IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming System: Difference between revisions

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{{about|The IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming System | The IBM 1620 Symbolic Programming System | IBM 1620#Software}}

The '''IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming System''' (SPS) was an [[assembly language#Assembler|assembler]] that was developed by the Applied Programming Department of IBM as an alternative to the use of [[machine code]] for the [[IBM 1401]] computer, the first of the [[IBM 1400 series]]. One source indicates that "This programming system was announced by IBM with the machine.".<ref>[http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/1401.html 1401 History]</ref> As the 1400 series matured it [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/ibm-1401.html acquired additional memory options] (from the initial 4000, increasing to 16000 characters) and SPS was replaced by the "[[Autocoder]]" language in most installations.

{{more footnotes|date=May 2017}}

{{one source |date=April 2024}}

The '''IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming System''' ('''SPS''') was an [[assembly language#Assembler|assembler]] that was developed by the[[Gary Mokotoff]], IBM Applied Programming Department of IBM as an alternative to the use of [[machine code]], for the [[IBM 1401]] computer, the first of the [[IBM 1400 series]]. One source indicates that "This programming system was announced by IBM with the machine.".<ref>[httphttps://www.columbia.edu/aciscu/historycomputinghistory/1401.html 1401 History]</ref> As the 1400 series matured it [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/ibm-1401.html acquired additional memory options] (from the initial 4000, increasing to 16000 characters) and SPS was replaced by the "[[Autocoder]]" language in most installations.

SPS-1 could run on a low-end machine with 1.4K memory, SPS-2 required at least 4K memory.

Both Autocoder and SPS were [[assembly language]]s using [[mnemonic]]s as a substitute for programming directly in [[machine code|machine language]]. A copy of the IBM 1401 Autocoder specifications including mnemonic operation codes is preserved at bitsavers.org.<ref>[http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/140x/J24-1434-2_autocoderSpec_61.pdf IBM 1401 DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM BULLETIN – AUTOCODER SPECIFICATIONS], 1961</ref> A copy of the source programs for SPS-1, SPS-2 and Autocoder was donated to the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, by [[Gary Mokotoff]] author of SPS and coauthor of Autocoder.<ref>http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa;cc=umfa;rgn=main;view=text;didno=cbi00093</ref>

:SPS-1 punched one card for each input instruction in its first pass and this deck had to be read during pass 2. At the University of Chicago and many other locations, SPS-1 was replaced by assemblers taking advantage of the commonly available 4K memory configuration to pack the output of pass one into several instructions per card. Other assemblers were written which placed the pass one output into memory for small programs.

As the 1400 series matured additional assemblers, programming languages and report generators became available, replacing SPS in most sites.

==See also==

* [[Autocoder]]

* [[FARGO (programming language)]]

==References==

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==External links==

*[httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20100711134752/http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/140x/C24-1480-0_1401symbPgmSys.pdf] IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming Systems: SPS-1 and SPS-2, C20-1480-0]

*"''[http://www.multicians.org/thvv/1401s.html 1401s I have known]''" by [[Tom Van Vleck]] includes a description of an operating environment including both early,1401 SPS, and later Autocoder 1401 machines.

*{{Citation|title=Gary Mokotoff Collection of IBM 1401 Program Listings, 1959-1961|url=http://discover.lib.umn.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=umfa;cc=umfa;rgn=main;view=text;didno=cbi00093}}

*An Encyclopedia of Computer Languages article entitled "[http://hopl.murdoch.edu.au/showlanguage2.prx?exp=3872 Autocoder III]" preserves information from the 1961 announcement of Autocoder programming capabilities for the expanded, 4,000 positions of core memory, IBM 1401.

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