From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: (http://www.foldoc.org/, Editor Denis Howe)
The generic name for the CPUs and architecture released by IBM in 1964. The 360 was marketed as a general purpose computer with 'all round' functionality - hence 360 (degrees).
Models ranged from the 360/20 to the 360/65 and later the 360/95, with typical memory configurations from 16K to 1024K.
The 360 architecture was based on an 8-bit byte, 16 general purpose registers, 24-bit addressing, and a PSW (Program Status Word) including a location counter.
Gene Amdahl, then an IBM employee, is generally acknowledged as the 360's chief architect. He later went on to found Amdahl Corporaton, a manufacture of PCMmainframe equipment.
The 360's predecessors were the smaller IBM 1401 and the large IBM 7090 series.