At the January 1967 Meeting of SRC's Atlas Computer Committee the discussion started with regard to the future hardware and role of the Atlas Computer Laboratory. The next 8 years of the Laboratory's life was filled with numerous discussions concerning the replacement for Atlas when it became obsolescent.
These were carried out through various committee meetings. The discussion of the Laboratory's future role was also of major concern as the much improved computing facilities in the university sector meant that the current role was declining. At the same time the SRC finances were initially stagnant and later decreasing significantly. By 1973, a predicted increase in SRC's funding of about 10% had changed to a 10% decrease. SRC's aim was to reduce the expenditure on the sciences that were extremely expensive per researcher in order to sustain growth elsewhere. Thus ACL's future was wrapped up with a realignment of the roles of SRC's various establishments.
The senior staff at ACL, Jack Howlett, Bob Churchhouse and Jim Hailstone, were the three main people involved in the various discussions externally and internally there were many meetings between them and their staff regarding future computers, ACL's future role etc. Jim Hailstone kept a file of some of the papers that arose. They are collected here to give a snapshot of some of the discussions.
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Assessment of Atlas Performance and Future Prospects
JE Hailstone and RF Churchhouse 19 March 1965 HTML, PDF |
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Atlas Computer Laboratory Future
FRA Hopgood March 1965 HTML, PDF |
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The Future of the Atlas Laboratory
JE Hailstone 22 April 1965 HTML, PDF |
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The Next Large Machine for SRC: A Fast Atlas?
JE Hailstone and DG House 18 August 1966 HTML, PDF |
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State of the Machine
JE Hailstone 14 December 1966 HTML, PDF |
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An Essay on the Future Development of the Laboratory with Special Reference to the ICT 1908
JE Hailstone 16 January 1967 HTML, PDF |
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Performance Core Store
MHJ Baylis 24 January 1967 HTML, PDF |
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Comments on the Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Atlas Computer Committee, 23rd July 1968 and the Technical Specification of the 1908A Computer System
JE Hailstone 29 July 1968 HTML, PDF |
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Atlas Laboratory Facilities
JE Hailstone 11 September 1972 HTML, PDF |
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A Role for the Atlas Computer Laboratory
JE Hailstone 26 April 1973 HTML, PDF |
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Letter to Prof SF Edwards
Sir Hermann Bondi 16 October 1974 HTML, PDF |
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The Future of the Atlas Laboratory and the Concept of a National Institute for Computing
J Howlett 19 February 1975 HTML, PDF |
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Letter to Professor SF Edwards
JE Hailstone 28 April 1975 HTML, PDF |
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Letter to JE Hailstone
R St J Walker 2 May 1975 HTML, PDF |
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Regrouping of Activities in the Establishments
R St J Walker 2 May 1975 HTML, PDF |
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Letter to All Staff
J Howlett 9 July 1975 HTML, PDF |
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The Work of the Atlas Computer Laboratory
JE Hailstone 22 October 1975 HTML, PDF |
