31-bit computingIn computer architecture, 31-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 31 bits wide. In 1983, IBM introduced 31-bit addressing in the System/370-XA mainframe architecture as an upgrade to the 24-bit physical and virtual, and transitional 24-bit-virtual/26-bit physical, addressing in System/370. This enhancement allowed address spaces to be 128 times larger, permitting programs to address memory above 16 MB (referred to as "above the line"). Support for COBOL, FORTRAN and later on Linux/390 were included.
Instruction set simulatorAn instruction set simulator (ISS) is a simulation model, usually coded in a high-level programming language, which mimics the behavior of a mainframe or microprocessor by "reading" instructions and maintaining internal variables which represent the processor's registers. Instruction simulation is a methodology employed for one of several possible reasons: To simulate the instruction set architecture (ISA) of a future processor to allow software development and test to proceed without waiting for the development and production of the hardware to finish.
Channel I/OIn computing, channel I/O is a high-performance input/output (I/O) architecture that is implemented in various forms on a number of computer architectures, especially on mainframe computers. In the past, channels were generally implemented with custom devices, variously named channel, I/O processor, I/O controller, I/O synchronizer, or DMA controller. Many I/O tasks can be complex and require logic to be applied to the data to convert formats and other similar duties.
Time-sharing system evolutionThis article covers the evolution of time-sharing systems, providing links to major early time-sharing operating systems, showing their subsequent evolution. The meaning of the term time-sharing has shifted from its original usage. From 1949 to 1960, time-sharing was used to refer to multiprogramming; it evolved to mean multi-user interactive computing. Time-sharing Time-sharing was first proposed in the mid- to late-1950s and first implemented in the early 1960s.
