1. In the Minutes of Meeting No. 2, para 5.2, the change in the time constant should have been stated to be in the hardware, not in the programs. The minutes were otherwise accepted.
2.1 R Brandwood has delayed introducing the full activity log until t4e FR80 had moved and the 1906A restarted.
2.2 C Osland has added the parameter to DESPOOL to provide two copies of its output. At present Atlas have not been using this. C Osland will provide a list of remote workstation names and numbers, as the output refers to them by number. This will enable the output to be posted directly from R26/27.
2.3 H Hurst has talked to III, and the results are covered in detail in section 7 below.
2.4 H Hurst has not yet talked to NBRU, but when he does, he will mention the possibility of them using "many-up" hardcopy as well as 35 mm film.
The new tube has meant that all output has to be struck twice to maintain the same. intensity as the old tube. Modifying the software to achieve this took about 4 hours. The number of hits may have to be increased to 4, which would roughly double plotting time.
A summary is appended which covers the last 8 weeks.
The hardcopy processor was down for 3 days: this happened because the FR80 tube was down at the same time, and so the III engineer worked on the tube first. This processor is now 8 years old and spares may become difficult to obtain. No spares are held on site and it is maintained by III.
The tube replacement took about one week. The PLS logic has failed 4 times, and the III engineer suspects that transistors should be supplied to him by III in matched pairs, and that this is not happening.
The hardcopy camera and the vacuum system used by the microfiche and hardcopy cameras have each been down for some time, but neither affected use of the other cameras.
The move of the FR80 was accomplished very easily and there have been no associated problems.
There appears to be a problem with the selection of filters, causing filters not to move fast enough and failing to arrive correctly in place. The III engineer is investigating this at present, to establish whether the problem is caused by filters, intensity or a solenoid. The effect on colour runs can be catastrophic, but so far there has only been one user complaint, associated with intensity variation. It was suggested that the possibility of installing a probe to monitor PLS intensity should be investigated. This would be useful for establishing whether PLS. intensity variation was a basic cause.
This is unchanged from previous arrangements. The only remaining problem is the scheduling of jobs of unknown characteristics which are subsequently found to require a long plotting time. This does not affect turnaround as seen by the user to any large extent.
R Brandwood has talked to G Lambert about the courier and the problems have been discussed and solved.
A breakdown of the usage of the FR80 since April is attached. Microfiche is now the principal medium used. October's figures for plotting time are influenced by the double striking required on the new tube, which increases plotting time by 25%. The overall workload has been increasing. The backlog created by the move of the FR80 has now been cleared.
One person is leaving at the end of November. The possibility of working with 2 operators on 2-shifts was discussed. A trawl for staff continues.
P Nelson noted that the FR80 output quality is currently limited by the film processing arrangements. He asked whether it was the intention to transfer this work to Photographic Section. H Hurst said I. that he hoped this would happen in the next 3 to 6 months, and that he is in contact with J Valentine on this topic. R Brandwood noted that the III engineer will need film processing equipment close to the FR80 for setting up. R Lawes stated that he considered that using film processing as a part of a procedure for setting up the FR80 was basically incorrect since it introduced too many extra variables.
7.1 The meeting took place on September 29 and H Hurst sent notes on the discussion to III. He has received a reply from J Lines (Managing Director of III) which comments on several points. The meeting discussed the various points.
(a) J Lines stated that it was III policy to hold spare tubes in Los Angeles. The meeting agreed that the problem is the actual availability of a tube fully up to specification, not the.logical possibility of transporting the tube to us within 24 hours.
(b) J Lines stated that III could not offer compensation for the non-availability of the high speed character generator. III have separately stated that it is used in the IBM print program, but not used in ICL print program. P Nelson will check this and consult R Witty about his results.
(c) III have now quoted for refurbishing the SD4020 camera so that it is usable by the FR80. A decision is now required as to whether or not the camera should be converted or otherwise offered for disposal.
J Lines confirmed that the other points raised were in the process of investigation and he would expect replies to be forthcoming in the very near future.
8.1 R Lawes has had some preliminary discussions with: R Brandwood about maintenance of the FR80. He felt that RL was capable of maintaining the FR80 and that this could become the responsibility of a team which maintained the FR80, HPD's and microdensitometer.
8.2 R Lawes noted that hardware maintenance. without adequate software support would be futile.
8.3 We would still rely on III for spares, but it was thought that this would be acceptable. GCHQ are about to embark on the same project, and should be contacted to exchange ideas. It was thought that in the event of us switching over to doing our own maintenance, we should negotiate a 'backup' arrangement with III.
9.1 The film processors we used for backup (Micromedia) have now moved to Bicester from Oxford. Since this will create extra delays, it was agreed to see if we could find someone more local.
9.2 It was requested that the 195 DESPOOL system should be made similar to the 1906 when the 195's are running in R27. C Osland said that this would be taken into consideration when the many deficiencies of the 195 DESPOOL were looked at, i.e. after the Dual 195 system was operational.
9.3 P Nelson mentioned that the frame counters had been removed from the SD4020 before it was scrapped and were available if needed.
9.4 It was requested that the accounting of IBM COM output be improved: C Osland indicated that this was again a function of the 195 DESPOOL and could not be provided until the Dual 195 system was operational.
9.5 P Nelson asked whether it was simple to acquire a private tape for spool output on the 195, as is possible on the 1906A. This is sometimes needed because of plotting or processing faults noted by the user. C Osland stated that this was difficult on the 195 because of the different software structures on the 2 computers.
9.6 P Nelson stated that it is now known that 50% of the jobs which use their own tape only produce a quantity of output that would fit on spool.
9.7 P Nelson mentioned that he was obtaining details of microfiche titling and uantor COM from Eurocomp.
Tuesday 14 December at 1100 in the Director's Conference Room No 2, Building R1.
HARDWARE SUMMARY UNIT NO. OF FAULTS DOWNTIME (HRS) -- Film Processor 1 1 Hardcopy Processor 1 3 days Cameras: Hardcopy 1 21 Microfiche 0 16 mm Precision 0 16/35 Combined 0 Tape Decks 1 (9-track) 8 Teletype 0 CPU and Disk 0 * PLS and Analog 4 16.5 Power Supplies 0 Field Changes 0 Other (vacuum motor failed) 1 4 * Indicates faults that meant no work could be done at all. PLS replaced - documented.
WORKLOAD SUMMARY
APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPT OCT (Incomplete)
NO. OF JOBS
H/C 817 1065 1231 928 952 691 862
BW35 157 221 180 120 65 77 37
CL35 51 99 62 58 27 20 53
BW16 21 16 16 38 27 31 39
CL16 34 8 3 18 6 2 0
MFCH 669 606 340 382 375 290 289
TOTAL 1749 2017 1832 1544 1452 1111 1280
360 SPOOL
NO. OF JOBS 1041 1049 1112 834 685 773
1906A SPOOL
NO. OF JOBS 485 716 683 392 538 382
TIME/CAMERA
H/C 14.34 19.21 25.38 18.34 21.32 14.29 19.39
BW35 4.00 9.31 8.22 6,10 5.28 7.44 3.42
CL35 4.13 11.52 13.33 18.43 5.50 3.36 14.57
BW16 1.30 1.55 2.28 8.43 7.16 7.16 11.29
CL16 23.30 2.15 0.20 16.18 2.20 0.20 0.00
MRCH 37.16 39.44 28.43 29.57 41.56 48.13 54.31
TOTAL 85 87 79 98 84 81 104
FRAMES/ CAMERA
H/C 9378 11444 15634 9697 11845 7892 10691
BW35 2696 3730 2702 2575 2879 3274 1514
CL35 744 4189 988 2635 522 274 1991
BW16 7415 11324 11457 48365 33415 27534 32261
CL16 16492 1104 36 ll071 4130 27
MFCH 1883 1636 993 962 1010 743 1783