Running a special program on our vintage IBM 1401 mainframe for the Apollo XI landing anniversary

I have written a special program on the IBM 1401 mainframe to celebrate the Apollo 11 landing 50th anniversary. Now we just need to punch the card deck and run it on our old behemoth of a mainframe. Which as you will see is more difficult than it sounds. Come and see it demoed at the Computer History Museum on Saturday, 20th, 2019!
Files of the ASCII art and the 1401 program are available at:
www.curiousmarc.com/computing...

[@rafflesmaos]

When in doubt... power cycle. Clearly a time honored tradition :D

[@PistonAvatarGuy]

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

[@SuperAWaC]

but power cycling is only valid if you understand what it's accomplishing ;)

[@bobl78]

But not hotfixes or firmware update necessary... not a FW update that went from version 9.4 to 39.7.2.3. withing one month

[@blackbird8632]

SuperAWaC no it isn't. It is the most basic and used tool for everyone, even if you have no clue what is happening.

[@Joemama555]

you know it's bad when the old guard pulls out their pocket knife.!

[@anotherriddle]

I am so happy your channel turned up in the recommended list a couple of months ago. One of the very best channels on this platform. I enjoy every second :)

[@olik136]

I have no idea how I ended up here- every video makes me think I am the dumbest person alive- but in a good way

[@markgreco1962]

Ditto

[@twinkytwinklier4047]

I like the fact that we programmers never change. We still write the best names and comments.

[@paradiselost1914]

I remember that many kids my age in the 1960's Silicon Valley area had unlimited access to punchcards to play with or draw on.

[@rwdplz1]

My Grandfather worked on some early computers in the Detroit area, and would bring home punch cards for my mother and her siblings to play with/draw on in the early-mid 60's, wish I knew what kind of system.

[@525Lines]

Going to college in the 80s, so many forms and checks came on punch cards.

[@tncorgi92]

Our school got boxes of used green bar paper, we used the reverse side. Basically an unlimited supply, so it got used for everything.

[@TheSonicfrog]

On reason those IBM punch cards often misfed was that they were manufactured to exacting specifications and had to be kept in temperature/humidity controlled environments to maintain those specs. Special rotary presses were designed by IBM to process specially prepared card stock, all of which was quite expensive, and for a time sales of punch cards accounted for 25% of IBM profits!

[@jfwfreo]

Its always good to see old hardware being used for what it was designed for.

[@davidbuckingham9289]

Well, that brings back some memories! In the days when computer engineers spent most of our time with Allen keys and feeler gauges in our pockets!

[@CursedLcie]

Excited for the video of you guys playing moon lander at MIT! I hope Margaret Hamilton and Don Eyles are there. I'm dying to know what all the programmers and engineers think of your work! I think you've all outdone yourselves. Great job!

[@RWBHere]

The first mainframe computer I had access to was an IBM 1401; a very expensive machine, with heavy monthly service costs. Those card punch/readers could be a nightmare, and didn't always read even very simple programs accurately, and that didn't give people a good introduction to computing (it killed my interest in programming). When they worked, we thought that they were marvellous. How times have changed! You're very fortunate to have access to two '1401's that still work well, but to have hands-on experience with an AGC is a very rare privilege indeed. Thanks for the awesome video series Marc. It has been a pleasure, and very educational, to follow along with the project. A big 'Well done! Thank-you!' to all of the team.

[@cpt_nordbart]

I learned a new word today "Cantankerous"

[@robertborchert932]

Another apropos term: curmudgeon.

[@JohnnyUmphress]

My great-grandma used to say that all the time when something didn't work right.

[@mitfreundlichengrussen1234]

so f...in awesome! I really enjoy watching the essence of computing and data handling. Rubber bands to secure your program/data stack of hundreds of punched cards, marking the stacks with lines, crosses and hints, manually feeding the bits to the machine, calling in a helping hand from a friend for a reset and boiling several Kw/h to print a line containing DIONYSIAN FLAG WAVING - BURNBABY!

[@dr.strangelove5622]

Stay tuned for the next episode??? Marc ever since I saw your SC/MP computer and 1401 video, my interest in assembly language and electronics has amplified!! I am ALWAYS tuned for the next episode!!

[@Culturedropout]

"Looks like I picked a bad day to stop using hardware emulation..."

[@ivanscottw]

I'm a hercules guy, so I can relate to that !

[@EdCali1]

I owe my 40 year software engineering career to the IBM 1401. My high school had the foresight to utilize it for a computer class, including FORTRAN, since it was otherwise only operated on Fridays for district payroll runs. The advantage that jumpstart gave me in college was enormous and I soon became the "computer guy" to my fellow electrical engineers.

[@theposguy1435]

I have been watching since you started with the AGC .... Fantastic work all you guys have done. But its always cool to see the 1401!

[@tartanpion8643]

thank you marc for sharing all of this knowledge about early computers. :)

[@jlwilliams]

Wow, watching you draw diagonal lines across your deck with a felt pen brings back lots of memories of doing the same thing during my first year of college! Not necessarily GOOD memories... lost my first and best college girlfriend because I was spending so much time in the computer lab trying to get my freshman COBOL project to run correctly )-;

[@raqbit]

Yesterday I was happily able to obtain a print at the museum. Knew you made videos about the 1401, didn't watch this video before receiving the print. Thanks, it's a great souvenir :)

[@vyruss000]

Magnificent blinkenlights

[@baconology3065]

i like how you double-tap the cards just to be sure. It is very interesting to see you back to your world after the AGC videos. It is amazing to see the multi-disciplinary crossover in the applicability of electronics skills. i love even more that you call the engineers in, in the end, who take the thing to bits!!!!!!!!!!!!! the code is great at the end, nice to see the human embedded in the machine code.

[@marcdufour2726]

“Do not spindle, fold or mutilate”...

[@andrewrixon2347]

Bravo Marc. Well worth the effort. I was thumbing through my copy of the Apollo 11 flight plan last night and having watched this series about the AGC it’s all starting to make a bit more sense. Have fun at MIT getting re-nerded!, (only kidding)

[@mk1cortinatony395]

fantastic Job Marc, and Mike, what a whizz he is. I bet if you had a real mission he could fly and land it! Awesome series thank you all.

[@stephenfalken925]

Every time a video from you popups I can't wait to watch it. I wish I had the opportunity to play with the tools you're playing with :) Thanks a lot for sharing and best coucou from suisse romande.

[@aperezNWO]

Thanks for sharing

[@15743_Hertz]

Seeing you play with the 1401 Mainframe reminds me of when I learned COBOL on an IBM System 32 (It was a desk-sized computer) with dual 8-inch floppy drives and ran on core-memory. We had IBM 26 card punchers and IBM 3741 floppy stations to enter the code. I really enjoyed the class and even got to play the sysop as I turned in my projects usually on the first day (we had a whole week to complete them). Our instructor was a retired IBM tech who could fix the computer when it broke and even added a few upgrades. Unfortunately, by the time I entered my first real job (Air Force), the IBM equipment was being replaced by newer, faster units, (usually mini-computers) and my hopes of getting into mainframe programming went the way of the Dodo bird.

[@leisergeist]

It's always interesting to hear how things were back then. One of my instructors told us of the days when they had a timesharing DEC mainframe, and had to fuss about how long everyone's programs took. Yeah, well I have to wait 2 minutes for Visual Studio to compile, so that's relatable right? lol Mind if I ask the significance of the Hz number in your username?

[@robertborchert932]

Hehe, old guys rule. I did some systems repair and upgrades years ago when I was a fire captain. The dispatch computers were upgraded from DEC VAX units to IBM. Loved working those old systems, built wth pride, and strong as a battleship. The power consumption was impressive, three parallel systems, two primary, and one on standby. Most folks today have no idea what went into these early systems. Sure wish I had kept a few stacks of code. Lots of cards, tape reels...then later, hefty disc packs.

[@TrainDriver186]

My first paying job outside tech college (~1996) was in the banking industry, and we had a Sequoia mainframe (actually two, the other one at a disaster recovery site). I recall someone coming out (to Aus) from the US to assist getting things running quicker, as it was getting a little slow. One item surprised me in my youthful naivety, and that was a relatively innocuous "ding". The tellers etc were using Wyse dumb terminals, and in some cases the system had been set up to send a "ding" to the terminal, for reasons that escape me now, but removing that one operation did improve the overall processing speed. Quite a few other tweaks were applied, which added up. That 15-or-so cabinet monster was replaced with a one cabinet HP machine in about 2000.

[@Shipwright1918]

I remember hearing from some of the older guys how they hated entering in programs on punch cards as the machines tended to be right curses to work with more often than not, I can see now they weren't exaggerating! Still, I think these old machines are amazing, thanks for sharing!

[@prismstudios001]

It`s being cantankerous? I bet you talked about how well it works within it`s "hearing" range. NEVER praise any device, or machine in front of it, it WILL do something awful to spite you every time. Will you be posting that printout anywhere? I want that image.

[@rwdplz1]

Similarly, if you have two cars, never praise one in front of the other, they get jealous and will break to spite you.

[@prismstudios001]

rwdplz1 Same with PCs... I have 3, and learned that quickly.

[@petergorelov418]

Magical thinking everywhere ;)

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

I like the names given to these routines

[@wtmayhew]

The 1402 read/punch was a mechanical marvel. Back in 1976 my friends and I inherited 1402 from a bank that sent their 1401, 1403 and 72(?)K word core memory expander elsewhere. That seemed odd because the system power supplies are in the 1402. The 1402 weighs 1,268 pounds! The rest of the system pretty much needs the 1402. Anyway, my recollection is the card weight makes a big difference. If I recollect right, you want to use the flat metal weight on the read side and the weight with the blue plastic handle on the punch side. Also the cards should be in good condition; too humid and the cards will jam. What is cool is the 1402 reads and punches cards broadside doing all 80 columns one row at a time. With the solar CB option, the 1402 could read 800 cards per minute and punch about 250 cards per minute. All I have left of the old 1402 is the unjamming crank handle which I saw being put to use in the video. Thanks for the memories!

[@dfratiani]

As soon as I saw those comments in the assembly code, I had to give this a like. I do the same when programming.

[@tomeucapo]

What a bad luck with the mistakes of 1401. But 1401 staff in rescue! Great job Marc! I wish to visit Computer History Museum is incredible museum I love it!. I'm from Mallorca (Spain) and I do not usually go to the US very often. But when I return to travel there I have to visit it, it's impressive!

[@38911bytefree]

Runs and prints way faster than our it equipment at work ... TODAY.

[@chrismofer]

yep :) even some early laser printer graphics suites were kinda lightning fast but honestly so are million dollar workstations today.

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Chrismofer Line printers were the fastest mechanical printers, at least until HP made an inkjet line printer.

[@amuis6449]

Exciting.

[@MarcelHuguenin]

I had to look up "cantankerous" :-) I am so happy I discovered this channel, watched the whole series on the Alto II and the AGC, very addictive. I like the way you are filming and presenting the story. Can't wait to see more about the AGC demo. Very nice tribute to Apollo 11, would be great if you could post this printout so we could have a copy of it too. Thank you Marc!

[@sharpbends]

Loved seeing the old 1403 printing the 15x11 1 part :-)

[@zacharysandberg]

Awesome video!

[@Narwaro]

Vorsicht Hochspannung! This sample was originally delivered to Germany as it seems.

[@CuriousMarc]

Files for the project have been posted on my web site: www.curiousmarc.com/computing/ibm-1401-mainframe/ibm-1401-apollo-xi

[@danielson9579]

That was just cool 🙂

[@firion123]

The reference to Dionysus was likely a play on the program being called the Apollo program. If the Dionysian temperament is given to spontaneity, excess, and wantonness the Apollonian perspective is governed by a staid and logical view of the world bordering on the ascetic. I couldn't code my way out of a paper bag but I binged these AGC videos in two days. Thank you very much for providing an insider's look at what it took to restore this machine to working order.

[@TimRyanYpsilanti]

Data coming out of THIN AIR!!! It is the hole that makes the data, where the card keeps the thin air in place, and that is turned into data byte by byte. Each card can hold 80 bytes of data, but 72 was usually used, the last 8 for a sequence number in case the deck was dropped it could be resorted by another machine. The IBM punch card was invented for the 1900 census! IIRC.

[@disruptive_innovator]

BURNBABY FLAGORGY heh, coders are coders no matter the era.

[@AlainHubert]

@9:10 we still do this sometimes where I work, on machines that show weird behavior. But our machines are equipped with relatively modern digital technology (2012), but still is a quick solution to clear them. The more that things change, the more they stay the same, I guess... 🙄 Anyway, great video, thanks for sharing ! 👍

[@mmmyke1784]

When do you sleep? :) Nice channel, my best discovery in the past years on KZbin.

[@RobertDeloyd]

I used to work on those old types of computer equipment :)

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

That printer has a nice beat!

[@wm6h]

Will the MIT demo be streamed live on 7/20/19 ?

[@stuartg40]

The old guard really is old. Christ. However, respect to anyone who knows what they're doing here, irrespective of age.

[@jmalmsten]

FlagOrgy // Dionysian Flag Waving. Programmers never change, :D

[@samlinton1294]

when this old boy just stops working it will be a very sad day

[@TheErador]

I love it when Marc dresses like a football ref!

[@RinoaL]

I'd like to learn the IBM 1401 someday. it looks very complex and fun. like trying to keep a 1970s VCR running but 1,000X complex.

[@JanBruunAndersen]

What progress we have made since punch cards. With USB 2.0 there was only 2 ways to insert the connector. The wrong way, and the right way. And by some magic, you would usually get it wrong the first time, then reverse it and it was still wrong, so you had to reverse it once again before it would plug in.

[@peevester9987]

It used to be a joke that when an IBM CE died, he would be placed in his grave face down, nine edge forward.

[@heatshield]

🏁

[@badguy1481]

"Been there...Done That"! (Back in the mid 60's). One reason I DIDN'T go into "Computer Science".

[@ArthurGoelzer]

03:50 AM here and i need to go sleep, but your video is more important. Thanks for the video, Marc!

[@ShainAndrews]

01:08 here. I've been staying close with these recent developments. I don't care about youtube posts, but I feel like these efforts are significant. What these guys are pulling off has significant historic value.

[@tylertuthill5121]

I will be there every Saturday 20th 2019 until 2020!

[@florencegomer7937]

There were only two ... April and July.

[@Joemama555]

ibm should have put a compressed air card seperator about 3 mm before the infeed rollers to help float cards and help each in-feed methinks

[@rty1955]

They did that on later models. This one just has a gapper and feed panels with a tiny lip that is 1 card in height

[@Tlane1952]

Thats a sound I have not heard in a long time

[@Wizardofgosz]

Burnorgy. I think they have a salve for that.

[@typograf62]

Amazing. I did not know that IBM did origami.

[@michaelturner4457]

"cantankerous", meaning when your old IBM is having a bad day.

[@TCGProductions03]

More like when any piece of equipment is having a bad day.

[@dhansel4835]

As you see most of the CD's (Customer Engineers) are 'old' guys ! The grew up with those vintage computers.

[@chrismofer]

wow! hope u get to meet Don Eyles at MIT!

[@carlclaunch793]

Don sat in on one of the landing demonstrations we gave and talked with us the following day. Great honor.

[@sadface]

Disco Inferno was released in 1976 so the BURNBABY sub routine was probably not a reference to the song.

[@MikePerigo]

Love the printout! Is there any chance of a downloadable listing of the data printed, or the file punched onto the cards, please?

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Some re-punching to be done as some punched cards got mangled.

[@vincei4252]

How times change. In current year I'm petrified to put any jokes of any kind into code. When I first started with my current employer I used the name of one of my cats for the routines that measured system performance. I chose her name because it was guaranteed to be unique in the logs so grepping for her was super easy. A director wanted to know how well the system was performing so i used *molly* to extract the stats. The guy looks at me and asks ? "Will customers see that?" I smiled and said no and thankfully that was the end of it. 10 years later I fear the outcome would be much different. That said it's great to see that the trailblazers had a sense of humor too!

[@skfalpink123]

When is the next update on the AGC? I can hardly wait to it see it being demonstrated to the NASA team !!!

[@rty1955]

Large card deck. I wrote. Banner pgm in just two cards. Later rewrote it for DOS and MVS in 120 bytes.

[@rmmontgomery5729]

Back in the 1960s I pushed 100s of thousands of cards through that type of card punch and I strongly suspect that the cards are the problem. Where did you source those punch cards and how old are they anyway? Robert

[@rkan2]

It is probably a bit of that and the machines being worn as they are not exactly new out of the box. :)

[@rty1955]

Be careful using magic marker to put a line across the cards! Using a marker will make the edges if the card swell a bit and may caise a jamb in this type of reader. I jabe seen it happen MANY times. Avoid getting it near the center of any edge, esp the 9 amd 12 edge

[@kevincozens6837]

That second punch reader machine seemed slightly newer or it just used a newer weight on the punch side. I remember that type of weight on the IBM mainframes I used to use back in the 70's on the card readers. If there are are OCR issues I wouldn't trust that copy of code to land someone on the moon. :) Another minor typo is in the roman numerals in the banner page. X1 (digit one) instead of XI (capital i).

[@koppadasao]

3:00 Oh, just kick it!

[@redtoadengineering9226]

It ate the cards

[@Some_Beach]

Poor Marc! Just wanted to punch some cards and ended up having to take apart the whole damn machine!!

[@lalchandra4590]

I want to know, how much power consume this mechine ?

[@dougmanatt4317]

Those are a different sort of memory cards!

[@MatthijsvanDuin]

5:08 You kept an IBM 1401 in your back pocket? those are some impressive pockets!

[@Elfnetdesigns]

Sure you did the REQUIRED WINDOWS UPDATES on that ? LOL The nogstalga is real, I remember messing with some of this stuff way back in my electronics class I took in high school in the 90's. Unfortunately we had to disassemble them and such in the end but it was neat.. Hard to belive the city still used such machines here up until 1996 here when they donated them to our class. i suspect there are small towns all across the south USA that still have old computers like this sitting in some fallout shelter or storage room collecting dust.. They never know what to do with them or who may want them so they sit until someone offers to buy it or just haul it in for scrap value saddly enough..

[@rwdplz1]

Ah ye olde paper jam

[@MrJimmy6675]

How much would it cost to get one of those awesome printouts?

[@carlclaunch793]

Just visit the Computer History museum on Wednesday afternoon or Saturday when the machines are demonstrated.

[@phonotical]

Who was filming?

[@theears995]

“Dionysian flag waving” 😂😂🤣🤣 That’s the kind of programmer I aspire to be: one who leaves his humor in the comments 😂😂

[@robjohnson1138]

Maybe you needed to empty the bit bucket? ;)

[@TheJetexproductions]

Can we visit the demo/presentation when you come to MIT campus?

[@disruptive_innovator]

Anyone know how the Erasable Memory Module got repaired? Cant seem to find that episode. Anyway, great series!

[@CuriousMarc]

It’s in the “fully restored” episode, part 19 I believe.

[@KolliRail]

I wonder why you couldn't run it directly from the tape emulator?

[@rkan2]

Did I understand correctly that the emulator system does not enable writing to the cards as fast?

[@rwhitenz]

Not the point of the excercise. better to show the flow with cards as way more interesting and realistic

[@phonotical]

Wait... So why weren't programs just stored on tape at this time?

[@cajunspike]

Data files were stored on tape. The actual code to execute(program) was input on punched cards. I'm old time mainframe programmer. Later the card images were stored in an online library that you could edit/add/change. You had to submit the job to get anything to happen. Jobs could be input on cards or from a system called SPM (source program maintenance). You also could type the program in spm...have the system punchout the cards...then read the cards back in to execute the code. My first real job was operator on 370/138.

[@crumplezone1]

`Cantankerous` = `Sulky but Fixable !`

[@stuartmcconnachie]

A case of It’s Better Mended?

[@idahofur]

Should have toggled the B switch. Might have helped...

[@slendi9623]

How did eyles react?

[@TylerLL2112]

Hold on... so THATS what that paper was used for? I recall using it in school for random task in the late 90’s early 2000’s. We had a ton of it. Hell, it was often the only paper my school actually had on hand.

[@theoflashdrive1644]

I went there on Wednesday, they denied it to us!

[@CuriousMarc]

The bad guys! Did they say why? I did this in a real hurry before leaving for the 50th anniversary AGC trip. I did not have much time to explain how to use the program and explain the listing to the docents, so they might just not have known.

[@theoflashdrive1644]

I think the punch card reader wasn’t working, the cards weren’t going through, just staying in a pile. Second 1401 didn’t work well either!

[@CuriousMarc]

@@theoflashdrive1644 Ah yes, the intermittent feed problem. We are on it. Of course since it's intermittent, whenever we check it it works...

[@willemkossen]

Who is learning the trade from the old guard? Else these machines will fall silent one day soon...

[@prismstudios001]

I wondered that too, but if you watch his restoration videos, you often see younger faces in the lab, and it`s a sign of hope.

[@rmmontgomery5729]

@@prismstudios001 Yes indeed. I cut my teeth on an IBM 1620 at San Diego City College in the mid to late 1960s and I really love to see the young guys stepping up to work with these amazing old machines. Robert

[@jumbie6]

@@rmmontgomery5729 Yes, I took my first computer course my senior year, Fortran on a 1620, got hired by Grumman where a not very efficient program used to estimate LM reliability was literally dumped in my lap. Make it run faster! Ran on a 7094, with 1401 front end. But all I did was leave the deck of cards at the dropoff point, and hopefully got back the cards with a printout the next morning. Funniest story, sent the deck to run just before leaving on vacation in early July, asked another engineer to pick up the output for me while I was gone. Get back, they tell me it never came back! So we made the keypunch ladies punch us a new source deck from the previous run's printout. They were not happy! But we weren't about to write the whole thing out again on coding sheets. So we get it running again, then on the Tuesday after labor day, the original lost deck mysteriously returns! We decided it just wanted to take a summer vacation. In reality, it probably got returned to the wrong building or person.

[@rmmontgomery5729]

@@jumbie6 The card punch I was referring to was hooked up to an IBM 1620 at San Diego City College. The college used it to track student course assignments. It's where I learned to program in machine language and Fortran and led to a long career as a software engineer. I still have the book I purchased the summer before signing up for my first computer programming course. I'd been studying all summer and soon knew more about the 1620 than the instructor teaching the class which I found boring but it gave me access to the computer lab and I spent many nights in that lab pursuing independent projects. R M Montgomery

[@douro20]

Can't run from tape?

[@EVPaddy]

douro20 that’s what Icasked myself, too. Punch from tape and then run from card?

[@bobl78]

I`d prefer to see some "original" programs or applications these things were running back then... I don´t know what these were used for and how that looked like...