[TUHS] Re: Compatibility question

[Tom Lyon <pugs78@gmail.com>]

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Yes, Amdahl UTS supported the 1403 from earliest days.
There even seem to be some mods to 'tbl' to support it.

On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 9:40 AM Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>
wrote:

> On 12/18/23, Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, 18 Dec 2023, Paul Winalski wrote:
> >
> >> The 132-character screen width was for displaying files originally
> >> formatted to be printed on a line printer.  Compiler listings and linker
> >> maps, for example.
> >
> > Such as the mighty 1403 :-)
> >
> > Hint: never leave your cup of coffee on top of it, as the lid will open
> > automatically when it runs out of paper...
>
> The 1403 was the best line printer ever made.  It was originally the
> printer for the IBM 1400 second-generation (discrete transistor-based)
> computer.  It continued to be the line printer for S/360.  The deluxe
> model, the IBM 1403 N1, had a power cover that could be operated under
> computer control.  The OS/360 operating system would raise the
> printer's cover if an error condition occurred, such as out of paper
> or a paper jam.  This was a very useful feature in large data centers
> where there were several line printers, to indicate which printer had
> a problem.
>
> The cover of a 1403 N1 also provided a convenient and attractive flat
> surface on which to place things.  But a dangerous one.  Many a card
> deck magtape reel, coffee cup, or pizza box has been unceremoniously
> dumped on the floor.
>
> When our shop upgraded from a S/360 model 25 to a S/370 model 125, our
> 1403 was replaced by a 3203 line printer.  It was not as good as the
> 1401 had been.
>
> There was a business in Massachusetts in the 1980s that bought and
> sold old IBM computer gear.  A company asked them for a quote on their
> IBM 1400 system (1401 processor, 1402 card read/punch, 1403 printer).
> They were offered $18,000 for the whole system, or $15,000 for the
> 1403 printer alone.  That's how valued those printers were.
>
> To bring this closer on-topic, was there Unix support for the IBM 1403?
>
> -Paul W.
>

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