Maestro I

[4] Early programming processes relied on entering code and test data in paper tape or punched cards.

ISPF required entering code a page at a time, decreasing the immediacy of feedback; Maestro aimed to solve this by feeding each keystroke directly to the CPU.

The development of Maestro was co-funded by the German government, with the objective of creating a hardware and software programming tool rentable for 1000 Deutsche Mark a month, about the same as a one family house in the Munich area at the time.

The biggest purchaser became the Bank of America who ordered 24 Maestro-computers with 576 terminals for its 10.000 programmers in their San Francisco computing center.

Maestro used the Philips (Apeldoorn, the Netherlands) X1150 Data Entry system, which was built on a Four-Phase (Cupertino, California) IV/70 processor.