Entirely by accident, I stumbled across this GoFundMe the
other day:
This guy (Joe George, organizer of “The Crusty Computer Club, Inc.”
appears to quite serious and competent, and he already has
a track record of rescuing (in 2022) a System/34, restoring it, and
displaying the working machine at the 2024 Vintage Computer Festival
Southeast.
It’s presumably this machine:
(from https://forums.atariage.com/topic/368319-vcf-se-atlanta-ga-july-19-21st/ )
and there’s a slideshow of the restoration at:
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zaneaw7tvb3ooo9fnwxsi/GertieHQ.mp4?rlkey=fjep4l8nv4munrz8jjf3ld9ot&e=4&dl=0
There’s also a post by Mr. George on the “Fosstodon” message board:
jgeorge Sep 25, 2024
We have a restored and fully working System/34 in the shop right now.
We showed her off at VCF Southeast in July here in the US.
I learned to program on a S/34 and worked as a Field Engineer
on IBM Midrange until the mid-90s. 
So I threw some $$$ their way. ;->
It would certainly be cool if System/38 CPF could be extracted
and preserved. I’m kind of surprised that Mike Ross of the
“Corestore” has apparently never been interested in making this
happen, even though he apparently has the means.
( Corestore collection: IBM System/38 ).
Somebody inquired about S/38 CPF on VCF last year:
and I replied and mentioned Mike Ross, and Al Kossow (of
all people!) chimed in: “Don’t hold your breath getting anything
from Mike (Smaug) Ross”. So I think there must be some
history there. ;->
Speaking of Kossow, though, many hitherto-obscure
System/38 manuals have appeared on bitsavers since 2020:
https://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/system38/
It may be that there will be sufficient material publicly
available in the not-too-distant future to create a S/38
emulator (but maybe not in my lifetime ;-> ).
In the following Usenet thread from a decade ago, the manuals
mentioned (which I’ve marked ‘***’) are now actually available
on bitsavers:
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.folklore.computers/c/SCozL_ewAV0
+++++++
IMPI (System/38 / AS/400 historical)
jfehlinger@…
Feb 22, 2016, 7:21:38 PM
On 14 Nov 2015 12:22:46 Mike Hore wrote:
On 14/11/2015 11:24 AM, Quadibloc wrote:
I’ve found a reply to an old post by Eric Smith of Retrocomputing that
gives some helpful leads:(begin quote)
IBM published a manual describing the S/38 instruction set in detail.
The CISC AS/400 instruction set is nearly identical. The manual was
called “S/38 Internal Microprogramming Instructions, Formats and
Functions Reference Manual”, pub number SC21-9037. It’s still listed
on IBMlink. . .They say it’s obsolete (pub date is 10/81!), but they list a price of
$32.50. Don’t know if they’ll send you one.Now that’s one that I’d love to get my hands on, but it doesn’t appear
to be available any more. And Googling for “SC21-9037” doesn’t give any
useful hits.However the Machine Interface (MI) manual went up on bitsavers
last year. . .. . .GA21-9331-1_System_38_Functional_Reference_Manual_Feb81.pdf
That’s the target for the compilers. It’s great to have that manual
available at least.
Those manuals (among others) were also mentioned in
an AS400 thread a while a while (1996!) back:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.sys.ibm.as400.misc/Sh-pOpWFfb8
++++++
We need (badly) the following S/38 manuals:
IBM System/38 CPF Data Areas, LY21-0570 ***
IBM System/38 Logic Overviews and Component Descriptions, LY21-0571 ***
CPF Logic Listings (microfiche) LJD4-300
IBM System/38 Functional Concepts Manual, GA21-9330 ***
And while you’re at it, pick up:
IBM System/38 Functional Reference, GA21-9331 ***
IBM System/38 Vertical Microcode Logic Overviews and Component
Descriptions, SY21-0889 ***
IBM System/38 Internal Microprogamming Instructions, Formats and
Functions Reference Manual, SC21-9037 ***
Does anybody have the microfiche?
It was quite expensive at the time it was available (over 10 years
ago). Something like $1500 to $1800. I wanted it but not that bad.
Still if would be great to go over.
Too bad these manuals are not available for that “open system”, OS/400.
Properly, all the “LY” manuals are “restricted” material. Only CPF
license holders were allowed to purchase them.
I think the OS/400 Diagnostic Aids manual is “LY” material.
++++++
Also, Mike Ross of “The Corestore” seems to have a System/38
in his collection:
http://www.corestore.org/38.htm
++++++
“System came with a very full set of software, tapes, disks,
and manuals - including the maintenance MAPs and MIMs.”
++++++
¯_(ツ)_/¯
