Fifty Years Ago .... from the pages of Computer Weekly
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July 1976 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.
A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from July 1976. 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.
British Library database plan:
A group of internationally recognised databases of medical, scientific and technical information is to be made available for the first time on-line on a computer in the UK by the British Library. Many of the databases are currently run only on computers in the US, and when the first, covering medical literature, goes live in the UK in October, terminal users will be able to make massive savings in communications costs, while a much faster turn round will be offered to customers who now submit file search requests as batch jobs. In order to get the databases running as quickly as possible, the British Library plans to mount them on an IBM 370 which will be run by a bureau exclusively for the library. Negotiations with a number of bureaux “in London and the home counties” are now in progress. A well established record retrieval software package will handle the on-line service initially. The databases will run on the 370 for about three years, during which time the library, with assistance from Logica, will work on a retrieval system for the ICL 2970 it plans to install in 1978. (CW 504 1/7/1976 p1)
Enthusiasm grows for Viewdata:
The theoretically unlimited quantity and diversity of information which could be made available in the home and office by the Post Office’s experimental Viewdata service, has excited enormous interest in the project from both information gathering organisations and the television industry. Viewdata links the telephone and the domestic television receiver via a special adaptor and enables users to call up pages of printed information for display on the TV screen. The databases are currently stored on a GEC 4080 minicomputer programmed in Coral 66 and installed at the Post Office Research Centre at Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich. Over 70 organisations will take part in the pilot trial, and television manufacturers at present taking part include GEC, ITT, Mullard, Philips, Pye, Rank and Thorn. IPC Business Press, which publishes Computer Weekly, is one of the many information and publishing interests planning to provide specialised information on the service. Others include the Financial Times, Reuters, Extel and W. H. Smith. The Consumers Association, the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection, and the British Farm Produce Council all want to take part, as do the English Tourist Board, British Rail and London Transport. (CW 505 8/7/1976 p4)
Low-cost disc drives for 1900s:
Disc subsystems plug compatible with the ICL EDS 30 and 60, but much less expensive, are now available from Teknos Management of Uckfield, Sussex. The two systems are the DSS 30 and DSS 60, and the latter is to be demonstrated by Teknos to prospective customers from the public and private sectors in a few weeks’ time at an ICL 1900 user’s site. Teknos has already supplied three DSS 30 systems to organisations in Poland, two users are the Institute of Electrical Energy and the Poznan Politechnika, and more are on order. They are being used with the Odra 1305 built under licence from ICL. The DSS 30 and DSS 60 use drives built in the US by Information Storage Systems and supplied to Teknos by the Transamerica Computer Co of San Francisco. As with the EDS 30 and 60, the DSS 30 and 60 controller is very similar to the IBM 2314. Data is organised on the disc packs on 20 surfaces, with 203 and 406 cylinders. (CW 506 15/7/1976 p45)
More power to the calculators:
Both Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard have announced additions to their existing ranges of calculators. Texas has released a series of units for specific applications, varying from a low cost scientific calculator for mathematics students, to its first programmable unit, priced at £1,500, while Hewlett-Packard has substantially increased the capabilities of some of its most powerful small calculators. The new TI programmable calculator is claimed to have many of the capabilities of mini and microcomputers although it is based on a calculator chip and requires no specialist language. Designated the SR-60, the unit will be competing with Rockwell, Compucorp, Calcutronics and Hewlett-Packard equipment. The basic configuration includes 480 program steps, capable of expansion to 1,920 and 40 data memories which can be increased to 100. Short problems can be key programmed, but larger programs are easily written and may be retained on a magnetic card. (CW 507 22/7/1976 p10)
Varian’s Varicam scanner to enter US market:
Following closely on the heels of the success story of the EMI Scanner comes the news of the Varian Varicam scanning system. This is a UK developed medical package used for the examination and diagnosis of diseased organs. Unlike the EMI scanner, which uses X-ray detectors, the Varicam is based on the gamma camera. With the aid of a Varian V70 series computer this produces diagrams of an organ as it absorbs and reacts to the uptake of radioactive material injected into the patient. The Varicam is also different in that it can produce a three dimensional image of the item under examination, which appears on a coloured display screen, such as a conventional television set. The heat points within the organ are then revealed by their colour, while hard copy output is provided by means of a Varian Statos printer plotter. Costing between £40.000 and £50,000, the package has been sold to 13 hospitals in the UK, seven in Europe and one in Japan. The latest systems to be installed were those for St Thomas’ Hospital in South London and Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge. Varian’s latest move is to export the UK designed and built Varicam to the company’s parent organisation at Irvine, California, where its marketing will be handled by the organisation’s medical division. (CW 508 29/7/1976 p7)
