International Computers Ltd
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International Computers Ltd, or ICL, was a large British computer hardware company formed by the merger of computer divisions of various British electrical engineering firms. Their primary product line was a series of IBM System/360 mainframe clones based on the RCA Spectra 70 which they licensed, as well as a line of smaller machines originally developed from the Canadian Ferranti-Packard 6000. What was left of the company was purchased by Fujitsu, another IBM-clone builder, and in 2002 the remains were rebranded as the European services arm of Fujitsu. Significant contracts included Post Office Ltd, Inland Revenue and Ministry of Defence.
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History
International Computers Ltd was formed in 1968 as a part of the Industrial Expansion Act of the Wilson Labour Government. ICL was an initiative of Tony Benn, the Minister for Technology, to create a British computer industry that could compete with major world manufacturers like IBM. ICL represented the last step in a series of mergers taking place in the industry since the late 1950's.
The main portions of ICL were formed from International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), Elliott Automation, and EELM. EELM was itself a merger of the computer divisions of English Electric, LEO and Marconi.
International Computers and Tabulators (ICT)
ICT had emerged in the UK with the punch card era with equipment that would process data encoded on punched cards - 40,80 or 160 column cards in the case of ICT, compared to the 64 or 80 column cards used by IBM and its predecessors.
In 1962 ICT delivered the first ICT 1300 series computer which was their first transistor machine and also their first to use core memory.
In 1964 ICT purchased the computer division of Ferranti in another government forced merger. Ferranti had been building a small number of scientific machines based on various university designs since the 1950s. None of these could be considered commercially successful, however, and Ferranti always seemed to be slow bringing their designs to market.
In 1962 a small team from Ferranti's Canadian subsidiary, Ferranti-Packard, visited the various Ferranti computer labs and saw their work on a next-generation machine. On their return home they produced the Ferranti-Packard 6000 in an astonishingly short period of time, developing the machine, compilers and an operating system (before these were common) and putting it on the market by 1963. The machine went on to have some success and sold in small numbers in Canada and the United States.
Meanwhile ICT management in England was looking to rejuvinate their lineup; their latest developments, the ones used to develop the FP 6000, were still not on the market. Management looked at the FP 6000 as well as licensing the Spectra 70 from RCA, but in the end decided to go with the FP 6000 as the basis for a small line of small-to-midrange machines. The result was the ICT 1900 series, which would eventually go on to sell into the thousands.
English Electric LEO Marconi (EELM)
During the same period of time, LEO was struggling to produce their own machines that would be able to compete with IBM. Their parent company, Lyons, simply didn't have the financial might to develop a new line of machines. Not wanting to see their work go to waste, they sold their computer division to English Electric.
English Electric had developed a series of machines over the years, notably the famous KDF9, but never had much commercial success.
Now with serious financial backing at their disposal, the new company nevertheless decided not to come up with their own design, and license the Spectra 70 instead (the design ICT rejected). The result was the System 4-series.
Leo computers
- LEO computer Leo 3 - origins in J. Lyons and Co.
(more to follow)
System 4 series
- System 4/50
- System 4/70
- System 4/72
- System 4/75
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The System 4 series ran the J (for Job) operating system. This was a batch operating system, although there was a variant that allowed interactive access called MultiJob. Programming languages used were assembler and COBOL. The system was controlled from a console comprised of a mechanical printer and keyboard - very like a Teletype. The assembly language was identical to IBM System 360 Assembly Language.
Elliott computers
- 4100
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International Computer Ltd (ICL)
2900 series
After the amalgamation of ICT/English Electric/Elliott the 2900 series was introduced that could support the work of the differing ICT and English Electric regimes.
The computer hardware included:
These ran the VME and DME (emulation) operating systems.
Series 39
Series 39 followed the same essential architecture as 2900 series, but was a dramatic step forward in hardware technology. It was the first commercial mainframe to expoit optical fibres for central interconnect, and also introduced a multi-CPU (multinode) architecture transparent to the applications.
The series included:
- Level 50
- Level 60
- Level 80
Operating systems
There were a variety of operating systems proposed at the outset for 2900 series, all called VME (Virtual Machine Environment) with suffixes A, B, C..., all focussing on different expected uses of the system. The only 2 to survive the initial discussions were:
- VME/B (Confusingly developed in Kidsgrove)
- VME/K (confusingly developed in Bracknell)
There was briefly also a VME/ESA, which was a one-off for the European Space Agency, but this did not survive very long. The chief architect of VME/B was Brian Warboys, who subsequently became professor of software engineering at the University of Manchester. After a short period of parallel development it was clear VME/B was achieving more significant market penetration, and the development of VME/K was dropped, in spite of some strong support for its technical merits within the company. VME/B then went through a number evolutions - mainly for cost reduction and perception changes. Eventually, a much-streamlined VME2900 replaced VME/B and VME/K, although VME/B compatibility was assured through an additional 'B option'.
- VME2900 (Virtual Machine Environment/2900)
- VME (Virtual Machine Environment)
- Open VME
Application Superstructure software
- IDMS(X) (Integrated Data Management System - A Codasyl database)
- TPMS(X) (Transaction Processing Management System)
- DDS (Data Dictionary System)
Languages
- S3 (a variant of Algol 68 - The operating systems were written in this)
- SCL (System command language)
- COBOL (for most business applications)
- FORTRAN
- Maple
- Staple
- SFL (System Function Language)
- C
- assembly languages
2903 range
A cut-down system based more closely upon the 1900 series was introduced as:
These ran the TME operating system, based very closely upon the GEORGE 1S operating system from the earlier range.
Operating systems and Software
- TME (Transaction Machine Environment)
Dataskil
Dataskil Ltd or ICL Dataskil was a software house that developed commercial programs and some utility software for the ICL marketplace.
(more to follow)
Software
- 1900 Datadrive
- 1900 Datafeed
- 1900 Dataview
- 1900 IDMS
- 2900 IDH (Interactive Data Handler)
- 2900 LP (Linear Programming)
- 2900 OMAC
- 2900 PERT
Bureau services
In the era when the capital cost of purchasing computer equipment and operating computer systems was significant, use was made of organisations that provided such services, commonly known as Computer Bureaux. Alternative uses of these services was when they provided specialist services.
ICSL - International Computer Services Ltd
BARIC
This was a joint venture of ICSL and Barclays Bank, that provided computer services.
Out-sourcing
Some of these organisations, or their sucessors, were involved in the 1980s and 1990s trends to outsourcing of the operation of computer services.
(More to follow)
Compatibility
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Breakdowns and Maintenance
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Compatibility
A major factor in the improvement of computer services was in ensuring compatibility with existing hardware, software and operating systems. The significant investment in the development of systems, which were usually proprietary in nature, resulted in exceptional costs being incurred if a change of supplier was contemplated. This was a form of supplier lock-in that fuelled the demand for common programming languages such as COBOL and the move to lower costs of ownership afforded by open systems.
(More to follow)
Merger/takeover by Fujitsu
(to follow)
See also
External links
- Development Gateway's ICT for Development Community (http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ict)
- http://pink-mouse-productions.com/icl/2900.htm
- http://www.ucs.ed.ac.uk/EUCS/history/icl2900.htmlpl:ICL