[{"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},[43,48,52,57,62,67,71,76,80,85,90,95,99,104],{"name":44,"slug":45,"count":46,"latest_published_at":47},"AI","ai",4663,"2026-09-28T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":49,"slug":50,"count":51,"latest_published_at":47},"Security","security",757,{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Policy","policy",399,"2026-09-27T18:39:02.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Deals","deals",261,"2026-09-27T15:30:35.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":64,"count":65,"latest_published_at":66},"Hardware","hardware",188,"2026-09-27T20:46:36.000Z",{"name":68,"slug":69,"count":70,"latest_published_at":47},"Science","science",148,{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",135,"2026-09-26T14:30:00.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":30,"count":78,"latest_published_at":79},"Software",91,"2026-09-25T20:55:00.000Z",{"name":81,"slug":82,"count":83,"latest_published_at":84},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",84,"2026-09-26T04:20:58.000Z",{"name":86,"slug":87,"count":88,"latest_published_at":89},"Startups","startups",76,"2026-09-25T18:33:59.000Z",{"name":91,"slug":92,"count":93,"latest_published_at":94},"Gaming","gaming",48,"2026-09-25T18:35:21.000Z",{"name":96,"slug":97,"count":93,"latest_published_at":98},"General","general","2026-09-26T17:02:42.000Z",{"name":100,"slug":101,"count":102,"latest_published_at":103},"Reviews","reviews",30,"2026-09-24T20:07:31.000Z",{"name":105,"slug":106,"count":107,"latest_published_at":108},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]