Fifty Years Ago .... from the pages of Computer Weekly
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September 1973 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.
A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from 6th/13th September 1973. The full archive of Computer Weekly can be seen at TNMOC, where there are special rolling displays of front pages from 25 and 40 years ago.
BP To Use Argus 500s For Oil Work
Monitoring of off-shore oil production in BP’s North Sea Forties Field concession is to be handled by a duplex Ferranti Argus 500-based system worth £250,000. To be installed at an operations centre in Dyce, near Aberdeen, the two Argus 500s will each have 32K of core store and two Megabytes of disc backing store. The system will supervise drilling operations and control the flow of oil in the seabed pipeline to Cruden Bay, some 20 miles further up the coast, and the on-shore pipeline to Grangemouth where oil is either refined or shipped at the new deep water tanker terminal in the Firth of Forth. The operations centre will have alarm and data logging facilities, a plant mimic diagram and CRT monitors with colour displays for tabular and graphic information on the state of the remote plant on the off-shore platforms and pipelines. (CW 6/9/73 p1)
PDP-8 Users Benefit From New System
A new programming system announced by Digital Equipment, will, for the first time, allow users of their PDP-8 minicomputer to compile and run programs in ANSI standard Fortran IV. Known as OS8 Fortran IV, it is run under Digital’s OS-8 operating system. The Fortran software, comprising a compiler, assembler, system loader and run-time system, is available at a cost of £350. It will run on a minimum configuration comprising an 8K PDP-8 under OS-8, a console and two DEC-tapes. The entire hardware-software package is priced at approximately £5,700. The ANSI standard Fortran package provides many facilities not included in the previous Fortran system available on the PDP-8, using Fortran II. Among these extra capabilities are run-time format specification, and handling of arrays of up to five dimensions on the minimum configuration, with generalised subscripting. Format errors at run time, according to Digital, are notified by clear English statements, and debugging facilities are provided, allowing the logic path terminating in the erroneous statement to be traced. Virtual memory facilities are available, in addition to a powerful overlaying capability, and Digital claims that it is possible, using OS-8 Fortran IV, to run programs occupying as much as 10 times the real memory capacity of the machine environment. (CW 13/9/1973 p9)
Am-Ex Now Looks At Credit Card Terminals
As in most spheres of data processing the US appears to be leading the way in the development of on-line computerised credit card authorisation systems. American Express, for example, is at present evaluating a retail-type terminal called Amcat, manufactured in the US by Addressograph-Multigraph Data Systems, which can be installed in shops, hotels and restaurants and which is designed to read the magnetically encoded credit cards now held by all Am-Ex users in the US. Am-Ex customers at outlets using Amcat have their account number read from their card and transmitted automatically to an Am-Ex mainframe computer system at the local authorisation centre. The amount involved is entered via a keyboard on the terminal and if the computer authorises a transaction Amcat automatically imprints a receipt for the customer. (CW13/9/1973 p27)
GEC Moves Into The Cash Card Market
The magnetic money company, Revenue Systems, set up with £80,000 worth of NRDC and TDC capital four years ago, has been acquired by GEC-Elliot Automation, part of the GEC empire. Earlier this year the company had been declared insolvent after struggling for several months to make its first user system, installed at a self-service garage in Reading, operational. The business, setup to exploit the potential of a cash card the value of which could be magnetically encoded on the card and electronically altered after each transaction, was placed in the hands of the receiver and negotiations began with several interested companies. GEC had been attracted for some time by the possibilities of magnetically encoded cards and by the movement towards cashless money systems and the company was well aware of the potential in this area. At present the big oil companies are embarked on a large investment programme in self-service garages in a bid to slash operating costs, and the Revenue Systems card-operated pump could easily fit into this programme. At large manned stations, the number of cars handled could be greatly increased by converting some of the pumps to self-service operation. Motorists using the garage could then buy a cash card at a discount and use it to unlock the pump. The value of petrol taken would be automatically debited and the motorist could use the card until its value was exhausted. At smaller country stations such pumps would permit unmanned operation at night to provide 24-hour service. (CW 13/9/1973 p48)