UCC Moves to Lindquist Center

If memory serves, UCC moved to the new Lindquist Center for Measurement between Christmas and New Years in 1972, thus occupying its new home in 1973. Work had begun quite some time before with the excavation at the corner of Burlington and Madison Streets. I seem to recall that a DX gasoline station and other businesses had been in that area previously. A small hobby shop, where Jim once worked, had been in a small house on Capitol Street near the northeast corner of the area being excavated.

When the building opened, the College of Education occupied much of the 2nd and 3rd floors, and UCC had the special machine room on the 2nd floor for the computer-assisted learning initiative, all of the 1st floor, and the machine room facilities in the lower level. Eventually, of course, a second building was added to the north and was connected through the elevated portion of the 3rd floor. All of that building was for the College of Education. In the picture below, you can see that there was a parking area to the north of Lindquist in 1973.

All of the photographs that follow were taken during the work of relocating the mainframe and other technology into the lower level of Lindquist. Most of the pieces of equipment were seen and mentioned in my original posting about UCC (three postings back), so I'll comment here only about people and things not shown earlier.

In that regard, these next two photos show some of the telecommunications equipment. I recognize but cannot name the engineers shown below. AT&T had not yet been broken up, so they would have been employees of that all-in-one Bell System. The cabinet to the right had synchronous modems in it, in most cases individual ones for the various RCC schools, and they were rather large. They operated at various speeds, many at 2400 bps with some as high as a whopping 9600 bps! No generally available internet yet in those days!

Here are Ken and Bob Werner moving a credenza. Every office was outfitted with new furniture.

IBM engineers had separated and uncabled all the mainframe components and had secured them with straps or tape as necessary. I recall that the hydraulic elevator was specially designed, both in size and carrying capacity, to allow movement of heavy equipment to the lower machine level.

A special room in the lower level was equipped with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system intended to keep the mainframe and the other equipment humming and to allow for orderly shutdowns in the event of power loss. I think it involved many wet cells, and I don't recall that it ever worked very well.

Phil Dylhoff and Jim pose while moving some of the equipment. Lots of staff members came to help, and much of the actual relocation got done in one late night of work. The building also incorporated a delivery/loading area in its southeast corner--it was quite large and had a wide, tall, overhead door. Lots of planning went into the design of the building with a large data center operation in mind. Technology miniaturization would, of course, eventually overtake lots of that planning. Chuck Shomper is in the red sweater. (Chuck was the director of the RCC and later became CIO at the University of Houston.) One of the operators, name unknown to me, is behind Jim.

Chuck Shomper, Jack Esbin, Ken, Bob, and others are commiserating here. I don't remember any longer who wrapped his arms around the post (leftmost in the picture) so as to dress up my photography.

This shot may be looking from the separated I/O area, where the printers and card readers were located, out towards the main machine room.

Some of the individual floating floor squares had to have holes cut in them so that the cabling between components could be routed underneath.

Harland Garvin and one of the IBM engineers (the inevitable white shirt and tie) appear in this next picture.

Adrian Kuennen and Bob are in this picture. I always thought this mainframe rack (with its blue panels off) was an odd one, since it housed almost nothing but cable bundles.

Jack walks past the 360/65 console.

In this picture, you can see the channel attached DEC PDP-11 through one of the 360 racks.

This was Larry ??? (maybe?), one of the operators. The I/O area, with its cubbies for outputs seems to be back in operation here.

SHARE (IBM User Group)

SHARE was an IBM mainframe users group. The organization evidently still exists (see here and here) but seems to have changed significantly--no surprise there. In the years during which UCC and WCC operated a mainframe, staff participated in SHARE meetings or conventions from time to time. At these meetings, selected topics were dealt with in smaller special interest group settings in order to exchange information and ideas both between IBM and the users and also between the users themselves.

In the evenings, IBM hosted a reception which allowed lots of one-on-one interchange and opportunity for some fun. My recollection is that IBM provided an open bar and that the liquor flowed probably too freely. All of the photographs below are from one of these receptions at a SHARE meeting in San Francisco in (probably) 1971 or 1972. Jim, Lee, and I were obviously all there, as you will see.

I need to provide some context. One of the software systems that we used at UCC was called HASP (Houston Automatic Spooling Priority system). This software, which was a vastly better performing alternative to the OS/360's built-in spooling capabilities, had been developed by IBM for the LBJ Space Center in Houston. Many OS/360 installations around the country chose to use HASP, including many academic institutions. HASP had a strong following within SHARE to the point that a HASP Song Book was eventually created to document alternative lyrics to popular or well-known songs written to praise HASP. The lyrics were written and contributed by persons at SHARE member institutions or companies. (I may be guilty of having written such a set of lyrics called "My HASP" which were to be sung to the tune of the old song "Mother." If necessary, you can find at least one version of "Mother"  here, in case you really need to hear it.)

So, at SHARE receptions, HASP lovers would gather around a piano and sing songs from the song book. There is no question that the open bar, mentioned earlier, contributed greatly to the liveliness and enthusiasm with which individuals participated. At the San Francisco meeting, we find Jim contributing his golden tones to one of the renditions. (I am told Jim still waxes melodious with his active involvement in barber shop quartets and choruses.)

The person in the picture below is Charles (Charlie) Forney from Penn State University. Charlie was a leader or organizer of some of the HASP special interest group meetings--note the ribbon on his badge. I believe he was attempting to bring some order to the sing-along, including next selections and so forth. Notice his orange necktie with HASP spelled out on it--more about that below.

I have been wracking my brain trying to recall the name of the piano player in this picture. (I found it! His name was Dick Hitt.) I know he was one of the IBM HASP development team in the years after its original creation for the LBJ Space Center. He was one of those pianists who could play almost anything "by ear", and so that worked well for the sing-alongs. I remember that he worked on the IBM 1130 software that allowed for its use as a remote terminal into HASP. Clarke and Coe colleges both used that software as part of their RCC setup.

Appearing in the next two pictures are Bob Crabtree and Tom Simpson, respectively. They were the original two IBM development engineers for HASP. Bob is the person in the foreground in the first picture. Those in the background were HASP users from other universities or organizations.

Tom Simpson is standing in the next photo. Now, about the neckties. You will see both orange and blue ones below. Simpson was a University of Texas alum, and so he had declared that the official color for HASP would be orange. Many orange HASP ties were produced and purchased for use at these gatherings--I have one. The blue one came about because Charlie Forney decided that some friendly competition, on the part of Penn State and its blue color, would be a good thing.

Finally, here are Lee and Jim continuing to participate in the singing. The women on the left are my ex (no additional comments needed) and Linda, Lee's spouse.

After writing all of the above, I found an article with more on HASP. It even mentions the University of Iowa! Click here if you wish to read it.

UCC Staffing, RCC and CONDUIT

I don't recall the reason, if indeed there was one, for this gathering of UCC staff at the west overlook at the Coralville Reservoir. The picture is interesting, but it does make me cringe in a way. There are no women pictured! Women were definitely employed at UCC, not least of them Linda as a systems programmer with others in administrative, keypunch, operations, and other positions. However, our nation has struggled for decades with trying to get more women involved in STEM fields, including computer science. The picture speaks volumes, to me at least, regarding the way things were "back then."

Years ago, with some help, I created a key to the names of the individuals in the picture. One name eludes me still. A prize is offered to the first person to send me that missing name.

In about 1968 and, I believe, partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the UCC formed a Regional Computer Center (RCC) or Regional Computer Network (RCN). Eleven colleges in Iowa and Illinois were members and were supported, initially only for academic computing, via telecommunications links to their campus equipment, which consisted of "batch computing" systems comprising card readers and line printers. Original members, to the best of my recollection, included: Cornell (Mount Vernon), Coe (Cedar Rapids), Loras and Clarke (Dubuque), Marycrest and Saint Ambrose (Davenport), Luther (Decorah), Central (Pella), Iowa Wesleyan (Mount Pleasant), Augustana (Rock Island), and Grinnell (Grinnell). Later, additional colleges and at least one high school (Mason City) joined. In 1970, as part of continuing to justify the expense of the connections, these members chose to add administrative computing support functions through the work of an RCC staff at UCC/WCC.

Below is a 2770 remote system similar to those used at several RCC schools. Most initially used a 2780, but later the 2770, which incorporated some compression features for faster operation and more efficient use of the telecommunications links, and other devices were used. Learn more here. This included various small computer systems (DEC PDP 8s and 11s, IBM 1130s and 360/20s) and features that supported the simultaneous ability to send and receive. Eventually, these same capabilities were enhanced so as to allow for a link between Iowa State's and Iowa's computing systems. This link provided for load sharing and access to resources by both campuses (and the RCC as well) available at only one of the two regent universities. These enhancements to the operating systems at each campus were done in collaboration with Triangle University Computer Center (TUCC) in North Carolina.

Another project also initially supported by NSF was CONDUIT, a consortium centered at UCC with members at Cornell, Oregon, North Carolina, Duke, Iowa, and Texas (hence the name of the organization). The purpose of the consortium was to locate and disseminate educational computing resources. As with the RCC, Gerry Weeg was the driving force behind these efforts.

In closing, permit me to mention an interesting book by D.C. Spriestersbach ("Sprie"), whose name will register with those most interested in these current postings on computing at the UI. The book's title is The Way It Was (The University of Iowa 1964-1989). It was published by the University of Iowa Press in 1999. Chapter seven of the book is entitled "The Computer Invasion" and is a fun read for those of us involved during that time.

University Computer Center

I'm going to do several different blog postings of pictures from the 1968 to 1973 time period related to the University of Iowa's academic computing facilities, staffing, and projects. This first posting documents the University Computer Center (UCC) a few years after it was initially established (and when it had technology different from that shown here). Most of the comments here are intended for colleagues of mine from that time period who have recently begun to reconnect and to share memories and stories. These blog entries are one way for me to contribute to that exchange.

All of the following pictures were taken in maybe 1970 or so. I'm not precisely sure of the year, but I think you may be able to tell from some of the pictures that we were no longer using the entrance down the ramp on the east side of the machine room. The I/O window seems to be the one created off the west side hallway when the Center was expanded. In another photo, the one showing the manual rack, you can see that we were using the temporary building to the east of the machine room.

I recall that I arranged for these photos because I had been invited by my high school mathematics teacher to come back and give a talk on computers and computing for the students in her class. Jim, Bruce, and I all lived on the (then) far east side of Iowa City not too far from each other. So one weekend, I prevailed on them to join me in making this photographic record. Their modeling skills will be evident to you. Clearly, IBM influenced their taste in white shirts. And just for the record, I still have that "old gold" sweater.

A last few things you may wish to know before looking at the photos is that you can double click on any one of them to see a larger version. You can then use left/right arrows to move through the pictures without having to read all my lame comments. Press ESC to return to the blog. Also, note that some of the comments below contain embedded URL links to Wikipedia pages with additional information. You may leave comments as well--see the comments link at the end of the post.

Obviously, this is the exterior of the UCC, which was located in the lower level of the northwest section of what was known as East Hall and then later Seashore Hall. This entire building complex, which among other things once housed the original UI Hospital, is currently being demolished. The demolition of the area that once housed UCC triggered the exchange of memories and reconnections mentioned above.

The sign is one of two I remember. The other was made to look like a punch card. Lee had it for many years and perhaps still does. The van reminds me that we had a pickup and delivery service for persons around campus who did not wish to travel to UCC to drop off card decks and return to pick up these decks and their output listings.

The next picture shows the window where users would drop off their card decks and pick up their listings. Note the sign indicating the current anticipated turnaround time between drop off and pickup. The keypunch in this photo was in a stand up configuration for quick changes in card decks.

I recall two different keypunch machines, the 026 and the 029. This one is an 029. Read more here.

UCC staff created a system called GRUMP that could be used to maintain images of punch card decks online. GRUMP worked with 2260 CRT displays. Read more about 2260s here.

From time to time, UCC experimented with new emerging technologies. The system Jim is using here was an Imlac PDS-1, a graphical display system about which you can read more here.

We also supported a small number of printing terminals, like the IBM 2741 Two software systems UCC provided were ATS (administrative terminal system--a text processing system) and CPS (conversational programming system). An old teletype is also shown.

Adjacent to the I/O window area (and later in the temporary building??) was an array of keypunch machines for users to use on a walk-in basis to prepare their programs, data, and jobs to be processed on the computer.

IBM was for a time one of the largest publishers in the world, simply because one needed documents in order to know how to properly use the many different software systems. A room was set aside at the Center to allow users to work on their programs and to consult these manuals.

In early days, an array of "unit record" equipment was available to allow doing such tasks as card sorting, card-to-print operations, statistical sorting, and others. Some of these machines could be programmed via plug boards. Most of these capabilities were obviated by the computing system and the machines were phased out. However, a sorter was useful for putting decks back into order if, alas, they were dropped and scrambled (and if one had the foresight to punch sequence numbers into the trailing columns of the cards). Here, Jim is operating what I think is an 082 sorter.

Below is a 2540 card reader/punch. This was one of two readers used to read card decks into the computing system for processing. The other was a 2501.

UCC had two different line printers. One was a 1000 lpm 1403. The other was a 600 lpm machine, perhaps a 1401 (although the 1401 was also a distinct IBM system), so I'm not sure about that.

Obviously, these are some of the media in regular use at that time: magnetic tapes, paper tape, removable disk packs (hard disks), printed listings, and punch cards.

These next two pictures show the console area of the mainframe computing system--an IBM 360 model 65. The machine occupied a number of cabinets. IBM offered cabinets in blue, red, canary yellow, or gray, as I recall. I think we sometimes called this machine "Old Blue" or "Big Blue." Reading the details about the machine will bring to mind the inevitable thoughts about the enormous differences between computers back then and those in common and prolific use today (size, capacity, speed). Many of us today wear more powerful computers on our wrists. These mainframes sat atop raised flooring so that interconnecting cables could be placed below. (Remember the special gadgets used to lift squares of the floor for access to the areas below?) Significant cooling systems were required to keep them from overheating.

I always liked this picture of Jim in supplication before the CPU gods.

Behind Bruce is an 8-pack array of 2314 hard disk drives. Bruce is at the console, where operators could manage the system job flow, control devices, and receive instructions for such things as the mounting of magnetic tapes or the changing of 2314 disk packs (as demonstrated by yours truly in the second photo below).

UCC supported a number of remotely connected devices at regional colleges and universities as well as interactive terminals like the 2741 shown earlier. So in addition to the IBM equipment, the machine room housed many telecommunications interfaces, modems, etc.

I'm not sure which is which below, but the next two pictures show the two channel controllers for the 360/65. One was a selector channel (2860) and the other a byte-multiplexor channel (2870). (By the way, I don't know why all of these model and device numbers affixed themselves so permanently in my memory. I certainly could not recite with accuracy the numbers for many of the machines that came later or those of different contemporary machines.) I don't recall that either Jim or I or any of us ever had much reason to open these cabinets to examine the control panels, but for my intended use of these pictures, it was much more impressive to show "the guts" than the exteriors of lots of similar cabinets.

A set of magnetic tape drives (2400 series) were available. Most were 9-track, while one or two were 7-track, as I recall. Tapes were used for backing up the disk systems as well as for data input/output. The Department of Physics and others used tapes to collect experimental data for later analysis on the UCC system. In the machine room were racks with numerous tapes stored on them.

Below is a 2703 controller. This device was the interface between an array of telecommunications devices (modems) and the mainframe (via the byte multiplexor channel). I remember that I actually did frequently access the control panel in order to investigate problems with connections to some of the regional schools and other locations.

Finally, although it was eventually replaced by other equipment, for a time we used an IBM 2671 paper tape reader. A few UI departments collected data on paper tape from experiments and analyzed the results on the mainframe. I can't find much information online about the 2671, but there is a decent treatment of paper tape here.

Planned future postings: UCC staff and projects, SHARE meetings, moving to the Lindquist Center.