Hybrid Computertab machine data centers 800

rpl

Plenty of low-end S-360s didn't have spooling. Spooling required a separate region which required more core memory.

Low-end S-360 shops didn't have any 'system programmers'--there just wasn't very much to do. DOS was very straight forward. Adding a spooler took a little bit more talent that a small shop might not have readilly available. We used a product called "Power"; I don't know when that came out. DOS itself didn't offer spooling.

Before S-360 the most common computer was the 1401 and that normally had no spooling. Indeed, the 1401 was used as a front-end spooler to large machines like the 7090 where data was loaded to tape.

Spooling unit record I-O makes a drastic improvement in productivity, esp on machines that have only one job running in the first place.

I guess we were lucy in college in not having those lines. We did have to wait for our job to run and wait for the printer operator to burst the jobs and put them in bins.

Our school gave each student in a clbutt a budget of "funny money". Every job cost money from that account. This forced students to deskcheck carefully less they run their account dry. The accounts were not generous.

This arrangement penalized commuters over resident students. The data center had a three-tier rate system--day, evening, weekend. Residents could run jobs at offpeak hours and save money in their accounts.