Fifty Years Ago .... from the pages of Computer Weekly

7th August 1975 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from 7th August 1975. 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.

The back-seat driver: Much of the daredevil fun left in the once glamorous sport of motor racing could be lost forever if racing teams follow the lead of Team McLaren, one of the world's top racing car stables, which is now using an on-line telemetry-based computer system to monitor its Gatorade-McLaren car as it tears round tracks in the US. McLaren chose a 32K Data General Nova 2 minicomputer for the monitoring operation, and the software for the machine was written jointly by Data General and McLaren Engines Inc of Detroit. The car itself is fitted with14 sensing devices for monitoring functions such as fuel flow, oil and water temperature and pressure, the ride height of the wheels and the acceleration. These are all linked to the Nova 2 in the pits via an on-board radio transmitter and telemetry equipment. McLaren will use the data output by the Nova 2 teleprinter to assess the performance of the car both before and during races and McLaren rates the accurate fuel level measurement facility as especially useful. (CW 457 7/8/1975 p17)

Domestic teletext by phone project: Viewdata is the name given to a research project currently under way at the Post Office. The idea behind it is that the telephone might be used to supply a visual text service in the home similar to the BBC and IBA’s experimental teletext services, which use blanking lines in the television signal to carry data which can be displayed on a normal television set with the addition of a decoder. In the case of Viewdata, the information would be fed into the home over the normal telephone line, and would be displayed either on a television set fitted with an adaptor, or on a purpose-built terminal. A small keypad would be used to call up the information, which would probably embrace the same sort of services as planned by the BBC and IBA for their Ceefax and Oracle services -things like weather forecasts, sports results, headline news and local shopping and entertainment information. (CW 457 7/8/1975 p32)