Mondo Knows Facts

IBM's System 360 was a family of compatible machines

Launched in 1964, it let customers move a program from a small computer to a large one without rewriting it Before the System 360, each computer model had its own instruction set, so buying a bigger machine meant starting the software again. IBM spent around five billion dollars developing one architecture that spanned a modest office system and a large mainframe. The line and its descendants kept IBM at the centre of business computing for the following two decades. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Computer History Museum

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Tags: mainframes, ibm, computing-history

IBM's System 360 was a family of compatible machines: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Launched in 1964, it let customers move a program from a small computer to a large one without rewriting it. The figure is taken from Computer History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?
Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.