In the late 1960s and early 1970s, IBM considered modifying radically the conception of their computing environment to avoid a number of foreseeable bottlenecks in the 1980s given the predicted rate of change. This became the IBM Future Systems project.
Because it implied a major departure of the S/360 concept, which would not have allowed any easy migration from S/360 to FS (just as later no easy migration path would exist between the Apple II and the Macintosh), the project was dropped in the mid-seventies due to user resistance to products which were not forward compatible.
Although FS was dropped as a whole, bits and pieces of Future Systems technology were incorporated in IBM's mainstream product line:
the 3800 laser printer, and some works that would lead to the 3279 terminal and GDDM
the 3850 automatic magnetic library
the relational database approach for system files, implemented later in the S/38 and AS/400
the notion of automatic file migration without loss of identity as would be used by HFS
network enhancements concerning VTAM and NCP
Many of the ideas from Future Systems were later re-used in the IBM AS/400 line of computers.
External links
An article critical of IBM's handling of the Future Systems project (http://perso.club-internet.fr/gdrean/papers/EPROM.htm)
FS presents participants with a factual reality that can be altered and broadcasted as quickly as she/he streams her image into the digital arena.
FS also acknowledges the formula used by the producers of Girls Gone Wild: when someone mixes alcohol with the opportunity to perform in front of cameras, there is a strange eagerness to respond by the participant.
FS does not believe that the alcohol solely governs the performance, it simply enhances the same primal desire and/or confidence that humans feel while looking in the mirror at home or singing our favorite song on the way to work in our cars, it makes us less aware of an audience.
Using the same drivers and technology developed for the company's FS-3200 LR and Center channel speakers, this system provides the performance of a complete front soundstage in a single cabinet that features numerous innovative options for mounting on-wall, or on a rocker base above or below the display.
The cabinet of the Atlantic Technology FS-4000 is composed of acoustically inert, heavily braced MDF, and the speakers are magnetically shielded so they may be placed close to any type of video monitor without degrading video performance.
Lastly, it also includes Atlantic Technology's exclusive rocker base, which allows the speaker to be mounted on a shelf or on the video display itself, and tilted toward the listening area at any angle desired.
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