The IBM System/32 (IBM 5320) introduced in January 1975 was a

midrange computer Midrange computers, or midrange systems, were a class of computer systems that fell in between mainframe computers and microcomputers. This class of machine emerged in the 1960s, with models from Digital Equipment Corporation ( PDP lines), Data ...

with built-in display screen, disk drives, printer, and database report software. It was used primarily by small to midsize businesses for

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

applications. RPG II was the primary

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

for the machine.

Overview

The

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

single-user System/32, also known as the IBM 5320, was introduced in 1975, and it was the successor to the

IBM System/3 The IBM System/3 was an IBM midrange computer introduced in 1969, and marketed until 1985. It was produced by IBM Rochester in Minnesota as a low-end business computer aimed at smaller organizations that still used IBM 1400 series computers or u ...

model 6 in the IBM

line. IBM described it as "the first system to incorporate hardware and comprehensive application software." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described the ''32'' as "a compact computer for first‐time users with little or no computer programming experience." Within 40 months, "the System/32 had surpassed the IBM System/3 as the most installed IBM computer." The computer looked like a large office desk with a very small six-line by forty-character display. Having the appearance of a computerized desk, the System/32 was nicknamed the "Bionic Desk" after ''

The Six Million Dollar Man ''The Six Million Dollar Man'' is an American science fiction and action television series, running from 1973 to 1978, about a former astronaut, USAF Colonel Steve Austin, portrayed by Lee Majors. After being seriously injured in a NASA test f ...

'' (bionic man), a popular U.S. TV program when the computer was introduced in 1975. The ''32'' had a built-in

line printer A line printer Printer (computing), prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were printer (computing)#Impact printers, impact printers. Line printers are mostly associated with unit record eq ...

, that directly faced the operator when seated, and could print reports, memos, billing statements, address labels, etc. It had been introduced January 7, 1975 and was withdrawn from marketing on October 17, 1984. Migration to the

IBM System/34 The IBM System/34 was an IBM midrange computer introduced in 1977. It was withdrawn from marketing in February 1985. It was a multi-user, multi-tasking successor to the single-user System/32. It included two processors, one based on the System/3 ...

was generally simple because source code was compatible and programs just needed recompilation.

Processor

The System/32 featured a

processor with a 200ns cycle time known as the ''Control Storage Processor'' (CSP). Whereas the System/3 used a hardwired processor, the System/32 implemented the System/3 instruction set in

microcode In processor design, microcode serves as an intermediary layer situated between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. It consists of a set of hardware-level instructions ...

. The System/32 processor utilized a vertical microcode format, with each microinstruction occupying 16 bits of control storage. There were 19 different microinstruction opcodes, however certain microinstructions could carry out different operations depending on which bits were set in the rest of the microinstruction, meaning that there were about 70 distinct operations available in total. An optional set of ''Scientific Macroinstructions'' was also available, which were used to support a Fortran compiler by implementing support for

floating point In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a ''significand'' (a signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some base) multiplied by an integer power of that base. Numbers of this form ...

arithmetic in microcode. Some IBM engineers, including Glenn Henry and Frank Soltis, have retrospectively described the System/32's microcode as resembling a

RISC In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...

instruction set. The System/3 emulation performed poorly, which led IBM to implement performance critical parts of the SCP operating system directly in microcode. The later System/34 and System/36 systems addressed this problem by using two different processors - the System/32 CSP architecture was used exclusively for operating system, I/O control and floating point code, whereas user code ran on the ''Main Storage Processor'' (MSP) which implemented the System/3 instruction set directly in hardware without microcode. The use of microcode to implement instruction set emulation as well as performance-critical operating system components had some influence on the design of the microcode layers in the later

System/38 The System/38 is a discontinued minicomputer and midrange computer manufactured and sold by IBM. The system was announced in 1978. The System/38 has 48-bit computing, 48-bit addressing, which was unique for the time, and a novel database#Integrat ...

Memory/storage

It had 16, 24, or 32 kilobytes of

main memory Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processin ...

, and 4 or 8 kilobytes of control storage. The larger control store was an optional extra, and was needed to support the scientific instruction set. A single

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

was available in one of three sizes: * 5 MB * 9 MB * 13 MB The system included an eight-inch

floppy drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

that could also read floppies from the IBM 3740 family. Only one side of the 77-track floppy diskette was used. Each track held 26 128-byte sectors. An extended format was offered by IBM, and it permitted 512 bytes per sector. Even so, that came to an 8-inch floppy holding less than one third of a megabyte.

System/32 operator

When keying input data, the

operator Operator may refer to: Mathematics * A symbol indicating a mathematical operation * Logical operator or logical connective in mathematical logic * Operator (mathematics), mapping that acts on elements of a space to produce elements of another sp ...

would be viewing the character display, which was also common to the then current IBM 3740 family of data entry to floppy disk media. A computer specialist was not required for the operation of System/32.

System software

Some terms associated with the System/32's software include: * SCP (System Control Program) the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

of the System/32. * 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 or

disk partition Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on Computer data storage#Secondary storage, secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first ...

in which executable code was stored).

References

External links

A System/32 restoration project

Video of Corestore Museum System/32 performing IMPL/IPL from disk

Insightful newsgroup post about System/32 and System/34 architecture

Photographs

System/32

S/32 front view with one panel open

S/32 rear view with both panels open

Large Image of IBM 5320
{{DEFAULTSORT:IBM System 32 System 32 Computer-related introductions in 1975 16-bit computers