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segunda-feira, 13 de janeiro de 2014

Arquitetura do S/360 e demais Computadores

Para os estudiosos de arquitetura dos computadores, o artigo abaixo, publicado em 1981 por A. Padegs na IBM Journal Research magazine,  comenta sobre a arquitetura do S/360 e como esta arquitetura determinará a arquitetura de futuros computadores.



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  A. Padegs  - System/360 and Beyond 

The evolution of modern large-scale computer architecture within IBM is described, starting with the announcement of  Systeml360 in 1964 and covering the latest extensions to System/370.

Emphasis is placed on key attributes and on the motivation for providing them, and an assessment is made of the experience gained in the implementation and use of the architecture.

The main approaches are discussed for obtaining implementations at widely differing performance levels, and a number of significant implementation parameters for all processors are listed. 


Introduction 

With the introduction of Systein/3W in 1964, a major 
change in the development of computers within IBM took 
place. With the recognition that architecture [1] and 
implementation could be separated and that one need not 
imply the other, a common machine architecture was 
established. It was intended for program-compatible embodiments 
over a wide range of performance levels and 
for various types of applications. 


Since its introduction, this architecture has been the 
basis for all intermediate and large computers produced 
by IBM. It has also become the basis for machines 
produced by a number of other manufacturers in the 
USA, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The architecture has 
provided a firm interface for application development, 
and it has permitted the operating systems to grow 
significantly in size and function. Although the architecture 
was developed when logic technology with a single 
device per chip and magnetic cores were used to implement 
machines, its fundamental structure is still suitable 
for today's designs, which use dense arrays and integrated 
circuits of thousands of elements per chip. 

This paper reviews the salient characteristics of the 
System/360 architecture and its follow-on, the System/ 
370 architecture. The objectives are to cover significant 
accomplishments, to give the motivation for key architectural 
decisions, and to present an assessment; it is not 
intended that the paper provide a complete historical 
record of IBM's architecture developments. Furthermore, 
the paper does not contain a detailed technical 

review of design considerations and alternatives; this 
type of review has been published previously [2-9], 

The first two sections review the System/360 and 
System/370 architectures, stating the objectives, constraints, 
and contributions. Following this, developments 
in I/O architecture are outlined. The introduction of 
various enhancements to the architecture is discussed in 
relation to product announcements; and, in a separate 
section, the significance of microprogramming and the 
cache to the implementation of a compatible Une of 
machines is reviewed. The final sections are devoted to 
an assessment of IBM's experience with System/3W and 
System/370. In an appendix, tables comparing implementation 
characteristics for all processors provide further 
illustration of the steps taken to achieve different performance 
levels. 

Systetn/360 architecture 

System/360 was the result of a major effort to design an 
architecture for a new fine of computers that was unencumbered 
by the requirement to be compatible with 
existing architectures. Work on a new architecture for a 
family of machines began in the early 1960s; its specifications 
were released in April 1964, when the first models of 
System/360 were announced. 

When System/360 development was initiated, most 
new computer models were, from the viewpoint of their 
logical structure, improved, enlarged, or technologically 
recast versions of the machines developed in the early 

Copyright 1981 by International Business Machines Corporation. Copying is permitted without payment of royalty provided that (1) 
each reproduction is done without alteration and (2) the Journal reference and IBM copyright notice are included on thefirst page. 
The title and abstract may be used without further permission in computer-based and other information-service systems. Permission 
to republish other excerpts should be obtainedfrom the Editor. 

IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SBPTEMBER 1« 1 

1950s. IBM products had evolved from 701 to 7094 II, 

from 702 to 7080, from 650 to 7074, and from 1401 to 7010 

[10]. Additionally, IBM had produced Stretch, formally 

known as the IBM 7030; it had been developed largely as 

a project to challenge the state of the art, but from the 

point of view of architecture it was a predecessor of 

System/360. 

In many ways the design concepts underlying System/ 
360 [2-5] were the same as those for Stretch [11]. Both 
Stretch and System/360 provided, in a single architecture, 
facilities suitable for scientific, commercial, and real-time 
applications; both placed major emphasis on the generality 
and code-independence of instruction and data formats; 
and both provided for the uniform attachment and 
control of a wide variety of I/O equipment. System/360, 
however, was the first demonstration that the concept of 
developing an architecture for a family of compatible 
machines was practical, with the initial implementations 
targeted to yield models with internal performances ranging 
from that of the IBM 1401 to well beyond that of 
Stretch. Intermodel compatibility was probably the most 
far-reaching requirement in developing System/360 and 
one which affected both the architecture and the procedures 
for developing and controlling it. 

System/360 incorporated a number of the new architecture 
concepts introduced in Stretch, such as binary 
storage subdivision and the eight-bit byte, storage protection, 
and a generalized interruption mechanism. However, 
the System/360 architectural definition of some of 
these concepts differed from that in Stretch because the 
environment and objectives were different. Since Stretch 
had the flavor of an experimental computer, its architecture 
could afford to strive for a set of functions of great 
logical consistency and completeness. System/360, on the 
other hand, was defined at its inception as a base for a 
product line. As such, its development called for a more 
frugal choice in the selection of functions, based on a 
critical evaluation of the available experience. The architecture 
had to encompass implementations covering wide 
performance and cost ranges, and its definition had to 
reflect compromises between the performance and cost 
objectives of large and small machines. As a result. 
Stretch innovations such as storage addressing to the bit 
level, variable byte size, and automatic handling of floating-
point range exceptions were not included. 

The following are the key areas where System/360 
introduced innovations or otherwise determined direction 
in architecture. 

Addressing For efficiency and because of the ease of 
table utilization, System/360 uses binary-radix storage 

addressing, with 24-bit addresses that designate byte 
locations. Thus System/360 can address 16M eight-bit 
bytes, as compared to the 2M bytes on Stretch (M stands 
for 2^" or 1 048 576). This addressing capability is, of 
course, available on all models and should be considered 
in light of the maximum storage sizes available at that 
time: 32K 36-bit words on the 7094II (K stands for 2'" or 
1024), 160 000 six-bit characters on the 7080, 300 000 
digits on the 7074, 100 000 seven-bit characters on the 
7010, and 16 000 seven-bit characters on the 1460 (the 
word-mark bit is included in the 7010 and 1460 character 
sizes). The smallest initial System/360 model. Model 30, 
offered up to 64K eight-bit bytes, and IM bytes was 
available on the largest initial model. Model 75. The 
ability to address and to effectively utilize large storage 
was one of the key attributes of System/360. 

Address generation A truncated 12-bit address in an 
instruction, in conjunction with a full base-address value 
in a register, provides indexing and eliminates the inefficiency 
of carrying a full address in each instruction. A 
second level of indexing is available in some instructions 
to facilitate loop control. The 12-bit displacement, without 
an index or base value, provides addressability for 
loading or saving the base values but normally is so small 
that all programs need base addresses and are thus 
generally location-independent. 

Provision for control program A comprehensive interruption 
system, supervisor and problem states, storage 
protection, and an interval timer provide a basis for 
designing a secure operating system. Input/output instructions 
are invalid in the problem state, and means are 
provided for the supervisor to control the duration of 
application programs and switching between them. (In 
Stretch an operating system could be modified by unauthorized 
input from an I/O device.) 

Input and output The multiplexer channel and a common 
method of attaching and programming all I/O devices 
extended the concepts introduced in 702 and Stretch. 
These aspects are discussed subsequently in the section 
"Input and Output." 

General-purpose registers Sixteen registers serve as 
accumulators for fixed-point and logical operations, as 
well as sources of base and index values in address 
generation, thus bringing the full power of the fixed-point 
arithmetic-operation set to bear upon indexing computations. 


Character size In contrast to the straight six-bit approach 
used in the IBM 702-7080 and 1401-7010 families, 
two character sizes were introduced: eight-bit codes for 
alphanumeric, and four-bit codes for numeric characters 
This approach, used in the IBM 650-7074 family, has 

IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 

greater coding efficiency, with spare code points in the 
alphabetic set, and is commensurate with binary subdivisions 
used in the rest of the system. The length of 
operands is specified in the instruction: Decimal operands 
can be up to 16 bytes in length; character operands are 
variable up to 256 bytes. In Stretch any character size 
from one to eight bits could be specified, but variablefield-
length operands were limited to 64 bits. 

Floating-point data format Two formats were introduced, 
both available on all models: a 64-bit format for 
use in precision-sensitive problems and a 32-bit format for 
faster speed and conservation of storage space. The 32-bit 
format was intended primarily for the smaller models, 
where differences in the execution time for the two 
formats were significant. The alternative would have 
been a single 48-bit format to succeed the 36-bit format of 
the 7094 and the 64-bit format of Stretch. Both the 32-bit 
and 64-bit formats use the same exponent size, with a 
base of 16. This was a departure from base 2 and was 
introduced to permit simpler circuitry and to reduce the 
frequency of pre-shift, overflow, and precision-loss post-
shift in addition and subtraction [12]. 

Serviceability The ability to automatically record the 
detailed machine state at the instant of an error and to 
initialize it to any specified value provides tools for 
significant serviceability improvements [13]. 

The models at both ends of the performance range 
introduced architecture changes to meet their particular 
cost and performance goals. Model 20, although nominally 
called part of the System/360 family, was incompatible 
with System/360. Its architecture provided for a maximum 
main storage of 64K bytes, and it had 37 instead of 
System/360's 143 instructions. Other differences were 
that it did not include the supervisor state, had its own set 
of I/O instructions, and had a 32-bit instead of the 64-bit 
program-status word (PSW). Compatibility for running 
application programs was affected because the Model 20 
omitted floating-point and 32-bit binary arithmetic, had 
eight 16-bit instead of sixteen 32-bit general registers, and 
had a special direct-addressing mode for forming storage-
operand addresses. 

At the other end of the performance range, the Models 
91, 95, and 195 introduced some deviations to accommodate 
their highly overlapped designs by delaying program 
interruptions and permitting the result of a divide operation 
to be off by one bit in the low-order bit position. 
These differences required some adjustments in software 
but did not affect compatibility for application programs 
in any significant way. 

Additional functions were introduced by a few of the 
later System/360 models. Model 44, announced in 1965, 

IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 

had a number of extensions for real-time applications, 
which, however, were not continued in later models. At 
the same time. Model 67 introduced virtual storage [14], 
which, with some modifications, became a basic part of 
System/370. The 9020 System, which was developed for 
the Federal Aviation Administration, interconnected 
modified Model 50s into a multiprocessing system to meet 
exceptionally stringent requirements for continuity in 
machine operations [15]. Models 65 and 67 both offered 
multiprocessing facilities [6], which later were significantly 
extended for System/370. 

Then, in 1%8, as part of the extended-precision floating-
point facility on the Model 85, the 128-bit floatingpoint 
format was introduced [7]. The package also included 
special instructions for rounding floating-point numbers 
when going to a shorter format; they aUeviated 
somewhat the lack of rounding in the original architecture. 
Model 85 also removed the original System/360 
requirement that storage operands for unprivileged instructions 
be aligned on boundaries equal to a multiple of 
the operand length. Both of these extensions were carried 
into System/370. Additionally, the 2880 Block-Multiplexer 
Channel, on System/360 Models 85 and 195, had many 
of the System/370 I/O architecture extensions [8]. 

In two areas the original System/360 decisions on user-
oriented functions were subsequently changed. The first 
one concerns floating-point instructions. The original 
System/360 architecture did not anticipate the significance 
of compatibility in the handling of overflow and the 
need for indicating the true result value on both overflow 
and underflow. Furthermore, it had overlooked the need 
for a guard digit in post-normalization. Both of these 
functions were changed in 1968, with all installed machines 
retrofitted. 

The other change concerns the encoding of decimal 
data. System/360 anticipated the adoption of a proposal 
for a seven-bit American Standard Code for Information 
Interchange (ASCII) and of a technique for expanding the 
seven-bit code to eight bits. It provided a mode bit in the 
PSW that specified, for the code-sensitive instructions, 
operation with either the ASCII or the Extended-BinaryCoded-
Decimal-Interchange Code (EBCDIC). The eight-
bit extension of the code was never adopted as a national 
standard, and the ASCII mode has subsequently been 
deleted in the System/370 architecture. It was highly 
unUkely that any production programs ever used the 
eight-bit ASCII code; none have ever been identified. The 
mode bit subsequently turned out to be the only unassigned 
one in the PSW and was convenient for distinguishing 
between the original and the extended-control 
(EC)-mode PSW format introduced for System/370. 

 In a number of other areas, different architectural 
choices, in retrospect, might have been preferable. The 
problem of storage-address size is discussed later in the 
paper. For some areas, extensions have subsequently 
been introduced to solve the constraints set by the initial 
decisions; for example, the new EC-mode PSW format 
corrected the lack of extensibility in the original PSW 
format, and the early release of the CPU during execution 
of the new System/370 START I/O FAST RELEASE instruction 
eliminated the unnecessary delay required by the original 
START I/O in high-performance machines. In other areas, 
the need to preserve compatibility has been felt to be so 
overwhelming that the reevaluation of the original architectural 
choices has been of no practical interest. This 
applies particularly to problem-program functions, such 
as whether the floating-point significance exception is 
really useful, and whether the EDIT and EDIT AND MARK 
instructions are warranted in view of their very specific 
operand formats. 

Systemn/370 architecture 

In contrast to System/360, the objective of System/370 
was an evolutionary extension of System/360 architecture 
for a new set of models and for new releases of programming 
systems [9]. Experience with the System/360 architecture 
had identified a number of bottlenecks and Umitations 
in the efficiency of system use and had pointed out 
areas where additional machine functions were desirable. 
Furthermore, because the cost of technology for main 
storage and logic circuitry was becoming lower in relation 
to the overall system cost, it was feasible to consider 
extending the machine architecture; it was possible, in 
fact, to economically include functions that did not appear 
justified when System/360 was developed. For example, 
because of cost considerations in the smaller 
models, System/360 provided only one 32-bit timer in a 
main-storage location, which had to be programmed to 
provide all timing functions. System/370 introduced three 
distinct facilities, each with a 64-bit value: a time-of-day 
clock (for real-time indication), a clock comparator (a 
real-time alarm clock), and a CPU timer (for measuring 
process time) [9]. 

System/370 was constrained to be upward-compatible 
for System/360 application programs and for the main-line 
operating systems. Even though such operating systems 
could not benefit from the new functions available in 
System/370, and new support was planned, the ability to 
run those operating systems was needed for the transition 
period. For this reason, System/370 continued to provide 
functions, such as the System/360 timer and the System/ 
360 PSW format, that had in fact been superseded by 
functionally richer extensions. Additionally, System/370 
needed to attach and operate System/360 I/O devices. 

System/370 evolved, and its architecture [16] was released, 
in a number of increments. The system was 
introduced in June 1970 with the announcement of Models 
155 and 165, at which time the main architectural 
extensions were six general-purpose instructions, the 
time-of-day clock (with a period of 143 years and a 
resolution of one microsecond), and control registers 
(they serve as an extension of the PSW). The original 
System/370 also included a number of extensions to 
enhance model-independent recovery by software from 
machine malfunctions [17]. Virtual storage, the CPU 
timer, the clock comparator, program-event recording 
(for software debugging), and the new PSW format and 
interruption controls associated with the extended-control 
(EC) mode were introduced with the announcement 
of Models 158 and 168 in August 1972. Multiprocessing 
and the conditional-swapping and PSW-key-handling instructions 
were introduced in February 1973. 

Then, with the introduction of the 3033, a number of 
extensions were made available that enhanced the performance 
and function of the MVS operating system. 
One-level addressing and the instruction MOVE INVERSE 
were introduced as part of the VSE (virtual storage 
extended) mode on the 4300 processors to meet the needs 
of the DOS/VSE operating system [18, 19]. The MOVE 
INVERSE instruction is intended primarily for environments, 
such as the Arabic language, where text is arranged 
in a right-to-left order. 

The single item that most distinguishes System/370 
from System/360 is the availability of a dynamic-addresstranslation 
facility, which allows the control program to 
efficiently implement a group of functions collectively 
referred to as virtual storage. The approach incorporates 
paging from external storage as introduced in Atlas [20] 
and a second level of indirection, segmentation, as suggested 
by Dennis [21] and as further detailed by Arden et 
al. [22]. 

The System/370 version of this facility is largely patterned 
after the System/360 Model 67 [14]. Experience 
with that machine and its operating system, TSS, had 
verified the value of many of its concepts and had 
provided actual usage data for making System/370 design 
decisions. In addition to a number of format changes, 
System/370 offers two page and segment sizes to accommodate 
both large and small systems, but it does not oflfer 
32-bit virtual addressing, which was available on the 
Model 67. The System/370 virtual-storage operating systems 
were evolutions of the corresponding real-storage 
operating systems and could not accommodate 32-bit 
addresses. 

A. PADEGS IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 

The virtual-storage architecture of the 3033 and other 
large processors was enhanced early in 1981 by the 
introduction of the dual-address-space facility. This extension 
includes a 16-bJt address-space number, which is 
associated with a set of segment and page tables and 
identifies a virtual address space of 2 " bytes. A total of 
2'* address spaces can be established, although at any one 
time addressability exists to two address spaces—the 
primary and secondary. Instructions and controls are 
provided to load an address-space number so as to 
establish addressability, call and return from programs in 
either the same or another space, move data between 
spaces, and establish authorization for these operations. 
These facilities extend the size of the addressable virtual 
storage and provide a basis for enhancing system integrity. 


In the VSE mode, the main change was the substitution 
of the one-level-addressing facility for the System/370 
dynamic-address-translation facility. DOSA'^SE offers 
one virtual address space of up to 16M bytes, and the 
architecture is simplified accordingly by eliminating the 
multiple-address-space capability of the System/370. 
Storage is directly addressable by the CPU and all 
channels, using a uniform set of virtual addresses. The 
translation table is in internal machine storage, and 
special instructions are provided for setting up the mapping. 
Protection, by means of storage keys, applies to 
virtual instead of real storage. Because of the simpler 
translation procedure and the ability of channels to use 
virtual addresses, performance gains are possible, and the 
software for translating addresses in channel programs is 
eliminated. The VSE mode is compatible with System/ 
370 for problem programs, but not for the control program. 
The full System/370 facilities are available on the 
4300 processors in the System/370 mode. 

Another major fimctional extension is the inclusion of a 
number of facilities that permit formation of a multiprocessing 
system, where two or more CPUs share common 
main storage and are controlled by a single copy of the 
operating system. The concept of using a prefix to offset 
the main-storage address when accessing the block containing 
shared control information is the same as that 
used in System/3W). The architecture was extended, 
however, by making the prefix settable by the program 
(instead of manually) and by providing the SIGNAL PROCESSOR 
instruction and a special interface for communicating 
between CPUs. On the 3033 a further extension 
made it possible for the software to connect a set of 
channels to one of two CPUs. 

The main extension to the multiprocessing architecture, 
though, was in the control of accesses to shared 
main storage. In a multiprocessing system, the conventions 
of a uniprocessor communication protocol become 
inadequate when one CPU is changing the contents of a 
common storage location while the other is observing it, 
or when both CPUs are updating the contents of the 
location at the same time. The System/370 architecture 
includes a number of rules on the concurrency, multipMcity, 
and order of storage accesses, and specific instructions 
are introduced to permit sharing of serially reusable 
resources, such as updating chained lists. Specifically, in 
System/360, the TEST AND SET instruction provided a 
means whereby the inspection of a bit in storage and the 
setting of it to one could be performed indivisibly. In 
Systeni/370, the two compare-and-swap instructions indivisibly 
compare afield in storage with a value in a register 
and, upon matching, replace the storage operand with a 
new value [16]. 

The IBM System/370 Principles of Operation [16] in the 
Spring 1981 edition contained a total of 204 instructions, 
as compared to the 143 initially available in System/360 
[23]; this provides one indication of the growth of the 
architecture. Of the 61 new instructions, 39 are either 
privileged or semiprivileged {11 of the original System/360 
instructions were privileged), indicating that a relatively 
larger portion of the architectural extensions is intended 
for system functions. 

input and output 
The concept of a common method of I/O attachment and 
control evolved gradually. The 702 had a common interface 
for attaching I/O control units and a common architecture 
for controlling I/O operations. The 709 introduced 
the concept of a channel. The Stretch "exchange" [10] 
provided a mechanism for sharing equipment for multiple 
I/O operations, using a common I/O interface and I/O 

•architecture (a different interface was used for attaching 
the disk unit to the high-speed exchange, and the instructions 
for its control differed somewhat). In 1961 a standard 
Interface was established for attaching I/O to all new 
large systems. It was a modification of the Stretch 
interface and was available on the IBM 1410/7010, 7040/ 
44, 7070/74, 7080, and 7090/7094 systems for attaching 
disk, magnetic tape, and communications control units. 
System/360 extended the standardization of I/O attachment 
and control by applying a common attachment 
interface and a uniform program control to a larger 
variety of device types and covering a wider spread of 
data rates. 

* Channels 
System/360 introduced the subchannel, which for most 
purposes gives the appearance of an independently oper-
A. PADEGS 
ating processor that can sustain its own channel program. 
Different types of channels were designed, and, depending 
on the type of channel, different levels of concurrency 
among channel programs were made possible. A selector 
channel has one subchannel and permits operation with 
one device at a time, normally at a high data rate. A 
multiplexer channel can have up to 256 subchannels and, 
conceptually, can be executing a channel program for 
each subchannel. The actual level of interleaving depends 
on the type of multiplexer channel and the device. A byte-
multiplexer channel is designed for low-speed operation 
to interleave individual bytes or bursts of bytes from such 
devices as keyboards, communications lines, printers, 
and card equipment. When it was introduced, it represented 
a major advance for communications-based systems 
and real-time applications [5]. The block-multiplexer 
channel, introduced later for Sy8tem/36p Model 85, is 
intended for high-speed operation and is particularly 
advantageous for use with rotating storage devices, such 
as disks and drums [8]. When used in conjunction with 
rotational-position sensing, it permits a subchannel to be 
assigned and a channel program to be estabhshed for each 
access arm, with each program monopolizing the channel 

for the duration of data transfer but releasing channel 
facilities during arm movement and during the rotational 
delay associated with locating the designated record. 

• 110 interface 
The System/360 I/O interface is the connection between a 
channel and an I/O control unit; it provides the necessary 
physical, electrical, and communications-protocol specifications. 
It is based on the standard interface of 1961. 
The original Systeni/360 I/O interface specification was 
adequate for data rates up to about IM bytes per second 
for a cable length of about 100 feet. For cable length of the 
order of 20 feet, the IBM 2301 Drum Storage, with a rate 
of 1.2M bytes per second, could be accommodated. The 
ftiUy interlocked signaling protocol allowed one channel-
cable connection to sustain data transfer over a very wide 
range of rates, with both the channel and device having 
complete control of the timing of each byte transfer. It 
did, however, require an electrical signal to be propagated 
between the channel and the control unit four times for 
each byte transferred. 

With the advent of auxiliary-storage technologies employing 
higher recording densities, it was necessary to 
increase the data-transfer capacity of the interface. For 
some buffered devices a higher data rate was desirable to 
reduce the transfer time. Furthermore, many installations 
needed longer cable connections. To meet these goals, 
System/370 introduced changes both in the signaling 
protocol and in the width of the interface. 

The System/370 I/O interface [24] includes two additional 
tag lines to provide the same level of transfer 
interlocks with only two propagation times per byte 
transferred. It depends on the control unit whether or not 
the new facility is used; thus, control units implemented 
to operate with the System/360 protocols can be attached 
to System/370 channels. On some System/370 channels 
and control units the bus width can be extended optionally 
to two bytes, thus doubling its datk-transfer capacity. 

As a result of these two additions, the System/370 I/O 
interface can sustain a data-transfer rate of over 1.5M 
bytes per second in the one-byte version and over 3M 
bytes per second in the two-byte version, over a cable 
length somewhat less than 100 feet; longer distances can 
be accommodated at lower data rates. 

The data-streaming mode, introduced recently for the 
IBM 3380 Disk Storage, eliminates the interlocks between 
the request and response signals during data transfer. 
Data, with the appropriate tag signals, are sent in the 
form offixed-length pulses. This eliminates the dependency 
of the data rate on cable length caused by the interface 
protocol. The IBM 3380 specifications provide for a 
transfer rate of 3M bytes per second over 400 feet with 
the one-byte interface. 

System/360 was the first system in which a common 
attachment interface was used to connect a large variety 
of I/O control units to a line of computers. The interface 
has been successful in a number of ways. It has offered an 
unprecedented choice of I/O equipment in configuring a 
system. It has permitted channels and control units to be 
designed independently and at different locations with an 
assurance that, assembled into a system on the user's 
premises, they will operate without any adjustments. 
Furthermore, the specific interface definition has been 
sufficiently general and flexible to accommodate new 
device types and to permit extension offlinction and data 
rates in a compatible manner. As a result, a control unit 
designed to the original definition (after the 1967 change 
to the electrical specifications) can operate with a channel 
incorporating the latest extensions, provided the channel 
meets the speed requirements. 

The standard interface permits other attachment approaches. 
At the penalty of losing some configuration 
flexibility, the total cost of a system can be reduced by 
eliminating a separate frame and power supply for the 
control unit, by eliminating the use of an interface cable 
and the associated drivers and receivers, and by sharing 
some main-frame logic circuits for the control-unit functions. 
Such integrated designs are offered on the smaller 
System/360 and System/370 models for some common I/O 
device types. Even though such designs physically merge 

IBM } . RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 

the channel and control unit, they nevertheless maintain 
the logical separation and simulate those aspects of the 
standard interface that are observable by the program. 
Thus, regardless of the implementation, all I/O devices 
are controlled by the same set of I/O instructions, command 
words, and other program formats. 

Implementation approaches 

The various levels of performance and cost in the implementation 
of the architecture are achieved by appropriate 
choices and tradeoflFs among such parameters as circuit 
speed and cycle time, width of data and logic paths, 
overlap of instruction execution, and speed, width, and 
interleaving of main storage [25, 26]. Two new developments 
in machine implementation, however, are particularly 
significant in the adoption and subsequent extension 
of System/360 architecture: microprogramming and the 
cache (high-speed buffer). 

• Microprogramming 
Microprogramming, originally suggested by Wilkes [27], 
is the use of simple and fast low-level instructions for 
controlling machine sequences [28-30]. This type of design 
permits sharing a basic dataflow for a wide variety of 
functions and readily permits tradeoflFs between cost and 
performance. With conventional logic circuitry, the cost 
of controls increases in a roughly linear relationship to the 
functional capability. With microprogramming, a base 
cost for the microcode-storage device and the supporting 
logic must be borne, after which the incremental cost for 
adding more storage in order to microprogram additional 
function is relatively small. 
It was largely because of microprogramming and the 
economy associated with sharing hardware that it became 
economically feasible to implement the full System/360 
architecture on the smaller models. The savings were 
particularly significant in the implementation of input and 
output, as microprogramming made it possible to build 
integrated channels where the logic capability of the 
machine is time-shared between CPU and channel functions. 
In such an implementation, the channel becomes a 
conceptual entity, and one may include a large number of 
subchannels at virtually no cost other than the storage 
space for the governing control information. 

Microprogramming made it possible to incorporate in 
System/360 and System/370 models the capabilities for 
emulating other architectures, such as those of the IBM 
1401 and the IBM 7094 [31]. It also made it possible to 
extend the original System/360 architecture with assists 
for specific operating systems. Furthermore, microprogramming 
has had a beneficial effect on the architecture-
resolution process, since it permits corrections and 

changes in machine functions after the circuitry has been 
designed and built; some changes are feasible even after 
the machine has been delivered to the customer. 

Microprogramming is used to varying extent in all 
System/360 and System/370 models except for Models 44, 
75, 91, 95, and 195. The extent and the method of use 
depend on performance objectives. Larger models normally 
have more bits per microprogram-instruction word 
for the control of their more complex data paths. On the 
other hand, smaller models have larger microprograms, 
since these models require more cycles to accompUsh the 
same function and use microprogramming for more functions. 
As an example, the Model 168 has 4K words of 108 
bits each, whereas the Model 138 has 64K words of 18 
bits each. In the initial System/360 models, microprograms 
resided in read-only storage, but in most later 
models read-write storage is used. In the smaller models, 
microprograms reside in an extension of main storage. 

• Cache 
Starting with System/360 Model 85, the larger models use 
a high-speed buffer, called the cache, for accesses to main 
storage. Although the concept had been considered previously 
[32], IBM was the first to implement a large cache 
in a commercial computer [33-36]. The cache was a major 
advance in system organization and subsequently has 
been extensively analyzed in the literature [37-39]. The 
cache is interposed between the CPU and main storage, 
and its existence is not apparent to the program. 
The cache reduces the number of main-storage references, 
because information fetched into the cache can be 
reused without access to main storage. Furthermore, by 
loading entire "Knes" (typically 32-64 bytes) on any 
request for storage information, the machine can prefetch 
valuable information for future use and thus avoid the 
delay associated with additional storage access. The 
effectiveness of the cache depends on its size and other 
design parameters, as well as on the distribution of 
addresses used to access storage. According to Liptay 
[34], on the Model 85 with a 16K-byte cache, typically 
97% of fetches were satisfied with data from the cache. 
With larger caches, in scientific applications "hit" ratios 
of 99% and over can be attained, although for interactive 
environments a more typical ratio is 96%. Furthermore, 
by allowing channels to communicate directly with main 
storage, the cache reduces storage interference and improves 
accessibility of storage for I/O, thus permitting 
higher I/O data rates. 

The effect of a storage hierarchy using a cache is to 
reduce the dependence of CPU operations on storage 
access time and to provide a better match between the 

IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 A. PADEGS 

operation speeds of main storage and CPU circuitry. The 
cache provides more freedom in the choice of storage 
technologies and allows for larger storage and longer 
access times. The introduction of a cache played a 
significant role in the realization of systems with large 
main storage. 

Experience with System/360 and its extensions 

The following are some of the major observations to be 

made and conclusions to be drawn concerning System/360 and its extensions. 

• Implementation of compatible machines 
Experience clearly verified that the initial System/360 
goals for a compatible line of machines were realistic, and 
that it was feasible to build a family of machines within 
which programs could be transferred routinely from one 
model to another. The validity of the original compatibility 
goals was particularly proven by the fact that other 
manufacturers have been successful in producing System/ 
370-compatible machines. In fact, compatibility helped 
reduce development costs within IBM. The original System/
360 plan called for verifying each element of software 
on each model. Because of the growing confidence that 
programs which ran on one model would also run on 
other models, it was possible to significantly reduce the 
amount of cross-verification performed. 
The original System/360 announcement included processors 
with a performance range of 25 to 1. Six years 
later this had increased to around 200 to 1, and today the 
performance of the 3081 is approximately 450 times that 
of the System/360 Model 25. 

• Main storage 
Main-storage sizes grew more rapidly than was anticipated 
in the 1960s; the technological improvements, which 
reduced the cost, had occurred at a faster rate than was 
expected. Thus, it became obvious at the time System/ 
370 was in the planning stages that the 24-bit main-storage 
address size would have to be extended eventually. 
The extension of the address size, however, proved to 
be more difficult than first expected. The basic addressing 
mechanism of System/360 was well suited to extension, 
since it depended on base registers that were already 32 
bits wide. The interruption mechanism and the I/O control 
formats, however, did not have the required extensibility, 
since immediate cost and performance consequences 
in 1962 had outweighed the need to meet eventual 
long-term requirements. More importantly, operating 
systems and compiler-produced application programs had 
used the extra bit positions in address words for control 
purposes and hence required extensive modification. 

In all new formats introduced for System/370, such as 
the control registers and the EC-mode PSW, main-storage-
address fields are assigned 32 bit positions, should 
they be needed for address expansion. On the 3033 and 
other large machines, however, real storage in excess of 
16M bytes is accommodated by making use of unused bit 
positions in the translation tables. 

• Precision vs. unpredictability 
In. order to ensure compatible implementations, the architecture 
has to be complete in that it must cover all 
functions of the machine that are observable by the 
program, including all the unlikely concurrent occurrences 
of different unusual exceptions. It either must 
specify the action the machine performs or state that the 
action is unpredictable. 
Identical action in all machines is less likely to cause 
problems with compatibility and has a certain aesthetic 
appeal. Indiscriminately specifying predictable operation, 
however, may present problems when the predictable 
operation is of insignificant value to the user and some 
later machine has difficulty complying with the required 
predictability. Whereas specifying initially that an operation 
is unpredictable might have been quite acceptable, 
relaxing the architecture definition to permit unpredictability 
has certain risks, because some programs may 
have come to depend on the initial, precise definition. 
Thus the architect has to make a deliberate decision about 
the extent of predictability. 

The System/360 architecture did not provide adequate 
precision and detail in some areas. Because there was no 
specification of the priority in which concurrently existing 
program exceptions are recognized, programming of 
virtual machines was made difficult. Because the sequence 
and concurrency for storage accesses were not 
specified, processors could not communicate reliably 
using shared main storage. And because not enough 
details in machine-check handling were specified, the 
possibility of model-independent recovery after an equipment 
failure was reduced. The 1973 edition of the System/ 
370 definition was more detailed and precise, but, for the 
sake of simplicity of the architectural model, specified as 
predictable some aspects that, as experience indicated, 
should not have been. An appendix in the 1980 edition of 
the System/370 Principles of Operation [16] lists six 
changes where the requirements for predictability have 
been relaxed. These changes concern such aspects as 
indicating an access exception for an operand when the 
instruction can be completed without the use of the 
operand, and they are unlikely to affect any program. 

A. PADEGS IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 
• Assists 
In addition to the general-purpose architecture included 
in the Principles of Operation, many CPUs include special-
purpose functions to improve the performance of a 
specific programming system. These functions, referred 
to as assists, comprise frequently occurring instruction 
sequences of a particular application, and a single operation 
code (or the occurrence of some other condition) 
may invoke the execution of an extensive procedure. 
The assists are made possible by microprogramming 
and are implemented mostly (and in most machines 
exclusively) in microcode. They are particularly effective 
in improving performance when the function includes an 
interruption sequence and the associated program action; 
for example, w^hen operating under VM/370, depending 
on the model and the operating system, a 40-65% reduction 
in elapsed time due to the VM assist has been 
measured [40]. 

The assists, however, are temporary internal interfaces 
and are not intended for application-program development. 
The functions may change between releases of the 
operating system, and, since the design decisions may be 
made on the basis of tradeoflFs involving only a few 
specific machines, they may vary between models. 

• Levels of compatibility 
With the establishment of the operating system as an 
essential component of a user's installation, peirt of the 
architected machine interface is becoming an internal 
interface between the machine and the operating system. 
The dynamic-address-translation mechanism and machine-
check indications are some examples of functions 
that do not directly affect the user, but the operatingsystem-
dependent nature of the interface is particularly 
emphasized by the introduction of the assists. Furthermore, 
since the larger models normally are used with 
functionally richer operating systems and since the smaller 
models are usually restricted to those with lower 
storage requirements, an affinity has developed between 
machine power and operating-system power. Because of 
the nature of this affinity, it is not essential that the part of 
the machine interface affecting only the operating system 
be the same on all machines. 
This evolution points out that two types of requirements 
for compatibility have to be considered. In order 
that old application programs run on new machines, the 
machine, jointly with the system program, must ensure 
that the basic facilities intended for application-program 
development continue to be available. On the other hand. 

IBM J. RES. DEVELOP. • VOL. 25 • NO. 5 • SEPTEMBER 1981 

changes may be acceptable in those facilities that are 
available to and affect only a system program or that can 
be masked by the system program from the application 
program. Indeed, such changes have to be expected, 
since they make it possible to improve the performance of 
system functions. 

Such changes (as contrasted to extensions) have been 
introduced at different times into the System/360 and 
System/370 architectures. In the VSE mode on the 4300 
processors, the one-level-addressing facility replaced the 
dynamic-address-translation facility in order to improve 
virtual-storage management for small systems; it affected 
only the interface between the machine and the DOS/ 
VSE operating system that uses it. Similarly, it was 
feasible to phase in the extended-control (EC) mode, with 
the associated changes in interruption control and the 
PSW format, since the machine format affected only parts 
of the control program. The OS/VS2 operating system, 
however, continued for years to maintain the original 
PSW format in areas where the format was exposed to the 
user, such as in the trace information. 

Architecture control 

The design of a compatible line of machines required a 
strict separation of the architecture and machine-design 
functions and the introduction of methodology for the 
control of architecture. One of the major effects of 
System/360 was to establish architecture as an autonomous 
function and to introduce the management tools, 
discipline, and procedures for adopting and controlling 
architecture [9]. 

Recognizing that any differences in wording may imply 
differences in function, consistency is achieved by having 
only one specification of the architecture; it tells IBM 
machine designers the functions the machine must provide, 
and it describes to IBM programmers how the 
machine operates. The same specification is made available 
outside IBM as the Principles of Operation [16, 18], 
and is the only authoritative specification that describes 
the architecture. An analogous specification exists for the 
I/O interface [24]. 

A set of procedures have been established for the 
development of an architecture, starting with the conception 
of the idea and ending with the formal adoption of a 
definition. These procedures provide for the assessment 
of the cost and value of a function and for the approval of 
the architecture by machine and software implementers. 
Rules have been established about the extent of architectural 
compatibility [16], and provision is made for deviating 
from the common definition. 

Although the implementation of a line of compatible 
computers did not take an undue amount of efifort, the 
design and control of architecture proved to require more 
attention to detail than originally anticipated. Furthermore, 
experience with Systeni/360 and its subsequent 
extensions has shown that the management of architecture 
must be an ongoing operation to ensure a consistent 
technical interpretation and to ensure that the evolution 
of the architecture structure is governed by a consistent 
set of principles and a design philosophy. 

Conclusion 

System/360 architecture has provided the basis for a 
number of machine generations, and it has been able to 
evolve to respond to new technologies, programming-
system structures, and user requirements. This has been 
possible because of the soundness of its basic structure, 
the rigorousness of its definition, and the recognition of 
the autonomy of the architecture function. 

As machine, software, and system-design technologies 
advance, further evolution of the architecture is inevitable. 
Changes will be made to better meet user needs and 
to allow more efficient design of machines and their 
associated programming systems. Because of the magnitude 
of the investment in System/370 architecture, however, 
it will be even more essential to ensure compatibility 
with the current architecture for those interfaces that 
are exposed to the user and are intended for application-
program development. 



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