The original delivery date of 20 November 1979 for the first PERQ had come and gone as had the delivery date of December 1979 for ICL's PERQ. Delivery dates had been slipped to January 1980 for both systems. Consequently, the year started with the anticipated delivery of two systems in the near future.
To a large extent, 1980 produced almost no advance in the situation. In retrospect, if that had been known, the whole approach would have been different. As it was, four interrelated activities proceeded throughout 1980. Firstly, there was strong involvement between SERC and Three Rivers concerning delivery dates and the problems they had encountered. Secondly, ICL continued to negotiate throughout the year with Three Rivers as the fortunes of the two companies ebbed and flowed. Thirdly, the knowledge of the PERQ was transmitted by RAL to the relevant SERC and university community. Finally, a number of peripheral activities associated with this general area were worked upon.
On the RAL/SERC side, the major people involved within RAL were F R A Hopgood, R W Witty, D A Duce and G Manning. No funds were available for the project as yet and effectively it was supported by the Engineering Boards' DCS and ICF programmes.
The next few chapters take the four activities separately in order to make simpler what was a very confused situation. The reader should realise that these events were all interrelated and many of the facts became known several months after the events had taken place. Figure 6.1 gives a general structure to the Chapters in PART II. To some extent individual chapters can be omitted if that area has no interest to the reader.
