20 Dec
2023
20 Dec
'23
12:07 a.m.
Yes, Amdahl UTS supported the 1403 from earliest days.
There even seem to be some mods to 'tbl' to support it.
On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 9:40 AM Paul Winalski <paul.winalski(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On 12/18/23, Dave Horsfall <dave(a)horsfall.org>
wrote:
On Mon, 18 Dec 2023, Paul Winalski wrote:
The 1403 was the best line printer ever made. It was originally the
printer for the IBM 1400 second-generation (discrete transistor-based)
computer. It continued to be the line printer for S/360. The deluxe
model, the IBM 1403 N1, had a power cover that could be operated under
computer control. The OS/360 operating system would raise the
printer's cover if an error condition occurred, such as out of paper
or a paper jam. This was a very useful feature in large data centers
where there were several line printers, to indicate which printer had
a problem.
The cover of a 1403 N1 also provided a convenient and attractive flat
surface on which to place things. But a dangerous one. Many a card
deck magtape reel, coffee cup, or pizza box has been unceremoniously
dumped on the floor.
When our shop upgraded from a S/360 model 25 to a S/370 model 125, our
1403 was replaced by a 3203 line printer. It was not as good as the
1401 had been.
There was a business in Massachusetts in the 1980s that bought and
sold old IBM computer gear. A company asked them for a quote on their
IBM 1400 system (1401 processor, 1402 card read/punch, 1403 printer).
They were offered $18,000 for the whole system, or $15,000 for the
1403 printer alone. That's how valued those printers were.
To bring this closer on-topic, was there Unix support for the IBM 1403?
-Paul W.
The 132-character screen width was for displaying
files originally
formatted to be printed on a line printer. Compiler listings and linker
maps, for example.
Such as the mighty 1403 :-)
Hint: never leave your cup of coffee on top of it, as the lid will open
automatically when it runs out of paper... 