Folklore York Computer History

(As you can see there are a lot of gaps in the early history here. If anyone has more details we would be glad to hear them.)

1966

Summer
York's first computer delivered: an Elliott Automations machine. Programs can be written in Algol, Fortran or Neat (the assembly language for 4100 computers).

1969

New computer delivered - ICL 1900 - with punch cards, paper-tape & genuine (magnetic) core memory. Charles Stanley-Smith ran his final year project to model Fluro Cyanide (FCN) on it. It took 7 hours to run and came up with the answer of 42 (Angstroms).
Programming in Algol & Fortran, was achieved by writing programs on special sheets (Pink for Algol and Blue for Fortran) and submitting them, results (usually compile errors) were returned 24 hours later. Backups were another shoe box full of punch cards.
There was also a connection to Leeds, where they had a ICL 2900.

1972

PDP-11 bought as front-end to the increasingly creaky ICL 4130 and give online access to strategic points around campus. They ran something called the Kent Online System or KOS.

1976

ICL 1900 pensioned off.
DEC KL10A arrived, was dropped during unloading, and promptly reloaded and shipped back to DEC. A second one arrived and took, as expected, far longer to install than had been allowed. A new wing of the Comp. Center was built to accomodate the new system. It generated so much heat that the air conditioning spewed clouds of steam out of the vents on the University Road side of the building.

1986

October
DEC KL1090 replaced by VAX cluster.
Terminal room equipped with vt220s and a projector. DECwriters replaced with Epson printers.
Punch card system scrapped.
V/058 turned into a Computer Science classroom, V/044 closed.

1987

Autumn
In conjunction with the installation of the new telephone system, fibre optic ethernet cabling is installed around much of campus.

1988

25 September
Terminal room D/D202 closed, six terminals moved to the Library to supplement the existing two.
31 October
New terminal room opened: G/169, with 48 terminals, a video projector with terminal, and a printer.
12 December
Library transfer all issues to new computer system, allowing an on-line catalogue to come into use.

1989

Spring
Printers introduced to Terminal Room (X/B064) and Goodricke G/169.
Two Viglen PCs installed in Z/013.
24 June
VAXcluster operating system upgraded from VMS version 4.7 to 5.1-1.
2 October
LN01 central laser printer replaced with an Agfa P400PS.
Autumn
The Information Server is introduced, running on the VAX system.

1990

January
VAXcluster operating system upgraded to VMS version 5.2.
8 January
Credit system of pre-payment for chargeable output is introduced.
17 March - 4 April
Floating point calculations on VAXA start to act up. Message from CompServ "Any numerical results obtained may be unreliable..." In the end, a new 8650 chip was installed, which cured the problem.
21 July
VAXcluster operating system upgraded to VMS version 5.3-1.
Summer
The WORD computer system is introduced, running WordPerfect under VAX/VMS.
D/114 redecorated and upgraded, with 11 more terminals put in, bringing the total to 30; carpet and new furniture installed.
Three new RA81 disk drives installed on the VAXcluster, increasing storage from 6.5 to 7.8 Gbytes.
October
University is offered copies of the newly-introduced Microsoft Windows 3.0 for £50 per copy.

1991

January
In preparation for the introduction of an IP service through JANET, the University applies for an IP network number.
Spring
24-pin printer introduced in D/114, chargable output. (?)
VAXcluster operating system upgraded to VMS version 5.4.
TeX v3.x obtained for the VAXcluster.
Summer
L/117 computing classroom introduced, equipped with 386sx PCs.
Unix Workstation computing classroom introduced in X/B064.

1992

13 January
York is joined to the rest of the world with an IP service, through the Joint Academic Network (Janet).
16 April
WORD software upgraded to WordPerfect V5.1-1.
Summer
Self-service laser printer put into G/022.
IRIX 4.0.5 put on all the central unix machines, allowing the introduction of user disk quotas. The initial soft limits are 2 Mb (u/grad) and 4 Mb (p/grad and staff).
Campus ethernet extended into Derwent D block, and an 8-port terminal server put in for staff offices.
Central AGFA laser printers replaced by Hewlett Packard machines, price per sheet drops from 6p to 5p.
PCs in L/117 have software upgraded to Windows 3.1.
Last remaining DEC Rainbow microcomputer withdrawn.
University IS Strategy announced, including:
August
Portakabin terminal room (X/T001) closed, terminals relocated to G/022 and the library.
Autumn
Study bedrooms in Alcuin E block and James College fitted with serial line connections to campus network.
November
Two new 1.2 Gb disks for goodram, and more memory for tower - now 96 Mb.

1993

January
Air conditioning installed in L/117.
Easter
Self-service laser printer installed in Derwent D/114.
4-PC network in Language Centre Z/013b replaced with Macintosh network.
July
Removal of WPS+ from the VAX cluster.
Change of L/117 networking from Digital Pathworks to PC-NFS, and upgrade to 8 Mb of memory each.
27 August
Planned removal of the VAX 8650/8550 cluster.
Summer
SGI workstations relocated to D/104.
VAX cluster replaced by a single VAX 3100 model 90.
WORD cluster replaced by a single machine.
VAX and WORD filesystems upgraded to a single integrated one.
Camtec PADs in Derwent and Goodricke terminal rooms upgraded to Emulex terminal servers.
elm no longer a supported mail reader - pine introduced.
New DEC LG06 installed on the VAX as central line printer.
October
Support of undergraduate and taught postgraduates moves from Computing Services to individual departments.
December
Usenet news service introduced.

1994

4 January
Computing Services introduce the Information Desk.
Spring
More processors for tower.
Fileserver for central unix systems introduced (goodram)
PC classroom created in Kings Manor K/120. 16 486dx33 machines, with 8 Mb ram and 15" monitors.
1.2Gb DAT drive installed on Figaro.
Another 5 Silicon Graphics Indigo machines installed in D/104, and all machines fitted with 1 Gb drives.
New Macintosh classroom in Language Z/013b, with 6 LC III's. Each machine had 8 Mb memory and 80 Mb hard drive.
April
2 PCs installed in Alcuin library.
July
HP LaserJet 3Si printers installed in Langwith Library L/051 and in King's Manor K/120. These were central printers, moved to classrooms and replaced with LaserJet 4Si's.
29 July
Central Agfa printer and draft printers in G/022, D/114 and L/117 withdrawn from service.
August
ebor made available for use by staff and research users.
386sx machines in L/117 replaced with 486 machines.
All PADs removed from colleges, Terminal Servers installed where needed.
19 September
Launch date for World Wide Web server. Mosaic becomes supported PC software.
October
Default mail delivery (to york.ac.uk) moves from vax to central unix systems.
Autumn
Colour scanner introduced on Figaro.
31 December
0.5" magnetic tape reader removed, all unclaimed data destroyed.

1995

January
tower upgraded to run an early release of Irix 5.3, in an attempt to sort out the performance problems.
New PC classroom in Wentworth W/218, with 21 486 PCs, laser printer and OHP projector screen.
Conversion of Langwith Library L/051 to PC classroom, using 16 386 machines from L/117, as well as the two vt420's from the college library.
17 April
Netscape introduced onto supported PCs, replacing Mosaic.
Easter
Dedicated mail and news server introduced: mailer.york.ac.uk. (Silicon Graphics Indy SC(?))
1 May
Computing Service and MIS (Management Information Systems) merge.
June
SuperJanet connection installed, offering 25 Mbit/s for incoming traffic, and 4 Mbit/s for outgoing.
30 June
VAX service discontinued for users.
Summer
Withdrawal of experimental Gopher Server.
All Silicon Graphics systems upgraded to Irix 5.3.
Limits to resource use imposed on users of tower and ebor.
Transfer of printing from VAX to unix.
Transfer of news to a dedicated server: netty.york.ac.uk.
30 September
Withdrawal of WORD system. A copy of Wordperfect put onto the Sun database server skelder.
Departmental PADs cease to be supported.
October
Teaching classrooms D/114 and G/169 upgraded from terminals to 486 PCs. G/169 gets 48, whilst D/114 gets 24.
Autumn
ADVAX5 introduced, a VAX processor redundant from elsewhere.
18 December
Upgrade of dialup server to Xylogics Annex 4000.

1996

Spring
ADVAX6 introduced, a secondhand VAX processor. Another 8.6 Gb of disk is added to the ADVAX cluster.
30 June
Filestores of VAX and WORD systems withdrawn.
14 October
Trial Windows 95 network introduced, unsupported W95 installation onto machines with local hard drives. Development work continues to try to create servers on existing Sun servers.

1997

January
Windows 95 classroom introduction postponed.
7 January
WPS finally removed from ADVAX machines.
28 May
Person(s) unknown break into tower, give themselves root access, and start up an IRC on it. York undergrad logs himself in as root and shuts tower down. External access to central systems is removed later in the week. (More info here.)
Spring
PC's in L117 fitted with hard drives to allow use with W95.
G/169 projector removed.
Summer
Work continues on FDDI & ATM network installation.
October
Hard drives in all classroom PCs. Windows 95 installed on machines - PCs dual boot Win 3.1 or W95.
Central lineprinter withdrawn.
New central filers: crypt1, crypt2 installed.
New mail and news servers: pump1, pump2 installed.

1998

Spring
Projectors installed in G/169, L/117 and D/114 classrooms.
New central colour laser printer - Lexmark Optra SC. Cost per page (A4 only) is halved to 30p.
New YKMAN network linking the Univerities of Yorkshire and Humberside is bought into use. York's link to SuperJANET is via the YKMAN network to Leeds.
Library recall and overdue notices by email trail starts.
Easter
A/140 upgraded with PII machines, existing terminals cascaded to G/169 and L/050.
ADVAX supplemented by ALPHA1 and ALPHA2, AlphaServer 4100 5/466 machines.
Summer
ebor and tower replaced by new Sun machines. Old machines still available as oldebor and oldtower.
New computer mailer dedicated to mail and news reading by telnet.
Derwent Indigos replaced by new SGI O2s.
L/117 and D/114 PCs upgraded to PIIs, with soundcards, cd drives. 486 machines cascaded to Langwith library and G/169.
V/058 converted back to Computing Service PC classroom, also with PII machines.
HP8000DN printers for V/058, and to replace the King's Manor and Alcuin printers.
FDDI networking around campus upgraded to ATM technology and Vivid switches.
Firewall installed on the University internet connection.
Direct charging for Transatlantic network traffic imposed on University.
25 September
Windows 3.1 withdrawn from classroom PCs.
November
oldtower removed from service.
New server for King's Manor.
December
oldebor removed from service.

1999

Easter
Test network set up for year 2000 testing.
Spring
Controversial trail of advertising on classroom PCs.
Replacement printers in Derwent, L/050 and W/218, each an HP8000DN.
Summer
G/169, W/218, K/128 classrooms have new machines installed.
Extra networking installed to separate classroom and office services.
New filestore crypt3 introduced, crypts 1 and 2 upgraded. Staff home directories moved to different server from tought students'.
New mail server pump3.
Upgrade of network link to King's Manor from 2x2Mbit/s to 34Mbit/s.
24 September
Supported Windows 3.1 service withdrawn.

Computer Details

DECsystems

Introduced in about 1972, later on there were two - a KS10 and a KL10. The KS10 was apparently largely used by computer science, the KL by the rest of the university.

VAX

The first incarnation of the VAX at York was a two-processor cluster, as reported in the University News Sheet Issue 190 (October 1986):

VAX cluster for York

The University has just replaced its DEC KL1090 computer system with a VAX cluster. Initially the cluster consists of two processors: an 8650 with 32 Mbytes of memory, and an 8200 with 8 Mbytes. They run the VAX/VMS operating system and support 120 users. The processors share disk and tape storage. There are two tape drives and twelve Winchester disks with a total capacity of 6 Gbytes. Printing facilities consist of a line printer and a laser printer. There are no card or paper tape facilities on the system.

Fortran, Pascal, Basic, Simula, Cobol, C, and Ada are the languages supported, and about 20 packages and libraries are available.

The tape drives were 6250/1600 bpi units. The line printer could churn out 600 lines per minute, the laser printer a respectable 12 pages per minute. Operating system was originally VMS 4.4(?), upgraded to 5.1-1 in 1989, then to 5.2 and 5.3 in 1990, and 5.4 in 1991.

The two computers were called VAXA (the 8650) and VAXB (the 8200). This original VAXB couldn't cope with the load and was replaced by an 8550 within a year. From autumn 1988, users could just type `CALL VAX' and were automatically connected to the one with the lowest load.

TCP/IP (in the form of UCX) arrived on the Vax systems only after the installation of Unix systems in the computing service and the threat or promise of JIPS.

The two VAXen were removed in Summer 1993, but were replaced by a single machine, vax. It is a Microvax 3100 model 90, about four times more powerful than each of the old two. The old magnetic tape drive was not attatched to the new VAX, as use of such tapes was being phased out.

Readers of late-1980 era Keynotes may remember the cartoon strip featuring the two VAXen talking to each other. Below are a few excerpts:

``This isn't why I became a VAX... I wanted to work for NASA''
VAXA
What's 2 + 2?''
VAXB
``I don't know, you're the clever one.''

What do all the letters mean? Here's a guide from the March 1990 Keynotes:

VAX
Virtual Architecture Extension. The type of computer used by the Computing Service. So called because it was developed as as `extension' to an older and simpler design of computer.
VMS
Virtual Memory System. The Operating System that runs on the VAX computer and gives it its particular personality. VAXes can also run other operaing systems, such as UNIX.
DEC
Digital Equipment Corporation. Also known as `Digital'. Manufacturers of the VAX computer and the VMS operating system.
DCL
Digital Command Language. The normal user interface to the VMS operating system. Also known as a `command interpreter'. This is the language you use to give commands to the VAX to list directories, run programs etc. The familiar $ prompt is a sign that the system is waiting for a DCL command to execute. Some other command interpreters exist - for example SHELL, which allows Unix-like commands to be given instead of DCL.

Notable locally-developed VAX software included the BBS system Jorvick, a Bullet-III lookalike, though unlike BBS systems elsewhere this was never really intended for outside access. Sadly, Jorvick was never rewritten to run on tower, and some of the functionality has been taken over by the newsgroups. There have also been a couple of attempts in the late 90s to start a Campus Moo, a multi-user realtime world based on the University (like a mud without the fighting). This never took off, although we still have the database...

WORD

VMS Wordperfect System, introduced in 1990 to take the load off of the VAXcluster which was running WPS+. At first the system was WordPerfect 5.0 running on 3 MicroVAX 3100 computers, called WORDA, WORDB and WORDC. As with the VAXcluster, users could type `CALL WORD' and were connected to the one with the lowest load. The software was upgraded to WordPerfect V5.1-1 in April 1992.

Along with the replacement of the VAX cluster in 1993, the WORD cluster was also updated to a single, more powerful unit.

tower

Silicon Graphics Challenge system. 64 Mb memory, increased to 96 Mb 1992.

When delivered, had four 33 MHz processors. Upgraded to eight in 1994 by adding four 44 MHz processors. At the same time, the memory was doubled to 192 Mb.

Replaced in 1994(?) by a newer machine, called for a while newtower 4x 200-MHz processors.

Replaced again in 1998, by a Sun Ultra10. 500 Mb memory, but only one processor. (Fortunately, the similarly-specced mailer took most of the load from tower).

ebor

Delivered and installed circa July 1994. Silicon Graphics 8x 150-MHz processor Challenge Deskside system.

Replaced in 1998 by a Sun Enterprise 3500, 6 processors at 366 MHz and 1 Gb memory.

goodram

Auspex NS6000 file server, purchased late 1993. Central SUN-4 host processor, with NFS traffic handled by microprocessor modules interconnected by an Enhanced VMEbus backplane operating at 55MByte/s. These are a File processor, an Ethernet Processor, an FDDI processor, and the Storage processor. There is also an io cache. The Storage processor can handle 20 SCSI devices. When delivered goodram had one FDDI processor and one Ethernet processor, and 12Gb of disk space in 3Gb disks. This was upgraded to 15Gb at the start of 1994.

pump1, pump2

Sun Ultrasparc 2200 servers, introduced in October 1997 to handle news and mail respectively.

crypt1, crypt2, crypt3

Network Appliance filers, the first 2 installed October 1997. Disk capacities were 36 Gb and 72 Gb respectively.

Upgraded and joined by a third in summer 1999, now F740 models. Total space 160Gb.

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