Doug Glading -- Memories of IBM in the 1970s

Note: the 1960s decade has been worked up (though not of course finished), the 70s somewhat and the 80s/90s are still at the outline stage

Note - these are my recollections. So there may be the odd inaccuracy.....
_{Most
recent revision: 7 Feb 2011}

The NCB Benchmark go to 'NCBC'
Birmingham (Midlands) Systems Centre The operation of large computer complexes. Performance . go to 'FSC'
World Trade task force on SE Aids and Tools Requirements 1970 go to 'WT Tools'
Performance Tools go to using 'Performance Tools'
Major Studies - Measurment & Tuning Specialist go to 'Major Studies'
Papers/Talks go to 'Papers & Talks'
UK IBM Rep to GUIDE User Group go to 'Guide'
Other / Symposiums Lisbon / MBCS

Missed assignment
1974: Move to IBM UK Information Systems, Cosham go to 'UKIS'
'Advanced Systems Development', IS Strategy, CICS, IMS
Early 'Online Services' The operation of T/P Services (the first 'help-desks')
Early 'Text Systems' / Stairs text retrieval / ATMS text processing.
The first moves towards 'paperless office'. The 'CREATION' Project / IBM North Harbour opening
The first 'Office Systems' - PSS, PROFS, Email, shared diaries
Colour Terminals

see also:
IBMMemories1960s.htm

IBMMemories1980s.htm

IBMMemories1990s.htm

index.htm - Main IBM Memories Page

NCB

The NCB Benchmark

    The National Coal Board was a massive organisation, with a considerable number of administrative centres (and hence computer installations). They had large numbers of mainframes, basically from ICL and IBM. In about 1970 they were planning a major upgrade and decided to run a competitive benchmark between IBM and ICL. They compiled a tape with several hours of typical work (eg Cobol programs). On an appointed day each manufacturer was to run the benchmark on one of their systems amongst those already installed at NCB. There was a coin toss and as a result IBM were to run a day after ICL.
     So we set to and got the suite running on a 360/50 at NCB Cannock. The day came and the 'selection committee' took their places on a row of chairs in the computer centre, said "Go" and started their stop-watches.
    We used the HASP spooling program to help speed up the run. But our secret weapon was the IBMer choosen to operate the system for the run. He was a very capable and a very, very, err, 'large' guy.
    As the run proceeded we thought we could see the members of the committee that were noting the times taken for the various segments were looking impressed. Things were roaring through and the operator was clearly having to rush like mad to keep the system fed with cards, tapes and paper. I think the rules said that the committee weren't allowed to tell us the actual results, that was saved for a final assessment.
    But, privately, one of the committee said 'there was a clear winner - apart from any timings, before that day none of the committee had ever seen a computer operator SWEAT'

FSC

Midland Region Systems Centre, Birmingham

360 Usage, also the first 370s, MVS, VM,

Specialised in Systems Performance.
Assessed and reported to customer management in many large UK accounts
Involved in the introduction and marketing of VS to branches and in many sales and support situations
Marketing and support to many customers/prospects in Midlands and elsewhere

Systems Centre Staff 7/71 & 3/73

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Tools Task Force

World Trade task force on SE Aids and Tools Requirements

     In 1970 I went to IBM Poughkeepsie in New York State for 3 or 4 weeks. There were quite a number of useful 'Apps' being passed around on the grapevine. A few SEs from various countries(UK, Germany, France, Canada) were brought together to try and sort out which were the most beneficial and work out how to best organise the distribution of them. (this lead up to creation of 'HONE Aids' centres).

    At the weekends we had some time to amuse ourselves. So on the first free weekend I decided to drive down to Manhattan and look around there. The hire car I had was playing up a bit, so I thought I would drive down, turn it in and collect a different one on Sunday to drive back. But... when I went to get a new car, it turned out that my Driving Licence' had expired. So no car - I had to get a train up to Poughkeepsie (it's a nice journey incidentally, along the shores of the Hudson).
I was then stuck for the rest of the trip with no car. I could walk to the World Trade Systems Centre, but going out to eat in the evening was a problem. There was a guy from IBM Germany staying at the same motel (the Edison?) who I went out to eat with a few times, but he would only go to very germanic places and in fact didn't speak that much English either.

    The second weekend I had a bright idea on what to do without a car - catch a train. Up to Niagara Falls (which I'd never seen). So train to Buffalo and shared minibus onwards to Niagara. Found a hotel (on the US side) and next day went exploring. Thought I'd go onto the US-Canada road bridge which looked a good spot to take some photos. To get on the bridge you just walk through a turnstile.
After a while I turned to go back off the bridge - and ran into an immigration booth. A big problem emerged - I'd left my passport at the hotel - they wouldn't let me in. Even my IBM badge didn't help! So what I had to do was go all the way acrosss the bridge to Canadian immigration, and get them to issue me with a formal notice saying I'd been refused entry into Canada. With that I eventually got back into the USA.....

Performance Tools

Tools

During the late 60s and early 70s I did a lot of work on the performance of large computer systems. There were three main tools:

Advanced Multiprogramming Analysis Procedure (AMAP)
The Generalized Trace Facility (GTF)
ABCTIMER - by one A.B.Cleaver. (This was actually written 1966/67 - I have the source program listing of this tool - must be a fairly rare document!)

These usually produced voluminous 'trace' data - the trick was in analysing this and making sense of what was causing problems.

ABCTimer Assembler Listing pg 1

Click for bigger picture..

Major Studies

In 1970, together with Pat White, I investigated and produced an new UK procedure for the requesting, authorising and control of benchmarks in the country.
During 1969-71 I had run an analysis tool called 'AMAP' on 20 or so IBM mainframes, covering 13 customer systems and some IBM ones. These were models 40, 50 and 65 running the MFT operating system. The tool measured things like CPU use, access rates to each disk drive, access times to the main system files, and so on. And from these stats it was possible to make quite a lot of recommendations on performance improvements.
In 1971 (maybe 72) I wrote a paper for the IBM international TIE (Technical Information Exchange') series based on this work. It had the title 'Survey of System Performance Levels'
As the machines were typical medium-size commercial systems the conclusions were useful to many.
I also wrote a SE Technical Report on "Generalised Trace Facility". Although written for the UK it got around - see nice comments received from an SE in New Zealand!
In 1973 it became obvious that mainframes running OS/VS1 were having performance problems, particularly those with just 240K or 256K memory. At this size it was difficult to run more than one batch partition (plus spooling). Yet the salesmen were pushing hard for these customers to get into teleprocessing (eg with CICS) - a recipe for problems. So I did a big survey of installed machines and their intentions to try and head off disappointments.

I visited a lot of customer sites during these years, usually to talk to them about their performance problems and advise on what to do. One of the most interesting visits was to GCHQ Cheltenham. I drove down, checked in, got badged up and taken through to an office. My host talked generalities for a while, and kept on doing so, and kept on. Funny. Suddenly a man popped in with a sheet of paper, my host brightened and said ' right, now I can tell you what equipment we have and what problems we have' - it was my security clearance to be able to be told this.
At lunchtime I was taken to the pub right opposite the GCHQ entrance. Though nothing restricted was discussed it did strike me that being landlord of that pub was an interesting position to be in.

To see the 1971 Performance Studies paper: 1971PerformanceStudiesMFT.htm

GTF SE Technical Report Thank-You
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Papers/Talks

Spoke regularly on the Customer Executive courses ("Installation Review") at Hursley over the years 1971-74
Spoke at the BCS Conference on Methods of Assessing Computer Performance (Guildford 1972)
Gave paper at Online International Conference on Computer Systems Evaluation (London 1973)
Internal papers, eg 'Survey of System Performance Levels' 1971; SE Technical Report on 'Generalised Trace Facility' 1973 (see above)

Sample Exec Review Agenda

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'Online' International Conference

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GUIDE

GUIDE User Group

For some years I acted as the IBM Representative to the UK Guide OS Working Group (a very vocal organisation at that time - made meetings quite interesting....). It was quite fun though. I got to handle a lot of feeedback, organise major speakers (eg from the US) for their meetings, and so on.

In June 1973 I attended the European Guide Conference in Cannes. Just over 1,000 customer personnel registered (+200 spouses), including 90-odd from UK.

My expenses estimate allowed approx £10 per night - for Luxe grade hotel! - and I think I stayed at The Martinez. Interesting also the airfare would cover the cost of a whole week there.

I stepped down from this role when I left the FSC.

'GUIDE involvement Thanks

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'GUIDE involvement Thanks

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Other

Also

in 1973 I was selected to attend the 1973 DP Recognition Event, Estoril (near Lisbon). Unlike the SE Symposiums of the 60s (which were for SEs from all the European countries), this was an event to recognise the contributions of all IBM UK field staff -- 863 attended. Lots of chartered aircraft! There was some segregation - Salesmen wore red badges, SEs blue, CEs green.
in 1974 I became M.B.C.S (Member of the British Computer Society)
Simulation - somewhere I got involved in simulation languages. I can remember running courses in the GPSS language for the CEGB at one of their education centres (in the peak district I think)

1973 DP Recognition Event, Estoril

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In 2H72 was asked to go on assignment to Poughkeepsie as member of a World Trade team working on MVS. Had to defer to '73, then cancel, due to illness of my wife.
Subsequently, in 1974, the strain of doing a 'Field Job' (where you had to react to customer situations) combined with my wife's illness, led to me changing job.

UKIS-ASD

UK IS

In 1974 I transferred to UK Information Systems, IBM UK Head Office, Cosham as "Information Advisory Analyst" (level 57) in Advanced Systems Development Dept.

ASD

Advanced Systems

I went to work for Mike Sanders, who had just joined IS from being an IBM SE Manager in the City.

Worked in areas such as:
- Introduction Of New Techniques
- preparation of Strategy for UK IS
- pilot systems and services
- audits of major application systems (eg the UK-AAS) and IS organisation

. Worked on the UK HQ IS Strategy for 1976-81 (76)

Major Studies/Papers
- UK IS Teleprocessing Service Study (74)
- The Challenge Of Our Internal Business Communications (74)
- Microfilm Study (77)

1976 UK-IS Structure

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.

Early 'Online Services'

The Cosham data centre ran the vital administrative and sales applications. The use of terminals was exploding within IBM. But there wasn't a service structure to keep these important terminals 'up' or provide the right end-user support.

So one of the early things I got involved in was the operation of T/P Services.
(the first 'help-desks')

Early TEXT Systems

1976-78 Text

Before this period there was very little processing of text on commercial data processing systems. Most documents were typed (by typists and secretaries). There was some use of formatting languages (eg SCRIPT) by some secretaries and some professionals to produce bigger documents and presentation foils. To send a message you wrote it out and passed it to the Telex Room to key and send.

I got involved in pilot projects aimed at moving forward in these areas. This involved producing proposals for trial text preparation by giving screens to some secretaries and turning some typists into word-processing girls (using ATMS - Advanced Text Management Service application).
And, making use of the fact that we now could have collections of machine-readable documents, we could now also look at text retrieval services (using STAIRS - STorage And Information Retrieval System )

So we ran a trial of these two applications (which took some organising as they used the CICS transaction environment - and IBM internal systems were fully committed to the almost-rival IMS environment.

Also involved in

Analysis of the 37EA (pre-announcement of the 3730, 76-77)
Text Processing in US Locations (76)

1978 article about text project

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North Harbour

Demonstrated the ATMS/STAIRS text services to the Duke of Edinburgh on occasion of the grand opening of North Harbour (3rd Dec 1976).
We also used the newly announced IBM 6640 Ink-Jet Printer in this demo - ink jets did come in before the mass PC era!

And at a employee Open Day in Sep 1977 - 5,000 people attended.

Carlton Hobbs demo-ing to the Duke of Edinburgh while I operate things

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Open Day thanks

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Towards the Paperless Office

Office Systems

The CREATION Project:
Capture Retrieval Editing And Transmission of Information ON-line

Dec 1975

The first 'Office Systems'

Profs Pss Email and also shared calendars

Office Systems in IBM USA (study visit jointly with European Office Systems staff, Uithoorn, 1/79)

Led to proposals for comprehensive introduction of Office Systems throughout IBM UK. What was to become known as NOSS - National Office Systems Services.

Note - Internal use of Profs was to explode - by 1989 across IBM there were to be 350,000 users.....

Education

Organisational Development, Dale Loveluck Assoc (London 7/76)
IBM Text Systems (Uithoorn 4/77)
Online Conference - Word Processing (London 10/77)
Infotech Conference - Future Systems (London 3/77)
Infotech Conferences - The Office of the Future, Convergence (Paris 10/78)

InfoCentres

PERIOD 1978-79.

Definition And Founding Of Systems UK Information Centre

Worked on the definition (roles, responsibilities, reporting) of an UK "Information Centre"
Became IC founder-member in the role of End-User Services Planner
Analysed user requirements, specified service offerings, and assisted in their implementation
Major Studies/Papers
- Implications of "Viewdata" for IBM (3/78)

PERIOD 1979-80

Joined IBM UK HQ IS Technical Strategy Dept
Worked on the evaluation of new products and techniques
Department later merged with Systems Architecture Dept
Additional work in review of complex systems requirements and systems design
Requirements & Design Of Large Application Systems

Major Studies/Papers

Convergence (5/80)
DDP - Philosophy, Dangers, 4300 v 8100, Implications
Efficient Methods of Information Transfer (machine to people, 1/80)
The value of Colour screens

_{Comments,
queries and messages to: ibmmemories@glading.com

This Page originally 'on the web' Dec 2010

_{©
Doug Glading ..... 2011}}

	The NCB Benchmark go to 'NCBC' Birmingham (Midlands) Systems Centre The operation of large computer complexes. Performance . go to 'FSC' World Trade task force on SE Aids and Tools Requirements 1970 go to 'WT Tools' Performance Tools go to using 'Performance Tools' Major Studies - Measurment & Tuning Specialist go to 'Major Studies' Papers/Talks go to 'Papers & Talks' UK IBM Rep to GUIDE User Group go to 'Guide' Other / Symposiums Lisbon / MBCS Missed assignment 1974: Move to IBM UK Information Systems, Cosham go to 'UKIS' 'Advanced Systems Development', IS Strategy, CICS, IMS Early 'Online Services' The operation of T/P Services (the first 'help-desks') Early 'Text Systems' / Stairs text retrieval / ATMS text processing. The first moves towards 'paperless office'. The 'CREATION' Project / IBM North Harbour opening The first 'Office Systems' - PSS, PROFS, Email, shared diaries Colour Terminals	see also: IBMMemories1960s.htm IBMMemories1980s.htm IBMMemories1990s.htm index.htm - Main IBM Memories Page

NCB	The NCB Benchmark The National Coal Board was a massive organisation, with a considerable number of administrative centres (and hence computer installations). They had large numbers of mainframes, basically from ICL and IBM. In about 1970 they were planning a major upgrade and decided to run a competitive benchmark between IBM and ICL. They compiled a tape with several hours of typical work (eg Cobol programs). On an appointed day each manufacturer was to run the benchmark on one of their systems amongst those already installed at NCB. There was a coin toss and as a result IBM were to run a day after ICL. So we set to and got the suite running on a 360/50 at NCB Cannock. The day came and the 'selection committee' took their places on a row of chairs in the computer centre, said "Go" and started their stop-watches. We used the HASP spooling program to help speed up the run. But our secret weapon was the IBMer choosen to operate the system for the run. He was a very capable and a very, very, err, 'large' guy. As the run proceeded we thought we could see the members of the committee that were noting the times taken for the various segments were looking impressed. Things were roaring through and the operator was clearly having to rush like mad to keep the system fed with cards, tapes and paper. I think the rules said that the committee weren't allowed to tell us the actual results, that was saved for a final assessment. But, privately, one of the committee said 'there was a clear winner - apart from any timings, before that day none of the committee had ever seen a computer operator SWEAT'
FSC	Midland Region Systems Centre, Birmingham 360 Usage, also the first 370s, MVS, VM, Specialised in Systems Performance. Assessed and reported to customer management in many large UK accounts Involved in the introduction and marketing of VS to branches and in many sales and support situations Marketing and support to many customers/prospects in Midlands and elsewhere	Systems Centre Staff 7/71 & 3/73 Click for bigger picture..
Tools Task Force	World Trade task force on SE Aids and Tools Requirements In 1970 I went to IBM Poughkeepsie in New York State for 3 or 4 weeks. There were quite a number of useful 'Apps' being passed around on the grapevine. A few SEs from various countries(UK, Germany, France, Canada) were brought together to try and sort out which were the most beneficial and work out how to best organise the distribution of them. (this lead up to creation of 'HONE Aids' centres). At the weekends we had some time to amuse ourselves. So on the first free weekend I decided to drive down to Manhattan and look around there. The hire car I had was playing up a bit, so I thought I would drive down, turn it in and collect a different one on Sunday to drive back. But... when I went to get a new car, it turned out that my Driving Licence' had expired. So no car - I had to get a train up to Poughkeepsie (it's a nice journey incidentally, along the shores of the Hudson). I was then stuck for the rest of the trip with no car. I could walk to the World Trade Systems Centre, but going out to eat in the evening was a problem. There was a guy from IBM Germany staying at the same motel (the Edison?) who I went out to eat with a few times, but he would only go to very germanic places and in fact didn't speak that much English either. The second weekend I had a bright idea on what to do without a car - catch a train. Up to Niagara Falls (which I'd never seen). So train to Buffalo and shared minibus onwards to Niagara. Found a hotel (on the US side) and next day went exploring. Thought I'd go onto the US-Canada road bridge which looked a good spot to take some photos. To get on the bridge you just walk through a turnstile. After a while I turned to go back off the bridge - and ran into an immigration booth. A big problem emerged - I'd left my passport at the hotel - they wouldn't let me in. Even my IBM badge didn't help! So what I had to do was go all the way acrosss the bridge to Canadian immigration, and get them to issue me with a formal notice saying I'd been refused entry into Canada. With that I eventually got back into the USA.....
Performance Tools	Tools During the late 60s and early 70s I did a lot of work on the performance of large computer systems. There were three main tools: Advanced Multiprogramming Analysis Procedure (AMAP) The Generalized Trace Facility (GTF) ABCTIMER - by one A.B.Cleaver. (This was actually written 1966/67 - I have the source program listing of this tool - must be a fairly rare document!) These usually produced voluminous 'trace' data - the trick was in analysing this and making sense of what was causing problems.	ABCTimer Assembler Listing pg 1 Click for bigger picture..