The System360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That 3873
I didn't program it. I can't remember precisely what data I was using, but I can remember that it was at least a full step about mere sorting because otherwise I could have just used the IBM card sorter at the time
No, I had access to a PDP-8I in a different dept. (psych) at the time. But that was the dominant culture at the time: IBM shop. You really have to realize IBM's dominance. DEC systems were seen as for toy problems. Interaction was very expensive at the time (but I was lucky in our IBM environment and not TSO I had to learn 2 obscure languages never to be seen again {special hardware, more is not better}). My limited ARPAnet DEC-10-ASCII experience had not yet educated me to rigid thinking IBM has-had (there were IBM hackers, Lynn was one).
Not all physicists. And that was not a typo. It was the psychology dept. where I later became a...
MCM is a good characterization.
The corporate line (which I remember from friends who programmed them when in high school over at the local comm. college): targeted to mid-sized businesses and educational environments as an affordable computing adjunct, etc etc etc. Emphasis on affordable.
Very few people use mantissas of 16 digits. Very few people think about numeric precision in long iteration problems.
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The System360 Model 20 Wasn't As Bad As All That 3874
Alt Folklore Computers from Newsgroups