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

20th March 1975 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from 20th March 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.

Locus 16s for radar check: A system for evaluating the operation of plot extractors at radar stations has been developed by Marconi, using modules from its Locus 16 system. One such unit is to be supplied to the Civil Aviation Authority under a £75,000 contract. In the past, analogue signals from radar stations were fed by radio to the control centres where they were needed. This information is now increasingly being digitised by plot extractors at the radar station, and then transmitted over telephone lines. The purpose of the new equipment is to monitor and assess the integrity of the data transmitted from the new radar stations, of which there are two so far in operation. The equipment will assist in the recording, analysis and calibration of the data, when the new stations come into operation and thereafter will be used for periodic analysis of the received data stream to ensure that that quality of transmission does not deteriorate. An S3017 digital plan position display unit will be used with the Locus 16 system, to which will also be linked a variety of data logging devices. The display unit will present symbols for the primary, secondary and combined primary and secondary aircraft plots. (CW 437 20/3/1975 p3)

Portable data capture unit from Plessey: With an enormous potential worldwide market in the retail, wholesale and distribution industries, the Plessey 1450 portable data capture unit, now announced, combines a light pen tag reader, a numeric keyboard and a magnetic tape cassette data recorder in a compact shoulder bag unit. This enables stock or order data to be captured quickly and accurately at source and transmitted to a remote mainframe computer for processing. In its development of the 1450, Plessey made use of experience gained from monitoring the effectiveness and acceptability of Plessey light pen source data capture units already in operation at many UK public libraries, and of mobile units used for some time at more than 200 of Sainsbury’s supermarkets for recording shelf stock data. (CW 437 20/3/1975 p32)