[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-web-emulator-brings-ibms-1620-mainframe-back-online":10,"sections":41},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":30,"tags":31,"sources":36,"feedback":40,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":40,"total_tokens":40},7463,"web-emulator-brings-ibms-1620-mainframe-back-online","Web Emulator Brings IBM's 1620 Mainframe Back Online","A hobbyist project called retro-1620 rebuilds IBM's 1963 1620 mainframe and IPL-V software so it runs entirely in a web browser.","A developer has resurrected IBM's 1963-era 1620 mainframe as a piece of software you can run in a browser tab.\n\nThe project, posted to GitHub under the username pkimpel and named retro-1620, recreates the IBM 1620 computer along with IPL-V, a piece of system software also dating to 1963. It runs client-side, so using it requires nothing more than a browser tab: no downloads, no vintage hardware, no operating system to configure. The repository made its way to Hacker News, where it picked up a modest seven points and two comments.\n\nThat's a small audience, but the project fits a familiar pattern in software preservation: hobbyists rebuilding old machines as code so they survive past the hardware that ran them. Unlike a museum piece behind glass, a browser emulator lets anyone actually run the thing, poke at IPL-V, load a program, and see how computing worked before most of us were born.\n\nIt's not going to replace your laptop, and its ambitions clearly aren't commercial. But as a piece of digital archaeology, that's exactly the point: the value isn't in doing something new, it's in keeping something old usable.","[\"retrocomputing\",\"emulation\",\"ibm\",\"open-source\"]","2026-09-23T00:06:25.000Z","2026-09-23T15:34:15.830Z","2026-09-23T15:34:19.782Z","published",null,[24],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"Remove or attribute the unsupported claims not present in the source — the developer's full name 'Paul Kimpel' (source only shows GitHub username 'pkimpel') and the assertion of a 'broader body of work' building similar IBM and Burroughs emulators are not confirmed anywhere in the source material and read as invented context.","resolved","software",[32,33,34,35],"retrocomputing","emulation","ibm","open-source",[37],{"name":38,"url":39},"Hacker News","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpkimpel\u002Fretro-1620",0,{"sections":42},[43,48,53,58,63,68,73,78,82,87,92,97,102,107],{"name":44,"slug":45,"count":46,"latest_published_at":47},"AI","ai",4356,"2026-09-23T18:03:00.000Z",{"name":49,"slug":50,"count":51,"latest_published_at":52},"Security","security",716,"2026-09-23T17:45:30.000Z",{"name":54,"slug":55,"count":56,"latest_published_at":57},"Policy","policy",374,"2026-09-23T17:06:16.000Z",{"name":59,"slug":60,"count":61,"latest_published_at":62},"Deals","deals",217,"2026-09-23T17:13:12.000Z",{"name":64,"slug":65,"count":66,"latest_published_at":67},"Hardware","hardware",170,"2026-09-23T11:59:23.000Z",{"name":69,"slug":70,"count":71,"latest_published_at":72},"Science","science",134,"2026-09-23T09:00:00.000Z",{"name":74,"slug":75,"count":76,"latest_published_at":77},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",111,"2026-09-23T17:04:48.000Z",{"name":79,"slug":30,"count":80,"latest_published_at":81},"Software",84,"2026-09-23T17:28:13.000Z",{"name":83,"slug":84,"count":85,"latest_published_at":86},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",79,"2026-09-22T22:21:13.000Z",{"name":88,"slug":89,"count":90,"latest_published_at":91},"Startups","startups",66,"2026-09-23T17:28:38.000Z",{"name":93,"slug":94,"count":95,"latest_published_at":96},"Gaming","gaming",45,"2026-09-22T15:35:06.000Z",{"name":98,"slug":99,"count":100,"latest_published_at":101},"General","general",43,"2026-09-21T23:48:56.000Z",{"name":103,"slug":104,"count":105,"latest_published_at":106},"Reviews","reviews",27,"2026-09-22T13:00:00.000Z",{"name":108,"slug":109,"count":110,"latest_published_at":111},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]