to my Home PageIMAGES OF THE CADBURY'S LABURNUM COMPUTER CENTRE 1978
Taken from Cadbury's own 1978 Jobcentre brochure.
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| A hive of activity |
Overview showing tape decks |
View of consoles | Rows and rows of tape decks |
Hardware graphic |
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| Tape Library (part of it!) |
Mass Storage unit | IBM 3800 Laser printer |
Laser printer (closeup) |
More consoles |
| Here's some info about the system from the brochure: IBM 376/158 Central Processing Unit, capable of performing 1 million add instructions per second. This machine has 5 million characters of memory, 4 million of which have been obtained from Control Data Corporation (CDC). IBM 3031 + Attached Processor Unit, capable of 1.8 million add instructions per second. This machine has a memory of 6 million characters. IBM 3330-1 Disk Drive has two spindles per unit, each of which takes a 100 million character disk pack. Data is transferred at a speed of 806,000 characters per second. IBM 3330-11 Disk Drive similar to the model 1, except that the storage capacity of each disk is 200 million characters. IBM 3350 Disk Drive has a storage capacity of 300 million characters per disk, with two spindles per unit. Pan of each disk is a fixed head area to decrease data seek time. These disks are used exclusively for the CICS on-line system. Thus the total capacity of data available on disk storage at any one time is approximately 7,600 million characters. IBM 3851 Mass Storage System (MSS), a new device installed late 1978 which stores data on magnetic tape cartridges, which are automatically handled. Each cartridge holds 50 million characters, thus with its total capacity of 2~O4O cartridges the device has capacity of 102.000 million characters. IBM 376/158 Central Processing Unit, capable of performing 1 million add instructions per second. This machine has 5 million characters of memory1 4 million of which have been obtained from Control Data Corporation (CDC). IBM 3031 + Attached Processor Unit, capable of 1.8 million add instructions per second. This machine has a memory of 6 million characters. IBM 3330-1 Disk Drive has two spindles per unit, each of which takes a 100 million character disk pack. Data is transferred at a speed of 806,000 characters per second. IBM 3330-11 Disk Drive similar to the model 1, except that the storage capacity of each disk is 200 million characters. IBM 3350 Disk Drive has a storage capacity of 300 million characters per disk, with two spindles per unit. Pan of each disk is a fixed head area to decrease data seek time. These disks are used exclusively for the CICS on-line system. Thus the total capacity of data available on disk storage at any one time is approximately 7,600 million characters. IBM 3851 Mass Storage System (MSS), a new device installed late 1978 which stores data on magnetic tape cartridges, which are automatically handled. Each cartridge holds 50 million characters, thus with its total capacity of 2,040 cartridges the device has capacity of 102,000 million characters. IBM 3420 Model 5 Magnetic Tape Drive, uses tape reels up to 2400 feet long with a capacity of approximately 35 million characters. Data is transferred at 200,000 characters per second. (3851 MSS is designed to replace more than 50 per cent of our current tape usage). IBM 2501 Card Reader has a rated speed of 1,000 80 column cards per minute (cpm). IBM 1403 Line Printer, prints by means of a mechanical chain of characters and has an optimum speed of 1100 lines per minute. IBM 3800 Printing Subsystem. prints by means of the Xerox principle with a photographic page being projected by a laser beam onto a photoconductive drum. The device has a maximum printing speed of 13,000 lines per minute. The 1403 on-line printers are used primarily for compilation listings, test results and other development output. The bulk of user output is produced either by 3800 or by two off-line Mohawk Data Systems printers. The MDS printers are used principally for forms which the 3800 cannot handle due to the high heat process involved, i.e. magnetically encoded cheques, self adhesive labels. etc. Both MDS and 3800 can provide a print width of 160 characters as against the 1403 maximum of 132. In the Computer Centre are located two General Computer Systems lnterscan 2100 mini-computers which control key to disk data entry operations for the Confectionery and Tea & Foods Divisions. A similar Interscan configuration is installed at St. Albans for Drinks Division data entry. |