Formally, the Council-wide common base programme finished on 1 April 1985
when the programme was
returned to the Engineering Board from the Central Computing Committee.
Its starting point in terms of a Single User System initiative has its origins in the
Rosenbrock Report (1975) and the Distributed Computing Systems programme but the main
thrust for a Single User System programme dates from May 1979.
The main phases of the activities are:
May 1979 - Sept 1981:
activities leading to the signing of an agreement between ICL and SERC.
Sept 1981 - Sept 1983:
joint software developments between SERC and ICL leading to UNIX and other Common
Base software becoming available on PERQ.
Sept 1983 - April 1985:
establishment of a community of users running Common Base hardware/software.
Much of the early history and developments/marketing information in the
second phase was still Commercially Confidential when this
information was gathered together in 1985.
Figure 1.1 gives an overview of the information covered in Parts I to III.
Figure 1.2 gives the Chapter structure for Part I.
These Chapters are in chronological order and give a general background to the
Common Base Policy.
