Talk:IBM 9020

Latest comment: 11 years ago by Mark Triggers in topic Y2K

9020 B & C edit

I took out the addition "Presumably there were 9020B and 9020C systems at some point, at least on paper. These systems remain a mystery to the general public as there is no reference to them anywhere on the internet. They certainly never existed as operational systems." This is personal speculation, no doubt well informed, but not suitable for Wikipedia. My recollection, equally unsuitable for use without proper sourcing, is that IBM initially proposed a series of 9020 systems in different sizes, hoping to cover a variety of ATC needs, with smaller centers getting the less expensive Bs and Cs, but that never happened because the demands of real ATC software required the high end models everywhere.--agr (talk) 02:36, 5 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

Y2K edit

Arnold – I can see that Y2K is relevant to FAA ARTCCs, to the National Airspace System, to the HOST system, and so on. However, I do not see how it is at all relevant to the 9020 system which – by your own admission – was long gone by the year 2000.The 1999 upgrade was from a 3083 system to a 9672 system. By Y2K the 9020 was two generations of systems in the past. No part on the 9020 was in any way date dependent (though NAS was, of course) and to introduce the topic here is just confusing/misleading the reader. With respect. Mark Triggers (talk) 17:00, 28 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

I reorganized the text to create a section on follow-on systems. The original 9020 architecture constrained the software used for US ATC, but then that software constrained future hardware, so the follow-ons are a part of the 9020 story. Yes, we could have a section in a another article on the history of computing hardware used by the FAA, but we don't and I think this is a reasonable place to put a few details about what the 9020s led to, at least until there is a better place. --agr (talk) 20:35, 28 December 2012 (UTC)Reply
I agree this is a sensible way to deal with 9020 ‘legacy systems’. NATS in the UK is still running essentially the same NAS today. The last version running on the 9020 was something like V13 and the current version is V35! Mark Triggers (talk) 21:42, 28 December 2012 (UTC)Reply