The Committee approved the minutes of their meeting on 16th February 1962.
Building (Minute 3): The Secretary reported that the Treasury approval had been received for the increased estimated building cost of £278,000 plus £42,000 fees, and that the AEA Southern Works Organisation was at present completing its detailed control estimate, and were going out to tender. they expected building to start in October, and to be handed over at the end of December, 1963. Dr Howlett said that the changes by suggested by Dr Vick at the time of the last meeting had been incorporated, giving a shorter and wider office block, but it could still include up to 20 small single rooms.
Dr Howlett reported on three matters not dealt with separately in the agenda:
3.1 Ferranti Contract: All the points of difference between the Contracts Branch and the firm had been resolved, and the contract was ready to sign. the date of operation of the penalty clause was 31st March, 1965, although it was hoped that installation in our Laboratory would start soon after January, 1964.
3.2 Programming: the AERE Fortran project was behind schedule, and was not likely to be finished until March, 1963. Dr Howlett also referred to the question whether Algol should be used as well as Fortran and the Chairman asked for opinions as to how this should be decided. Dr Wilkes said that the Royal Society Committee were not planning to discuss this matter. Dr Howlett said that he expected some discussion of it at a meeting of the Inter-Universities Computer Committee in November. The Chairman said that the Atlas Computer Committee should be prepared to deal with this matter at a later meeting, if it was not resolved by some other body.
3.3 Satellite Equipment: Ferranti were developing various new items of satellite equipment for off-line work including a small computer similar to the IBM 1401. this would not be available until February, 1964.
Professor Kilburn told the Committee about the progress of the Manchester University Atlas. the central computer continued in use for the development of programmes for the supervisor. Operating times were proving to be remarkably close to those predicted. Both halves of the core store had passed their acceptance tests at Plessey's. the core store, the drum store and one tape unit would be linked into the central computer via their respective co-ordinators during the coming fortnight, and the Atlas should be in full operation on internal programming work during August.
Dr Howlett said that the bar chart reproduced in paper NI/ACC/62/5 had been prepared by Ferranti's. The date of 30.6.63 for completion of sections of the machine at the firm's works was an improvement on the date forecast at the last meeting, and correspondingly it was now hoped to start installation at Harwell soon after January, 1964.
6.1 The Committee considered and accepted the general pattern of the build up of staff proposed by Dr Howlett in paper 62/3.
6.2 The Committee accepted in particular the proposal to offer transfer to NIRNS employment to all the present AERE Operations Group including Mr Hailstone as operation manager. Dr Howlett confirmed that he was well satisfied with this group. Subject to arrangements with the Director, AERE, including arrangements for operation of the Mercury by NIRNS staff, a suitable date of transfer would be 1st April, 1963 as suggested by Dr Howlett. The people offered transfer should be given good time in which to consider the offer.
6.3 It was agreed that the additional staff required according to the schedule in the paper NI/ACC/62/3 could be recruited in the normal way by vacancy notice and advertisement as appropriate. Dr Howlett said that he was already considering the post of head of the programming group, and the Committee thought that it should be advertised soon. It was agreed that a banded post might be appropriate, and Dr Howlett should therefore prepare a case for approval of a banded post for submission to the NIRNS Personnel Committee at their October, 1962 meeting
6.4 Dr Howlett said that he would like to be able to have provision for visitors on sabbatical leave from other institutions to work in the Laboratory. It was noted that there was already provision for this in the Rutherford Laboratory, and the Atlas Laboratory could draw on this allocation.
6.5 Turning to one detail of the schedule of staff numbers in paper 62/2 the Committee asked about the number required for 3-shift working. Dr Howlett said that he thought about 55 compared with the 50 shown for 2-shift operation. The Committee considered that the difference might need to be a little greater.
7.1 There was a general discussion in which all the members present took part, of the number of years during which the Atlas might be expected to be used. The conclusion was that 10 years was the right figure to take for costing purposes. A better machine might have been obtained before then as a supplement, but it was to be expected that the Atlas would still be in use.
7.2 It was agreed that operation for 17.5 hours per day, 5 days per week (say 4,300 hours per year) would be a reasonable basis for costing.
7.3 The Committee agreed that hired equipment as mentioned in item 2 of paper 62/4 was properly a recurrent charge, although any similar equipment to the IBM1401 if bought, would of course be capital.
7.4 The Secretary was asked to proceed with negotiations on charges to the AEA and Government Departments on the basis given in minutes 7.1 and 7.2 and using the usual 40-year amortisation of buildings.
7.5 It was agreed that charges to industry should be on a market price basis and should be similar to those on other Atlas computers. These charges need not be related to the charges to the AEA and Government Departments.
7.6 The basis on which the charges for particular jobs should be determined was left for later discussion, and the appendix to paper 62/4 was not discussed, except that Professor Kilburn gave the following revised figures for section 1(a), which had been recently determined by Messrs. Ferranti after further study of the likely work load:
| Paper tape read | 3s. per block |
| Paper tape punched | 10s. per block |
| NEP tape in and out | 1s. per block |
| Cards read | 0.5d. per card |
| Cards punched | 2d. per card |
| Line printer | 0.5d. per line |
Dr Pickavance said that since the last meeting he had discussed the proposal for university use of AEA computers with the Secretary of the Minister for Science's office. All those consulted by the Minister's Office had now agreed that it would be best for the Institute to finance the scheme, but the point remained to be argued with the Treasury and owing to the many major items under discussion with the Treasury, this had been left for a little time. Dr Pickavance said that he would press for an answer within about a month. Meanwhile, no time was yet available on AEA computers. It was also pointed out that whoever financed the scheme, the amount of money available, particularly in 1962-3 would be very limited. the Institute had tentatively earmarked £50,000 for this purpose in 1962/3.
The Chairman said that Dr Howlett had asked if a small number of consultants could be appointed as required to give mathematical advice. he asked for comments. The Committee endorsed the proposal and approved the appointment of up to four consultants at one time. Dr Howlett said that he had in mind a normal number of about two. The Committee noted that the Institute have established rates for the appointment of consultants, closely based upon those of the AEA, and that the appointments are reported to the NIRNS Personnel Committee periodically.
The Secretary was asked to arrange meetings if possible in mid-November, 1962 and mid-May 1963.
