
A Guide to the IBM 3033 Processor Complex (1979) [pdf] - luu
https://usermanual.wiki/Document/GC20185943033ProcessorComplexApr79.3299975525/view
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mytailorisrich
" _The 3033 features a machine cycle time of 58 ns. It has a cache size of 64
KB. Main storage may be 4, 6, or 8 MB.

...

At announcement the monthly lease price for a minimally configured 3033
processor (without peripherals) was $70,400_" [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_303X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_303X)

~~~
jandrese
It sounds puny today, but compare against the famous Commodore 64 released 3
yeas later:

    
    
        IBM: 17.2 Mhz    C64: 1.023Mhz
        IBM: 4/6/8MB RAM C64: 64kB RAM
        IBM: 64kB Cache  C64: What cache? 
    

The IBM is a beast relative to what ordinary people could afford at the time.

~~~
jhallenworld
VAX-11/780 maybe a closer comparison, from the same era:

    
    
         5 MHz cycle time (1 MIPS)
         2 MB - 64 MB  RAM
         8 KB cache
         Price $120 K
    

I much rather use VMS or Ultrix than any IBM OS :-)

[http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/780/EK-11780-UG-001_780hwUG...](http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/780/EK-11780-UG-001_780hwUG.pdf)

[http://www.vaxhaven.com/images/0/00/EK-11780-PG-001.pdf](http://www.vaxhaven.com/images/0/00/EK-11780-PG-001.pdf)

~~~
rbanffy
While I do find VMS much more understandable than MVS (it's a completely
different branch of the Tree of Computing, as similar to modern PCs as the
extremophiles that live next to volcanic chimneys in the bottom of the ocean
are to us), I have to say the VAX competed with the much lower end machines in
the 370 family. Also, you don't measure a mainframe's capacity in MIPS - The
CPU is a small part of the of overall system and a lot of hardware goes to the
multiple IO subsystems that offload the main CPUs so that they can keep
running your applications while the rest of the system focus on pushing bits
in and out of the system. It was considered a "minicomputer", in contrast to a
proper computer such as the System/370.

~~~
jhallenworld
DECSYSTEM-20 is closer to a proper mainframe. It was at least 6x faster than
VAX-11/780 on a benchmark I tried in ~1987. Also TOPS-20 was the bomb!

[http://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/cgb%20files/evolution%20...](http://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/cgb%20files/evolution%20of%20decsystem%2010%20acm%207801%20c.pdf)

Sadly it was an anachronistic 36-bit machine with no future..

~~~
rbanffy
36 bits makes perfect sense if you are thinking in octal.

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arnon
Op, can you point out what you found interesting about the 3033?

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Koshkin
Not the OP but I have always been amazed by the quality and completeness of
IBM’s documentation on their systems and peripheral devices. You can read it
just for pleasure.

~~~
non-entity
Sadly I have some later mainframe peripherals for which the documentation
seems lost to time. Outside of maintenance manuals that came with the pieces.

~~~
epc
At some point in the past twenty years IBM downsized its technical writing
teams. When I started as an intern in 1990 there were ~250 people in the
“Information Development” group in Poughkeepsie responsible for MVS, RACF, RMF
and a variety of other mainframe products (plus hardware documentation).
Today, there’s now maybe 20–25 people left in Poughkeepsie covering twice the
workload as other products consolidated there (Endicott closed, Kingston
closed, etc).

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lowtech
As a kid i craved those types of documents. I read and reread many times
articles from old encyclopedias searching for computers and radio mentions.
Computers where too pricey until 2005~. This pdf would be a gold mine back
then.

~~~
reaperducer
We used to pull stuff like this out of the dumpsters at various computer
facilities in Poughkeepsie, New Paltz, and other places. Fascinating reading.

Everything I know about PR1MEOS I learned from trashing.

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m463
(this isn't really a .pdf link, it's a pdf viewer link)

