Cool 1983 IBM System/36 system needs a home!

[Philip Belben]

> The IBM System/36 was a minicomputer series marketed by IBM from 1983 to 
> 2000, see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System/36

That takes me back.  In my first job, at IBM, I managed a database 
running on a System/34 - the S/36's older sister, if you like.

My favourite bit was the diskette drive.  You loaded eight-inch floppies 
into boxes of ten, and stuck up to two boxes (and three loose floppies) 
in the drive.  The whole lot moved along until the floppy it wanted was 
in front of the slot; it then sucked the floppy in and read or wrote it 
at great speed.

When our S/34 had a fault on one hard drive I had to back up the 
remaining drives onto floppies.  I discovered about half way through 
this process that the help line I'd been phoning was support for the 
database software, not for the machine.  I wish they'd told me sooner!

The S/34, the big S/36 (5360) and a word processing system of which I 
can't remember the number all had this drive, but I never saw it 
anywhere else.

When I was at IBM (1985-6) the 5362 compact S/36 (the size of a desk 
pedestal) and the 5364 desktop S/36 (same box as the PC/AT) had just 
been released.  The 5362 took 8" floppies one at a time, and the 5364 
took 5.25" floppies one at a time.  How a developer with a 5364 
distributed programs to users with the large machines I never discovered...

Because I was familiar with the S/34, and was a student on low wages, I 
got the job of writing some DOS batch files to get a PC to talk to the 
S/36 at a customer site.  The customer was Imperial Tobacco - an office 
where you couldn't see across the room for smoke - and I was offered 
more cigarettes on the day I installed the program than in my entire 
previous life.  (I didn't accept, and even so I was barely breathing 
when I escaped :-) )

> A local businessman contacted me about getting rid of his installation. 
> I live just south of Jacksonville, FL, the machine is in Switzerland, FL 

I'd love a System/36, even though I've nowhere to put it.  But 
Switzerland, FL is much too far away, so there's no hope...

(Sobering thought.  At IBM I worked in the large accounts side of 
marketing - customers who'd pay many millions for a 3084 or 3090 less 
powerful than a modern PC)

Philip.