Atlas Computing Division and Engineering: 1975-1984Jump Over Left Menu
Welcome
SERC's Engineering Board support at the Rutherford Laboratory in the period 1975-1985.
The merger of the Atlas Computer Laboratory with the Rutherford Laboratory in 1975 caused a major reorganisation on the Chilton site. Support for the ICL 1906A and FR80 moved to Rutherford's Computing and Automation Division while the Atlas Computing Division was created with support from the Engineering Board of SRC to provide a national interactive computing facility for research in engineering. The main user population was the UK Universities and some government agencies.
The two computing divisions at Rutherford were merged in 1979 on the retirement of Bill Walkinshaw. Bob Hopgood ran the new Computing Division. Support for engineers continued as a major focus well into the 1980s.
Information on this site has been broken down into 6 main areas:
- ICF: the Interactive Computing Facility
- SUS: the Single User Systems programme that was a major influence on the development of Personal Computers in the UK
- DCS: the Engineering Board's Specially Promoted Programme on Distributed Computing Systems
- G&A: the SRC Grants and Awards System
- STARLINK: the distributed Astronomical image and data processing facility
- Literature: key material available electronically for the first time
Many thanks to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) for hosting the site