Multi-POP/4120: A cheap on-line system for numerical and non-numerical computing
J S Collins, Anthony P. Ambler, Rod M. Burstall, R D Dunn, Donald Michie, D J S Pullin, R. J. Popplestone · ITNOW · 1968
The following is a description of a project aimed at developing a computing system suitable for use by biomedical research workers in Britain. This means a hardware configuration costing under £100,000 to bring it within the range of computing budgets likely to be at the disposal of British medical schools and research institutes. It also means that the system should be usable by non-programmers as well as programmers. A further aim was to ensure that the system could also act as a research instrument for the non-numerical programming work being conducted in the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception. A multi-access computing system meeting the above objectives has been designed and implemented for the following hardware configuration Elliott 4120 central processor with 32K 24 bit words 6µs store Control typewriter Paper tape station with 2 readers and 2 punches Line printer 8-channel teletype controller 20 on-line teletype consoles. A simple switchboard (which may be manual or automatic) selects up to eight of the 20 teletype consoles to be in use at any time.