GEC release a low cost variant of their 4080 minicomputer designated the 4070 minicomputer running at 75% of its performance, British based Sintrom now offer an American made, fixed head disk drives with 1.25ms latency aimed at Digital and Data General minicomputers, Hitachi introduce a 16Kbit N-Channel MOS RAM with a 200ns access time, EMI come under competition pressure from US, German, French and Italian companies in the X-Ray brain scanner market that will eat into their £80 million earned business over the past 4 years, The Post Office’s Experimental Packet Switching Service (EPSS) reach a major milestone in exchanging data packets between several university computing centres, Tally introduce the modelM1315C paper tape reader/perforator to enable system designers to incorporate paper tape facilities into their designs, Rupert Neve of Royston introduce a Computer Automation LSI 2-10 computer-based sound mixing system that will ‘make studio engineer’s life a lot easier’ and after the earlier successful EPSS data traffic test, The London exchange successfully transferred packets between different mainframes, network interfaces and terminals from Queen Mary Collage, NPL, Computer Aided Design centre, ICL and the Post Office.

Staffordshire Police install a real-time command and control system using Ferranti Argus 700S and 700e minicomputers, Data Recording Instruments (DRI) claim a world first 12MB front loading single disk unit, Calcomp introduce a low cost model 836 table-top drum plotter in the UK to replace the very popular 15 year old 536 model, Electronic Memories and Magnetics (EMM) introduce an up to 4 Megabytes N channel MOS based memory system for the IBM 370/158, Euronet, a European data transmission network over packet switched networks, and having over 1000 terminals and 20 databases, will be introduced over the next 2 years, Prime introduce the prime 400 supermini to compete with the IBM 370/158, Digital PDP-11/70 and Data General Eclipse and others, and Muirhead introduce a held held data collection unit that can hold 64k characters in semiconductor memory, replacing and competing with existing cassette based systems from other manufactures.

IBM enters the Satellite communications business with a joint venture with Comsat General and Aetna Life, ICL releases the new smaller packaged and less expensive 2903/20 model, ICL delivers the first NIFU 9network Interface Unit) for the Post Office’s EPSS (Experimental Packet Switching Network), Applied Data Research of New Jersey, have released ‘Look’ that offers real-time performance monitoring for IBM 360 and 370 systems, IBM UK wins a £375,000 PoS order from Royal Arsenal Co-operative society, Computer Automation’s Naked Mini computer used to control self-service filling stations has been installed by Arco Petrol Company on the West coast of the USA, DEC introduce the System-20 to fill a gap in the interactive transaction-orientated market and will compete with ICL 2903, Univac 90/30 and IBM system 3 & 370/115.

J. Lyons, Lucas Industries and Computer Resources Ltd introduce one of the largest TeleProcessing (TP) bureau services in the UK utilising multiple IBM 370/155 and 370/158 main-frames and 60 100Megabyte disc drives, EMI updates its revolutionary brain scanner with a new version, the CT1010, that is 4 times faster, W. S. Atkins introduce the Asas Structural Analysis System to analyse the stresses on the joints of oil rigs in the North Sea, General Automation SPC 16/15 minicomputers have been installed to help with general police communication in Kent, Sussex and Surry constabularies and the The National Computing Centre introduce an ICL 8790 interface unit and a Ferranti Argus 700S for interfacing to the Post Office’s Experimental Packet Switched Service (EPSS) which is based on Ferranti Argus 700Es and ICL 1905F computers.

Whitbread to do a multi-million pound revamp of their computer systems to add on-line ordering via Modem connected VDUs, Honeywell introduce a new coaxial “Data Hiway” control architecture for distributed process control utilising several General Instruments CP 1600 16-bit microprocessor based systems, European Infomatics Network (EIN) packet switching system has passed its acceptance testing using 48K Baud connections between 2 CII Mitra 15 mini based packet switches, HP introduce their next generation of mini data stations with the HP2644A VDU capable of carrying out program preparation, editing, copying and tape-to-printer operations, locally, IAL introduce a Medus modular data communications control system for small and large networks to enable monitoring and switching of multiple V24 lines, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), via Triad Computing Systems to market their in-house developed scrapbook textual information system to operate on Computer Technology Modular One system and CMG Group is now offering the INTABS, International Terminal and Banking Service, an on-line processing service using Burroughs B4700 main-frames to London branches of continental banks.

Univac announce a number of new systems and add-ons from the low-entry 1100/10 system with a new Uniservo 14 mag tape sub-system and a new disk drive for 90/30 users, Ferranti is developing a heading and attitude reference system, HARS, for the Sea Harrier aircraft, EMI winds a £2 million contract to supply body scanners to the NHS, Home Office are consulting on a new system to handle mobile radio operator licences (e.g. Taxis) to speed up the current 4 month waiting time, Texas Instruments announce their 990/9900 family 16-bit microprocessors together with the first 16Kbit RAM, Intel release the in-65, a one megabit memory system to replace drum and disk sub-systems, ICL announce their low-end 2903/20 system, aimed at small businesses, which is a scaled down version of the 2903, which is now called the 2903/40, CAA award Plessey a £2 million contract to supply PDP-11 based systems for their PRDS (Processed Radar Display System) to replace the existing IBM 9020D, and British Rail open their IBM 370/168 based TOPS (Total Operations Processing System) designed to manage over 300,000 freight train wagons on their network.

The first Ferranti 700S minicomputer for data communications was delivered to British Steel, US company Corning Glass has released a PDP8 based Larc (leucocyte automatic recognition counter) system for while blood cell analysis, US company Electronic Associates Inc supply a nuclear power plant operator training simulator using Systems Engineering Lab System 32 medium scale computers, UK company Real Time Controls releases a Point Of Sale system based on Data General’s Nova 2/10 systems, a low-cost OCR readre from Datatype Corp of Miami, Florida is now being sold by British Airways, Police get a Honeywell 6025 based crime information collating system, The Post Office announce the GEC 4080 will be used to run the Viewdata service, an interactive information system via the public switched network, in competition with BBC’s CeeFax and IBA;s Oracle services.

Packet switching service takes step forward: Preparations for the introduction of the Post Office’s Experimental Packet-Switched Service have taken another step forward with the interchange of packets between the Post Office in London, using an Interdata…