Lovely L.

De Castro

Introduction to Computers

August 24, 2019

(period number)
Lovely L. De Castro
(Period Number)
History of Mainframes
Featured Article
M ainframes have
one of the
longest histories of any kind of
computing technology that is
still used today. In fact,
mainframe history is far too
long to pack into a single blog
post. But I’m going to try
anyway. Keep reading for a
(very) brief history of
mainframe computing.
Major developments in
mainframe history include:
By most measures, the first
mainframe computer was the
Harvard Mark I. Developed
starting in the 1930s, the
machine was not ready for use
until 1943. It weighed five tons,
filled an entire room and cost
about $200,000 to build –
which is something like
twenty-eight million in 2017
money.
World War II sparked the
creation of the next famous
mainframe computer, the
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer).
Although the ENIAC was not
actually completed until a year
after the war ended, it signaled
the start of heavy government
investment in mainframe
History of Mainframes
January 2019
development. The ENIAC But historically, the
remained in service for a
decade.
mainframe commercial
ecosystem was more diverse.
More than half-dozen
companies – including Univac,
General Electric, and RCA –
also sold mainframes during
the first few decades of
mainframe computing.
While early mainframes
were based on vacuum tubes
for storing data, a major
innovation came to the
mainframe world with the
development of what was
called core memory. In place of Also, worth noting is that,
vacuum tubes, core memory while mainframes for the first
stores information decades of their history ran on
magnetically. Your magnetic special mainframe operating
5400-RPM hard disk it was not, systems, by the late 1990s this
but core memory provided a changed. Starting in 1998, IBM
faster and more reliable way to began developing a Linux-
store and retrieve data than based operating system that
vacuum tubes. Core memory could run on mainframes in
was first used in 1953 and soon place of mainframe-native
replaced vacuum tubes entirely. systems.
COBOL, the programming Today, mainframes are
language most closely much smaller and more agile
associated with mainframes, than they were decades ago.
debuted all the way back in
IBM mainframes are now
1959 and remains in
about the size of a refrigerator.
widespread use today. That
Modern mainframes don’t
makes COBOL one of the
weigh more than a (very
oldest continuously used
heavily packed) car.
programming languages. It
beats even C, which originated
in the early 1970s.
It’s worth noting that some of
the companies involved in early
mainframe development. IBM
is the name most closely
associated with mainframes.
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August 24, 2019