Evans, with Learson's support, won the battle, and the 8000 series was scrapped. IBM began development of the NPL, which stood for new product line. In a surprise move, Evans named Brooks to head up that line.
In November 1961, Learson set up the Spread task force to determine the parameters of the new product line. Compatibility was a key criterion. The task force moved to create a line of computers that would be both upward and downward compatible, meaning that programs developed for the low-end machines would run on the big computers and vice versa. "It was one thing to build a small, affordable machine," Evans says, "but quite another thing to build a supercomputer that had the same instruction set that allows each and all [computers] to run the other's programs."
Challenges included shifting from 6-bit bytes to 8-bit bytes, which would open up text processing as a computing application but also require a new scheme for labeling and routing signals as they traveled through the computer, and determining what type of circuitry technology would be used, Evans says.
To take full advantage of system compatibility, IBM saw that it also needed to provide a wide variety of compatible peripheral devices and equipment. That required creating a standard input/output interface, a concept first considered for Stretch. With the introduction of 360 in 1964, IBM simultaneously introduced 144 peripheral devices such as printers and keyboards that could be used throughout the product line.
Key to hitting the price-performance goals necessary to ensure the success of the 360 was moving to an advanced circuitry technology. The state of the art then was called Standard Modular Systems, which used individual resistors and capacitors attached to a circuit board. On the horizon was the integrated circuit, which eventually would revolutionize electronics.
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