Computer Science History: 1960s

In 1963, Newcastle and Durham became separate universities.

After splitting, the Laboratory became part of the new University of Newcastle upon Tyne, although it kept close links with Durham.

The Laboratory was housed in Kensington Terrace. It spread over the next few years into many of the adjoining houses.

Demand for computing facilities grew quickly in the early 1960s.

In 1964 the Pegasus was replaced by an English Electric KDF9. The same year Dr Page was promoted to the post of Professor of Computing and Data Processing.

This period saw the first high-level languages coming into widespread use. These displaced the assemblers and autocodes of earlier years.

FORTRAN was the most popular language at the time, but Newcastle adopted ALGOL 60 as its main teaching language because of its more elegant conceptual architecture. It also benefited student programmers, as it had greater automatic error detection facilities.

As on the Ferranti Pegasus, programs were prepared on paper tape. The paper tape programs were then loaded into the computer by operators.

Program output would be returned sometime later, possibly not until the next day. Output was provided on line-printer paper or sometimes on further paper tape.

This 24-hour turn-around meant students had to focus on producing error-free programs.

The Postgraduate Diploma course developed into an MSc course in Computing Science. It was aimed at graduates in other disciplines.

At the start numbers were small, but in later years this course grew at a significant rate. The increase in numbers was because students and employers appreciated the benefits of combining computing skills with other subjects.

Research during this period focused on automatic typesetting and on medical literature information retrieval.

Two typesetting projects were done in collaboration with the Department of Photography. They were both under the direction of the late C J Duncan.

The first was funded by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. It used the Ferranti Pegasus.

The second, funded by the Ministry of Technology, used ALGOL 60 on the KDF9.

The information retrieval work was directed by Elizabeth Barraclough. Elizabeth was the Ferranti Pegasus computer operator in 1957, but later became Director of the Computing Service.

The research was carried out with the US National Library of Medicine. It resulted in the development of the MEDLARS and then the MEDUSA systems.

1967 was a major year in the development of Computing at Newcastle.

In preparation for the arrival of a new computer, an IBM 360 model 67 (360/67), the Laboratory moved into a new building. The new building was Claremont Tower.

The 360/67 was the first multiple-access computer outside North America. It displayed a new style of computing. Besides batch jobs running from decks of IBM punched cards, the 360/67 supported several remote access terminals. These terminals gave users the illusion of having the machine to themselves. This setup was an early precursor of today's PC environment.

1967 saw the introduction of the first undergraduate degree programme in Computing Science. Six students attended a short programming course at the end of the first year of their Mathematics degree. They then joined the Laboratory in the second year of the new BSc Honours Degree in Computing Science. They graduated in 1969 amongst the first graduates from any UK university.

Undergraduate programmes were followed in 1968 by the first of the Newcastle International Seminars on the Teaching of Computing Science. The series of seminars were sponsored at first by IBM, then Amdahl and then ICL. The ICL series ran for more than 30 years.

After some experimentation with proprietary time-sharing systems in 1969, the Laboratory adopted the Michigan Terminal System.

For the next 20 years, the School helped to develop this community-supported system on a succession of mainframes.

The Michigan Terminal System opened up attractive technical opportunities for those providing the computing service. It also had a profound beneficial effect on the calibre of staff.

Together with the growth of academic programmes, this began a period of significant expansion in the Laboratory. The Northumbrian Universities Multiple Access Computer (NUMAC) organisation was created. This gave services to both Newcastle and Durham universities.

Professor Brian Randell joined the Laboratory in 1969 from IBM's T J Watson Research Center. He had earlier worked for English Electric on the Whetstone ALGOL compiler used on KDF9.

Brian also initiated the Laboratory's Technical Report series for the prompt publication of research results.

Brian's professional and academic career achievements are now chronicled together in one archive (from 1950 to 2009). The fully catalogued materials are now available via a newly setup profile webpage on the University Library website.