System/34 - Physical Appearance And Requirements - Article Index

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Alignment
The expensive check forms must be perfectly aligned or all of the numbers won't fit in the little boxes, which is tragic. Therefore, an a...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - The Need For Spooling
Computer printers are slow. Very slow. On the S/34, computer programs could write data to the printer much faster than the printer can pr...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - How Spooling Works
To allow the system to manage the problem, system components called "writers" and "spool files" were developed. A writer is a small syste...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Spooling
SPOOL is an acronym for Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On Line. ... See also:System/34, System/34 - Physical Appearance And Requi...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Caching
How does a 64K computer program run on a S/34 when only 48K of RAM is available? By using a process called caching. The system uses a ca...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Files And Libraries
SSP provides for two different data objects called files and libraries. Files contain records, most always with a fixed record length. L...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Disk Space Metrics
Disk space on the System/34 was organized by "blocks." One block = 2560 bytes. A high-end system would ship with about 90,000 blocks of d...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Program Sizes
Since the S/34 ran "8-bit" programs, the largest program that could be compiled and run was 64K. Most were not nearly that large. Since ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - When You Can't Spool
Sometimes the operator requires a dedicated, live printer - for example, when printing receipts for customers in real time, don't use spo...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Forms Numbers
When the operator printed paychecks, it was vitally important that paycheck information printed on checks forms and not on plain paper; l...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Popular System/34 Applications
MAPICS, the Manufacturing and Planning Integrated Control System, was a popular S/34 application. The System/34 Text Editor was a precurs...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - System/34 Magazines
Not magazine drives, actual magazines that a person would read. Programmers read about the System/34 in magazines like DataNetwork and Ne...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Did I Have To Program?
Not really. You could create a short sequence of file and input specifications and store them as a source member. A component called Dat...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Other Object Types
Of course, Cobol, Fortran, and RPG generated object code (type O). Basic was interpreted only; a compilation utility called BASICS create...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - More Crazy Acronyms - Mrts Srts Nrts Neps And Nops
MRT = Multiple Requestor Terminal program. SSP could actually run one program on up to 7 terminals at once. The operator would start the...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Language Compilers
The S/34 had four: RPG II, COBOL, BASIC, and FORTRAN. RPG was cheaper, created compact code sizes, and became the far-and-away best-sell...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - System Security
There are three types of System/34 security: (1) the badge reader that almost nobody ever bought, so it isn't discussed here; (2) passwo...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Ssp The System/34 Operating System
SSP ("System Support Program") was the only operating system of the S/34. It contained support for multiprogramming, multiple processors,...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Sort - The System Sort Utility
SORT is an interesting program. It has one to eight input files, which may be of any valid record length. It has one output file, of any ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Seu - Source Entry Utility
This looks like a DOS-era text editor. SEU allows data entry on a line-by-line basis. Special forms are used to assist the operator in k...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Terminals Displays Screens Workstations And Monitors
Are words used interchangeably to describe the same thing. An operator sat in front of a device that vaguely resembles today's PC, excep...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Sda - Screen Design Aid
This application allows the operator to build screen formats or menus online. Screen formats are very much like what Visual Basic and Acc...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Ebcdic
The Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code is the IBM mainframe counterpart of ASCII, the American Standard Code For Interchange ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Crazy Acronyms.
IPL - Initial Program Load Starting or restarting the system. This acronym was pronounced eye-pee-ell and was used as a verb ("IPL the sy...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - F1 I1 S1-s3 And M1.01 - M2.10
These are proper names given to system equipment. F1 is the Fixed Disk (the hard drive.) I1 is the Diskette Drive. S1, S2, and S3 are the...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Ibm Colors
Before 1984, the 5251 monitor predominated - it was US$2,000 and what IBM called "dual color" (green and bright green). However, by 1984...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Programming Ibm Colors
Interestingly, programming colors did not require a new screen programming language, because the implementation was completely at the ha...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Memory And Disk
The smallest S/34 had 48K of RAM and an 8.6 MB hard drive. (That's 48 kilobytes... less than some modern calculators. And the mammoth 12...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Printers
A great computer system wouldn't be complete without great printers. Typical System/34 offerings would include: IBM 5211 - A band printe...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Processors
S/34s had two processors, the CSP or Control Storage Processor, and the MSP or Main Storage Processor. The MSP was the workhorse; it per...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Configuring Using Cnfigssp
The CNFIGSSP procedure was used to configure the system, including the devices. Each device is assigned a two-character ID. The first let...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - The Five Lights
On a 5251 type terminal, there were five lights to watch for: (1) System Available light. If lit, this terminal is connected to the S/34...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - Setting The Address
Up to 32 devices could be configured on a System/34, using four lines numbered from 0 to 3. A line was defined as a series of twinaxial c...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - System/34: Encyclopedia Ii - System/34 - The Four Lights
The four red lights on the System/34 were as follows: (1) Power check. (2) Processor check. (3) Program check. (4) Console check. If any ...   » Read the article