FROM January 1st, 1963, the Ferranti Atlas at Manchester University will be employed for one shift per day on commercial and scientific service bureau work. Despite the high capital cost (approximately £2, million) of this particular computer, the price of performing specific jobs on it will be no greater than on other, less powerful, computing systems. In fact, the cost will normally be much less. Consequently small as well as large firms will be able to make use of the services offered. Moreover, it is envisaged that Atlas will prove suitable for carrying out the full range of commercial work now performed by other digital computers, plus new jobs that have proved to be too big for the existing range of machines.
Small jobs, as well as extensive data processing procedures, can be performed economically on Atlas because it can complete the tasks in a much shorter time than slower, though cheaper computers. For example, the central computing and control unit of Atlas handles data approximately 300 times faster than the corresponding unit of Pegasus. When performing data processing routines involving magnetic tapes, Atlas is from 30 to 80 times faster than Pegasus. Furthermore, several unrelated programmes can be performed simultaneously upon Atlas, whereas most computers in current use can only handle one job at a time. Thus although the hire charge for Atlas is considerable - £750 per hour against £60 per hour for Pegasus II - the cost per unit of work performed in all probability will be lower.
In practice, it is unlikely that many companies will wish to have the exclusive use of Atlas. A more likely situation is that a customer will only wish to utilize a portion of the available data processing capacity. Therefore his work can be performed concurrently with jobs for other firms. Customers will only be charged for the proportion of the total computing facilities used, hence, it is more accurate to say that the revenue earning capacity of Atlas is £750 an hour rather than equate this figure to the hire charge.
Employing such a machine on several jobs simultaneously creates problems when hire charges have to be assessed. In essence, however, a customer will pay for the peripheral required for his particular programme, plus the number of computer instructions obeyed while carrying out the procedure. A list of typical charges is given in the accompanying table.
Commercial work now performed on existing computers which could also be carried out on Atlas include the preparation of sales statistics and the analysis of costs. Payrolls - especially for smaller companies - is another type of work which Atlas could tackle. Stock control is yet another.
Although it is customary to classify data processing work as either scientific or commercial, a better division would be obtained by describing work as either mathematical or non-mathematical. Actuarial calculations are typical of commercial jobs that could be classed as mathematical. Atlas will enable actuarial calculations to be undertaken which because of their length and complexity have not tackled previously.
The speed with which Atlas can handle data also means that jobs that have never been performed before because, maybe, the amount of data that had to be stored was too large, or the calculations were too lengthy, can now be undertaken. Typical of these are simulation studies in which, for example, the working of a factory can be imitated and the effects of changes in the layout of the plant or equipment used for production can be studied without actually carrying out the experiment on the functioning organization. Economic models of marketing situations can also be devised and used on a computer to determine how certain changes in say, sales marketing policy would alter the finances of the firm. In fact, work is now being conducted to discover if the economic situation of an entire country can be simulated on a computer.
Another industrial administrative job that has never been successfully solved is that of production control. Several experimental schemes utilizing computers have been operated but unless grossly simplified or restricted in extent the amount of information to be handled can seldom be accommodated on one machine. Atlas with its extensive computing store of 100,000 words capacity or more, should be in a better position to undertake such work.
When complete, the Atlas installation at Manchester University will comprise: four paper-tape consoles (each equipped with one tape punch and one tape reader); two monitor teleprinters; an Anelex line printer (this unit prints lines containing up to 120 characters at the rate of 1,000 lines a minute - a second line printer may be fitted later); an I.C.T. 80-column punched-card reader; an I.C.T. 80-column card punch; and eight magnetic-tape decks connected to the central processing assembly by eight independent communication channels.
An unusual feature of the installation is that remote paper-tape data input/output stations are to be connected by telephone circuits to Manchester University's Atlas. Data will be transmitted over these circuits at the nominal rate of 100 characters per second. One of these computer outstations will be situated in the Manchester College of Technology (the feasibility of direct data transmission to and from Atlas will be proved on this equipment). Another station will be sited at Edinburgh University, and a third in the offices of a large industrial company located in London. In addition, a data transmission link will be provided between Ferranti's London Computer Centre at Newman Street and the Atlas. Initially all information transmitted from the outstations will be perforated in paper tape on receipt at the computing centre. Input data will be supplied to the computer on this tape. In a similar manner, results derived by the computer will be recorded in punched paper tape and then transmitted to the appropriate outstation where the information will be reproduced in another paper tape. At a later date, it is proposed that information transmitted from some of these outstations will be entered directly into the computer and the results transmitted directly back and punched out without any intermediate data transcription operations taking place.
All input data for Atlas and the computed results will be recorded on magnetic tape. Transcribing data from punched tape or cards to magnetic tape or vice versa will be carried out by programmes that are run on Atlas concurrently with others. Because such data trans-scription tasks only utilize a very small portion of the capacity of the Atlas central control unit, they can be regarded as being carried out independently of the machine - that is off-line.
The computing service bureau of Ferranti will use Atlas for approximately one working shift per day. Manchester University will use the machine for the remaining operating time available. Work for other Universities will also be handled and administered by Manchester University. Except for a few special cases, all other service bureau work will be arranged by Ferranti Limited.
Unit Charge Paper tape reader 3s per block of 512 words - 4,096 characters Paper tape punch 3s per block of 512 words - 4,096 characters Punched-card reader ½d per card Card punch 2d per card Line printer ½d per line
These charges include handling and operating services. In the case of punched paper tape output, one printed copy of the results will be provided.
Computing charges Hire costs are calculated from a formula which has the effect of charging: 1d for every 20,000 programme instructions obeyed. 1d for every 40 magnetic-tape data transfers (512-word blocks) 3d per second of operating or waiting time for each magnetic-tape used. 1d per 5 seconds of operating or waiting time per block of main store used
