Logistics and Transportation Buffs: My Tryst with Technology A Journey from Mainframes to AI - Part One

My Tryst with Technology

A Journey from Mainframes to AI – Part One

©Archie D’Souza

Three years ago, when my book Simplifying Blockchain Complexities was released, I knew that AI, ML & IoT would play a big role in supply chains. I knew it when I started researching for the book. It has indeed done so, and hence I felt the need for a second edition. This will be released soon. However, as I began my research, I came to the conclusion this book, while needing a second edition, a separate book on the applications of AI in tandem with blockchains in projects and supply chains was also the need of the day. Hence, this book.

The applications of Blockchain Technology outside cryptocurrency trading was in its infancy. No logistics player was keen on even looking at its use in supply chains. And, almost nobody looked at it beyond its application as a distributed ledger used to record Bitcoin transactions. But, we realised, and there were others also discovering that the technology has applications beyond cryptocurrencies. Since the release of the first edition, there have been several developments and disruptions in the fields of Supply Chain and Project Management. AI, ML and IoT are taking over at an unimaginable pace. The disruptions brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the US/Israeli strikes on Arab territories have caused most countries to rethink their supply chain. These disruptions will need tweaking in the way payments are made and new laws will need to be enacted to reflect the new realities.

I am today recognised as a Supply Chain & Project Management Expert, an educator, an International Logistics Strategist and a Private International Law Specialist. I’ve been serving global trade since 1978. My first corporate assignment was with the cargo division of Air India in Bombay, as the city of my birth was then known. But my professional journey as a logistician started even before that. Since my parents could afford to pay for my college education, I had to work and study. The first job I took up was during the SSC exams at our school. I served water to the candidates, being paid five rupees fifty paise per day. A year later, I passed my SSCE, and we had a three-month gap between the last day of exams and the college's first term. I filled air in a petrol pump and earned enough to pay through my first year of college. Later, in my first year of college, I joined a company whose office was very close to college. This was my introduction to logistics. I’ll come to that later.

Transportation has fascinated me from a very young age. Since I can remember, anything that moved appealed to me – scooters, bikes, cars, trucks, busses, trains and planes. I was also fascinated with anything electronic like, music systems, TVs, the Walkman and computers. When I was in college, we were still in the mainframe era. The top two companies of that era were IBM and Burroughs. Let’s look at these eras before we come to the AI era.

1. The Mainframe Era (1950s–1970s) - the Age of Centralized Computing

The fifties, sixties, and seventies together saw the era of mainframes. Banks, insurance companies, airlines, universities, school examination boards, and public utilities all saw computerised statements and prints. By today’s standards, these looked crude and were noisy. However, they were a great step forward from manual operations. The computer systems needed a great deal of floor space. If one looked at companies like Air India, the Shipping Corporation of India, LIC, State Bank of India, and others, which occupied the newly built skyscrapers of Nariman Point, their systems occupied full floors of buildings, each floor being thousands of square feet in area. The memory that these systems had was less than the memory in the laptop on which I’m feeding this text.

But the computer had started, and before long, we saw the introduction of user-friendly personal computers. But there was something in-between.

Defining Characteristics

Massive centralized computers
Batch processing using punch cards
Computing accessible only to governments, banks, universities, and large corporations
Users submitted jobs and waited hours—or days—for output

Important Milestones

1951: IBM introduces early commercial computers
1964: IBM System/360 revolutionizes enterprise computing
COBOL and FORTRAN become dominant programming languages

Human Experience

This was the era when computing was mysterious, expensive, and elite.
Engineers and operators were custodians of a rare resource.

My Personal Experience

First exposure to data centres and training institutions like NIIT and Datamatics
Punch cards or terminal systems
The culture of discipline and precision around computing
The need for huge floor spaces with temperature control.

Then came the era of the mini-computers

2. The Minicomputer Revolution (1970s) – Computing Moves Closer to Businesses

The introduction of the minicomputer was a foregone thing as mainframes required specialized rooms and technicians for operation. The user was thus separated from the computer. The mini changed that. It was designed for direct, personal interaction with the programmer. Mainframes operated in isolation; minis could communicate with other systems in real time. In contrast with much larger mainframe memories needed for scientific calculations and business records, the first minis stored only 4,096 words of 12- or 16-bit. Unlike larger computers featuring expensive input/output devices, early minis used only a Teletype or a Flexowriter and a paper-tape punch/reader. Minis were designed for process control, data transmission, and switching. Mainframes, on the other hand, emphasized data storage, processing, and calculating. Minicomputers that did the most to define the new class of computers were sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that incorporated minis into larger control systems, often for industrial processes.