Talk:IBM System/370

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@Guy Harris: First, I apologize for inadvertently posting an incomplete update.

Second, my intent was that the footnote listing the constituent program products of MVS/XA include the table; I inadvertently terminated the {{refn}} prematurely. The table itself uses <ref>...</ref>, so I can't put it inside <ref>...</ref>. When I tried putting the table inside {{refn}}, the footnote rendered with just "{".

Also, there seems to be something wrong with my style="align:left"; the name header label is centered. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 23:04, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Can footnotes include tables? And, if they can, would that make them too big to make sense? Guy Harris (talk) 23:10, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

I haven't been able to get tables to work inside footnotes, so I'm using definition lists instead. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:07, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

@Guy Harris and Tom94022: At this point in time I have included the register formats for base S/370 through ESA/390. I made it an infobox because the previous version was, but it might look better as a wikitable, possibly with different scaling or location. Should I add the Floating Point Control (FPC) register? What about the layouts of individual control registers?

I've added citations in #Evolution for all of the relevant Principles of Operation manuals, the assists for MVS and VM, and for Start Interpretive Execution, which is used by PR/SM and by VM/XA through z/VM. Some of the information in those manuals should be added to #Evolution or to #I/O evolutions. I've defined |ref={{sfnref|foo}} so that I can cite individual sections as {{sfn|loc=[section-url section]|pp=pages}} without dragging along redundant {{cite}} parameters. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:07, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

PSW tables

The article currently has these tables for PSW format

• S/370 BC mode
• S/370 EC mode
• S/370-XA
• ESA/370

The format for ESA/390 is identical to that for ESA/370, but the names of two bits in the program mask have been changed to reflect that they apply only to hexadecimal (legacy) floating point as opposed to binary (IEEE) floating point. I'm considering three options:

1. Add an ESA/390 table that is almost identical to the ESA/370 table.
2. Add footnotes to bits 22 and 23
3. Add text to the ESA/370 table to show both names for bits 22 and 23

Which option is best?

Also, the tables should be copied to Program status word once complete. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 14:35, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I vote for 2 or 3. Creating a completely new table for two name changes seems like overkill. Peter Flass (talk) 15:38, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

How about a variation on 3; relabel the table as ESA/370 and ES/390 and distinguish the two bits with one local footnote Tom94022 (talk) 18:51, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I think it's clearer the way that it is now, but if you want to change the name to ESA and change the Program Mask table to present the two nomenclatures in a different fashion, go ahead. Note that I've added layouts to Program Status Word, although I need to decide how to handle z. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 01:16, 27 December 2020 (UTC)

Separate pages for the S/370 family and the S/370 architecture?

We have two separate pages for S/360 - IBM System/360, which talks about the history of S/360, enumerates models, gives release dates, etc., and IBM System/360 architecture, which purely discusses architectural details, mentioning only the Models 20, 44, and 67 in passing because of their exceptions/extensions.

Should we do something similar for S/370?

A similar split for the 64-bit machines arguably exists, with IBM Z and z/Architecture. Guy Harris (talk) 06:54, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

Yes, if someone is willing to do the work a split is desirable. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 05:18, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

I/O Evolutions

There is an I/O Evolutions section, but it does not discuss the I/O changes in the S/360 line and has a {{main article|IBM System/360#Channels}} hatnote; It does not discuss, e.g., channel set switching, 4.5 MB/s B&T, ESCON, FICON, the new channel susbsystem of XA; essentially the section only discusses what changed from the initial S/360 to the initial S/370. Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 05:34, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

@Chatul: good point. I added ESCON to the section and will add FICON later. Note I had to first improve ESCON before linking here. May I suggest u take a hack at the other evolutions? Tom94022 (talk) 18:18, 1 January 2021 (UTC)

Unexplained change to citation

@Guy Harris: Edit https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IBM_System/370&oldid=1153105243 changed a citation for the block multiplexor channel from section Types of Channels on pages 13-4 – 13-5 of PoOps to Start I/O Fast Release on pages 26-27. The new citation belongs on Start-I/O-Fast Queuing, not on the block mx channel. The original {{sfn}} should have specified the URL http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/370/princOps/GA22-7000-10_370_Principles_of_Operation_Sep87.pdf#page=355 for the -11 PoOps but was otherwise appropriate. The -0 PoOps does not include the relevant material, although a citation of the channel to CU OEMI would have been legitimate. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 12:16, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

References