Computing at light speed

Computer operator Jim Burton with chief executive Ian Walker (right) and computer services manager John Cross.

Seven million pounds-worth of high tech­nology computer equipment was formally commissioned last week when Ian Walker, BP Oil's chief executive, visited the new com­puter room at BP House, Hemel Hempstead.

Not surprisingly, with so much sophisticated hard­ware carrying so much company information, security is a high priority. Entry for everyone - including Mr Walker - is via an inches thick rein­forced door which can only be opened by keying in a special code in conjunction with a special card.

Library

The room houses three main frame and three mini­computers, the com­munications equipment, and ancillary storage equip­ment. A fire-proofed library stores 15,000 magnetic tapes, of which up to 1000 will be used in any one day.

These tapes are now being superseded by 24 of the latest disc storage devices. While they look like old fashioned washing machines there is nothing dated about the ability of each one to store 90 mil­lion words - equivalent to, say, 500 paperbacks.

The communications side of the company has quintupled in the past four years as John Cross, BP Oil's computer services manager, explained to Mr Walker. Modern tech­nology is having difficulty in keeping pace with modern requirements. The various pieces of equip­ment have to be sited within 50 feet of each other simply because communication between them is slowed down by distance.

"A communications signal tracks one foot every one hundred thousandth of a second," Mr Cross said. "Light has actually become too slow for many modern processes."

Cabling

There is also the pro­blem of sheer size, espe­cially where cables are con­cerned. BP Oil is now using fibre optic cabling because one fibre optic can carry the equivalent of 250 con­ventional cables.

Computers too, are getting smaller. To use the jargon, they have a `decreasing footprint'. Mr Walker commented that the space taken up by the first computer at Hemel Hemp­stead, the Leo, was some one-and-a-half times that of the present Univac's. Whereas the Leo boxes held only 16,000 words of memory the Univac holds a million.

"Looking to the future," he said, "we have to bal­ance the unlimited demand from a population increasingly hungry for more and more instant information - which fre­quently cannot be other nice to know - with the rapid production of essential data and statements which lead to a more efficient and cost effective company."

Taken from BP Oil News - May 1983

£7m in 1983 would today (2010) be worth about £16.5m.

Today, it is quite amusing to read such comments about computer size becoming an issue and thereby the distance that information had to travel. Also, the comment from John Cross that “light is too slow” – I suppose that as we could not move data faster than light we just had to make the technology smaller.

The linear storage of data on tapes were only then being passed out for the non-linear discs.

Ian Walkers comment about the need for instant information, specific to the business and not just “nice to know” is somewhat prophetic for an age when we have almost unimaginable instant access to a wealth of information via personal computers and the internet.  

An interesting article from a time when major step changes in computing where taking place and giving an insight into the challenges of the future that we had to address.

Added by David F Thorn Tuesday 14 September 2010