The simple replacement for the 3032 and the two 30/195s would have been a dual processor IBM 3081. However, funds were not available. ICL came up with an attractive offer for their first Fujitsu IBM-compatible mainframe, the Fujitsu Automatic Computer (Facom) 400, rebadged as an Atlas 10. The attractive price, and DTI backing for the venture by ICL into the IBM-compatible market, meant that a proposal to purchase an IBM 3081 front-ending an ICL Atlas 10 was accepted.
The ICL Atlas 10, was one of the most powerful IBM-compatible computers in the world - its single processor had about three times the power of a 360/195. It arrived on 26 April 1983. The machine was powered on for the first time the next day and by Friday 29 April the installation tests had been completed and the first operating tests begun. As it was the first of its kind in the UK, RAL and ICL took a few months subjecting it to various tests before it entered full service on 1 September 1983 and ran until 1988 when the 3081 and the Atlas 10 were replaced by an IBM 3090.
See also:
