The IBM 9370 systems were 'baby mainframe' midrange computers, released 1986 at the very low end of, and compatible with System/370.
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The announcement described the IBM 9370 as "super-mini computer" for commercial and engineering/scientific use, compact, rack-mounted, designed for an office environment, not needing a data center to be used.
At the time of announcement the systems were positioned between the IBM System/36 / IBM System/38 and the IBM 4300 series in performance.
Originally intended to be sold in large amounts as departmental machines ("VAX killers"), the 9370 never saw much widespread use. Nevertheless, the systems were popular at least with users actually needing System/370 compatibility while not wanting to accept the expense of a larger system (like e.g. smaller software houses) or with users (like some large IBM customers) preferring hierarchically structured distributed processing solutions rigidly managed by central communication controllers like IBM 37xx.
While in 1988 becoming part of the Enterprise Systems Architecture ("ES/9370" like "ES/4300" and "ES/3090"), the 9370s weren't XA systems.
The IBM 9370 was partially a replacement for the also-not-so-successful IBM 8100 distributed processing engine.
Initially, the lineup contained four models: 20, 40, 60, and 90.
The ES/9370 itself was complemented with, and later followed on by the ES/9221 in 1990.
During the 9370s product lifecycle, several models have been available.
| Model | Model No. | Level | Memory (MB) | I/O card slots | DASD/Tape Controller | Workstation Controller | MVS/SP capability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20, 30 | 9373 | low priced, entry level | 4, 8, 16 | 7 | 1-2 | 2 | no |
| 40, 50, 55, 60 | 9375 | mid-size | 8, 16 | 17 | 1-4 | 2-4 | larger Mod.60 only |
| 80, 90 | 9377 | highest (5x Mod.20) | 8, 16 | 54 | 1-12 | 2-12 | yes |
The 9370 core was an IBM 801 CPU. All models included a floating point accelerator as well as a processor console to install, operate and maintain the system.
Each DASD/Tape Controller had eight device addresses and provided a data transfer rate of 3 MB. IBM 9332 (368 MB) and IBM 9335 (824 MB) DASD and IBM 9347 9 track half inch tape have been announced for the 9370s.
Each Workstation Controller could interface up to 32 IBM 3270 terminals / printers.
Software for all models included VM/SP+VM/IS, VSE/SP, and VM/SP+IX/370, while MVS/SP was only available for larger models.
An upgrade (Miscellaneous Equipment Specification, MES) was available which involved - among other things - replacing the 9332 FBA drives with CKD enabled DASDs.
In 1988, Distributed Processing Programming Executive DPPX/370 for ES/9370 was made available to customers wanting to migrate from IBM 8100 DPPX.
The "Micro Channel 370" Models 010, 012, 014 (later 110, 112, 114) ES/9371 introduced in 1990 used the Micro Channel bus and a 386 CPU for I/O processing. Additionally, a dual processor model was offered, providing a second 386 CPU for DOS and OS/2 applications, implementing a high-speed link between the processors. With the models mentioned, APPC support was added, using LU6.2 based on SNA PU2.1.