Form Factor
The computer looked like a large office desk with a very small 6 line by 40 character display. The machine had a built-in printer that directly faced the operator when seated. When keying the operator would be viewing the character display which was also common to the then current IBM 3740 family of data entry to floppy disk media. It had 16 kB or 32 kB of memory, a single hard drive that was available in 5 MB, 9 MB, or 13 MB sizes, and an eight-inch floppy drive, this drive could also read floppies from the IBM 3740 family. SEU (Source Entry Utility, the programming editor), DFU (Data File Utility, a query and report generator), OCL (Operations Control Language, the command-line language), and #LIBRARY (the directory in which executable code was stored) are some terms associated with the System/32. Migration to the IBM System/34 was generally simple as the source was programs just needed recompliation.
Having the appearance of a computerized desk, the System/32 was nicknamed the "Bionic Desk" after The Six Million Dollar Man, a popular TV program when the computer was introduced in 1975.
Read more about this topic: IBM System/32
Famous quotes containing the words form and/or factor:
“Be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by your finger.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)