the IPL to
> quit before OS completely loads. Need a guru or present-day user to help
> figure this out.

You know, that sort of thing _might_ be in the marketing stuff (as in, a
complete system need consist only of...) since the main selling point
was the small size and no need of special machine room.

> Any of you folks willing to help me with this project later in the year???

Yes, but not physically, since I am unlikely to get to travel to the
States again in the near future! That said, I do have a voucher to
spend with Continental Airlines sometime...

> Wife and I just bought another house and will not be settled until
> summertime or later. I'm making provisions during my rewiring of the house
> to include a 30A double-pole breaker since the 9370 takes 230V, single
> phase. Will duct the air coming out of the CPU to heat the house instead of
> using the furnace (just kidding, but there's quite a few BTUs dumped outta
> the thing and could keep the house above freezing in the winter at least.)

30A at 230V is around 7kW - running continuously, that could keep a
small house quite warm. (Typical electrical domestic heating
installation in UK, four storage heaters rated at between 2kW and 4kW
each, heat up for 7 hours at night, release heat slowly during day -
equivalent of 3 to 4 kW continuously)

Will tell the list anything more on this machine if any interest.

Yes please.

Philip.
Received on Tue Feb 03 1998 - 09:24:22 GMT