IBM System/3

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System 3 model 10D

96 column punch card.

The IBM System/3 (introduced 1969 discontinued 1985) was a low-end business computer aimed at new customers and organizations that still used IBM 1400 series computers or unit record equipment. It featured a new punch card format that was smaller and stored 96 characters. Instead of the rectangular punches in the classic IBM card, the new cards had tiny (1 mm), circular holes much like paper tape. Data was stored in six-bit binary-coded decimal code, with three rows of 32 characters each, or 8-bit EBCDIC, with the two extra holes located in the top rows. IBM System/370s with a proper card reader could also process the new cards.

For mass storage, the System/3 used a single-platter disk, roughly the size of a large pizza; initially each platter held 2.5 MB of data. Standard configuration for storage was one or two fixed disks, each in a separate pull-out drawer, which typically held the operating system and user-developed programs. Additionally, each fixed disc could have a removable cartridge disk attached; these typically contained the data-files associated with various applications, for example Payroll, and users frequently had a number of them. Thus the low-end systems could support a maximum of 10 MB of online storage (two fixed, 2 removable), although in practice this was very expensive and not always common.

Offline storage was available with the purchase of an external tape drive which read and wrote standard IBM tape content.

System printing was typically via line printers or bi-directional dot matrix printers. A modified selectric typewriter was often used as a console.

The System/3 came standard with a RPG II compiler, and used a version of Job Control Language called OCL.

The System/3 and successor models (System/32, System/34, System/36 and System/38, then the AS/400 and iSeries) are generally referred to as minicomputers or 'midrange systems' in contrast to IBM's more traditional large mainframes.