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

Summer 1970 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from the Summer of 1970. 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.

Ferranti win Argus orders from W Germany:

Two large export orders for the supply of Argus 500 computer control systems to Kalle AG, a major West German chemical manufacturer, have been received by the automation systems division of Ferranti Ltd. The first order covers equipment to enhance the direct digital control capability of an existing Argus 500 system as well as providing for the simultaneous running of off-line programs. The other order is for a much bigger dual processor Argus 500 direct digital control system. (CW 4/6/70 p2)

ICL install Etom 2000 at Stevenage:

Forming part of the on-line phase of ICL’s project on automated drawing office procedures which is under development at Stevenage, an Etom 2000 CRT display has been installed, linked via a 7020 terminal to a 1904E. Graphic Displays Ltd of Luton, who are now part of Kode International, now have five orders for the low cost Etom 2000, which ranges in price from about £4,100 for a basic system to £8,500 for a system which includes features such as a light pen and vector and character generation. (CW 4/6/70 p3)

CDC goes after Business Market:

Ever since the introduction of the CDC 7600 computer it has been Control Data’s avowed intention to extend its customer base from the scientific research establishments, educational institutions and public utilities which still account for the bulk of its installations, to the larger commercial and industrial concerns. Now this policy has been taken a step further with a series of announcements designed to demonstrate the flexibility of the computing power which Control Data can provide, and the ease with which users of 6000 series computers can switch to the larger 7600 machines. (CW 11/6/70 p1)

A Major Role for Computers on Election Night:

Assessing the impact of politics in computers has become in recent months, with the machinations of Sub-committee D, almost a full-time occupation. But with June 18 only a week away, it might be appropriate to take a look at the impact of computers in politics. Perhaps the area in which the public will be most conscious of computing in the general election will be on election night itself. As usual the BBC and ITN networks will be staging an all-night election circus, each with its own unique selling points to entice the viewers away from the other. Electronic aids, following recent precedent, will play a large part in this. Somewhat paradoxically, both networks will be using the same bureau, Baric Computing Services, as the basis of their computerised voting analysis and results forecasting operation. Beyond this, however, the two systems will not converge; Baric is supplying two teams to develop the different systems, and the BBC will use an ICL 1905F in London and an ICL 4/50 in Manchester, whereas ITN will be using Baric’s KDF9 at Kidsgrove. (CW 11/6/70 p10)

VDU System deals with orders from Booksellers:

Orders sent to Oxford University Press from booksellers are now being processed on five new ICL visual display units which have been linked to an ICL 1901A at the OUP offices in Neasden. With the new system, the customer’s reference, the OUP reference and an individual order is typed on to the keyboard. Books are entered by the first four letters in the author’s name and four letters of the title. The VDU displays either the only book on the file which corresponds to the key letters, or a list of all possible titles, so that the operator can select the correct one and key in the quantity ordered. (CW 11/6/70 p15)

Navy opens Tactical Games Centre:

A small country estate some miles from Portsmouth, Southwick Park achieved fame in 1944 when it was used by General Eisenhower as his headquarters in the weeks before the Normandy landings. Now as then, the estate’s official title is HMS Dryad and it is the home of the Royal Navy’s Navigation and Direction School. In May of this year, the Navy’s Tactical School, which was previously situated in Woolwich, was merged with the Navigation School, and was moved to HMS Dryad. The move was designed to draw the two sciences closer together at the training stage, and to enable the complex simulation equipment which was being built for Dryad to be shared by both establishments. Last week the latest point in the process of Dryad’s development came with the opening by Admiral Sir Horace Law, Commander-in-Chief, Naval Home Command, of a new complex of buildings on the estate. They house an estimated £2 million worth of electronic tactical and navigational aids, and entail a simulation capability of which Eisenhower could barely have dreamed. (CW 11/6/70 p16)

New Torpedo Guidance Equipment for Navy:

A torpedo guidance system has been developed for Oberon class submarines by Vickers in association with Ferranti and Gresham Lion Electronics. Designated TIOS (Tactical Information Organisation System), it is based on a Ferranti FM 1600B computer and, besides controlling all types of Royal Navy torpedoes, can be modified to handle air missiles, in particular the Vickers SLAM, submarine-launched missile. TIOS will carry out all the duties of existing torpedo guidance systems, but will in addition enable two simultaneous attacks to be made using independently guided torpedoes. It will display tactical information on a CRT console designed by Gresham Lion, and permits torpedoes to be guided either manually or under program control. It also gives the operator an overriding command veto. (CW 18/6/70 p28)

DEC extend range of PDP-11 Peripherals:

The range of peripherals for the PDP-11 computer introduced earlier this year has been extended by Digital Equipment Co to include a magnetic tape unit, a disc unit and a line printer, and the company has also introduced a new disc unit and a software monitor for its PDP-8 and PDP-12 computers. The tape unit for the PDP-11 consists of the TC11 control unit and the TU56 dual tape transport. The TU56 can store up to 262,000 16-bit words on four-inch reels, and employs a type of redundancy recording in which each bit of data is stored on two tracks. The TC11 controller permits direct memory parallel-word access, and provides for bidirectional search, reading and writing of data. (CW 25/6/70 p25)

IBM introduces System 370 Models 155 and 165 first in powerful new range:

With the announcement of a new range of computers to be known as the System 370, and the introduction of two central processors in that range, IBM has at last pricked the bubble of rumour and speculation which has for many months surrounded any mention of its forthcoming products. First deliveries of the two new computers, which are known as Models 155 and 165, are scheduled to take place in February and April respectively next year. System 370 computers will be manufactured in both the US and Europe. The 155 will be produced at Poughkeepsie, New York, and at Montpellier in France, while the 165 will be produced at Kingston, New York, and Havant in the UK. The 165 is, according to IBM, the most powerful IBM computer ever to be manufactured in Europe and Mr E. R. Nixon, managing director of IBM UK, said he anticipated it would “make a very positive contribution to our balance of payments”. The smaller of the two new computers, the 370/155, is up to four times as fast as the 360/50. The main store, which has a cycle time of two microseconds, ranges in capacity from 256K bytes to 2,048K bytes - substantially larger than the 512K bytes which is the maximum core size of the current 360/50. The 370/165, which operates at five times the speed of the 360/65, is also fitted with two microsecond core-store, in this case ranging in size from 5I2K bytes to 3,072K bytes. (CW 2/7/70 p1)

Automatic Test System to support Nimrod:

What is claimed to be the first computer - controlled automatic test equipment to go into service with the Royal Air Force has been installed at RAF Kinloss, Moray, to support the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod, a maritime version of the Comet, which is now going into service. The equipment is one of the Elliott 770 series systems developed during the past three and a half years by Elliott Flight Automation. It is the first of four installations to be used in the maintenance workshops supporting the Nimrod in service. Under the control of a Marconi-Elliott 920B computer, it will be able to test 34 of the aircraft’s electronic systems, including the autopilot, flight director and flight instruments, inertial system, display systems, navigation computers and mission recorders. (CW 9/7/70 p10)

GPO studies plan for Integrated Network:

A comprehensive and detailed proposal for a future integrated data communications system, incorporating both store and forward techniques and high-speed circuit switching, has been devised by Standard Telecommunications Laboratories and British Telecommunications Research in studies commissioned by the Post Office The suggested system would be based on 20 to 30 special computerised data switching exchanges located in major cities. It would be digital and synchronous throughout, and would utilise the pulse coded modulation digital transmission technique envisaged for telephony transmission. Thus it would employ the existing network of lines and cables. The long-term intention of the Post Office, according to the study contractors' proposals, should be full interworking within a digitised telecommunications network bearing both telephony and non-telephony data and other services. The proposed network could carry the traffic resulting from future expansion of the existing telex network, and any future new telex network. (CW 16/7/70 p1)

Improved PDP-8 model has Faster Memory:

he PDP-8/E, a new low-cost computer which will, in due course, replace both the PDP-8/I and the PDP-8/L, has been announced by Digital Equipment Company Ltd. Main features of the new machine are its re-designed architecture and the use of the MSI (Medium Scale Integration) technology as well as the TTL integrated circuits which are already used in the PDP-8/I. Some of the thinking which went into the PDP-11  appears to have influenced the design of the PDP-8/E: in particular the provision of an internal bus system called Omnibus, which allows the processor, memory modules and peripherals to be plugged into virtually any available space in the machine, closely resembles the Unibus system incorporated in the PDP-11. (CW 16/7/70 p20)

Post Office sets up Trial Switched Network:

Two important initial steps have been taken by the Post Office in its programme to meet the rapidly growing demand for data transmission facilities. This month the new Post Office Datel 48K service, the fastest data transmission service in Europe, which provides two-way transmission at 48 Kbps over rented wideband private lines, has come into operation. And even more important for the future, a trial switched network operating at the same speed between London, Birmingham, and Manchester, has been set up. The Post Office say that the success of the Datel 48K service will depend largely on the availability of suitable terminal equipment. The purpose of the trial network, therefore, is to give manufacturers the incentive to develop 48 Kbps terminal equipment compatible with Post Office equipment, and it provides a manually switched two-way 48 Kbps public transmission system and an optional simultaneous speech circuit between the cities. (CW 23/7/70 p32)

£7.5m Contract for GEC firm:

Five GEC-Elliott Process Automation March 2140 processors, worth about £1,500,000, will be delivered as part of the £7.5 million contract awarded to GEC Electrical Projects Ltd by the British Steel Corporation. The contract covers equipment for the BSC’s new three million-tons-a-year bloom and billet mill at Scunthorpe, which will be the largest in the UK and one of the largest in the world, forming a key part of BSC’s £130 million development at Scunthorpe. GEC Electrical Projects will be responsible for the supply, erection, and commissioning of the electrical drives and the computer control system for the mill, which is due to be fully operational by the end of 1972. The five 2140s will be interlinked in a two-level hierarchy formation in which one co-ordinating processor will link the production through the entire bloom and billet mill complex, and in which individual processors will provide control of primary and secondary bloom mills, a ten-stand continuous billet mill, and two flying shears. (CW 30/7/70 p16)

Siemens system to control London traffic:

An important Greater London Council contract for the automation of traffic control in central London has been awarded to the German company, Siemens, despite two British tenders from Plessey and GEC Elliott Traffic Automation. The order, valued at £759,000, is for two Siemens 306 processors of 32K and 48K 24-bit word capacity respectively. The configuration will also include two disc units, a line printer, punched card peripherals, and data transmission equipment which will be used to transmit signals to the 300 sets of traffic signals. The project will cover an area in the heart of London, between Victoria (in the south and west), Marylebone Road (north) and Tower Bridge (east). Data on the occupancy of roads within the network, traffic flow, and traffic speeds will be collected by an estimated 500 induction loop detectors, buried a few inches beneath the surface of the roads. The project - which is known as CITRAC, for Central Integrated Traffic Control – is due to go into operation in 1973, although much of the equipment will be installed next year. The GLC plans to build a control centre which will house not only the computers, but also the police supervisors who will be responsible for taking action in the event of abnormal conditions. The equipment will be installed initially at County Hall. (CW 13/8/70 p1)