IBM 1401 Restoration Team Bios

Besides a long general career in computers 'n software, I started out as an IBM C.E. fixing unit record gear in San Francisco. I actually still have my CE tool case and an IBM smock... ;-) I won't claim any of that knowledge is in my active memory now, but if you have IBM maintenance manuals, it ought to come back. At least, I am not frightened by electromechanical gear and reed-relay circuits.

The first real computer I used in High School was the IBM 1620 Model I. My math teacher the year before had given me a copy of the FORTRAN IV Primer and over summer vacation I read it cover to cover and wrote a Tick-tack-toe game program and asked if he could get me on a computer to try it. I spent every evening after school that year that I could using their 1620. One of my programs written in SPS assembly code used the variable word length of the machine to calculate factorials: I stopped my final run of it after it had printed every digit of every factorial from 1! to 210! at which point I got tired of watching long strings of zeros printing. The first F/A-18A/B head down display that I worked was almost 30 years ago (1978) and went obsolete roughly 20 years ago. It used two bit-slice TTL CPUs and drew its stroke graphics using digital differential analyzers. When I heard that the museum wanted people to help restore their 1620, I immediately jumped on it as I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to finally learn how "my first computer" actually worked and hopefully see one running again; both goals were accomplished. After that completed I got on the PDP-1 restoration and then the IBM 1401 restoration projects too. All three projects have been very interesting. Working on hardware where you can actually see the components is much easier too. :-) Tim is now in Montana -

Xxx 650-279-7135

Hired as Unit Record CE in Santa Monica in 1958 w/DEW line radar repair background. First account was 24/7 MGM w/IBM 650 and progressed to Tech Spec in Aerospace Office 510 and eventually Area Staff in Western Region till 1971. Hardware: 650 self taught, 543&544(predecessors of 1402 read and punch feeds), Installed first 609 shipped at Western Air Lines, 1401, 1402, 1403, 1405, 1406, 1407, 729, 7330, 1311, 1011, 1012, 1903, 1440, 1460, and first 1403-3. Installed first 2030 shipped, 2040, 2930, 2065, all 360 I/O, 2260/2848 Product Test & wrote FE Handbook. Software: 1401 Software support trained on Autocoder Assembler and Sort 7. Continued servicing everything IBM in US as competitor till burned out and retired in 1988 [to Redding, California].

My experience with the IBM 1401 was in college when I got a job as a second-level analyst helping the State of Illinois convert their software base from Autocoder--mostly object decks without source--to Cobol. When programmers doing the conversions got stuck because of some "clever" code segment, they would bring it to me. After college, I worked for IBM in Poughkeepsie on the 370/158, 303x, and the beginning of the 3090. I wrote firmware for the Service and Maintenance Subsystems, which initialized the mainframe, controlled its operation, collected error logs, diagnosed problems, and interfaced with the Remote Support Center. Since it hooked into all of the mainframe system interfaces, we had major role in supporting the engineers in brining up these systems and supporting field engineers during the early customer installations. 408-464-3286 also bob.feretich (at) prodigy (dotty) net

Stan Paddock

I was first introduced to the IBM 1401 in 1968 while working part-time at the Pomona, CA IBM refurbishment facility. This was a part time job while I was attending Cal Poly in Pomona. I worked on Keypunches, verifiers, 1401 systems and 1440 systems. I am amazed how much I can remember after 37 years. While I spent my career at Honeywell, GTE Government Systems and Lockheed writing software, the first machine I programmed was an IBM 1401 one instruction at a time. "My other car is a 1924 Dodge Brothers Screen Side Delivery Truck.” http://www.PaddockDrayage.com STPaddock at sbcglobal dot net - (H) (408) 293-9342

Joined IBM in 1956 as a CE Customer Engineer in L. A. Downtown office. Trainer on and serviced most unit record equipment, including 604,607 & 650. If machine had a gray covers, we serviced it. In 1960 became western region specialist on IBM's early transistorized computer 608. 1961 trained on 7070 computer for Automobile Club of Southern Calif. 1965 received a BS degree from Calif. State College at LA. 1965 trained on 360 mod 50 and was appointed account specialist for United Calif. Bank. In 1968 took assignment as service planning rep. SPR for mod 50 in Poughkeepsie, NY. 1971 transferred to San Jose as an SPR on the 3305 fixed head file. 1977 transferred to software, worked on several products including CICS and change team for linkage editor. Retired in 1992. After retirement remodeled 4 houses from the ground up. Sort of a jack of all construction trades. home - 408 356-8373

My first machine was the Bendix G-15, which was used in a summer class. After that, I bummed 1620 time at Cal State LA. My first job after college was operating 084, 088, 514, 519, ... for Reynolds and Reynolds Company in North Hollywood, CA. Soon I was operating a 16k 1401 with one 7330 -- a really slow tape drive. It also had a piano-size gadget by NCR that scanned OCR characters from paper tapes about 3 inches wide. I wrote a few dinky programs for the center manager in SPS, so he sent me to company headquarters in Dayton, OH, where I started programming in Autocoder. We had all three of the reader, printer and punch running full speed using overlap and double buffering, which we were later told was impossible to do. When we started using COBOL I modified the compiler to emit the COBOL code into the output Autocoder as comments, to facilitate debugging. I worked in Dayton ten hours per day, every day for eleven months. My wife got burned out on that, so we moved back to California in 1967 and I began work at JPL, where I've been ever since. I used the 7094 and then Univac 1108 until they put a PC on my desk in 1984. I never used a 1401 after 1967, but I still remember how to program it in machine language or Autocoder. Ed Thelen says "and if you don't write tight code he will pun you 'till you do. ;-))

Group Leader - 1401 Processor & 1406

I was in the systems test department in San Jose in early 60?s, responsible for 1401 and I/O testing. The systems came in from the factory at Endicott and Mechanicsburg, NY (?blacksmith?s?). Became an expert in the 1403. Also worked on 360 model 20 system bring up and test. H 408-269-1281, C 408-307-0011

Ron's Memorabilia

Folks ask about Ron's e-mail address (none). Bob Feretich made the cutest reply: