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

October 1975 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from December 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.

Country wide TP service planned:
A teleprocessing service being set up as a joint venture by J. Lyons, Lucas Industries and Computer Resources Ltd, could soon be the largest TP bureau operation in the UK. It is based on a formidable line-up of IBM mainframe hardware at two big centres. The smaller centre, in London, is based on the Lyons 1.5 Mega­byte 370/155, with 14 100 Megabyte disc drives, supporting batch, RJE and TSO processing. The bigger centre, at a Lucas Industries site in the West Midlands, has three 370/158 computers, one with two Megabytes of main memory, and the other two with 1.5 Megabytes each. The three processors share 46 100 Megabyte disc drives and 20 3420 tape units. This centre is devoted exclusively to time sharing and batch work generated on an RJE basis. Computer Resources believes that this total dedication to teleprocessing is unique in the UK. The consortium expects to win a lot of business from existing users of medium sized computers and sees them using the West Midlands bureau as a more cost effective alternative to upgrading their in-house systems. In addition, it believes that the size of the joint facility could attract interest from companies needing guaranteed and substantial back up as an insurance against any protracted failure of their own systems. CRL also believes that the majority of TSO business will come from mainframe users who are running expensive and awkward time sharing operations alongside batch work. (CW 474 4/12/1975 p1)

EMI updates scanner:
A new version of EMI’s revolutionary brain scanner, claimed to be four times faster than the original model, has been announced by the company. At the same time EMI has revealed that sales of its CT 5000 general purpose scanner, introduced in April, have shot up from16 at the beginning of November to 40. With a total value of over £10 million. Whereas the original scanner was built around a Data General Nova minicomputer, the new model, the CT 1010. incorporates the Eclipse. It has two scanning speeds, enabling it to carry out a scan of a patient's brain and neck in one minute or four minutes. The earlier model had a four and a half minutes scan cycle. The CT 1010’s new scanning unit allows patients to be handled more easily. The basic price of the CT 1010 is about £180,000, which is only marginally more than the £165,000 price tag on the original version, which brought in over 360 orders worth £60 million, most of them from overseas. The CT 1010 will supercede the original scanner, and already EMI is slowing down the production of the older model. Most of the orders for the CT 5000 general purpose scanner, which is also based on the Data General Eclipse, have come from the US. This scanner cost about £250.000, and can perform a scan in 20 seconds. (CW 474 4/12/1975 p3)

Asas to analyse stresses in North Sea oil rigs:
A further accolade has been given by the government to the research and development division of consulting engineers W.S. Atkins and to its Asas structural analysis program. Atkins has been engaged, under a contract of undisclosed value, to analyse stresses in the joints of North Sea oil rigs, as part of the government-sponsored Off­shore Steel Research project. Asas has already obtained government recognition in the shape of a development grant under the Department of Industry’s software products scheme. The latest contract may also have the effect of enhancing the product since, as part of its work, Atkins has been commissioned to add a visual display interface. This new software will enable a user to enter basic details of the geometry of the joint under study, a view of which will be displayed. Such specifications as the division of the structure into appropriate finite elements will then be input interactively and, when information is complete, Asas input parameters will be automatically generated. Results of the Asas analysis can also be displayed in graphic form. . (CW 475 11/12/1975 p8)

Message switching aids police forces:
General police communications work for the Kent, Sussex and Surrey constabularies, is to be handled by a message switching system, based on General Automation SPC 16/15 minicomputers and supplied by ITT. Installed in a new centre at Tunbridge Wells this summer, the system was ordered by the Home Office. Although the system currently handles slow speed traffic over the existing fixed telegraphic network, it could be expanded to include medium speed links to central criminal data records held on a mainframe configuration. A spokesman for the telecommunications directorate of the Home Office told Computer Weekly that this was a possibility but there were no firm plans at this stage for such a scheme. In West Germany, however, police forces are already developing similar schemes. Nine message switching systems involving 14 General Automation minicomputers have so far been ordered from ITT by West German police forces. (CW 475 11/12/1975 p32)

Growing success for Capics:
A cable routeing package, Capics, offered as a service by the Electrical Research Association, is proving particularly successful in the expanding North Sea oil exploration industry. It has already been used by two engineering companies on six oil platforms built for the Shell-Esso consortium, and the revenue from such projects to date is over £20,000. The interfacing of the package with the Honeywell Mark III timesharing network is certain to improve its usability in this as in other areas. Significantly, Shell is one of the first companies to have shown interest in this enhancement. (CW 476/7 18-25/12/1975 p1)

Interface provides a taste of EPSS:
An ICL interface unit for linking to the Post Office’s Experimental Packet Switched Service, and a Ferranti Argus 700S, which is being used in a job control language study project, are two new pieces of hardware which have just been installed by the National Computing Centre in its new Manchester headquarters. The ICL interface, which has the model number 8790, is built around the company’s 7503 intelligent remote job entry terminal. The NCC has a 32K 8790 equipped with a tape cassette unit for program loading, and a special circuit board which enables it to link four mainframes, via a 2,400 baud line, to the EPSS exchange in Manchester, which is equipped with Ferranti Argus 700Es. The 8790 was bought with part of the NCC’s grant from the Department of Industry at a cost of around £19,000. In addition to linking its own 1905F to EPSS, the NCC is making the 8790 available at a nominal cost to any of its members who wish to try out the network. In this way, the NCC expects to be able to gather information on the performance of EPSS. (CW 476/7 18-25/12/1975 p11)