IBM Celebrates 40 Years of Mainframe Technology
Company Honors Esteemed System/360 Mainframe Developers, Launches New
Mainframe
April 2004 (Newstream) -- Today, IBM marks the 40th anniversary of the System/360, the
mainframe that sparked a revolution in computing and business. The System/360 was
considered by many to be the most sophisticated computer of its time and is responsible
for introducing many important technologies that are still in use today, such as
transaction processing, micro-circuitry, and databases.
In honor of this transforming moment in computing and business history, IBM is bringing
together some of the key people who built the System/360 - Erich Bloch, Fred Brooks and
Bob Evans - along with customers whose businesses were transformed by it at a ceremony at
the Museum of Computer History in Mountain View, California. The event is part of the
museum's Computer History Lecture Series and is titled "The 40th Anniversary of the
Computer that Changed Everything: The IBM System/360."
The System/360 was believed at the time to be the largest privately financed commercial
project ever undertaken. More than 100,000 businessmen in 165 American cities attended
meetings at which System/360 was introduced. More than 300 patents were issued as part of
its development.
IBM also today introduced its newest mainframe, the eServer zSeries 890 server,
allowing mid-size enterprise customers to leverage some of the most sophisticated
mainframe technology IBM has to offer. The z890 delivers some of the highest levels of
flexibility, virtualization, automation, security and scalability available in
enterprise-class computing.
Event Details:
The event will be held today, April 7, 2004, at the Museum, at 1401 North Shoreline
Blvd. in Mountain View, 40 years after the introduction of the IBM System/360 on April 7,
1964.
Photos available with the release. Additional photos available by clicking here. |
