Original text for Project 2:

"A Rhetorical Analysis of Artifacts Concerning the IBM System/360"

I. INTRODUCTION

Announced in 1964, the IBM System/360 is a family of mainframe computing systems built for general and scientific use. System/360 was a marked improvement from their previous investment (IBM 7030, or “Stretch”) in the way that it handled the byte problem— rather than allocating bits at variable amounts at random bit addresses, it fixed bits to increments of 8, called ‘bytes.’ Memory was sorted by bytes and their addresses rather than variable bit amounts to optimize memory retrieval. As well as introducing other new standards, like the 9-track tape drive (innovating on the preceding 7-track tape, with an added parity track alongside 8 tracks, standardizing the 8-bit byte) and commercialization of microcode (saving cost on diode arrays by executing a set of machine code instructions on boot rather than storing them in logic gates), the System/360 also marked the start of IBM’s usage of hexadecimal float-point architecture. Hexadecimal float-point architecture differed from the previous IEEE standard of float-point architecture by lengthening the preceding significand and shortening the exponent. The creation of the System/360 was spurred by the large problem of system compatibility. One complaint consumers had was the problem of limited computer capacity— once computers reached their capacity of memory or processing, the only options were either to purchase another IBM computer of the same model for parallel processing, purchase a competitor’s computer, or purchase a bigger IBM computer. Larger machines were incredibly expensive and had the added labor cost of rewriting now-incompatible software. The IBM System/360 marked the first family of IBM computers that were compatible across models rather than being a single computer incompatible with other models. Overall, the IBM System/360 ushered in a new era of computing and changed the future of IBM computing systems.

II. NON-TEXT-BASED OBJECT

The above object is an advertisement released by IBM to sell the IBM System/360 computer to consumers. Although consumers are not meant to know about the processor at the core of the image, it is easily identifiable as a computer part. The processor sits on a background of bright red, cradled by a human hand and propped up by a thumb. The caption is in stark bright white, standing out from the background and exaggerating how the development of the IBM System/360 changed computing. The genre of this piece is advertisement. The exigence of this image is to sell the IBM System/360 to consumers using novelty and innovation. In advertisements, the audience expects to see elements of the advertisement that directly appeal to their lifestyle or appear to improve their life in some perceived way. Audiences want to either feel as if they can trust the company, trust the product, or are missing out by not buying the product (these are not mutually exclusive). The primary audience is companies interested in scientific/business computing, or families who buy computers for their home. The secondary audience is any consumer who purchases or reads magazines.

The bright red background is a symbol of passion and intensity, drawing attention to the advertisement, as it was initially meant to be viewed in a magazine. The lack of visual information associating the advertisement itself with the IBM System/360 adds a sense of mystery to the piece. It intrigues both the primary and secondary audiences; the caption adds to this sense of intrigue and curiosity by giving hints as to what the subject matter of the advertisement is. While primary audiences may already know, as they are assumed to already have an interest in computing machines, this device is more effective towards secondary audiences as they are completely clueless and their first exposure to the computer market will be the IBM System/360. The human hand, present in the majority of the picture, connects the audience with the piece by giving them a sense of control. The hand is a symbol of agency, seizing the chip and communicating the message of innovation by comparing the size of the chip to the size of the hand. The color of the chip, being white in contrast with the red background, and its position in the lower center of the image is meant to draw attention to the chip as the product being sold. The chiasmus between the background, the chip, and the caption draws attention to these objects with the difference in hue and color: unlike the hand, which is shades of pink and orange (hues on the original red), the chip and caption are in a warm white. The color of the chip cradled by the hand cannot be controlled, but the color of the caption can be: indicating that the caption and chip are somehow linked while setting them apart from the hues of the background and other features of the advertisement. All features of the image are meant to draw attention to them; viewers, regardless of their backgrounds with computers, are meant to visually glean the information that the innovation is important and worth investing in. The contents of the caption utilizes hyperbole with the “entire concept of computers” rather than specifying the changes in order to exaggerate the innovation behind it. Overall, the advertisement utilizes pathos in emotional connection, as well as color theory and symbology to effectively convince consumers to purchase an IBM System/360 computing system.

III. TEXT-BASED OBJECT

The selected text-based object is an article written by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Computing History Museum for their joint website, called “The History of Computer Communications.” This article details the history of the IBM System/360 and its development— from its business history (highlighting the executive decisions made towards developing certain features over others, like the importance of a standard interface) to its technical details (like the standardization of the byte). The article has a primary focus on the business and economic decisions made by the corporation, but still addresses the computing technicalities as a problem for the company to solve in the development of the System/360. The genre of this piece is an academic article in the larger nonfiction body of genres. The exigence is to inform the public of the history of a computing system that changed computer network communications. The primary audience is historians interested in information about network communications technology, and the secondary audience is anyone interested in the history of computing systems.

The article employs logos to make its point— that the IBM System/360 was a risky and difficult business decision for IBM to make, but that it ultimately transformed the market for computing machines, as well as the nature of the company. It covers the computer engineering standpoint of the argument by using the causal process to justify components of the engineering process and the features that eventually made it into the System/360, or even what the company learned from the preceding computing system, STRETCH. Its utility of statistics and dollar amounts in describing the company’s earnings and description of the consolidation of the company makes a successful argument by creating a chain of events; the development of the IBM System/360 is directly linked to significant events in IBM history, like the creation of the Data Processing Group through a unified System/360 computing architecture. The article also utilizes the number of IBM System/360 computers being sold per month in the temporal context of the argument; it uses the dollar amount to rent an IBM computer monthly as a baseline for readers to contextualize the sheer profits selling 1,000 of them monthly could do for the company.

IV. COMPARISON

Unlike the advertisement, the article rarely utilizes pathos, besides from the end in a retroactive standpoint. It describes the struggles audiences of the time had in order to achieve its purpose of informing the audience of the reception of the IBM System/360, an important component to describing the upheaval of the computing system market. The advertisement and its evaluation of the IBM System/360 is less credible due to its source and purpose; IBM’s purpose in making the advertisement is to persuade the audience to purchase or rent an IBM computing system, while the purpose of the article is to inform the audience of the history of the IBM System/360 and its effects on IBM. Metaphorical language is utilized less in the article (with idiomatic expressions like “war of words”), mostly because it would obscure the purpose of informing the audience, while the advertisement employs symbology and figurative devices to draw attention to certain ideas, as well as utilizes hyperbole to exaggerate the importance of the IBM System/360.

However, both objects communicate information about the importance of the IBM System/360, despite their differences in exigence. They imply the importance of the IBM System/360 in changing the future of the computing system market— whether from changing the concept of computing machinery itself or changing the way companies approached computing machinery and consumer needs. They place the IBM System/360 at the forefront of discussion and the object of analysis within their respective modes of communication, despite their differences in approach and their credibilities.

V. CONCLUSION

The IBM System/360 would eventually be succeeded by the next model in its manufacturing line: the IBM System/370. The IBM System/370 boasted silicon in its chip and introduced the idea of memory being stored on a single chip rather than a tape. Though it would inevitably fade into obscurity, these objects show that the IBM System/360 had a significant effect on the company— whether through how they interacted with their consumer base, their internal changes, or their impact on other companies. The IBM System/360 left a legacy that the IBM System/370 cannot erase.

Revised text for Project 2:

"A Rhetorical Analysis of Artifacts Concerning the IBM System/360"

I. INTRODUCTION

Announced in 1964, the IBM System/360 is a family of mainframe computing systems built for general and scientific use. The creation of the System/360 was spurred by the large problem of system compatibility. One complaint consumers had was the problem of limited computer capacity— once computers reached their capacity of memory or processing, the only options were either to purchase another IBM computer of the same model for parallel processing, purchase a competitor’s computer, or purchase a bigger IBM computer. Larger machines were incredibly expensive and had the added labor cost of rewriting now-incompatible software. The IBM System/360 marked the first family of IBM computers that were compatible across models rather than being a single computer incompatible with other models. System/360 was a marked improvement from their previous investment (IBM 7030, or “Stretch”) in the way that it handled the byte problem— rather than allocating bits at variable amounts at random bit addresses, it fixed bits to increments of 8, called ‘bytes.’ Memory was sorted by bytes and their addresses rather than variable bit amounts to optimize memory retrieval. The IBM System/360 introduced other standards, such as the 9-track tape drive and the commercialization of microcode. The 9-track tape drive innovated on the preceding 7-track tape, with an added parity track alongside 8 tracks, standardizing the 8-bit byte. Commercializing microcode saved cost on diode arrays by executing a set of machine code instructions on boot rather than storing them in logic gates. The System/360 also marked the start of IBM’s usage of hexadecimal float-point architecture. Hexadecimal float-point architecture differed from the previous IEEE standard of float-point architecture by lengthening the preceding significand and shortening the exponent. Overall, the IBM System/360 ushered in a new era of computing and changed the future of IBM computing systems.

II. NON-TEXT-BASED OBJECT

The above object is an advertisement released by IBM to sell the IBM System/360 computer to consumers. Although consumers are not meant to know about the processor at the core of the image, it is easily identifiable as a computer part. The processor sits on a background of bright red, cradled by a human hand and propped up by a thumb. The caption is in stark bright white, standing out from the background and exaggerating how the development of the IBM System/360 changed computing. The genre of this piece is advertisement. The exigence of this image is to sell the IBM System/360 to consumers using novelty and innovation. In advertisements, the audience expects to see elements of the advertisement that directly appeal to their lifestyle or appear to improve their life in some perceived way. Audiences want to either feel as if they can trust the company, trust the product, or are missing out by not buying the product (these are not mutually exclusive). The primary audience is companies interested in scientific/business computing, or families who buy computers for their home. The secondary audience is any consumer who purchases or reads magazines.

The bright red background is a symbol of passion and intensity, drawing attention to the advertisement, as it was initially meant to be viewed in a magazine. The lack of visual information associating the advertisement itself with the IBM System/360 adds a sense of mystery to the piece. It intrigues both the primary and secondary audiences; the caption adds to this sense of intrigue and curiosity by giving hints as to what the subject matter of the advertisement is. While primary audiences may already know, as they are assumed to already have an interest in computing machines, this device is more effective towards secondary audiences as they are completely clueless and their first exposure to the computer market will be the IBM System/360. All features of the image are meant to draw attention to them; viewers, regardless of their backgrounds with computers, are meant to visually glean the information that the innovation is important and worth investing in. The contents of the caption utilizes hyperbole with the “entire concept of computers” rather than specifying the changes in order to exaggerate the innovation behind it. The human hand, present in the majority of the picture, connects the audience with the piece by giving them a sense of control. The hand is a symbol of agency, seizing the chip and communicating the message of innovation by comparing the size of the chip to the size of the hand. The color of the chip, being white in contrast with the red background, and its position in the lower center of the image is meant to draw attention to the chip as the product being sold. The chiasmus between the background, the chip, and the caption draws attention to these objects with the difference in hue and color: unlike the hand, which is shades of pink and orange (hues on the original red), the chip and caption are in a warm white. The color of the chip cradled by the hand cannot be controlled, but the color of the caption can be: indicating that the caption and chip are somehow linked while setting them apart from the hues of the background and other features of the advertisement. Overall, the advertisement utilizes pathos in emotional connection, as well as color theory and symbology to effectively convince consumers to purchase an IBM System/360 computing system.

III. TEXT-BASED OBJECT

The selected text-based object is an article written by the Association for Computing Machinery and the Computing History Museum for their joint website, called “The History of Computer Communications.” This article details the history of the IBM System/360 and its development— from its business history (highlighting the executive decisions made towards developing certain features over others, like the importance of a standard interface) to its technical details (like the standardization of the byte). The article has a primary focus on the business and economic decisions made by the corporation, but still addresses the computing technicalities as a problem for the company to solve in the development of the System/360. The genre of this piece is an academic article in the larger nonfiction body of genres. The exigence is to inform the public of the history of a computing system that changed computer network communications. The primary audience is historians interested in information about network communications technology, and the secondary audience is anyone interested in the history of computing systems.

The article employs logos to make the point that the IBM System/360 was a risky and difficult business decision for IBM to make, but that it ultimately transformed the market for computing machines, as well as the nature of the company. Pathos is employed through the descriptions of consumer approaches to the IBM System/360, such as frustration over incompatible machines being a motivation for the creation of the new computing machine. The article seems to adequately cover all aspects of the rhetorical triangle, aside from ethos, as business is rarely ever focused on what is ethically right. It covers the computer engineering standpoint of the argument by using the causal process to justify components of the engineering process and the features that eventually made it into the System/360, or even what the company learned from the preceding computing system, STRETCH. Its utility of statistics and dollar amounts in describing the company’s earnings and description of the consolidation of the company makes a successful argument by creating a chain of events; the development of the IBM System/360 is directly linked to significant events in IBM history, like the creation of the Data Processing Group through a unified System/360 computing architecture. The article also utilizes the number of IBM System/360 computers being sold per month in the temporal context of the argument; it uses the dollar amount to rent an IBM computer monthly as a baseline for readers to contextualize the sheer profits selling 1,000 of them monthly could do for the company.

IV. COMPARISON

Unlike the advertisement, the article rarely utilizes pathos, besides from the end in a retroactive standpoint. The article relies mostly on logos and statistics, making it more credible. The only time pathos seems to be employed is in its avid descriptions of the struggles audiences of the time had in order to achieve its purpose of informing the audience of the reception of the IBM System/360, an important component to describing the upheaval of the computing system market. The advertisement and its evaluation of the IBM System/360 is less credible due to its source and purpose; IBM’s purpose in making the advertisement is to persuade the audience to purchase or rent an IBM computing system, while the purpose of the article is to inform the audience of the history of the IBM System/360 and its effects on IBM. Metaphorical language is utilized less in the article (with idiomatic expressions like “war of words”), mostly because it would obscure the purpose of informing the audience, while the advertisement employs symbology and figurative devices to draw attention to certain ideas, as well as utilizes hyperbole to exaggerate the importance of the IBM System/360.

However, both objects communicate information about the importance of the IBM System/360, despite their differences in exigence. They imply the importance of the IBM System/360 in changing the future of the computing system market— whether from changing the concept of computing machinery itself or changing the way companies approached computing machinery and consumer needs. They place the IBM System/360 at the forefront of discussion and the object of analysis within their respective modes of communication, despite their differences in approach and their credibilities.

V. CONCLUSION

The IBM System/360 would eventually be succeeded by the next model in its manufacturing line: the IBM System/370. The IBM System/370 boasted a silicon chip and introduced the idea of memory being stored on a single chip rather than a tape. Though it would inevitably fade into obscurity, these objects show that the IBM System/360 had a significant effect on the company— whether through how they interacted with their consumer base, their internal changes, or their impact on other companies. The IBM System/360 left a legacy that the IBM System/370 cannot erase.

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indents dont make themselves. you have to manually specify it with a property. which kind of sucks. but whatever. i didnt say that

this tabled style wasn't initially what the page looked like. i actually meant to stack the project textboxes on top of each other, because this page was made after the course writing revisions page.

due to a couple of formatting errors from me, this page ended up putting them on top of each other. im still not really sure how that works, but it looks nice and is pretty readable for comparison, so i might just... do that. instead.