The 1900 Range – Index

1 - 1900 Architecture and System Description

1.1 - How the ICT 1900 Series evolved

1.2 - The ICT 1900 Range in 1966

1.3 - ICT 1900 Range Architecture

1.3.1 - System Architecture

1.3.2 - Standard Interface

1.3.3 - 1900 Executive

1.3.4 - The 1900 Range Order Code

1.3.5 - FP6000 Processor Data Flow

1.3.6 - Span of the Range

1.4 - Hardware technology in the ICT/ICL 1900 Range

2 - 1900 Performance and Competitive Position

2.1 - 1900 at the start- FP 6000 performance

2.2 - Performance of ICT 1900 in 1966

2.3 - Performance of ICT / ICL 1900 Series (All Models) and 2903/ME29

2.4 - ICT 1900 competitive position

3 - 1900 Software

3.1 - The FP 6000 Software (Before the 1900 Range)

3.2 - ICT 1900 Range Software - The Start

3.3 - Programming Aids (Software) in 1966

3.4 - The Operating Systems (George).

3.5 - ICT/ICL 1900 Software - Two views from the Board

3.6 - ICT/ICL 1900 Software in 1972

4 - 1900 Range in the Market

4.1 - 1900 Road Map

4.2 - Approx. Quantities delivered.

4.3. - Customers list and Applications

4.3.1 - The 1900 Users Group

4.3.2 - Some Customers Details

5 - 1900 Acknowledgements and References

Comments received

Virgilio Pasqoali

3.3 – 1900 Programming Aids (Software) in 1966

The following is an extract from an ICT brochure dated November 1966, listing the Programming aids (aka Software) of the 1900 Range:

“Programming aids

No program for the 1900 Series will be written in machine code. The extensive range of central processors and peripheral devices has been matched by an equally extensive range of programming aids. This range includes:

Plan- An assembly system specially prepared for the 1900 Series employing mnemonics.

Cobol- An international programming language of considerable power and flexibility for general commercial applications.

Rapidwrite- The I.C.T. simplification of COBOL.

EMA- The Extended Mercury Autocode for the solution of mathematical and scientific problems. It is simple to use, and widely employed in the scientific world.

Fortran and Algol- International autocodes for mathematical and scientific tasks.

NICOL- A simple commercial programming language developed by I.C.T., it simplifies the task of transferring jobs from a manual or automatic accounting system to a 1901 installation. Its straightforward format and few operational commands enable users to translate their requirements into computer terms after as little as four days instruction. Although developed for use with the 1901, series compatibility ensures that programs written in NICOL can also be run on any other 1900 Series computer system.

Sub-routines- A comprehensive library of commercial and mathematical sub-routines is available.

Operating Systems- To optimise the running of jobs, I.C.T. has devised a series of sophisticated operating systems to schedule the work, to organize and control the files and to control communications with the users.

Packaged Programs- Complete packaged programs have been devised by I.C.T. which require only the insertion of users' parameters. These packaged programs cover such tasks as: Linear Programming, Matrix Algebra, Survey Analysis, Systems Control, PERT, Inventory Management, Transportation, Regression Analysis. ”