Last month, the Mainframe Community said farewell to Erich Bloch. He was 91 years old and passed away of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Erich was involved with developing IBM’s first transistorized supercomputer, 7030 Stretch, and mainframe computer, System/360. System /360 enabled IBM to dominate the computer market for a quarter-century and this is the same technology that now supports many of the world’s financial, federal, and education systems.
Len Santalucia, Chairperson of Open Mainframe Project tell us, “It has been an honor to have had the opportunity to work on the IBM Mainframe for almost 40 years. The world and I owe so much to Erich Bloch who helped develop the IBM Mainframe and his legacy will always be carried on in our daily lives.”
To put things in perspective, just think of this:
If Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn were to shut down it would be just an irritation or inconvenience and the world would still keep functioning. If all the Mainframes in the world were to shut down, it would be a worldwide catastrophe. Airlines would be grounded, banks and financial markets could not function, UPS and FedEx could not deliver packages, and the Federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve, FBI, and Home Land Security would come to a screeching halt, to name a few consequences.
Today, the Open Mainframe Project will carry on Erich’s Mainframe legacy to the next level where anyone, anywhere will be able to access and benefit from the greatest platform on earth. Erich will is smiling down at us and guiding us as we embark on this next great journey.
Contributed Article by Len Santalucia
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