IBM's 3033
"The Big One": IBM's 3033
Back when Jimmy Carter was the newly inaugurated President of the United States, the industry publication Datamation termed it "the big bombshell" of IBM's spring product announcements. THINK magazine later simply dubbed it -- "The Big One."
The two publications were referring to the IBM 3033, the company's new top-of-the-line processor. When it was rolled out on March 25, 1977, the 3033 eclipsed the internal operating speed of the company's previous flagship -- the System/370 Model 168-3 -- by 1.6 to 1.8 times. Not only that, the 3033 featured as standard a high speed buffer storage double the size on the 168-3.
Whereas the Model 168 had required 40 months to evolve from development to initial shipment, the 3033 was shipped to its first customer after only 28 months in development.
In today's terms, the 3033 would be considered the equivalent of a very, very large PC. But 25 years ago, when the 3033 first took center stage, it offered large system users significant advancements and benefits in price/performance. It was almost twice as fast as its predecessor and it required less than half the space of a similarly configured 168-3. Complex scientific applications and commercial operations, such as online financial networks, could be handled more efficiently thanks to the 3033's higher capacity and increased computing power.
"The Big One": IBM's 3033
Back when Jimmy Carter was the newly inaugurated President of the United States, the industry publication Datamation termed it "the big bombshell" of IBM's spring product announcements. THINK magazine later simply dubbed it -- "The Big One."
The two publications were referring to the IBM 3033, the company's new top-of-the-line processor. When it was rolled out on March 25, 1977, the 3033 eclipsed the internal operating speed of the company's previous flagship -- the System/370 Model 168-3 -- by 1.6 to 1.8 times. Not only that, the 3033 featured as standard a high speed buffer storage double the size on the 168-3.
Whereas the Model 168 had required 40 months to evolve from development to initial shipment, the 3033 was shipped to its first customer after only 28 months in development.
In today's terms, the 3033 would be considered the equivalent of a very, very large PC. But 25 years ago, when the 3033 first took center stage, it offered large system users significant advancements and benefits in price/performance. It was almost twice as fast as its predecessor and it required less than half the space of a similarly configured 168-3. Complex scientific applications and commercial operations, such as online financial networks, could be handled more efficiently thanks to the 3033's higher capacity and increased computing power.
