<p>In many ways, the modern computer era began in the New Englander Motor Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut.</p><p>It was there in 1961 that a task force of top IBM engineers met in secret to figure out how to build the next-generation IBM computer.</p><p>A new design was sorely needed. IBM already sold a number of successful though entirely separate computer lines, but they were becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and update.</p><p>"IBM in a sense was collapsing under the weight of having to support these multiple incompatible product lines," said Dag Spicer, chief content officer for the Computer History Museum, which maintains a digital archive on the creation and success of the System/360.</p><p><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2140220/the-mainframe-turns-50-or-why-the-ibm-system360-launch-was-the-dawn-of-enterprise-it.html">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/5239/20140404/ibms-big-iron-mainframe-celebrates-big-50.htm">IBM&#039;s Big Iron, the Mainframe, celebrates the Big 50 this month</a> (Tech Times)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=d-16hIEAFQeVbHMPiIRkMpqL5vKwM&authuser=0&ned=us">30 additional articles.</a></p>