April 7, 2014!

[Anuj Dhawan]

A new generation of electronic computing equipment will be introduced on 7th April by International Business Machines Corporation. The new equipment is known as the IBM System/360. It combines microelectronic technology, which makes possible operating speeds measured in billionths of a second, with significant advances in the concepts of computer organization.

As was said,"System/360 represents a sharp departure from concepts of the past in designing and building computers. It is the product of an international effort in IBM's laboratories and plants and is the first time IBM has redesigned the basic internal architecture of its computers in a decade. The result will be more computer productivity at lower cost than ever before. This is the beginning of a new generation - - not only of computers - - but of their application in business, science and government."

After five years of turbulent development, the Models 30, 40, 50, 60/62, and 70 were introduced along with 150 new supporting products, with IBM proudly claiming that software written for one model of System/360 could run on any other. This allowed customers to add or remove computing capacity without losing their investment in software. This had been a serious problem before the 360 with IBM alone having seven different, mutually-incompatible mainframe computer systems.

Oo....Ah...I got the Subject line wrong, I actually meant April 7, 1964 !!

[center][blink]Happy 50th Anniversary IBM System Z[/blink][/center]

[Akshypal]

Long live System z!

[utkarsh]

Happy B'day System z.

[Ashish Mathew]

Good one. Happy 50th Anniversary IBM System Z!

[Barbie Girl]

So is it good or bad? On one side of the coin many people are experienced as the technology is old but they will also get retired, on one way or other many are out of job but I don't see many job openings in the same ratio that means even not much for young crowd...so is it good to celebreate 50 years or bad?

[Anuj Dhawan]

That's a very subjective question and I'm not sure if I'm in a position to answer that. You can look at the 'news' from very different perspectives and may draw very different conclusion/s.

First question we should ask to ourselves is that -- are we competent enough to fill in the void created by the absence of senior personnel who have left the job or about to leave!? Also, over the years there is a shift in the paradigm. Unless 'am mistaken -- in mid 60s until mid 80s if some one said that they are in to IT (Information Technology), it usually had to be Mainframes, though over the years we see something like Facebook to become phenomenal success (in terms of money. And you can imagine that at enterprise level what does it serve really -- though opinion may differ).

OTOH, Job opportunities depend largely on what geographical location you are at, what kind of work options are available and not mainly on who is leaving and who is not. Though, I accept that there are less number of job opening in "mainframes" but if you look at the quarterly results of IBM you'll find that they are making business, however the truth (or may be it's an individual's far drawn conclusion only) -- there are not much sell of mainframe hardware. And, well, that does not take away all the work so far done on and for mainframes -- so maintenance will always be required (an opportunity) but how "good paid" these jobs will be depends on YOU -- because, I believe, "good wages" are very subjective and the meaning of them will differ person to person...

Enough said, I believe it's good to celebrate 50 years --and it's totally separate from your question!