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:
“In full view of his television audience, he preached a new religion—or a new form of Christianity—based on faith in financial miracles and in a Heaven here on earth with a water slide and luxury hotels. It was a religion of celebrity and showmanship and fun, which made a mockery of all puritanical standards and all canons of good taste. Its standard was excess, and its doctrines were tolerance and freedom from accountability.”
—New Yorker (April 23, 1990)
“Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive factor; it is people, not things, that are decisive. The contest of strength is not only a contest of military and economic power, but also a contest of human power and morale. Military and economic power is necessarily wielded by people.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)