IBM 1401 Symbolic Programming System: Difference between revisions

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The IBM Symbolic Programming System (SPS) was developed by IBM field engineers [[http://web.archive.org/web/20031215144652/os390-mvs.hypermart.net/mvs360.htm Ray Saunders]] 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." [[http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/1401.html 1401 History]] It was also used for the [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/1620.html 1600 series], the scientific version of the business oriented 1400's. As the 1400 series matured it [http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/ibm-1401.html aquired additonal memory] (to 4000 characters from the initial 1400 characters) and SPS [http://web.archive.org/web/20031215144652/os390-mvs.hypermart.net/mvs360.htm evolved into] the later 1401's "[[Autocoder]]" language supported by the later 1401's.

Both Autocoder and SPS were [[assembly language]]s using [[mnemonic]]s as a substitute for programming directly in machine language. As such they were among the earliest non machine language programming tools. An [http://1401.org/op-codes/ example] of the 1401 mnemonic operation codes is preserved at [http://1401.org/ 1401.org].

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==Notes==

"''[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, SPS, and later Autocoder 1401 machines.

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.