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THE BIRTH OF THE ERCC

In the early sixties, computers were being used in some American and British universities for the analysis of large amounts of information. In 1964 Edinburgh University was allocated 15 minutes computer time per day on the Atlas computer at Manchester University. This allocation was used by a growing body of active computer users and it was recognised that the University needed a computer of its own. A number of other universities also displayed the need for computing facilities and eventually the Government decided that their needs should be looked at by a working party.

The Flowers Report

In 1966 the Minister of Technology asked the Council for Scientific Policy and the University Grants Committee to set up a working party to undertake a full scale review of the computer requirements of universities and research councils. The working party was chaired by Professor Flowers of Manchester University and the report it produced has come to be known as The Flowers Report. The full name of the report is A Report of a Joint Working Group on Computers for Research and it was presented to Parliament in January 1966.

The Report recommended that every university should have a computer laboratory and that some should have the role of a Regional Computer Centre. The designated Regional Centres were London, Manchester and Edinburgh which were to provide computing services for local university users, surrounding research council establishments and other universities.

Recommendations in the Report affecting Edinburgh University

For Edinburgh University, the recommendations were:

1. A major installation was required.
2. Because of the dispersion of the potential computer users, the ERCC should be built along multi-access lines.
3. There should be some co-ordination between Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St. Andrews Universities as part of the regional nature of the Edinburgh installation.
4. Edinburgh should take a leading role in the development of conversational systems as a matter of national importance.
5. It was noted in the report that one particular company had shown interest in the development of an interactive system and it was recommended that discussions should start between the University and that company.

The Establishment of the ERCC

Dr G.E.Thomas was appointed director of the ERCC in June 1966 and the ERCC came into formal existence in August of the same year. The original press release issued by the University is shown in Appendix II.

Following the appointment of the Director in June 1966, a five year plan for the development of the Centre was worked out.

The main computer service was to be based on an English Electric 4/75 computer which would be delivered in September 1968. As a temporary measure, a KDF9 computer was rented and installed in a building at Buccluech Place Lane. An article from the Computer Weekly describing this installation is contained in Appendix II.

Between the appointment of the Director in June 1966 and the delivery of the 4/75 computer in September 1968, the ERCC established itself as the provider of computing facilities for Edinburgh University and local research council estabishments: the ERCC was born and was beginning to grow.

The ERCC planned to employ 152 members of staff by 1970, and by the publication of the ERCC Second Annual Report in July 1968, 108 were in post. A list of what we might call "founder menbers", in post in July 1968 is given in Appendix III.

| intro | birth | growth | ICL4/75 | needs | ICL2900 | commns | summary | glossary | App1 | App2 | App3 | App4 |