Bs2 = ibm mainframe

Dave E

I was just watching a show where Michio Kaku was talking about computers. He said that the IBM mainframes of the 1960's were able to exicute about 4000 instructions per second. Isn't that the approximate speed of a BS2?

Thought that was interesting.

Dave E

Mike Green

This was true of the smaller business computers like the IBM1401 and the IBM1620, but is a bit unfair since these computers used variable length operands. The speed of the IBM1401 was about 3000 instructions per second for an 8 digit operand and these had a lot more data storage than a Stamp. The IBM1620 which was used for scientific computing and, as the IBM1710 for process control, could execute an instruction in about 60us.

Carl Hayes

Also, as early as 1965 the 360/30 through 360/50 were in common use, much faster and more able than a 1401. A 360/50, if memory serves, ran about 250,000 instructions per second. Even that comparison is misleading. The instruction set was vastly more powerful than any microcomputer boasts. As an example, any 360 could compare 256-byte strings in a single unrepeated instruction. Multiple complete sets of instructions (character-oriented, word-oriented, extended precision, floating point, etc.) were included.

Most shops that had old, slow 1401s at all after 1965 used them only as offline print/punch processors for output from the 360. Even this use of 1401s went by the wayside, in most cases, when the Houston Automatic Spooling Processor (HASP) was developed by Simpson, Crabtree, and Hitt. I knew Dick Hitt; he was quite brilliant. This software add-on for OS/360 neatly automated input and output operations. It was, also, one of the most trouble-free software packages I ever installed, maintained, and customized. OS/360 itself was a lot of work, though fun.

So the idea that a BS is equivalent to a 1960s mainframe is at best misleading. Not nearly. No comparison.

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