https://techmonitor.ai/technology/ibm_finally_creates_a_full_vmsp_workstation_with_7437_but_fears_to_offer_it_widely
IBM UK drew a complete blank when asked a few weeks ago to prospect
for details of the company’s latest effort to bring stand-alone VM to
the desktop, but Computerworld has fared rather better, and has pinned
down a fairly full specification for the elusive machine. The first
thing that is evident is that the box – which has the anonymous name of
the 7437 – must be built around one of the many 370 architecture microprocessors IBM has described so lovingly at various high-flown semiconductor conferences, and not the splendid kluge the company used
in the XT/370 and AT/370 – the 370 side of those were made up of two
Motorola 68000s, one specially microcoded with critical 370
instructions, plus an Intel 8087 or 80287 mathematics co processor. It
is possible that IBM has simply pulled the same trick with 68020s, but
it’s very unlikely, because the 7437, which is a co-processor for the
PS/2 – presently a Model 80 or Model 60, is rated at 0.7 370 MIPS
against 0.1 MIPS for the AT/370, supports a full 16Mb memory against
512Kb for the old machine, has 16Mb virtual address space against 8Mb on
the AT/370, takes up to 628Mb disk against just 60Mb, and has a data
transfer rate to a host of over 30Mbytes-per-second against 100Kbytes-per-minute for the AT/370. Most important of all it runs full
VM/SP Release 5 and is multi-tasking, against just a single-tasking
subset – essentially a single-tasking, single-user CMS virtual machine –
on the AT/370. Occupying five boards, the 7437 uses the PS/2 to receive
VM/SP 5 from the users host mainframe, and to dump the fruits of its
labours on the host. If anyone wants the thing – and it may prove
interesting for running things like CAD/CAM applications as well as for software development – they must already have a VM/SP licence, and agree
to take a minimum of 25 of the things, at $18,000 apiece. IBM is mulling selling single 7437s, but is worried about self-impact on the 9370 and
even the RT. Lockheed Corp’s Cadam Inc unit bought 25 7437s and uses
them to demonstrate Cadam at shows – delighted that it is so much easier
to move about and set up than is a 9370.
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