Erich Bloch, Who Helped Develop IBM Mainframe, Dies At 91 (google.com) 40
shadowknot writes: The New York Times is reporting (Warning: may be paywalled; alternate source) that Erich Bloch who helped to develop the IBM Mainframe has died at the age of 91 as a result of complications from Alzheimer's disease. From the article: "In the 1950s, he developed the first ferrite-core memory storage units to be used in computers commercially and worked on the IBM 7030, known as Stretch, the first transistorized supercomputer. 'Asked what job each of us had, my answer was very simple and very direct,' Mr. Bloch said in 2002. 'Getting that sucker working.' Mr. Bloch's role was to oversee the development of Solid Logic Technology -- half-inch ceramic modules for the microelectronic circuitry that provided the System/360 with superior power, speed and memory, all of which would become fundamental to computing."
Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! (Score:5, Interesting)
Farewell Erich Bloch, thanks for all your wonderful work but especially thanks for making my first job possible! (operations on IBM 3082 mainframes)
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It's remarkable how young so many of these pioneers were, which is why a few of them are still alive today.
I started mucking around with computers in high school in the 70s and when I got my first job in the 80s some of these guys were still working. I once sat next to a guy at a banquet who was probably only ten years older then than I am now. He regaled me with tales of his lab getting the IBM 701 in the mid 50s, which was exciting because it was, in his words, "a stored program jobbie." We could talk e
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Its important for companies to hire and give opportunities to people who do not have "experience". Corporations today are basically destroying our young people because they only want to hire people with 20 years of experience in DB2. In addition to killing the H1B program, what we should do is give companies some tax breaks for hiring people with no "experience". You have to start somewhere and how is anyone going to be able to get anywhere if all jobs require 5 years of experience? College s far too expen
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Maybe a 3081 (dyadic), 3083 (uniprocessor), or 3084 (quad), but not a 3082. 3082 was the Maintenance Support Facility for the above machines. And 3087 was the coolant distribution unit, and 3089 was the motor-generator to create the 400Hz power.
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god bless (Score:2)
and you will be missed
My, how times have changed (Score:3, Interesting)
In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
In today's IBM, the CEO just sent Lord Trump a feel-good letter about how to make profits together. At least one employee resigned over it.
The URLs are easily searchable, but I submitted it as a story, so maybe it will come up later? I gotta run now.
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In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
In today's IBM, the CEO just sent Lord Trump a feel-good letter about how to make profits together. At least one employee resigned over it.
The URLs are easily searchable, but I submitted it as a story, so maybe it will come up later? I gotta run now.
- IBM's CEO (actually any CEO but in this case IBM's) sending a formal public letter to the president-elect is a good Slashdot story for discussion.
- One employee quitting in a company of 400k+ employees is a tabloid news story being picked up mainstream media. That is not worthy of discussion on Slashdot.
- Don't kid yourself into thinking politics didn't come up back then.
Hope your submission does go through.
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That's right because IBM never sold anything to NAZI Germany before WWII.
Much as if I were in their shoes, I hope I would not have sold things to NAZI Germany, I think you have it backwards.
Selling to anyone who will pay == Not getting involved with politics
Refusing to sell to someone because of their government is a subset of { Getting involved with politics }
There is good and bad to taking politics into account in your decision making.
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Not sure how this branch got dragged into the pre-WW-II topic again, but some people are always looking to attack IBM (and various other companies) on the basis of their business dealings with Germany in the 1930s. I suppose you can argue that those were politically tainted business decisions at the time, but mostly I think people are misusing their hindsight. At the time no one knew how bad Hitler was because he had only begun to be bad. Even today and notwithstanding our extra bits of hindsight, we still
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Throw this little bit of info at him [thebhc.org]. He's just on a Trump rage thing. The link shows that IBM was as heavy into politics as anybody. They're not doing anything especially different. It wasn't necessary to Godwin this thread at all.
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In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
You're kidding, right? [thebhc.org]
I gotta run now.
Now, you know the routine. Do it again!
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:1)
ZZ
Please note this guy's weird fantasies (Score:1)
Never fails. Too bad you fail to address the little issue of your misinformation there.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:1)
Z^3
Positively creepy (Score:1)
Is this what Slashdot is deteriorating into? Not that this offends me or anything, in fact I find this sort of trolling somewhat amusing, but there are other sites for this kind of stuff.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^4
Is this how things look on 4chan? (Score:1)
I'm just wondering, never been there yet. I guess the mountain comes to Mohamed
Eh, anyway, you're original premise is false.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^5
Your perversion is noted. (Score:1)
I've definitely bumped into some real weirdness here.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^6
Must I repeat myself again? (Score:1)
What part of noted don't you understand? You express a personality of someone I wouldn't allow near children. You are a delinquent.
Re: What? 1950s? (Score:2)
The first human in space was indeed a socialist.
He didn't get Alzheimer (Score:3)
He suffered a refresh circuitry failure.
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Ferrite memory doesn't need refresh - it even holds its data over a power off.
Trouble is reads are destructive - you have to re-write after reading.
Re: He didn't get Alzheimer (Score:1)
But ferrite core memory does not survive the panel being not-quite-gently-enough shut during operation, as I discovered when giving a computer room tour in the early 80's.