A Blast from the past – Big Iron Computing

I just came across this post, that describes in detail the steps I used to have to take to get a GPSS program running in 1966 on an IBM 7094 hidden away in a nondescript IBM Victoria office block. The only bits missing were the tight security checks that had to be passed before filling out all the  paperwork and depositing the precious (huge) stack of cards.

In case you wonder GPSS was an IBM program that enabled the user to set up simulation models of any ‘Monte Carlo queueing’ activity such as for example the optimum number of checkouts required at supermarkets. At the time I was a young engineer running it to get the design parameters for a new jetty complex handling everything from barges to supertankers.