Important eventsBack

The IBM System/360 (S/360) was a mainframe computer system family announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover the complete range of applications, from small to large, both commercial and scientific. The design made a clear distinction between architecture and implementation, allowing IBM to release a suite of compatible designs at different prices. All but the most expensive systems used microcode to implement the instruction set, which featured 8-bit byte addressing and binary, decimal and floating-point calculations.

The slowest System/360 models announced in 1964 ranged in speed from 0.0018 to 0.034 MIPS; the fastest models were approximately 50 times as fast with 8 kB and up to 8 MB of internal main memory, though the latter was unusual, and up to 8 megabytes of slower Large Core Storage (LCS). A large system might have as little as 256 kB of main storage, but 512 kB, 768 kB or 1024 kB was more common.

System/360 was extremely successful in the market, allowing customers to purchase a smaller system with the knowledge they would always be able to migrate upward if their needs grew, without reprogramming of application software or replacing peripheral devices. The design is considered by many to be one of the most successful computers in history, influencing computer design for years to come.

The chief architect of System/360 was Gene Amdahl, and the project was managed by Fred Brooks, responsible to Chairman Thomas J. Watson Jr. The commercial release was piloted by another of Watson's lieutenants John R. Opel who managed the launch of IBM’s System 360 mainframe family in 1964.

Application level compatibility (with some restrictions) for System/360 software is maintained until present day with the IBM zSeries computers.