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

27th June 1974 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from 27th June 1974. 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.

London link to Arpanet enables otherwise impossible UK research projects to get off the ground: The London link to Arpanet is now in its eighth month of full operation, and at a Users Meeting in mid-March, no fewer than 50 representatives from 16 universities and 13 research establishments attended. Already several research projects have been started in the UK which would not have been possible without access to the network. So far 25 applications have been approved by the UK Governing Committee, which consists of Professor Peter Kirstein of University College London, Donald Davies of the National Physical Laboratory, and Roy Bright of the Post Office. Funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arpanet currently links over 60 host computers all over the United States, including Hawaii, and these range from the giant Illiac IV, now at Ames Air Force Base in California, down to Nova minis. In the UK the IBM 360/195 at the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory is also now a host on the network. UK access to Arpanet is via a TIP, Terminal Interface Processor, loaned by ARPA and installed at University College, London. The London TIP is linked via a line provided by the Post Office to another TIP at the Norwegian Seismic Array Centre, Norsar, and thence by transatlantic cable to a TIP in Washington. An experiment planned to begin in the summer will offer an alternative route, via satellite. SIMPs, Satellite Interface Message Processors, will be installed at Goonhilly and at the US ground station, and connected by a 56 kbaud digital channel operated in broadcast mode. Full details have yet to be worked out, but the British Post Office insists that the line to Norway must be maintained for the duration of the experiment. (CW 399 27/6/1974p24)