IBM Mainframe Forum

Most have forgotten, but today, August 2, is the 40th anniversary of

• The formal announcement of the System/370 Models 158 and 168, the first IBM mainframe systems to feature semi-conductor main memory in place of magnetic core memory, and the first mainline systems with virtual storage capabilities.
• The formal announcement of OS/VS2 Release 1, basically OS/360 MVT with virtual memory.
• The formal announcement of OS/VS1, basically OS/360 MFT with virtual memory.
• The formal announcement of VM/370, basically CP67/CMS updated for the new systems.
• I think they also formally announced the System/370 Model 145 also had virtual memory capabilities. The machine itself had been previously announced.

These users thanked the author steve-myers for the post (total 2):

prino (Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:20 am) • Anuj Dhawan (Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:19 pm)

I seem to remember that we had a few of 370/155's and added something called a "DAT Box(?)" to achieve virtual on the 155.

I also seem to recall thet the 158s and 168s came with virtual, but wouldn't place a bet on it.

Been more than just a little while and i'm a bit foggy . . .

All 158s and 168s had virtual. They also announced DAT boxes for the /155 and /165, but no additional storage, so it hardly seemed worth the money ($100,000 for the /155, $200,000 for the /165), at least to me. The company I worked for in 1972 had a rental /165 and an owned /165. Some years later, after they decommissioned the /165 I believe a DAT (Dynamic Address Translation) box was installed on it prior to its sale. By the time of the sale, I believe you could by aftermarket semi-conductor memory for the /165 (the /155, too), but I don't know how much or its cost.

Hehe...DAT address.

There is a current internet meme involving the phrase "DAT A$$!" One of my favorite examples is a guy who named his hard drive 'dat ass' so that the system asks him once a week if he "wants to backup dat ass."

ahh! the good ol' days, I remember starting out as an operator at Sears ETO, we had a 370/158, the systems guys would come down when we had problems, one of these guys sporting a 3 piece suite, using the light pen to display and alter main storage, I remember when Sears aquired Dean Witter(sp) renolds, and they moved thier CPU, the first water cooled system, I think a 370/168? had 3 meg to push to 4 meg we had to buy a standalone box from I-TEL, IIRC, the box was bigger that a current Z/10 processor.