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From: jthomas@nmsu.edu (James Thomas)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: What they did to the 370 (was: Hidden Secrets of POWER Architecture)
Message-ID: <616@opus.NMSU.EDU>
Date: 3 May 90 22:38:39 GMT
References: <318@necssd.NEC.COM> <1990May1.163254.476@mentor.com>
Sender: news@nmsu.edu
Organization: NMSU Computer Science
Lines: 19
In-reply-to: mbutts@mentor.com's message of 1 May 90 16:32:54 GMT

In article <1990May1.163254.476@mentor.com> mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts) writes:

mb> It's an old story.  I recall reading (in a review of a history of IBM, sorry
mb> I don't remember the reference) that in the 1920's the Calculating-Tabulating-
mb> Recording Co., IBM's predecessor, sold several speeds of Hollerith card
mb> counting machines at different prices.  When you bought an upgrade, a mechanic
mb> would come out and move a belt from a smaller to a larger pulley.

Well....

The IBM 407 "printer" came in two speeds, 100 and 150 lines per minute.
The upgrade consisted of removing one relay.  (We stuck a folded card {80
column of course :-} in except when we called the CE :-)

The IBM 1622 card reader came in 600 and 1000 (maybe?  that's getting a bit
foggy :-) card per minute versions.  The pulley did not have both sizes, it
had to be changed for the upgrade.

Jim