1970s - the founding decade

The ‘Regional University IT and Data Centre (RHRZ)’ was founded on 1 November 1974. Up to this point, all data processing tasks were handled by the ‘University of Bonn Computing Centre’ operated by the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD). When the GMD announced its withdrawal, the University of Bonn bought all the remaining equipment and founded the ‘Regional University Computing Centre of the University of Bonn’.

The first computer at the RHRZ was an IBM/370-165 computer system, which had been operated by the GMD since 1971.

The ‘build-up year’: The IBM/370-165 data processing system was upgraded to the IBM/370-168 type with the help of a new central processing unit. This gave the core memory a capacity of between 512 kilobytes (KB) and 2 megabytes (MB). In the same year, preparations began for the changeover to the new Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) operating system with virtual storage technology. RHRZ employees from all departments and IBM employees were involved in the changeover.

Data processing and transfer took place via punched cards, which were punched according to the information.

In 1975, a total of...
... 84,918,449 cards were read, i.e. 224 cards per job and 71,300 cards per user.
... 3,991,329 cards punched, i.e. 11 cards per job and 3,352 cards per user.
... 294,799,682 lines printed, i.e. 777 lines and 13 pages per job, and 247,523 lines and 4,126 pages per user.

The year 1976 (and the first half of 1977) was characterised by the changeover to the new MVS operating system for the employees of the ‘RHRZ’. Work on the current operating system OS/MVT Rel. 2.1.6 and on other projects was limited to the minimum necessary so that sufficient manpower could be released for the conversion work. The IBM/370-168 central processing unit, which had been expanded the previous year, continued to be used for calculations and was operated in three shifts seven days a week from August 1976.

In the middle of 1976, six IBM 3330 drives (with a total capacity of 600 MB) were replaced by the same number of MRX 3675 drives (with a total capacity of 1200 MB). This allowed the total disc storage capacity to be increased from 1200 MB to 2400 MB.

The year 1977 began with an important changeover: on 3 January 1977, the new operating system MVS Rel. 3.6 was launched. Unfortunately, the introduction of the new version MVS Rel. 3.7 was accelerated due to considerable disruptions. With the changeover to MVS, a separate data protection concept was also introduced at the RHRZ for the first time. This concept included the protection of the data carrier via a SETUP programme, the protection of files via an IBM password concept, the protection of the data carrier via carrier names for removable disks and the protection of files via file names.

At the end of the year, computing capacity was further expanded by replacing drives. By the end of 1977, the total capacity of the IBM/370-168 central data processing system was 2600 MB, which meant that the space requirements of the MVS operating system could finally be met.
The provision of removable disk drives was prioritised higher than the expansion of storage space, as band-intensive applications with high CPU time consumption were to be moved to the non-operating time.

n 1978, the work situation for the 34 employees at the RHRZ at that time (as of 31 December 1978, see Annual Report 1978 p. 71f.) became problematic with the clearly outdated hardware. Although the IBM/370-168 central processing unit could be increased by a further megabyte to a total of 4 MB and the range of software could also be expanded by implementing the ALGOL 68 and APL programming languages, the peripherals, which were over eight years old, were causing more and more problems. Combined with the ever-increasing demand for computing power at the University of Bonn at the end of the 1970s, this was a risky mix. Failures, such as those of the drum memory, whose drums were already in operation at the GMD in 1971, even before the computer centre was founded, and bottlenecks in computing capacity on the user side increased. Even then it was clear: ‘The computer centre only has a good reputation as long as the requirements of the users can be met’ (see Annual Report 1978 p. 5).

Nevertheless, important projects were also realised at the RHRZ in 1978: In the summer semester of 1978, the ‘RHRZ’ offered a lecture on the machine translation system SYSTRAN, as part of the project Realisierbarkeit maschineller Sprachübersetzung auf Universalrechenanlagen in cooperation with the Institute for Communication Research and Phonetics. Until then, it was the only executable system for IBM systems. An RHRZ employee spent two months working on the ‘German translation’ project with the manufacturer of SYSTRAN in California. The first presentation of the project by the ‘RHRZ’ took place on 29 November 1978 in cooperation with the developers and with the participation of the Federal Foreign Office. The presentation of the functionality met with such great interest that the event was repeated three times.

Another important step: a project group submitted an application for the procurement of a new IBM 3850 mass storage system.

Challenges in 1979: The problems of the previous years became increasingly apparent - the lack of processor performance and the lack of access options to stored large databases, which had been created in batch and dialogue mode, meant that the system had to work without operator control for more than half of the operating time. The IBM/370-168 central data processing system was now operated in two shifts by 12 operators and ran more than 55% of the total time without operator control. The number of simultaneously working dialogue participants was limited to 80 users. Such a user limit was necessary in order to provide an acceptable response behaviour and not to restrict batch operation too much. The central data processing system was clearly reaching its limits in 1979 and was close to being fully utilised. The application for the procurement of a new IBM 3850 mass storage system with a capacity of 35 GB was approved, but could not be procured due to funding cuts in the federal government's regional programme.

Of the total disk storage space available, approximately 1600 MB was made available to users in 1979, which was 400 MB more than in the previous year. This storage space was divided up as follows: 500 MB was available for long-term data storage and 200 MB for short-term data storage (one week, so-called ‘weekly disc’). 400 MB were provided for very short-term data storage (1 day). There was one 200 MB drive for removable discs and three 100 MB drives for removable discs.

From the beginning of 1979, the disc storage space for long-term data storage was no longer made available to the individual user, but to the institutes as a quota, which was then distributed to the employees by the institutes themselves. In addition, there was a further organisational innovation at the RHRZ: from 1979, punched tape could be read in via the IBM/370-125 data processing system and transferred directly to the DVA IBM/370-168 via the existing dedicated line. This meant that the Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (GMD) no longer had to copy the users' punched tape to a magnetic tape. This also marked the end of the co-operation with the GMD. After the initial difficulties, this new operating system was very stable.

One of the special operational features in 1979 was the unexpected increase in the number of jobs with magnetic tape requests by users who backed up their data on a magnetic tape before deleting the weekly disc on Tuesdays and then writing it back to the disc.

In 1979, a total of...

450,000 sheets of paper, 80,000 punched cards, 80 colour ribbons for the printer and 35 colour ribbons for the perforator were used to operate the central IT system. A TSO user manual and an SPSS guide were also produced for the first time.

The main tasks at the ‘Dispatch’ (now known as the ‘IT Helpdesk’) in 1979 included, then as now, answering questions on all kinds of topics. Back then, it was often questions about job control language and programming languages or the use of service programmes. Questions about the use of programme packages and programming libraries were often asked. People who needed help converting programmes and data from other computers could also get help.