Believers in reincarnation will be pleased to see that the Laboratory's mainframe computers still include an Atlas machine - the Atlas 10 sold by International Computers Ltd - which is operated in tandem with an IBM 3081. Important as they are, the improvements in the power of the central hardware have been overshadowed by developments in its distribution. By the early 1970s, Star networks provided entry to the central machines at Chilton from most universities. During the latter half of the 1970s multi-user minicomputers (GEC 4000 and PRIME) were installed in the universities and the Star networks were gradually developed to provide better services.
The first half of the 1980s has seen a trend towards distributed computers and the Laboratory now has ten times more power distributed within the universities than it provides centrally. The Joint Academic Network, a general purpose network for mail and file transfers serving all universities, is run from Chilton.
Computing has become a general commodity - not only essential for research work but also necessary for administration and management.
