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Chapter 6
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Reports of the Committee
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The style of the reports
that the committee will
prepare is clearly beyond
the scope of a monograph.
However, certain features of
an effective report should
be mentioned.
For each acceptable building
evaluated in the report,
there should be included a
working sketch of an effective
center together with another
sketch of the building
requirements after three
years of operation.
And it must be the latter
authorization that is sought.
Some of the spare office
space can be loaned back
until required, but the
air conditioning, temperature,
humidity and other environmental
control equipment must have enough
capacity to handle the larger
requirements even during
the peak periods.
It is also helpful to sketch
a typical computer system
configuration with typical
cabling requirements.
This can be done without regard
to the supplier or model
which will be chosen
later.
With this sketch, the flow
of work and workers together
with a description
of size, weight, number
of occurrences of input
and output should be included.
Estimated intervals for
renovation, building,
ordering, delivery, and
installation of the elements
of this report should be as
realistic as possible.
Promises by interested
groups to reduce
their known intervals
substantially should be
viewed with reserve if not
pessimism.
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Consider now your actions
after the committee's
first study and survey assignments
have been completed.
You have now completed the survey
of possible and unacceptable
building(s) in the study
region as well as locations
and general requirements
for a new building as an
alternative.
You have developed an
organizational structure
in depth, complete
except for numbers of members
of the support groups which
are dynamic and a function
of load.
For these support groups,
(applications programmers,
program consultants, financial
assistants,
operating personnel),
your proposal will list
start-up staff size
and growth increments
expressed as a function of demand.
Your education
and training
subcommittee has drafts
of the first programs
for both university
level education and the
training courses required
for the center and for a
specified community of users.
That is to say the
training draft proposal would
be quite specific in describing
the elements of the community
requiring
personnel trained at center,
the number and type of job as well
as the estimated dates of need.
If there exists other training
agencies in the regions
whose activities are complementary
to the activities under consideration
for this center, it can
be helpful to specify those
areas which will
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not
be included in the
programs of the center.
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The committee has the list of
computer manufactureres
licensed to market their
products in your country.
A sub-committee has received
from them a list of organizations
in your region using their product
together with a brief description
of the computing system except for those
users operating within the
official Secret Act(s) of your region.
Under proper safeguards to
national security some members
of your committee
may be knowledgeable about
these centers and be
authorized to disclose whether
or not the systems
they operate can be
considered helpful in the
growth of your new center.
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From the several subcommittees'
study results together with the
estimates of the computational
needs of the principal
classes of users, an aggregate
detailed demand estimate
has been derived.
A computer survey subcommittee
has asked each of the licensed
computer manufacturers to
submit preliminary proposals.
In this request the committee
will inform the potential
suppliers the 1)|that only
a study authorization is
at hand and that the preliminary
report has been
submitted for approval;||2)|that
the suppliers preliminary responses
will be used to evaluate
the options expected to
be open to the committee
as a result of the authorities
consideration and
action on the submitted report;
and 3)|that subsequently
a request containing
specific requirements will
be sent those suppliers
whose product seems capable
of meeting the needs
of the center.
Outside of a few countries
this is a relatively small
list, and in those countries
with a long list, there is
more experience so that
the list would be restricted
to suppliers known
to be active in this
field, and to be
likely candidates.
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It will take four to six
weeks for a supplier to respond
to the subcommittee, if your
request is reasonably well defined.
If there are ambiguities
which require discussion with you,
or financing problems are
involved it may take much longer.
In any case your preliminary
report about the center as a
national resource can well
be submitted without a
proposed computer.
There are real advantages to
a report limited to
the local issues.
These issues must be
considered by the
authority and decisions reached
before action on the
selection of a computer system
is meaningful.
A report on local matters without
a proposed computer makes it
self-evident that the
committee views
itself as
an agent and has not assumed
acceptance of the report.
In order to talk to suppliers
beyond the
survey stage you must
have a commitment for space,
supporting equipment and staff.
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This preliminary report should outline
the scope of computational
activity in the region
and its relevance to national needs.
Citing specific projects and their
impact on the center can be
helpful.
Based on these estimates of load,
the report would
then spell out working
estimates of plant
requirements, specifying
either acceptable existing
buildings or estimates of amount
of new building space required.
These plant requirements
should include air-conditioning
specifications and all other
environmental control
needs and estimates of installation,
operating and maintenance costs.
Other plant requirements
affecting personnel such as
cafeteria, sanitary facilities,
and communication equipment
should be stated together
with load carrying capacity.
This last item is important
since additions of this type
to correct deficiencies
can be expensive.
Staff requirements should
form the next section.
The organization at the
managerial level should
be spelled out and
justified.
In many cases it can
be helpful to the
decision makers if actual
names can be suggested as
typically well suited for a
specific post.
Then the operational
organization and staffing
levels should be developed,
describing the minimum cadre
required to start each main
division, teaching,
training,
computer operations, financial,
and computer support operations.
Your committee may decide to
request that on the
approval of the proposed center,
the management posts described
in the organization section,
and a selected set of
subordinate personnel
openings be
filled on an immediate basis.
This will permit
the committee to institute
a vigorous program of specification
development to develop
the final report which will
define all of 
the activities, efforts,
and equipment required to
open a new scientific
research and development
computation center.
The time required to open
such a center is on the
order of two years, during
which this skeleton
organization will be very
busy indeed.
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Approval in principle should
be requested for the
remaining posts in the proposed
center and the screening of
applicants of these
remaining posts.
The start time of each group
will be justified in the
final report for authorization in principle.
This approval permits all of the
necessary training commitments with
the responsible agencies,
and the interaction with the manpower
control agencies, university
and technical
institute faculties.
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For example, the first
year Diploma course might
require 18 lecture
hours and 21 laboratory hours (say)
which will justify N_
teachers
of specified skills.
M_ specified training courses
each of one semester length will
be offered which will require
T_ instructors with specified skills.
The operation of the computer
will require (say) 5 qualified
console operators or
engineers, 1 technical documentor,
1 technical clerk, 3 qualified
card reader and line printer
operators, 4 qualified tape and
disc unit operators
and 2 vault clerks.
The computer support
operations will require
(say) 2 sorter-gang punch operators,
9 alpha numeric qualified
keypunch operators, 1 supervisor-
keypunch, 2 results technical clerks,
4 input technical clerks,
4 applications programmer groups
for a total of 4 programmer analysts,
4 programmers, 2 programmer
trainees,
2 technical documentors, 1 technical clerk
with typing skills, 2 technical
clerks, 2 senior program
consultants, 2 program consultants,
1 librarian, or a staff of
some 63 people ranging in training
from secondary school graduate
through post graduate engineers.
Finally the breakdown of the staff
in the several accounting
departments must be developed.
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With these skeletal manpower requirements,
would be appended the education,
training, and experience requirements,
an approximation to the
starting salary requirements,
and the proposed increments
required by the estimated promotions
in the first year.
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Note:||If a provisional appointment
policy is approved the incremental
salary requirements could
be substantial.
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The preliminary report would
conclude with a summary of
estimated costs exclusive of
computer costs, and an
estimate of ratio of revenue
producing or nonuniversity load
to total load, high and low estimates
of known computing systems
deliverable to the center which
computer experts
say can handle estimated total
load in six (6) hours.
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Note:||If the load estimate is
not too low, a computing system
selected on this
basis should have a life to
saturation of 5 to 7 years
based on a doubling rate of
two years.
It is also assumed that
as load exceeds 12 shift
day per week that the center
will staff to operate 21 shift
days per week including
holidays, as do all the
other utilities of the nation.
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Once this report together
with such detailed appendices
as may be required has been reviewed
and an affirmative decision reached,
you now have a detailed charter
against which you can develop
a detailed proposal with all of the
hardware elements specified.
Your report to the authorities
will produce a set of decisions.
If this set is such that
your committee cannot develop
a proposal for a viable center
you have a real problem.
It is beyond the scope of this
monograph to advise you.
We can warn you that if
you try to bring in a center so
seriously deficient that its
viability is in serious question,
you have harmed rather than
helped the technical progress of
your nation.
It is better to defer action until
the authorities can support
a viable entity.
Let us assume that the set
of decisions do support a
viable center.
Your committee can then structure
out the activities that must
take place to build the center.
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Each computer manufacturer has now
submitted preliminary proposals
with prices, plant layout, and
environment requirements for
each configuration of his
product line that he
believes could process the load
specified in the demand detail
estimate in a 6 hour, 6 day shift
operation, on a batch process
basis.
In addition, each manufacturer
has been previously supplied
with written details of adverse
environmental conditions known
to exist (see chapter 2) and
within which his product must
function.
This should be done, because many computer
manufacturers have a policy
and practice of configuring
their
products for such centers
in their base location.
The base location engineers
may be totally unaware of the
occurrence of dust storms
(say) or chaotic disruption of electric
current which you know to be
an environmental condition in your area.
For each proposed system
the supplier should list the
location and organization of
the three closest similar systems.
This piece of information is
important to your decision process.
If the nearest neighbor is
(say) 3000 miles away and you
accept this system, you are prepared
to "go it alone".
You will have no back-up, no friend
nearby.
This is not to rule
out this system as a candidate
but this isolation cannot be
considered a plus factor
in your decision.
In listing the prices of
these configurations on
a sale basis, you should demand the
list price in the best currency
break that he is authorized to make.
You may discover that this is
a negotiable item.
You should further stipulate the
salvage value for a trade-up in n years.
That is, suppose for reasons of
economy or lack of knowledge
about customer demand
you install six (6)
tape decks of 24 kilo-character transmission
rate and within one year, know
you can justify replacing
them with 48 kilo-character units.
The supplier in his proposal
should make firm price commitments
for trade-up at the end
of 1 year, 2 years, and subsequent
after two years.
This especially important because
all peripherals
are supplied in different modules
based on capacity.
These include line printers,
card readers, tape and
disc decks, which you have
already discovered are very
expensive, very load
sensitive,
but absolutely indispensable.
Do not expect the supplier to
be eager to make
these commitments.
As has been mentioned
earlier, this is a most
competitive field, and many
of the practices
have been labeled aggressive
by some and sharp by others.
The option to install a
system with reasonable peripheral
facilities with respect to costs
and then to upgrade at an appropriate
time the capacity of the system
by selective upgrading of specific
peripheral units is important
to the center.
Your committee may choose to
select one or more possible
strategies and request a
pricing from the supplier.
In the final stages of
specifying needs, if the
trade-up policy of the supplier
with the most acceptable system
is harsh, then here are some
suggestions about your choices
of peripherals.
Wherever possible get two units so
that if one faults, the other
can keep you going until the
repairs are completed.
If more than two are required,
buy the fastest units you can afford
and still meet the minimum requirements,
providing the system is still operable.
It may put a burden on
the staff, but this is a local
human problem which you can solve.
One qualification must be made.
If all the tape units in your
country are either 556 or
800 B.P.I. do not invest in
1600 B.P.I. units.
You can vary the
transmission rate without
affecting compatability among
systems.
Recently a university
research center
sent a data tape to
another university research group.
The tape was a 7 track 800 B.P.I.,
the other university had only
9 track tape drives and a
systems whose code was
essentially incompatible.
It required an expert,
and a very sophisticated
center to convert this
tape to one of use to the
research group.
Because ill-advised
attempts were
made to modify the
original tape,
reconstructs were necessary
and nearby fifteen months
elapsed until
the useful version became
available.
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You can now take the several
configurations given you
by the computer manufacturers
and use them to test the
acceptability of the
buildings you have been authorized
to consider or to evaluate the proposed layout
of a new building.
You will get your first good
estimates of the amount of floor
space required.
It is recommended that the
discussion on building
increments be reviewed as
the committee attempts to
layout each system.
It can be helpful and enlightening
to consider the layouts with 
reasonable expansion of peripherals and
controlled environment storage space.
You may discover that the
space is excellent for the
initial installation but that a
load-bearing wall must be
removed to make any substantial
addition!
Such a situation is unacceptable.
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Many computer manufacturers
make much of the fact that
the central processor(s) and core
banks are getting smaller.
However, the rapidly growing
demand for data analysis
in fields ranging from
library science, hospital administration,
economic systems, major engineering
projects, to census activities
has increased the need for
magnetic storage devices (tape, disc,
and drum), input devices,
output devices such as plotters,
printers, optical devices, and for
space to handle the customer's
data media and results.
This space accounts for more
than 80% of that of the entire
computing system.
This space is also worker
sensitive in that humans
(engineers, operators and
technicians) are in
constant activity
throughout this region.
If the layout does not
provide for a smooth activity
flow, the congestion can degrade
seriously an otherwise
very effective computer.
Once again, the computer manufacturer
engineers and builds computing
components, but your committee
must engineer a
computation system to meet
your needs.
This is your responsibility, not
that of the supplier of components.
It is now suggested
that a report on the computer
system be produced.
This report will show how
the previously approved plant,
equipment organization and staff
will use this equipment as
the new center.
If the authorized space (say) is 
inadequate, then a most careful justification
will be required.
If the computing system found best
is not of the most popular
family of computers,
or if another system could meet
your requirements within the
approved space, very well documented
justification will be required.
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Your report should reduce
the considerable amount of
technical and financial information
furnished by these companies
to the essentials.
What is important is the
first estimates of computer
equipment costs which can be folded
into the first report as a set of typical costs.
Each supplier submitting a proposal
no matter how unresponsive
should be mentioned in
the report.
Failure to acknowledge
a supplier's response
can cause comment in
both the business and political
community.
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The committee at this time should
avoid extensive discussion of
remote operation by customer
either in a batch mode or in
real time.
The communications interface
for any of these options is
most important and introduces
many issues which are not
germane to the first set
of decisions and approvals
sought by your committee.
It is probably sufficient to check
whether telephone
circuits are readily available
and what is the condition of the
central offices servicing the
proposed location during peak periods.
If the telecommunications office
states no circuits available
without priority or special
authorization, or that there
is severe congestion during peak
periods in the relevant
central offices of the telephone
system, then it is clear that
any utility-supported form
of remote operation must be deferred.
Notice that this does not preclude
some permanently wired remote
terminals within the center or its environs.
If circuits are available,
and the computer transmission
load acceptable to the
telephone agency, these more sophisticated
configurations can be considered
in subsequent stages.
Since you have not established a working
center, you are in no position
to justify such facilities
even where the telecommunications
facilities are not at issue.
It is worthy of note
that, in terms of computer resources
and job cost, remote operation
in whatever mode is
almost never the most economic.
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