Conclusion

55. FINALE

This project raised a number of issues within SERC in 1985:

1. Extension of Common Base: the need to have a common base, not just for single user systems, but one embracing mainframes to micros, is an issue that the newly appointed Director of Computing needs to address. Making UNIX the standard operating system with FORTRAN and PASCAL as languages and NAG, GKS as libraries would be a powerful common base across SERC's computing facilities and would stop the fragmentation of effort on non-standard systems as diverse as VAX/VMS and IBM/MVS.

2. SERC Committee Structure: it is clear that the individual Committees and the Boards themselves did not have the same appreciation of the objectives of the Common Base Project as did Council (Section 14.5). Also the Boards seemed unaware of the commitments agreed at Council. For projects of national significance, this should not happen again. Council should ensure that commitments made must be sustained.

3. Value for Money: This history has shown that the Boards got good value for money for the equipment it purchased. It would not get a similar service any other way without a significant increase in cost. The Programme itself has been shown to be cost-effective and has made considerable savings for all the Boards. A firmer commitment from the Boards would have accelerated the availability of software and decreased the timescales on a number of projects.

   The lack of impact on specific communities was mainly due to an imperfect understanding of the objectives of the programme by the Boards and their Committees. A more vigorous approach by the Committees would have seen more worthwhile returns on their investment.

POSTSCRIPT

The text above was written in December 1985. What happened after that?

• In 1984, STC acquired ICL and Robb Wilmot left. Peter Bonfield, who had joined the Board with Wilmot in 1981 from Texas Instruments became Managing Director in 1984 and Chairman in 1985. (An interesting coincidence is that Bob Hopgood and Peter Bonfield both lived in Baldock in their early years in the same road and Geoff Manning was evacuated to Baldock during the Second World War.)
• Geoff Manning left RAL to head a company set up by ICL to market the mini-DAP taking Cliff Pavelin with him.
• In 1986, Bill Poduska and others left Apollo to develop a new super workstation called Stellar
• The upward surge of Sun caused Three Rivers to close down in 1986.
• In 1989, Apollo were acquired by Hewlett Packard.
• At the end of 1982, Sun had started delivering SUN1 systems. SUN's turnover in 1983 was $8M. SERC's purchases from ICL were in excess of that and SERC's purchases were less than 10% of ICL's total sales.
• SUN survived and became the dominant workstation manufacturer:
  • 1984: $39M
  • 1985: $115M
  • 1986: $538M
  • 1987: $1052M
• ICL and Three Rivers had a unique opportunity to become the dominant workstation manufacturer world-wide. ICL's manufacturing capability far exceeded SUN's even by 1987. ICL's global sales network was already in place and, in many countries, they were the preferred supplier. The basic Common Base strategy was right.
• But ICL never managed to get the company as a whole to support the initiative. Some saw the future as the combined phone and PC on the desk (One Per Desk). Others still believed in the mainframe market surviving.