NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 1971

Vol 1  No 3
 

SATURDAY MORNING WORKSHOPS

The second Saturday morning WORKSHOP will be held this week (2nd October). Members of Staff are invited to come along with their programming difficulties for guidance, help, discussion, and so on.
A short talk on the analysis of variance package ANOVA will be given at 10 o’clock.

PLACE: Computer Room (T.B.1)
TIME: 9.00 - 12.00 am

Coffee will be available.
 

THE NEW COMPUTER NETWORK

A most welcome piece of recent news is that agreement has been reached with the Government as to the computer network system which is to be installed in the New Zealand Universities in the next two years. Burroughs Limited is to supply the system, which is to cost in the region of $3,350,000. Brief details of it are as follows.
 
1. Auckland

B6714 processing system with core memory of 81 k words; card reader (1400 cpm); paper tape reader (1000 cps); line printers (i) 1100 lpm, (ii) 400 lpm; magnetic tape cluster unit (4 stations); disk file storage with 80 million characters capacity; variety of other peripherals.
 

2. Waikato

DC1200 (terminal to Auckland) Data concentrator processor with console control; 8192 bytes memory; console printer/keyboard; line printer (400 lpm, 132 positions); card reader (200 cpm); multiline control; remote typewriter; five line adapters; modems.
 

The current schedule for installation is October 1972 for Auckland, and November 1972 for Waikato.
 

3. Massey

B6712 processor with 65 k core memory; card reader (1400 cpm); line printer (1100 lpm); magnetic tape cluster unit (4 stations); disk file storage with 20 million characters capacity; variety of other peripherals.
 

4. Victoria B6712 (same as Massey)
5. Canterbury B6714 (same as Auckland)
6. Lincoln College DC1200 (same as Waikato; linked to Massey)
7. Otago B6712 (same as Massey)

When our terminal is installed next year we shall be directly on-line to an extremely powerful computing system. The possibilities for extending our research, teaching and administrative capabilities are enormous. In my view many of us should be doing much more than now to prepare ourselves for use of the new machine. Over the last few terms increasing use of the IBM 1130 has been made, particularly by the sociologists, psychologists, geographers, educationists, economists and earth scientists. I would like to see more from the other subjects stepping in - where are the chemists, linguists, biologists, historians - why are they not turning at least a small part of their attentions to exploring the research possibilities offered by a computer? A small flirtation with the IBM now could lead to a full-scale marriage with the Burroughs next year.
 
 
 

J.C. Turner,
Acting Director of Computing Facilities.