Some
Highlights From Sabre's Long & Distinguished History
Sabre has been associated with TPF since before TPF was
born...since then it has always been in the background of the development
of TPF, from its beginnings as ACP, through the growing pains of Loosely
Coupling and Tightly Coupling, into the larval stage of POSIX compliant
development. It now seems that just as the butterfly of a
fully POSIX compliant Open Connectivity architecture for TPF, with support
for C, C++, Perl(!), Apache, e-mail and more is almost upon
us. Sabre is to desert the off-spring it has so lovingly
nurtured these past 35 years or so...
It would take too long to list all the significant
contributions Sabre and its staff have made to the history of TPF, along
with some early pioneers from other major US and European airlines they
essentially shaped the fundamentals of the system that has flourished and
continues to excel today.
This extract from the short
history of TPF, contained in the unpublished book 'TPF: IBM's Unknown Operating
System' can help to place Sabre in the context of the TPF world
that it was so instrumental in creating.
" To really understand the
origins and development of the
system we now call TPF we must take a trip back in time to circa
1940. We will visit a main ticket office of American Airlines in
Little Rock Arkansas, a growing company with growing
ambitions.
Here the basic control of flight reservation was a large
card
index around which eight or so clerks would sort
through the
index cards for the flight being requested. They each knew
the
number of seats for the type of aircraft being
used and by
counting tally marks on the flight card they could tell if
any
seats were left and give you your 'yes'
or 'no' over the
telephone. If your reservation was being made through
another
office it might take 2 1/2 to 3 hours to reach the revolving card
index via a teletypewriter network and some clerical
personnel.
In some of the medium sized offices it was
necessary to use
binoculars to view critical information
posted on large
availability status boards in the agents area. The absence of
a
red tag indicated that at least one seat was available on
that
flight. If more than one seat was needed a phone call
to the
back room might give you the availability which was again kept on
three-by-five index cards according to flight number.
By 1955 some automation
had begun to creep into larger
offices and American's first automatic equipment, the Magnetronic
Reservisor, provided remote controls so that the agents
could
search a memory drum and determine whether or not
seats were
available. Now within a few seconds
agents could check
availabilities but the posting of the passengers name, telephone
number and other information created a
terrific paperwork
headache. It was still necessary to record the passenger data on
the ever present three-by-five cards and a constant
river of
paper still wound its way on conveyor belts to find its place in
the back room.
For every agent on the telephone another was
required in the
back to do the housekeeping. It was a system and it worked but as
it grew adding another clerk no longer was
the answer and
American's management was constantly aware of the need
for a
complete change in the concept to handle an
ever increasing
volume of flights and passengers. New solutions were found
but
never a total system capable of keeping pace with the
service
that was gobbling up transportation time and reducing
days to
hours and hours to minutes.
If ever there was a
problem crying out for a computer
solution it was this one but it took one of those strange quirks
of fate to get the whole thing off the ground (no pun intended).
The story goes that American Airlines' then
President, C.R.
Smith, a giant in North American commercial aviation history, had
the occasion to be seated next to an IBM Sales and
Marketing
Representative called, coincidentally, Blair Smith. It
is not
clear whether the two were actually on an airplane at the
time
but it makes the story somewhat better if we assume they were...
Anyway the two fell into conversation after
learning of the
matching names and common interest brought the talk round to some
way of solving American's problems. C.R. Smith
outlined the
airline's needs and Blair Smith went his way promising to follow
the matter up. It was a mere 30 days later that IBM responded to
American with a proposal to make a study
of the airline's
problems and it was 1957 by the time the direction was firmed up
and formal agreements reached.
American Airlines
appointed technical and functional
representatives to work with an IBM staff of 75 and the
SABER
(Semi Automatic Business Environment Research) project was born.
In March of 1959 the initial program was proposed and
one AA
executive commented years later "It was the best damn
research
and development effort on the part of any company
I've ever
seen." It was much more than a survey of one company's or
even
an industry's needs; it was an entirely new concept which, it is
said, spawned IBM's 360 computer systems.
The SABER name was later changed to
the name more familiar
to us today: SABRE. The system was actually implemented in
1962
and reportedly cost $30 million. Initially the hardware it ran on
was an IBM 7090 processor, a second generation computer
using
disk files and specialized terminals developed for the
airline
reservation function. Also developed during this project
were
some innovations in communications
technology, namely the
concepts of line concentration and of medium and low speed
data
sets. Also the use of a front-end-processor,
development and
improvement of large capacity rotating
storage media (disk
drives), fast direct access techniques for data stored on
disk
drives and the techniques of writing relocatable and
reentrant
code. Most of these technical points will be discussed
in the
later chapters but it should already be clear that the need for a
fast computer system for the specific problems that
faced the
airline industry also contributed to the development of many
of
the features we take for granted in our computers today.
Two other systems which built on the
experience gained in
the SABER project were also developed in conjunction with
IBM.
One was the Deltamatic system for Delta Airlines using IBM
7074
processors when it was implemented and the other was
Panamac,
develnped with Pan-American Airlines using IBM 7080
processors.
Both of these systems were implemented in 1963 and
the only
fundamental differences were in their respective sizes. This was
important becaure since much of the system code at the time
had
to be hardware specific this meant that although the systems were
based on the same design there were some significant differences
in the code within them.
In 1964 IBM made two important announcements.
One, which is
probably more widely regarded as important, was the introduction
of the System/360 (S/360) line of computers and the other was the
start of the development of PARS (Programmed Airline Reservation
System). Based on their experiences with the
three airline
systems and the development of the S/360 concepts IBM endeavored
to design and develop a separate operating system which
could
function on any of the S/360 machines from the Model 40 to
the
Model 75. This operating system would be similar to the
systems
developed for the airlines but would separate the
'application'
processing (booking seats, availability etc) from the
'system'
functions like accessing the database and restarting the system.
By 1968 IBM had developed PARS and released it as a product.
At
this stage there was still no separation of
function between
Applications and Systems software but now a general package
was
available to all the other airlines to use on whatever type
of
IBM S/360 machine they chose (so long as it was Model 40 - Model
75 !?).
It was not until 1969 that IBM
managed to pry apart the
previously interwoven systems and applications portions of
the
PARS system. The Applications portion of the new
package was
christened APPS and the Systems portion became
ACP (Airline
Control Program) the forerunner of TPF. In keeping
with the
somewhat mysterious and arcane numbering schemes prevalent at IBM
this first release of the ACP product was called Version 4
(?).
Various other intermediate releases were brought out by IBM
and
the details of their contents are listed in Appendix 1, until the
last numbered release of ACP, version 9.2.1, in February
1979.
In December 1979 IBM changed the name of the product to ACP/TPF
(IBM Program Product number 5748-T11) and
quickly began to
eradicate the initials 'ACP' from all documentation.
This marked another turning point for the
software, now it
was IBM's 'official' belief that applications other
than the
airlines could and would benefit from its use. To be fair it was
probably more like the recognition that many other
businesses
were actually using ACP/TPF than a conscious decision on
IBM's
part to market it that way. Already such companies as
American
Express, New York City Police, AVIS, GMAC,
Federal Express,
Western Bank Corporation, Bank of America and several
consumer
lending companies were ACP/TPF customers alongside
the major
airlines of the world (with the exception of
Aeroflot, the
world's largest, although even they may become TPF users
before
long, 'glasnost' strikes again...).
It will soon become clear as we explore the
development of
TPF that an extraordinary amount of cooperation has taken
place
between both the users of the software, amongst themselves,
and
the users in concert with IBM. We have already
seen how the
three pioneering systems at American Airlines, Pan-Am and
Delta
were the product of a close working relationship with
IBM and
this relationship has continued throughout the lifetime of TPF up
to the present day. "
from: TPF: IBM's Unknown
Operating System c.1988, unpublished
Sabre was a principal partner in the JADE
development, which brought Loosely Coupled to the TPF world, it developed
and used 31-bit addressing years before IBM introduced it to TPF,
developed its own Tightly Coupled implementation, developed its own C
language support, developed the UON file addressing scheme (now known as
FARF4 & 5), developed a code-generator for the TPF platform (AGTPF)
and has always provided the most important proving ground for TPF
technical advances and innovations with its ever growing demands for
speed, efficiency and reliability within the most demanding
transaction processing environment on the planet.
What follows is how Sabre themselves describe their
history, taken from their website http://www.sabre.com
"For more than 40 years, Sabre has been developing innovations and transforming the
business of travel. From the original Sabre® computer reservations system in the 1960s, to
advanced airline yield management systems in the 1980s, to leading travel Web sites
today, Sabre technology has traveled through time, around the world and touched all
points of the travel industry.
1960s
The first Sabre system is installed in 1960 on two IBM 7090 computers located in a
specially-designed computer center in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The mainframe system
is state-of-the-art technology in its time and processes 84,000 telephone calls per day. The
initial research, development and installation investment in this system took 400
man-years of effort at a development cost of almost $40 million.
The final Sabre system cutover is complete in 1964. The telecommunications network of
the system extends from coast to coast in the United States. It is the largest, private
real-time data processing system-second only to the U.S. government. Once the final city
is cutover, the system saves American Airlines 30 percent on its investments in staff alone,
and delivers an error rate of less than one percent, creating a competitive edge that will
last for the next five to seven years.
1970s
In 1972, the Sabre system is upgraded to IBM 360s and moved to a new consolidated
computer center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, designed to house all of American Airlines' data
processing facilities. The upgrade and move to Tulsa are completed with a total of 15
minutes' interruption of services to the airline's agents.
The Sabre system is installed in a travel agency for the first time in 1976. By year's end,
the system is installed in 130 locations. Of the top 100 agency accounts located in highly
competitive markets who select automation systems, 86 percent elect to use the Sabre
system.
The Sabre system stores 1 million fares in 1978.
1980s
In 1983, Sabre expands its computer reservations system to Canadian travel agents.
Bargain Findersm pricing is introduced in 1984 via the Sabre system. This low-fare search
capability automatically advises which class of service is the least expensive for the flights
booked - a service unmatched in the industry.
1985 -The introduction of easySabre® allows consumers using personal computers to tap
into the Sabre system via computer online services to access airline, hotel and car rental
reservations.
1986 -After four years of development Sabre installs the airline industry's first automated
yield management system, which prices airline seats to yield the maximum revenue for
each flight.
The Sabre system is extended to the United Kingdom, paving the way for widespread
international expansion of the system in the decade to follow.
1988 - Sabre begins providing software, consulting and systems management services to
other airlines in areas such as revenue accounting, yield management and crew
scheduling.
1988 - The Sabre system stores 36 million fares which can be combined to create over 1
billion fare options.
1990s
Sabre introduces Sabre® AirFlite™ flight scheduling system in 1992.
In 1994 Sabre and SNCF (French National Railroad) install the RESARAIL™ rail
reservations and distribution system for the TGV network. The system is subsequently
extended to the English Channel Tunnel.
Sabre Y2K work begins in 1995 which involves checking more than 200 million lines of
software code, confirming proper interfaces with more than 600 suppliers, providing new
software to more than 40,000 travel agents, and testing more than 1,200 hardware and
software systems.
Sabre becomes a separate legal entity of AMR in July of 1996 followed by a successful
initial public offering in October in which AMR releases approximately 18 percent of its
shares to be publicly traded.
Also in 1996, Travelocity.com is launched - the first site to offer travel reservations and
comprehensive destination and event information on the Internet.
In 1998 Sabre forms a joint venture with ABACUS International to establish the Sabre
system as the CRS market leader in Asia. More than 7,300 ABACUS travel agencies in 16
countries convert to a customized new version of the system.
Sabre completes the largest system migration ever in the airline industry, when 200 US
Airways systems are shut down and shifted to Sabre systems.
Sabre launches Best Fare Finder pricing in April, 1999 - an industry-first software product
that searches for flights based on specific fares.
Sabre® Virtually There™, a Web-based system that provides travelers with up-to-the
minute itinerary and destination information via the Internet is introduced in November,
1999.
Sabre® Sales Manager is also launched in 1999. A software solution that enables airlines
to deliver customized marketing messages to travelers.
2000s
In 2000, Sabre® eVoyasm is introduced as the next generation of travel agency technology
tools, making it simple for Sabre Connected travel agencies to become Internet-ready.
In November, Sabre introduced Sabre® Aerodynamic Traveler™, a new suite of passenger
processing applications designed to expedite the airline check-in process and reduce long
lines at airports. From check-in to passenger boarding, the Sabre Aerodynamic Traveler
product family maximizes customer service by providing real-time access to airline
boarding data. These introduced new innovations including:
Sabre® RovingAgent™ wireless passenger check-in system. This product lets
airline gate agents use a hand-held device to make seat assignments, print boarding
passes and bag tags, issue vouchers and handle other routine tasks. The system makes it
simple for airlines to re-accommodate passengers who have missed connecting flights.
Sabre® PassTouch™ self-serve kiosk passenger system. With the touch-screen
kiosk, passengers can use a frequent-flyer card, smart card or major credit card to identify
themselves and check in. This product gives airlines an extra way to provide critical
passenger services without additional investment in real estate or human resources.
Sabre® Wireless Check-In System. This product uses voiceprint technology to let
travelers check in for flights using their wireless phones. A bar-coded boarding pass is then
transmitted directly to the traveler's wireless phone screen."
