The 3278 with the silk screen covering is still my favourite terminal to this day. Although being connected to the 4341 with a special keyboard I think it had a different designation.
Wow,great video,reminds me of the 80.s at Magraw Hill.There is one machine that was a nightneare to run thats not in this video,remember the DECOLATER and the burster,a long time ago,great video,gio...
Thanks for this video. It really brings back memories for me when I was a kid. My father was a Systems Analyst at U.B.C., and I remember all the sounds and smells of the mainframe clean room. As a kid, I was in complete awe of all things related to computing, and after seeing this video I realize I still am. Thanks!
OH MY GOSH, YOUR FATHER ACTUALLY WORE A LAB COAT!!!!!!! Holy crap, that dates him as to how long he has been working in his field. There was a time when IT workers held much of the same respect as Doctors - Now IT workers are regarded slightly better than fast food workers who flip bugers - mainly because the bean counters for large corporations and VPs who have no understanding of their IT infrastructure think they can outsource everything to India for pennies on the dollar!
I worked in a data center for many years. I hated those large reel tapes. But it was fun working there. A few years later they bought in a virtual tape system. We then pulled and dumped like over 200,000 cartridge tapes.
@Membrane556 - yes, it was a 1403 Model 1 which was rare at that time (affectionately referred to as the one with "Queen Anne legs"). There were still plenty of 1403 Model 3 which had the power hood.
I see they also had the newer, lower, 3203 printer.
The tape drives were 3420. Not heard that sound, typical when they unloaded, for years!
I came to work for Smith Barney in NY in 1989. They were still using this type of drives. We used to look at a computer screen and write the the tape numbers, pull them from the library and then mount them. I forget what type of drive the were. The tapes looked like the ancient 8 track tape.
Young people today have no idea how much computers have developed in the past 30 years. Videos like this can give them an idea. 30 years is not really such a long time for a human being, but it seems an eternity in computing. I went on a tour of a local telecom company's data center around 1985. They had a total of about 30 gigabytes of disk storage for their 4-5 mainframe computers. The storage took up a space the area of 4 tennis courts! Today, 50 times that fits in the palm of my hand.
I used to love getting my hands on old machinery like that. The problem is in the 90s people began taking it away for free to scrap out the gold. You wouldn't believe the quality of that equipment, you almost couldn't break it with a hammer, most of the plastics used back then could also be hammered and all that would happen is the hammer would bounce leaving only the tiniest mark.
500mb is the max that huge buldings could pull wowww to thing u have a micro sd card in my phone that's 2 gega bites as big as a finger nail.... Amazing 2000 mega bites in a finger nail size memory card back then the whole damn building pulled a lowsey 500 mb
That is very inice video and should be kept as a document about history. I worked at IBM, maintaining these devices on 1990 in Brazil and this video reflects the reality at those days.
My dad used to work in a computer room similar to this in the early eighties... for AT&T communications... I remember him taking me & my sister there to show us what he did... I was amazed by the tape changing robot they had in there..... so cool... amazing how technology has changed since then...
They made him wear a lab coat in the computer room? That's hilarious! I loved those data center computer rooms as a kid. Great for cooling off on a hot day!
Tow Megabytes can be a lot of Memory if its been used in a right way. You have to know that Documents, Emails or even Websites need a lot of Space, but the usable Information itself is approx 1/20 of the content of a Website, for example. If you write "hello" in OO-Writer, it uses up to 8K. Thats 8192 Bytes for 5 Bytes Information and that is not a improvement, that is a -Joke-.
This video gives you an idea of how noisy it is (was) in a computer room, especially from the impact printers. The tape drives had their own special noise too. You could always tell if the system was running OK by the sounds the printers and tape units made. The moment they didn't sound right, or stopped, you knew to look at a console to see what was going wrong with the system.
Yeah I remember touring that facility in 1996- after it was closed to the public, but they gave me a tour anyway when they found out I worked in IT. They are pretty accomodating of guests.
My father used to run a room like this, I would come in and he'd let me mount tapes.
sz42781 1 hour ago
The 3278 with the silk screen covering is still my favourite terminal to this day. Although being connected to the 4341 with a special keyboard I think it had a different designation.
BrunswickHeadsHotel 2 months ago
Wow,great video,reminds me of the 80.s at Magraw Hill.There is one machine that was a nightneare to run thats not in this video,remember the DECOLATER and the burster,a long time ago,great video,gio...
gio048 6 months ago
Thanks for this video. It really brings back memories for me when I was a kid. My father was a Systems Analyst at U.B.C., and I remember all the sounds and smells of the mainframe clean room. As a kid, I was in complete awe of all things related to computing, and after seeing this video I realize I still am. Thanks!
andrewmcAAndrews 7 months ago
did these people ever develop hearing problems from being in those loud rooms all day
Bananadine 7 months ago
OH MY GOSH, YOUR FATHER ACTUALLY WORE A LAB COAT!!!!!!! Holy crap, that dates him as to how long he has been working in his field. There was a time when IT workers held much of the same respect as Doctors - Now IT workers are regarded slightly better than fast food workers who flip bugers - mainly because the bean counters for large corporations and VPs who have no understanding of their IT infrastructure think they can outsource everything to India for pennies on the dollar!
ezra4no1 8 months ago
how loud and noisy! lol
Today a laptop could do the same job!
nzoomed 9 months ago
I worked in a data center for many years. I hated those large reel tapes. But it was fun working there. A few years later they bought in a virtual tape system. We then pulled and dumped like over 200,000 cartridge tapes.
adelgado75 10 months ago
Thank you for posting. The ending is classic.
Filming in the computer room = trouble.
These days CCTV does it for you.
LinuxRaymaker 11 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@Membrane556 - yes, it was a 1403 Model 1 which was rare at that time (affectionately referred to as the one with "Queen Anne legs"). There were still plenty of 1403 Model 3 which had the power hood.
I see they also had the newer, lower, 3203 printer.
The tape drives were 3420. Not heard that sound, typical when they unloaded, for years!
Nice clip. Thanks.
cannopa 1 year ago
Comment removed
cannopa 1 year ago
1:18 An IBM 1403 line printer that was an antique even back in 1983.
Membrane556 1 year ago
I came to work for Smith Barney in NY in 1989. They were still using this type of drives. We used to look at a computer screen and write the the tape numbers, pull them from the library and then mount them. I forget what type of drive the were. The tapes looked like the ancient 8 track tape.
adelgado75 1 year ago
we have terabytes in a single hard drive nowadays
isrj01 1 year ago
Young people today have no idea how much computers have developed in the past 30 years. Videos like this can give them an idea. 30 years is not really such a long time for a human being, but it seems an eternity in computing. I went on a tour of a local telecom company's data center around 1985. They had a total of about 30 gigabytes of disk storage for their 4-5 mainframe computers. The storage took up a space the area of 4 tennis courts! Today, 50 times that fits in the palm of my hand.
sbalogh53 1 year ago
Was the Data Center running DOS-VSE? Coulda sneaked in and canceled POWER (LOL)
evilunixuser1 1 year ago
I used to love getting my hands on old machinery like that. The problem is in the 90s people began taking it away for free to scrap out the gold. You wouldn't believe the quality of that equipment, you almost couldn't break it with a hammer, most of the plastics used back then could also be hammered and all that would happen is the hammer would bounce leaving only the tiniest mark.
Dishfarm 1 year ago
real good stuff ,,,,,,
worked on the ,,,printers,,, cpu and,,,, big box tape IBM & Storagetek
Ricambio1 1 year ago
Thank you for preserving this.
deltaray3 1 year ago
500mb is the max that huge buldings could pull wowww to thing u have a micro sd card in my phone that's 2 gega bites as big as a finger nail.... Amazing 2000 mega bites in a finger nail size memory card back then the whole damn building pulled a lowsey 500 mb
XxKenManxX 1 year ago
Ol' time impressions. Very nice. Thanks for uploading!
hetgoede 1 year ago
That is very inice video and should be kept as a document about history. I worked at IBM, maintaining these devices on 1990 in Brazil and this video reflects the reality at those days.
spadotti 1 year ago
things were cooler those days
beltatex 1 year ago
My dad used to work in a computer room similar to this in the early eighties... for AT&T communications... I remember him taking me & my sister there to show us what he did... I was amazed by the tape changing robot they had in there..... so cool... amazing how technology has changed since then...
musiclvr7289 2 years ago
This is so damn interesting..Thanks..
TheRusskinruss 2 years ago 3
They made him wear a lab coat in the computer room? That's hilarious! I loved those data center computer rooms as a kid. Great for cooling off on a hot day!
sm1else 2 years ago 9
lol fan noise!
kinmanyuen 2 years ago 6
better than photographs :D thanks
woreno 2 years ago
2 MB? lol It's so primitive!
caucasiannigger 2 years ago
Tow Megabytes can be a lot of Memory if its been used in a right way. You have to know that Documents, Emails or even Websites need a lot of Space, but the usable Information itself is approx 1/20 of the content of a Website, for example. If you write "hello" in OO-Writer, it uses up to 8K. Thats 8192 Bytes for 5 Bytes Information and that is not a improvement, that is a -Joke-.
TheMCMXXL 2 years ago 3
A such sweet memories. Someone please take me back!
chem100 2 years ago
This video gives you an idea of how noisy it is (was) in a computer room, especially from the impact printers. The tape drives had their own special noise too. You could always tell if the system was running OK by the sounds the printers and tape units made. The moment they didn't sound right, or stopped, you knew to look at a console to see what was going wrong with the system.
GrnScrn 3 years ago
I remember when DIsney's Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida had all of their computer drives on display.
DrZarkloff 3 years ago
Yeah I remember touring that facility in 1996- after it was closed to the public, but they gave me a tour anyway when they found out I worked in IT. They are pretty accomodating of guests.
kb9okb 3 years ago