Erich Bloch, Who Helped Develop IBM Mainframe, Dies At 91 (google.com)

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Erich Bloch, Who Helped Develop IBM Mainframe, Dies At 91 (google.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday December 1, 2016 @08:30PM from the rest-in-peace dept.

shadowknot writes: The New York Times is reporting (Warning: may be paywalled; alternate source) that Erich Bloch who helped to develop the IBM Mainframe has died at the age of 91 as a result of complications from Alzheimer's disease. From the article: "In the 1950s, he developed the first ferrite-core memory storage units to be used in computers commercially and worked on the IBM 7030, known as Stretch, the first transistorized supercomputer. 'Asked what job each of us had, my answer was very simple and very direct,' Mr. Bloch said in 2002. 'Getting that sucker working.' Mr. Bloch's role was to oversee the development of Solid Logic Technology -- half-inch ceramic modules for the microelectronic circuitry that provided the System/360 with superior power, speed and memory, all of which would become fundamental to computing."

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Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-01 20:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

Farewell Erich Bloch, thanks for all your wonderful work but especially thanks for making my first job possible! (operations on IBM 3082 mainframes)
1. Re: Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-01 23:58 · Score: 0
  
  His last words were to "get off his lawn!"
2. Re: Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by hey! · 2016-12-02 02:27 · Score: 2
  
  It's remarkable how young so many of these pioneers were, which is why a few of them are still alive today.
  I started mucking around with computers in high school in the 70s and when I got my first job in the 80s some of these guys were still working. I once sat next to a guy at a banquet who was probably only ten years older then than I am now. He regaled me with tales of his lab getting the IBM 701 in the mid 50s, which was exciting because it was, in his words, "a stored program jobbie." We could talk each other's language because the obsolete hardware I learned on wasn't much more advanced than the stuff he worked on as a young man. I look at the front panel of the 701 or the Stretch, and it makes perfect sense to me.
  When these guys started dying off in the 90s, I remember a kind of stunned disbelief. Computer guys just didn't die. That was something that happened to old people.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
3. Re:Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by bws111 · 2016-12-02 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe a 3081 (dyadic), 3083 (uniprocessor), or 3084 (quad), but not a 3082. 3082 was the Maintenance Support Facility for the above machines. And 3087 was the coolant distribution unit, and 3089 was the motor-generator to create the 400Hz power.
4. Re: Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by Eravnrekaree · 2016-12-02 04:51 · Score: 1
  
  Its important for companies to hire and give opportunities to people who do not have "experience". Corporations today are basically destroying our young people because they only want to hire people with 20 years of experience in DB2. In addition to killing the H1B program, what we should do is give companies some tax breaks for hiring people with no "experience". You have to start somewhere and how is anyone going to be able to get anywhere if all jobs require 5 years of experience? College s far too expensive as well, why have people use up 4 years of their life studying medieval french art, when they can actually be doing real things? If people want to learn about art and so on they can do that in their free time but asking people to spend thousands of dollars and years of their life on this is an outrage. To really turn this country around we need to 1) Kill all immigration so the jobs go to our own people 2) do apprenticeships so people can learn on the job while making a wage 3) allow people to start off in apprenticeships with no experience. This would save tons of money and would make life better for everyone by getting young people into productive jobs immediately where they can start learning their life career and making a wage at the same time, instead of racking up college debt and working at McDonalds for years while going to college.
5. Re: Farewell and Thanks for My First Job! by lhowaf · 2016-12-02 09:29 · Score: 1
  
  Huh. Funny how you never hear of 'cases of 'ageism' affecting younger workers.
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1. Re:GAY N1GGER GNAA FUCKING ASS MAINFRAME FUCK by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2016-12-01 21:35 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Nice to see Westborough Baptiste church are getting out and meeting pleople
  
  --
  Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
2. Re: GAY N1GGER GNAA FUCKING ASS MAINFRAME FUCK by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-01 23:18 · Score: -1
  
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3. Re: GAY N1GGER GNAA FUCKING ASS MAINFRAME FUCK by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 11:10 · Score: 0
  
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  One question - is Obama a gay n1gger too?
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god bless by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-01 21:29 · Score: 2

and you will be missed
My, how times have changed by shanen · 2016-12-01 22:01 · Score: 2, Interesting

In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
In today's IBM, the CEO just sent Lord Trump a feel-good letter about how to make profits together. At least one employee resigned over it.
The URLs are easily searchable, but I submitted it as a story, so maybe it will come up later? I gotta run now.

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
1. Re:My, how times have changed by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 00:23 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
  In today's IBM, the CEO just sent Lord Trump a feel-good letter about how to make profits together. At least one employee resigned over it.
  The URLs are easily searchable, but I submitted it as a story, so maybe it will come up later? I gotta run now.
  - IBM's CEO (actually any CEO but in this case IBM's) sending a formal public letter to the president-elect is a good Slashdot story for discussion.
  - One employee quitting in a company of 400k+ employees is a tabloid news story being picked up mainstream media. That is not worthy of discussion on Slashdot.
  - Don't kid yourself into thinking politics didn't come up back then.
  
  Hope your submission does go through.
2. Re:My, how times have changed by Higaran · 2016-12-02 00:33 · Score: 2
  
  That's right because IBM never sold anything to NAZI Germany before WWII.
3. Re: My, how times have changed by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 01:41 · Score: 0
  
  The NAZIs were modern and progressive. They has a plan figured out and they were determined to implement it. All they needed to do was achive state power and they would fix everything. Part of their modernization approach was utilizing modern punched card data processing technology.
  The NAZIs seem a lot like modern ideology-driven 'progressives'.
4. Re:My, how times have changed by Diss+Champ · 2016-12-02 01:42 · Score: 1
  
  That's right because IBM never sold anything to NAZI Germany before WWII.
  Much as if I were in their shoes, I hope I would not have sold things to NAZI Germany, I think you have it backwards.
  Selling to anyone who will pay == Not getting involved with politics
  Refusing to sell to someone because of their government is a subset of { Getting involved with politics }
  There is good and bad to taking politics into account in your decision making.
5. Re: My, how times have changed by sysrammer · 2016-12-02 04:00 · Score: 1
  
  When did Trump become a progressive?
  
  --
  His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
6. Re:My, how times have changed by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 06:18 · Score: 0
  
  before and during WWII.
  read ibm and the holocaust. great book. shocking.....
7. Re: My, how times have changed by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 07:23 · Score: 0
  
  WTF? Trump doesn't have any plan!
8. Re:My, how times have changed by fustakrakich · 2016-12-02 14:47 · Score: 1
  
  In those days, among the company's other great attributes, the company didn't get involved in politics.
  You're kidding, right?
  I gotta run now.
  :-) Good idea!
  Now, you know the routine. Do it again!
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
9. Re:My, how times have changed by shanen · 2016-12-02 15:45 · Score: 1
  
  Not sure how this branch got dragged into the pre-WW-II topic again, but some people are always looking to attack IBM (and various other companies) on the basis of their business dealings with Germany in the 1930s. I suppose you can argue that those were politically tainted business decisions at the time, but mostly I think people are misusing their hindsight. At the time no one knew how bad Hitler was because he had only begun to be bad. Even today and notwithstanding our extra bits of hindsight, we still don't make business decisions based on the worst possible outcomes.
  I was focusing specifically on corporate policies against political activities that involve the IBM name. Much of my career involved IBM, so I read those statements a number of times. I don't remember every detail now, and I don't even know if those corporate policies are still in effect, but they were pretty strict. For example, IBM was not going to endorse any candidate or donate to any political campaign. There were even limits on when a politician could make a speech or presentation at an IBM facility. Basically it wasn't allowed during some period prior to an election. This obituary is for one of the most important IBMers of those old days...
  My main point was that I think the current CEO is changing that approach because ANY overture to Trump is intrinsically political. The Donald makes EVERYTHING about politics. He has no boundaries, so Ginny Rometty can't really believe that her letter was a nonpolitical action. At least one IBM employee regarded it as so political that she chose to resign from the company because of it. In my rejected submission on the topic, I even suggested that might be one reason Rometty published the letter in the first place.
  The Carrier thing is another example of the politicization of business dealings. I suppose that comes back to the first paragraph of this reply, but apparently the topic is also forbidden on Slashdot. At least that's how I'm interpreting the response to my submission on the Carrier topic (which included its relationship to the IBM thing). It's not just the moderation system that's broken, eh? (So much for that complicated submission about cyber-warfare, but if allied China and India start using African mercenaries, you read it here first. Or much more likely you won't read about it on Slashdot until it's old news.)
  
  --
  Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
10. Re:My, how times have changed by fustakrakich · 2016-12-03 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  Throw this little bit of info at him. He's just on a Trump rage thing. The link shows that IBM was as heavy into politics as anybody. They're not doing anything especially different. It wasn't necessary to Godwin this thread at all.
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
What? 1950s? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-01 23:56 · Score: -1

I've been assured we only have computers because NASA was told to go the Moon by a dead president? Now you're telling me that computers were useful for "business" before there even was a person that went above the atmosphere?
Lies! Only through socialist space programs do we progress!
1. Re:What? 1950s? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 00:24 · Score: 0
  
  Nobody has made that claim outside of whatever delusional hallucinations you had after reading too many alt-right circle jerk forums.
  It is common knowledge that one of the first general purpose computers built was ENIAC, which was used during WWII to calculate artillery firing tables. The first design for a general purpose computer dates back even further to the 1800s and Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.
2. Re: What? 1950s? by cyber-vandal · 2016-12-02 01:26 · Score: 1
  
  The first human in space was indeed a socialist.
3. Re:What? 1950s? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 01:50 · Score: 0
  
  https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8310945&cid=50905437
  People make the claim all the time. It's boring. It's fact-free fantasy.
4. Re:What? 1950s? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 08:45 · Score: 0
  
  I've been assured we only have computers because NASA was told to go the Moon by a dead president? Now you're telling me that computers were useful for "business" before there even was a person that went above the atmosphere?
  
  https://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8310945&cid=50905437
  People make the claim all the time. It's boring. It's fact-free fantasy.
  Neither of your initial claims exist in the link you provided, and you've been called on this many times.
He didn't get Alzheimer by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · 2016-12-02 00:30 · Score: 2

He suffered a refresh circuitry failure.

--
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
1. Re:He didn't get Alzheimer by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 01:02 · Score: 1
  
  Ferrite memory doesn't need refresh - it even holds its data over a power off.
  Trouble is reads are destructive - you have to re-write after reading.
2. Re: He didn't get Alzheimer by Anonymous Coward · 2016-12-02 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  But ferrite core memory does not survive the panel being not-quite-gently-enough shut during operation, as I discovered when giving a computer room tour in the early 80's.
Public masturbation of 1673220 by shanen · 2016-12-02 15:20 · Score: 0

ZZ

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Please note this guy's weird fantasies by fustakrakich · 2016-12-02 15:29 · Score: 1

Never fails. Too bad you fail to address the little issue of your misinformation there.

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Public masturbation of 1673220 by shanen · 2016-12-02 18:24 · Score: 0

Z^3

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Positively creepy by fustakrakich · 2016-12-03 02:24 · Score: 1

Is this what Slashdot is deteriorating into? Not that this offends me or anything, in fact I find this sort of trolling somewhat amusing, but there are other sites for this kind of stuff.

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Public masturbation of 1673220 by shanen · 2016-12-05 15:58 · Score: 1

Z^4

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Is this how things look on 4chan? by fustakrakich · 2016-12-05 17:51 · Score: 1

I'm just wondering, never been there yet. I guess the mountain comes to Mohamed
Eh, anyway, you're original premise is false.

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Public masturbation of 1673220 by shanen · 2016-12-06 18:08 · Score: 1

Z^5

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Your perversion is noted. by fustakrakich · 2016-12-06 18:23 · Score: 1

I've definitely bumped into some real weirdness here.

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Public masturbation of 1673220 by shanen · 2016-12-08 20:28 · Score: 1

Z^6

--
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Must I repeat myself again? by fustakrakich · 2016-12-09 02:40 · Score: 1

What part of noted don't you understand? You express a personality of someone I wouldn't allow near children. You are a delinquent.

--
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”