At the beginning of the 1980s, the Regional University Computer Centre also struggles to keep pace with the rapid developments in the IT sector. The central IT system IBM/370-168 continues to be operated with all the connected RJE stations and display devices, but the demand for additional computing capacity at the University of Bonn increases rapidly. There are increasingly frequent bottlenecks in the existing system, which ultimately lead to the system being completely overloaded. This leads to noticeably longer response times of the system and ‘larger batch jobs had to be waited for weeks at a time’ (Annual Report 1980, p.5). In some areas this naturally led to resignation, in other cases the University of Bonn intensified its efforts to find isolated ‘island solutions’. Despite the great personal commitment of the approximately 44 RHRZ employees in 1980, an improvement can only be achieved through larger steps: namely through the procurement of a new and more efficient system. There are some financial aspects to consider: The important air conditioning for the IBM/370-168 had already cost DM 346,000 the previous year and funds for the procurement of the IBM 3850 mass storage system, which had already been applied for, had been cancelled at short notice. This meant that the bottlenecks in the secondary storage area remained.

To temporarily solve the problems, new operating systems were purchased in January and August, which could be installed without costly hardware upgrades, and the new IMSL programme library was rented in the same year. The RHRZ remained optimistic in this precarious situation: ‘Despite all the difficulties, however, the RHRZ will continue to strive for a sustainable improvement in the supply of IT capacity (data processing capacity) to the University of Bonn and will not allow itself to lose hope of better times’ (Annual Report 1980, p. 6). Further growth is made possible by the main memory extension of 2 MB applied for in autumn 1980 and by the addition of a double drive with a capacity of 400 MB to the disk periphery, which was financed by third-party funds from the physical institutes. In order to gain an even better insight into the needs of all university members, a user survey is carried out in 1980 to determine computing capacity requirements. The needs assessment is intended to support the applications for new purchases in the following years, above all the urgently needed successor computer.

The focus of operations in 1980 continues to be on batch processing: although many of the problems to be processed are computationally intensive, they do not require any intervention. The disc storage space for long-term data storage amounts to approx. 1800 MB, which represents an increase of 200 MB compared to the previous year. This quota was intended for institutes and not for individual users (see Annual Report 1980, p. 46f.). The removable discs for individual users may not exceed the data volume of 100 MB or 200 MB to be processed as long as no operator is operating the device. New: the newly installed plotting system of the National Oceanography Data Centre in Washington DC can be used to draw world maps using the plotters available at the RHRZ. In addition, a total of 10 air-conditioning units will be procured for the engine room, the punch card room and the input room, one of which was specially built at the RHRZ.

As part of the preparations for the successor procurements, the required computing capacity for the coming years is projected from the user survey from 1980 and an actual analysis. The result: demand is 2.5 times higher than the available capacity, resulting in a growth rate of 36% per year for data processing requirements. Similar increases can be seen for the volume of data on secondary storage and channel capacity. For the time being, however, there are no procurement opportunities in sight due to cost-cutting measures by the state government. By using the new operating systems, however, the overall computing power can be maintained despite higher hardware downtimes. The higher downtime is due, among other things, to a break in the cooling water hoses in the CPU area; however, downtimes of the channel units, the drums and the main memory expansion are also above average in 1981. The reason for this is the age of the systems. The main memory expansion requested in the autumn of the previous year is installed and the additional +6 MB for users improves the average response time in dialogue to 4.2 seconds. Nevertheless, the response time behaviour is generally rated as ‘unsatisfactory’. 

Two Memorex 3675 double disc drives with a capacity of 800 MB are purchased with funding from third parties (the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry). However, due to cuts in funding for consumables, there are no longer sufficient funds to purchase sufficient quantities of tabulating paper in 12 inch/345 format and measures have to be taken to reduce the paper consumption of the jobs. By changing the line density, the RHRZ achieves a saving of 40%. In 1981, however, the central IBM/370-168 is finally overloaded in all areas (92% processor utilisation). Further incompatibilities in data exchange due to inadequate hardware equipment considerably impair research and teaching at the University of Bonn at this time. Over 60% of data acquisition and programme development is carried out using punched cards, which is extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. It is clear that this form of data processing cannot be maintained in the long term, as many small computer systems have now moved into the price range of punched cards. Punch card operation must slowly but surely be replaced. In the course of 1981, the RHRZ carries out market research into mini and microcomputer systems in order to find suitable alternatives to the card punch. A user survey continues to show a clearly increased need in the area of dialogue processing and a demand for special screens.

As part of the preparations for the successor procurements, the required computing capacity for the coming years is projected from the user survey from 1980 and an actual analysis. The result: demand is 2.5 times higher than the available capacity, resulting in a growth rate of 36% per year for data processing requirements. Similar increases can be seen for the volume of data on secondary storage and channel capacity. For the time being, however, there are no procurement opportunities in sight due to cost-cutting measures by the state government. By using the new operating systems, however, the overall computing power can be maintained despite higher hardware downtimes. The higher downtime is due, among other things, to a break in the cooling water hoses in the CPU area; however, downtimes of the channel units, the drums and the main memory expansion are also above average in 1981. The reason for this is the age of the systems. The main memory expansion requested in the autumn of the previous year is installed and the additional +6 MB for users improves the average response time in dialogue to 4.2 seconds. Nevertheless, the response time behaviour is generally rated as ‘unsatisfactory’.

Two Memorex 3675 double disc drives with a capacity of 800 MB are purchased with funding from third parties (the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Theoretical Chemistry). However, due to cuts in funding for consumables, there are no longer sufficient funds to purchase sufficient quantities of tabulating paper in 12 inch/345 format and measures have to be taken to reduce the paper consumption of the jobs. By changing the line density, the RHRZ achieves a saving of 40%. In 1981, however, the central IBM/370-168 is finally overloaded in all areas (92% processor utilisation). Further incompatibilities in data exchange due to inadequate hardware equipment considerably impair research and teaching at the University of Bonn at this time. Over 60% of data acquisition and programme development is carried out using punched cards, which is extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. It is clear that this form of data processing cannot be maintained in the long term, as many small computer systems have now moved into the price range of punched cards. Punch card operation must slowly but surely be replaced. In the course of 1981, the RHRZ carries out market research into mini and microcomputer systems in order to find suitable alternatives to the card punch. A user survey continues to show a clearly increased need in the area of dialogue processing and a demand for special screens.

At the beginning of 1982, the ‘catastrophic situation’ (see Annual Report 1982/1983 p. 5) of data processing cannot be improved at first due to a lack of funds. But then everything changes: the state unexpectedly makes funds available that can only be used to improve central data processing - central processor and disk peripherals. The time has finally come: the new mainframe computer can arrive! A new centralised system (IBM 3081 K with 24 MB main memory and 16 channels) is procured and installed. This changes a lot of information from one day to the next. In May, the new processor unit is purchased to replace the outdated IBM/370-168 data processing system, as well as IBM 3350 and IBM 3380 magnetic disc storage devices with a total storage capacity of 20 GB and an IBM 3725 communication controller. The replacement of the printer peripherals and the procurement of a separate processor for dialogue operation had to be dispensed with for the time being.

With the introduction of a new job class and priority regulation for IBM 3081 K, the main memory space is only prioritised when more than 1024 KB is requested. At the end of 1982, eight card punchers were replaced by ten microcomputers, which enabled data processing on floppy discs (for more information, see section ‘1983’ below). In addition to all this, there was a changeover to IBM 3350 hard disc drives. The transition to new disc drives changed the track capacity of the magnetic discs and thus the optimum block size for all existing files from 13,030 bytes to 19,069 bytes per track. The new disk units were hard disks, so the option of assigning removable disks was removed in future. Disk space for users was allocated for a maximum of 6 months. A computer and peripheral changeover also took place. The IBM 3505 read/punch unit was discontinued and punched cards were only punched at the RJE station. In the long term, punched cards were to be replaced by floppy discs.

Further projects

Existing budget funds were also used to finance the modernisation of data acquisition in the local area of the RHRZ. The procurement of the FPS 164 array processor via the DFG project was intended as an ‘attached professor’ to relieve the central data processing system of computing-intensive batch programmes, but there were many errors in the operating system. Since the end of 1978 there had been attempts at procurement. For example, special computers were to relieve the IBM/370-168 of computationally intensive projects and study the possibilities of parallelising algorithms. The DFG application for this was successful in March 1982 with the support of several institutes. However, urgently needed investments in the university's TP network and the renewal of the printer peripherals were postponed. Only the procurement of a new communication controller in a low expansion stage was possible. The focus was on the necessary three- to four-fold expansion of dialling operations.

In general, the focus in 1983 was on the new IBM. However, ten new workstations for recording data on disc can also be set up at the RHRZ.

The beginning of data capture on microcomputers
The RHRZ had been planning for several years to switch from punch card operation to intelligent data acquisition systems. With the purchase of 10 microcomputers from Microcosmos, a disc reader from CPG and a Televideo 925 display terminal, the core of the devices is a circuit board (Wavemate Bullet) with a Z80-A CPU and 128 KB RAM memory. The devices are operated offline; a diskette reading station is available for transferring data and programs from the diskette to the mainframe. Users have the option of transferring their data to the mainframe via punch cards or floppy discs. Practical exercises for courses are still carried out exclusively using punchers and punch cards. The microcomputers only work with a disc containing the corresponding data acquisition software (= system disc). As there is no suitable software on the market for applications in the computer centre, the RHRZ develops its own data acquisition software based on CP/M 2.2. Users could borrow system discs from the RHRZ for a deposit of DM 20 in order to make a copy for their own work. Blank discs were not available at the RHRZ and had to be obtained by the users themselves. The transfer of data and programmes from the mainframe to diskette was (still) carried out by employees. Users had to submit a request stating which magnetic disc data was to be copied to which disc and under which name. The processing time was approx. 1 week.

A trial installation of the STC 8890 magnetic disk control unit with cache memory was carried out between 9 September and 14 October 1983. This improves the situation at the end of 1983; there are no longer excessively long turnaround times and the response times in dialogue mode also improve.

Other important topics in 1983 are the creation of a concept for providing the university with IT capacity and the application for the procurement of an administrative computer.

Further developments concern the decentralised systems. The computer system in the Institute of Social and Economic Sciences is mainly used to collect and maintain the ‘Bonn Sample’. This involves balance sheet data from over 600 industrial companies, which has been collected since 1960. Since 1983, the Institute has also carried out special analyses to determine ‘good’ and ‘bad’ companies. 1983 also saw the start of in-house development of user systems at the Regional University Computing Centre.

Another important new acquisition in 1983: the first screen terminal moves into the RHRZ. It is an IBM 3278-4 screen that can display 41 lines with 80 characters each.

The year 1986 is characterised by a precarious financial situation in the area of central data processing at the University of Bonn. No investment funds were available for 1986, although the need for a second expansion stage had been recognised by the responsible ministry. There is a shortfall of 25% of the available funds, caused in particular by increased prices for the maintenance of equipment and for consumables as well as by increased software costs - although at this point only the licence products absolutely necessary for the operation of the central data processing systems are still being used. Only additions in the form of microcomputers and additional equipment that can work as terminals with the central IT systems are within the financial means. There is therefore a risk that the systems will be shut down, which can only be averted if the licensors make concessions. The University of Bonn succeeds in finding a solution to the software problem that is valid for all German universities and research institutions, albeit limited to the years 1986 and 1987, and which does not include any financial resources for the procurement of software.

Further problems in the area of dialogue processing can only be solved in 1986 by a free loan of an IBM 4381-P01 data processing system. In order to make full use of the dialogue capacity, all users switch to the VM/CMS dialogue system on 1 January 1986. This is the only way to handle the greatly increased number of dialogue terminals. The changeover requires extensive programme developments in the area of user systems and operating systems. In 1986, the IT systems will be operated by the operators in 2-shift operation from Monday to Friday from 7 am to 11 pm. At the end of the year, it is hoped that budget funds can be made available in the following year for the procurement of a new dialogue processor, which should be more powerful than the borrowed device. Further funds will also be requested for the following year, in particular for the expansion of the university's data network and for the urgently required equipment for graphic data processing as well as for the needs-based expansion of the central IT capacity.

One of the most important points of contact for university members is DISPATCH (today's IT helpdesk), which performs a variety of user support tasks. These include user information and information, instruction in the use of the systems and issuing applications. In addition, DISPATCH is responsible for the sale of manuals, the allocation of user numbers and output trays, the allocation of magnetic tapes, the exchange of data storage media, the loan of system discs for the data capture devices and the receipt of fault reports, suggestions and complaints. From 01.01.1986, the CMS dialogue system is offered as the only dialogue system for use with the central IT systems. The dialogue component TSO is only available in exceptional cases at this time.

In the second half of the year, a large number of used terminals can be purchased so that exercises for programming courses offered by the RHRZ for students from all faculties can be carried out in dialogue in future. This will particularly benefit the FORTRAN course, which in previous years worked with card punchers and had to be cancelled when these devices were no longer available due to the immensely high maintenance costs. A special software system is being developed to run the courses, which enables each course participant to access the VM/CMS system without the need for a separate user entry for each individual. This procedure is particularly useful for courses with large numbers of participants. The IBM 3081-K mainframe acquired in 1984 is initially operated with MVS SP 1.3.4. from 1986 and later with VM/HPO 3.6 and MVS as a PMA system. Due to the constantly increasing complexity, the number of system crashes increases considerably. The IBM 4381-P01 dialogue computer is operated with VM/SP Release as in 1985 and continues to run quite stably. The FPS 164 was operated with version F01 of the FPPS system until the switch to F03 took place immediately; F02 is not used.

At the end of 1986, 359 terminals were connected to the central IT systems. This does not include the devices in the four PC pools that were installed as part of the University of Bonn's Computer Investment Programme (CIP). These were still to be connected at the end of the year. Due to the multi-processor operation, a new accounting system also had to be developed to enable standardised reporting on the operation of the various systems

The increasing number of microcomputers in the institutes meant that RHRZ employees had to provide extensive additional consulting services in 1986. The RHRZ employees advise on the selection and equipment of the devices and their connection to the central IT systems. In co-operation with the staff council of non-scientific employees, courses are held for the first time in 1986. In 1986, courses on word processing with the aid of microcomputers are organised for the first time. The participants are primarily secretarial staff in the institutes and medical facilities.

In connection with the major German Research Network (DFN) project, a pilot test of DFN services is carried out at the RHRZ in 1986. The aim is to make DATEX-P access to the central IT systems available from the following year, so that every user has dialogue access to the DATEX-P network and can use it to access the RHRZ dialogue system in line mode. It would also be possible for any terminal connected to one of the central computers to access the DATEX-P network of Deutsche Bundespost in order to query external databases, for example, if the appropriate authorisations were available.

It was hoped that budget funds would be made available at the beginning of 1987 for the procurement of a new dialogue processor that was more powerful than the loaned device; further funds, in particular for the expansion of the university's data network, had been applied for with the budget applications for 1987. The same applied to the urgently required equipment for graphic data processing and the expansion of the central data processing capacity to meet demand. 

The IT courses offered at the RHRZ for the first time in 1986 were a particular novelty. The RHRZ was able to purchase a total of 18 used IBM 3278 terminals for this purpose. In addition, an IBM 4381-P01 computer system (16MB main memory and 12 channels) was made available on loan from 1985. However, the installed processing power was still not sufficient to meet the demand for dialogue processing. Another new development was the creation of supply areas so that the institutes of the University of Bonn, which were and are spread across the entire city, could be supplied efficiently. In 1986 there were therefore seven areas, which were summarised in the VB Poppelsdorf, VB Immenburg, VB Hofgarten Südseite, VB Hauptgebäude, VB Städtische Kliniken, VB Römerstraße, VB Univ.Kliniken (Venusberg).

The centralised systems offered two operating modes: One was batch operation via punch cards or floppy disks and the other was dialogue operation, for the preparation and post-processing of batch jobs. Both were made available in one of the two user rooms on the ground floor of Wegelerstraße 6. These were frequently used, so that bottlenecks occurred during the semester weeks. Jobs that were stored on disc could be entered by the users themselves using the disc reader in the input room. The card reader in the input room could also be used. Further input options were available at the RJE stations in the institutes.

The user received the output lists via an assigned output compartment in the compartment wall of the output room. Alternatively, the output options at the RJE stations could also be used. The dialogue terminals were also available for viewing the job outputs before they were placed in the printer. This process was faster than paper output and also saved paper because faulty output was recognised on the screen.

The systems ran extremely stably, with only two failures in 1986 attributable to processor errors. On the other hand, there was a high level of peripheral downtime. In total, the downtime of the discs amounted to 270 hours and that of the tape peripherals to 381 hours.

As a special highlight, guided tours of the RHRZ were offered (for the first time) in 1986. Interested visitors were able to find out more about the RHRZ and view the data processing systems. The tours lasted two hours and began with an introductory lecture in the seminar room. This was followed by a tour of the machine room and a discussion round for questions from visitors. A maximum of 30 people could take part in a tour and in 1986, 13 groups with a total of 280 people took part in RHRZ tours. These were mainly user groups from the institutes, participants from the DV courses of the VHS Bonn and school classes from various locations in NRW.

Courses were also offered. In the 1986 summer semester, for example, introductions to the use of SPSS, introductions to interactive data processing (CMS) and courses on the basics of job control were held. Various lecture series, e.g. on the programming language FORTRAN or word processing with WORD PERFECT, and introductions to various European and North American computer networks were also held. Internships were also available, such as a machine room or programming internship. The number of employees totalled 48.

Three additional equipment pools with a total of 59 workstations were also set up as part of the Computer Investment Programme (CIP). At the end of the year, the University of Bonn had a total of five CIP pools, all of which were intended exclusively for use in teaching. The AVZ 1 location in Endenicher Allee was also used by the RHRZ from the beginning of 1987.

In this year, the necessary funds were finally approved to procure a new central dialogue processor with sufficient capacity and to replace some devices from the central periphery. Sufficient funds were also promised by the Ministry of Science and Research so that the software problem could be solved in 1988. For the previous two years, the University of Bonn had achieved a concession from the licensor through lengthy negotiations.

In November 1987, the new IBM 4381-R14 data processing system was installed. With its dual processor, it was about three times as powerful as the previous computer system, which had been available on loan from 1985 to Dec 1987 and had to be returned. The significant increase in performance led to considerably improved response times in dialogue mode, partly because some of the disk peripherals could also be replaced with the dialogue processor. This eliminated system faults.

Two new working groups were formed. Working group 1 dealt with the rapid increase in the number of PCs that were being used decentrally at the institutes of the University of Bonn. As a special PC working group, they were responsible for advising the institutes on procurement issues and the use of PCs. Working group 2 dealt with the increasing growth of the data network and the growing number of institutes seeking access to the central IT systems so that they could run their IT programmes there or needed access to public networks.

With the working group for network monitoring and planning of the Bonn data network, the network department that still exists today was created! The first local network was installed that year with around 30 PCs. It was based on fibre optic technology and had a high-speed connection to the central IT systems. The major German Research Network (DFN) project was also involved in the project. A total of DM 9 million was applied for, which was to be used to equip the University of Bonn with a high-performance data network based on fibre optics.

Thanks to funding from the Ministry in spring 1988, improvements in the hardware and especially in the software area were possible in 1988. Through the DFG, the University of Bonn received a second ARRAY processor of type FPS 164 on permanent loan from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (Society for Heavy Ion Research), which was operated as an attached processor of the IBM 3084 Q system like the existing device. It was not possible to realise the planned installation of a new, high-performance data network at the University of Bonn as the application from the previous year had not yet been approved. However, the goal of connecting the seven service areas of the university with each other and with the backbone network of the RHRZ by means of a high-speed network based on fibre optics was still being pursued. A second application was therefore submitted in 1988 to emphasise the urgency.

Decentralised developments included the continuous increase in microcomputers and workstations. In 1988 alone, more than 160 new PCs were procured by the institutes and seminars, which was associated with considerable consultancy work by the PC working group. CIP funds were also used to procure and install a further six equipment pools. The RHRZ also had its own CIP pool from 1988, so from 1989 it was no longer necessary to move the PC courses to the Institute of Physics.

The application to expand the central batch capacity to approximately double the capacity of the existing central IT system, the IBM 3081 K, was approved in December of that year. There was a requirement for implementation by the end of the year, meaning that the procurement and installation had to be completed by the RHRZ within a very short time. The expansion of IT capacities in the centralised and decentralised areas was a step in the right direction, but due to the lack of network expansion, use was still extremely ineffective for many institutes. The increasing demand from users, including for access to supra-regional data networks, made the expansion of the Bonn data network urgently necessary.