Linux on S/370? Was: Re: printer socket (Off topic)

From: Christian Fandt <cfandt_at_servtech.com>
Date: Mon Sep 21 09:38:26 1998

At 01:16 21-09-98 -0400, you wrote:
>> Anybody know where I can get an IBM 360/30?
>
>No. And I would _seriously_ drive across the country to get any S/360 or
>370. Maybe even for an S/3 or S/7.

Can't agree more with you on that William!

>
>> It would be fun to port Linux
>> to that, although the lack of paging would be a bit of a problem. One of
>> the cool things about the 360/30 is that you can alter the microcode using
>> a standard keypuch machine.
>
>A real problem, I would say. The Model 30s were just about the runts of
>the family, and could only have 8 to 64 K of storage.
>
>I would think that putting Linux on an S/370 would be just a bit easier,
>but still cool enough to matter (circa 1974!). But I think there are less
>S/370s out there than S/360s (I know of _one_ S/370, and it belongs to
>IBM. S/360s, at least, number more than 10, probably).

Less S/370s out there? I would think, since they are more recent vintage,
there would be more. Any reason why? I'll keep my eyes peeled for you though.

>
>And by S/370, I mean _real_ S/370, with the cool panels. Not the beige
>boxes IBM made in late 1970s, dropping the S/370 name.

Yeah, even my beige box 9370 is boring as heck to look at :-( (It's a CMOS
version of the S/370 from 1987/88.) No interesting front panels, can't
tinker with hardware much at all, etc. Pah!

Later this winter, William, I'll be trying to get the bugs worked out of
that thing as to IPL failures. I still have to move it over from the old
house to its new home in a nicely remodeled basement workarea. It'll set
beside the PDP-11 racks I still need to haul outta the garage before
winter. All this stuff is _heavy_. Oh, my sore back!

Anyway, O Honorable Listmembers, stand by for a request from me for VSE OS
documentation of any sort and perhaps some IPL troubleshooting.

--Chris
-- --

Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
        URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
Received on Mon Sep 21 1998 - 09:38:26 BST

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