Early in 1980, a meeting was held with Logica to discuss some possible joint projects concerning the PERQ. The major ones were:
We also discussed the possibility of some development work associated with Ethernet. There was general enthusiasm but it depended on the arrival of a PERQ so no conclusions were reached.
Throughout the year, Logica kept SERC informed of their negotiations with Three Rivers. There was also an attempt to get Logica and ICL to talk together without success.
At this time, Bob Newman, one of the founder members of Whitechape1, worked for William Newman at Logica who was the main contact concerning PERQ discussions. Incidentally, William Newman and Bob Sproull of CMU had been colleagues at Xerox PARC earlier. Later, Bob Newman was to work with Prof Coulouris's group at QMC.
During 1980, discussions took place between GEC and RAL concerning a possible replacement for the GEC 4000 series. RAL had made it clear to GEC that there was a need for a 32-bit multi user mini to compete against the DEC and PRIME systems.
A meeting was held in May to discuss GEC's future plans. The PERQ was presented to GEC and inquiries were made as to whether GEC had any plans in that direction. Whether this had any influence on GEC is unclear. However, Roger Newey of GEC was heavily involved in the DCS programme. Later, when the GEC Series 63 was developed jointly with A B Dick in Phoenix, the intention was to produce an office version of the system as a workstation.
At that time, ICL had plans to rework the DAP using modern technology. RAL believed the DAP would be much more effective if it was available on a more generally available processor than the ICL 2900 series. Discussions were held with both DEC and GEC concerning the possibilities of joint developments. The negotiations arranged by RAL between GEC and ICL were unproductive with neither company being prepared to work towards a proposal.
DoI were kept informed of progress throughout 1980 by both ICL and RAL. Given SERC involvement, DoI were prepared to back the PERQ initiative with ICL if they could.
At that time, RAL were considering a pilot office automation project using the PRIME. DoI indicated that they would be prepared to fund an office automation proposal from SERC based on ICL's PERQs as their way of helping the collaboration.
Professor Brian Spratt of the University of Kent had a DCS grant concerning local area networks. Around May 1980, discussions were held with him concerning the PERQ. Later, in 1982, Professor Spratt became a member of the Computer Board and the initiative of the Computer Board to purchase PERQs was probably connected with this initial discussion.
