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THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

COMPUTER SERVICES CENTRE

ANNUAL REPORT 1979

DIRECTOR - R.R. Landford, B. Comm (QLD) AAUQ

(a) DIRECTOR'S SECTION: School Clerk Secretary

L.B. Dack C.J. Harper N. Imbri ano

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Office Assistant Executive Officer Resigned

A.A. Pendergast AASA J. Hamberaer (16/2/79)

(b) PROGRAMMING SECTION: Principal Prograrruner SYSTEMS GROUP

Resigned USER SERVICES GROUP

Resigned

(c) NETWORK SECTION: Co-ordinator

TECHNICAL SERVICES

(d) OPERATIONS SECTION: Operations Supervisor Shift Leaders

Operators

J.W. Erpf B.C. Elphick G.N. Justusson L. Landau B.E. Smith

B. E. , DIP ( QL D)

B.Sc. B.Sc. B.Sc.

(Hons) (ANU) (Sydney) (ANU)

D. Minchenton (2/11/79) E.M. Brent S. Leckie

B.Sc. (Hons) (Melbourne) B.Sc. (St. Andrews) Grad. Dip. Comp. Stud.

I.R. Simpson B.A. (Melbourne) D. Kenny (31/8/79)

A.J. Mortimer G.R. Knowles T.T. Nguyen G.J. Preston G. Kirkland P.L. Olsen

M.M. Brinkley K. E. France R.C. Fraser D.A. Jobson V .M. Ai rey J . F. A 1 s ford C. Chung J.A. Clements R.E. Cremer R.B. Harris D.M. Janiszewska L. R. Morrison C.J. Wall

M.Eng.Sc. (QLD) B.Sc. (ANU) B.A. (ANU)

M.I.A.A.

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(e) GENERAL STUDIES UNIT:

(f) MANAGEMENT SERVICES GROUP: Management Services

Officer

Resigned

(g) DATA PROCESSING UNIT: Supervisor

Resigned:

e B.Sc. (Hons) (ANU) D.H. Hawking

L. Cox

B.A. (Hawaii) I. K. Macni col B. Bankovsky F. F. I. Bos ly R.A. Davie J.G. Evershed R. E. Jeremy G. Kacer

(B.Sc. (Hons) (Syd) Dip.Ed. B.A. (Syd) MACS

K. Peadon D. F. Pittman V. I. Trepi ns M.J. Widdowson

ACIS (Eng) MACS B.A. (ANU)

B. Gibbs (3/8/79)

S.L. Darius D.L. Blom T.K. Burrows R. Dickson I. A . Fa i rch il d

. J.A. Firkin E.A. Gibbs P.L. Hamalainen L. Hartwig E.H. Hawke M.E. Jewkes B.J. Joyce G.S. Kinnane M. E. H. Kola G.H. Lamb C.A. Merlin H.M. Nowland R.T. Piirainen S. Recio I. V. Skri veri s J.M. Stark

·,G.J. Wilson M.J. ·whi ttaker D.L. Yamauchi N. Yeoward

P. Jorritsma H. Hagel J. Danzey ·r. Danie 1 B. Gramza P. Collins

( 5/ 1/79) ( 30/ 3/7S) ( 11/ 4/79) ( 8/ 6/79) (30/ 7/79) (23/11/79)

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• INTRODUCTION The Director is currently responsible to the Vice-Chancellor through a Computer Services Centre Management Committee. Professor R.D. Terrell is Chairman of that Committee; other members are Professor F.H. Gruen, Dr R.W. Crompton and the Director, C.S.C. One of the major tasks for this Committee in the latter part of 1979 was to consider proposals to upgrade the central computing facility. The Management Committee saw its role as one of assessing how these proposals would affect the C.S.C. 's abil .ity to provide efficient service to all users within the University and in particular how the proposals would assist in the professional development of the members of the Centre.

The Management Committee has begun to review, and then perhaps to reorganise, the service support structure within the Centre so that it will become possible for the Director to play the role envisaged for him in initiating and formulating University wide computing policy.

The Director also reports regularly to the Computing Policy Committee. In late November, this Committee recommended to the Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Group that the Centre's equipment be upgraded to a UNIVAC 1100/82, with 2 x IOU, 1 million words of backing store, 16 k words ofcac~e and 2 consoles. This configuration, which is due for delivery in the first quarter of 1980, will enable the Centre to provide a much more effitien~ and reliable service to users. During 1979 the Centre h~s placed ordErs for 4 x 8450 disk drives, 4 x U36 tape drives (6250bpi) and c) new l"ine-prin t er. Approval has also been obtained to request proposa 1 s fr·om 111anuracturers for the upgrade of the Administrative Computing Service (Management" Services Group.). It is planned for this equipment to be installed in the Computer Services Centre.

2. STAFFING MATTERS

The staff turnover of the Centre including Management Services and the Data Processing Unit was less than 13% during 1979. The recruitment program to fill new posts and posts that became vacant during the year was significantly delayed due to difficulties experienced in recruiting suitable programmer staff and because of the general cautious approach being taken about filling posts before the Central and Administrative computer upgrade paths had been resolved.

DIRECTOR'S SECTION

The duties . of Receptionist/Clerk were reallocated when the position became vacant early in the year and it was decided not to replace the post for a trial period. The new post of Assistant Director has yet to be filled.

The policy of inviting administration personnel from other parts of the University to the position of Executive Officer continued during 1979 and Mr Pendergast was seconded from the Housing Office to fill the gap left by Mr Fenton's return to the Chancelry.

PROGRAMMING STAFF

This year saw the consolidation of the Univac support staff under the Principal Programner appointed in December 1978. During the year the

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General Studies Unit was added to run the DIC KAlO Computer transferre. from Joint Schools involving the appointment of a programmer and operator plus a programmer post transferred from S.G.S. and one operator shared between Joint Schools and the General Studies Unit.

Two programming positions remain unfilled at the end of the year following difficulty experienced in finding suitable applicants to fill the positions.

OPERATIONS STAFF:

No turnover occurred in the Operations Group during the year and the 2 x 7 shift day roster system was continued throughout the year. Each

·shift was manned by a Team Leader and two Senior Computer Operators. An additional operator was assigned to each shift {Mon-Fri.) to provide better user services and another operator has been providing reception and library services during the hours 9 am - 5 pm. A Senior Computer Operator Post remained unfilled during the year pending the outcome of various computer upgrade proposals.

NETWORK STAFF:

The Network Group was expanded to full strength during the year with the addition of a progranmer; a Technical Officer was appointed to the Technical Services section to fill a vacancy occurring in 1978. A new position of Network Co-ordinator, reporting to the Director, which was created during 1979 was filled by an internal applicant, Mr Mortimer.

MANAGEMENT SERVICES GROUP

As foreshadowed in the 1978 Annual Report, the Management Services Group has, from early this year, been located on Level 3 of the Computer Services Centre. The Data Processing Unit of the Group continues to be housed in 'F' Block of the Old Administrative Buildings. A new Management Services Officer, Mr I.K. Macnicol, joined in March 1979.

The Group is responsible for the provision of management services to the administrative offices of the University. In the main, these services comprise consultation on system proposals, systems design and analy~is, programming services and computer processing services on its IBM and Inforex machines.

Additionally, the Data Processing .Unit provides data preparation and unit record processing services to administrative offices and the teaching and research schools, faculties and centres.

The administrative systems for which the Group is responsible, include Payroil/Personnel services for all University staff, Student Records (including fees, admissions and examinations), and all main Accounting services such as Stores/Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Debtors, Inventory and General Ledger/Final Accounts preparation. The Group also has responsibility for the University files system, controlled by Central Records.

During 1979, the Group has been actively involved in a major reappraisal of University administrative systems. Working through the

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e Systems Evaluation Team (S.E.T.), members of the Group have examined several of the major systems mentioned above. As a result, the University is about to request the submission of proposals fer both hardware and software replacement of its existing administrative equipment and systems.

Application packages have also been evaluated by users, assisted by members of the Group. The first of these packages should be installed during 1980. Steps are being taken to implement an administrative terminal network, thus bringing the benefits of interactive processing to administration users for the first time.

SGS UNIT

The DEC KA-10 from the Research Schools of Social Sciences and Pacific Studies was transferred to the Copland Building, SGS on July 11 of this year and was soon powered up and tested. However, extended delays in installing permanent a·irconditioning caused the system to be unavailable when it was needed by some SGS courses. Consequently, the load on the machine in 1979 has been much lighter than is anticipated for 1980.

A significant component of the workload consists of Pascal batch jobs which are processed in 11 cafeteria mode 11 with card reader and printer accessible to users. These arrangements avoid the previous need to transport cards to the far side of the campus and provide rapid turnaround 24 hours each day, a dramatic improvement for part-time students. The Computer Science Department introduced its second semester students to the use of terminals and to a time-sharing operating system, a valuable exercise not possible in the past due to resource constraints. The other major use of the system was the development of SIMULA programs and the use of the SIMULA data base package by third year Computer Science students.

The valuable assistance given by the Coombs Computing Centre during the setting up of the DEC-10 in SGS is gratefully acknowledged.

DEC KAlO

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Unit KAlO-C MGlO-H MClO-G MElO DFlO PRlO · RP02 RP03 TMlO

TUlOA TUlOA ·Dc10-AA

DClO-B CRlO

LSPlO-LB

Description CPU 128K memory 2 Ports for MGlO 16K memory Data channel Disk control Disk pack drive Disk pack drive Magtape control 9 track tape transport 7 track tape transport Communications CTHL unit 8 line group Card reader

245 LPM 64 char. printer

fil1. 1

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Unit VT52 LA36

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Description

DE Cs cope DECwriter

54/19BO

3. HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS

The CSC operates on a Univac 1100/42 under Exec-8. Equipment includes two Corranand Arithmetic Units (CAU), with one Input Output Unit_ (IOAU), and sixteen I/O channels.

The total storage available to users is 576K of which 64K is semi-conductor primary storage.

Fixed and removable mass storage is kept on eight 8440 discs; four 8414 discs; three 432 drums and one 1782 drum. In June 1978 a second controller, with dual access facilities, was installed on the drums.

Other equipment includes seven high-speed 9-track tape drives; b-10 printers, one with the capability of duo case ASCII, and a 1,000 cards a minute reader.

Terminal devices at the Centr.e include nine Uniscope terminals; three Diablo hard copy terminals and two graphics terminals with a hard copy device attached.

Remote facilities available for general use include four Uniscope terminals located in the Research School of Biolog~cal Sciences, eight Uniscope terminals and a Univac UTS700 selfservice station located in the School of General Studies to handle remote batch jobs to and from the central Univac system.

Communication facilities throughout the campus are provided by 72 terminals directly connected via the Network to a front end processor, PDP li/50, located at the Centre.

The to ta 1 configuration of the CSC is as fo 11 ows: -

UNIVAC - Ull00/42

• 2 x Command Arithmetic Units which one Input Output Access Unit with 16 I/O channels.

• 64K of 36 bit words (256K bytes) of Semi-Conductor Primary Storage with a cycle time of 300 nsec.

• 512K of 36 bit words (2048K bytes) of Extended Core Storage with a cycle time of 800 nsec.

3 mode 1 432 drums, capacity 256K words ( 1. SM bytes) each, transfer rate 240K words (1.4M bytes) per sec., average access time 4.25 msec. 1 model 1782 drum, capacity 2097K words (8.6M bytes), trar.sfer rate of 240K words (l.4M bytes) per sec., average access time 17 msec. Drums are on two channels with Dual Access . Facilities.

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~4 model 8414 Disc drives with demountable packs each of 29M bytes in free format, a transfer rate of 312K bytes per second, and an average access time of 72.5 msec. 6 model 8440 Disc drives on two channels with dual access facilities, demountable disc packs each of 119M bytes in free format, a transfer rate of 624K bytes/sec., and an average access time of 42.5 msec. 2 model 8440 Disc drives on a single channel.

7 model Ul6 tape drives, 9 track, 196K bytes transfer rate at 1600 bpi (dua·1 density 800/1600).

1 model 770 line printer, 500-2000 lpm, with Universal and 96 CHS, ASCII print cartridges. 1 model 758 line printer, 1100-1600 lpm.

1 model 716 card reader, 1000 cpm.

1 SPU

1 Console and pagewriter.

1 CTMC

• 24 U-100 Uniscopes

OTHER

• 2 Tektronix 4013 terminal

1 Versatec printer/plotter

1 Calcomp 960 plotter

UNIVAC - UTS700 REMOTE BATCH STATION

1 Card Reader 1 Printer · (300 lpm) 1 Processor 2 16K bytes EXP. 1 Line Adaptor 1 Comms Interface 1 Disk Memory Access 2 Diskettes

IBM 370/138

CPU: 370 model 3138 processing unit 3286 printer

DISCS: 2314 control units (2) + 7 drives

TAPES:

I/Q SET:

2803-2 control unit 2401-6 drives (2)

2821-1 control unit 2540 card reader/punch 1403-NI printer (1100 LPM)

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PDP 11/50 NETWORK CONTROLLER

1 Processor with extended instruction set and memory management 16K 16 bit semiconductor memory 450 nsec cycle time 96K 16 but CORE MEMORY 980 NSEC cycle time 2 LA36 Decwriter console 2 RK05 disk drives 1.25M words per disk, 50msec average access 1 LA180 line printer 1 Card reader 285 cards/min. 1 XYll Plotter . 4 DJll 16-line terminal multiplexors 2 DZll 8 line terminal multiplexors 1 Paper tape reader

. 1 DVll 16 line synchronous OMA multiplexor 2 DRllB Univus-Unibus links 2 Tektronix 4013 terminals 1 Tektronix 4662 plotter 1 VT52 video terminal

PDPll/45 DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM

1 Processor with extended instruction set and memory management SOK 16 bit words of core memory 980 nesc cycle time 1 LA36 Decwriter console 4K 61 bit semiconductor memory 450 nsec cycle time

. 2 RK05 disk drives 1.25m words per disk, 50 msec average access ~ 1 .Card reader 285 cards/min. 1 Line printer llOOLPM 1 Calcomp 565 Plotter 1 Data Systems dual floppy disc drive

PDP 11/04

1 Processor 16K 16 bit semiconductor memory 700 nsec cycle time

INFOREX SYSTEM 5000

Control Unit, 5101 - 1 off 800 bpi Tape Drives, 5401 - 2 off 29 MB Disc Drives, 5301 - 3 off Local VDU's, 5201 - 11 off , Diablo printers, 1402 - 4 off (driven by VDU's) 600 lpm Printer, 1408 - 1 off

INFOREX KEY-TO-DISC SYSTEM - 'IKE'

Control Unit fincludes 800 bpi Tape Drive)~ 1302 - 1 off Local Keystations, 2901 - 11 off

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e 4. OPERATIONS ACTIVITIES

The Operations Section of the Computer Services Centre provides coverage of the system between the hours 0730 - 2400 every day of the year. From 0001 ·· 0730 the r.Jachine is left running in unattended mode with interactive facilities available to all users; also available, 24 hours a day, is a Univac UTS 700 Remote Job Entry Station located in the School of General Studies.

For the second year running the 960 Calcomp Plotting Service has shown a substantial increase in demand by users.

At CSC renovation of work areas is in progress at the moment and special emphasis is being placed on the new Reception Area layout foreseen as providing benefits to both users and staff.

CSC operators will be responsible for manning the area where users will be helped to the extent of receiving information on general system enquiries or will be directed to a programmer for further consultation .

.It is planned to consolidate into the general work area a number of operator activities directed to the function of attending to user enquiries in such a way that delays to users will be reduced to a real minimum.

Throughout the year the administrative computer - IBM370/138 -was manned by an extended daytime shift arrangement (1 from 8.30 am -

-4.30 pm) (1 from 10 am - 6 pm) and the Inforex 5000 machine was attended by DPU staff from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm.

5. USER SERVICES

Th€ fu!lctions of user services are: (a) Consulting (b) User Education (c) User Documentation (d) Applications Library (e) Plotting and Graphics

(a) CONSULTING

During normal working hours a programmer is available to

assist users by explaining the facilities and documentation offered by the Centre. As new users are continually arriving at the ANU, it is desirable to have an experienced member of staff who is readily available to advise them on developing new projects, and on transferring existing projects from one installation to another.

investigate user reports of faults. If the report indicates a genuine problem, the programmer advises the user on suitable methods of circumventing it, and reports the product or documentation fault to the person or organisation providing support.

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advise other groups within the Centre of Users' needs and expectations, in order to improve the service offered and to assist in planning and allocation of priorities within the Centre.

(b) USER EDUCATION

During 1979, the Centre conducted three courses in Run Control Language and Terminal Use. Each of these courses lasts for one week, and includes about twelve hours of lectures and supervised terminal practice. After a comparison of the merits of the CTS, Univac, and Maryland editors, it was decided that the University of Maryland editor (MEO) would be used for future courses.

An Introductory Fortran Programming Course was held in March-May, and again in October - November. Each course consists of 20 hours of lectures, and a minimum of 16 hours of tutorials. Total enrolments were 77, including 19 external students enrolled through the Centre for Continuing Education. The course is an intensive one, requiring about 25 hours per week of the student's time. At the request of some of the students, the October - November course was supplemented by seven hours of tutorials on some more advanced aspects of Fortran programming.

(c} USER DOCUMENTATION

In 1979 the User Services Group spent much of its time on reviewing documentation procedures, and on revising and developing user documentation.

A review of the on-line (machine readable) documentation was carried out, and many documents were revised and/or indexed. Some new documents were written, including an overview of batch processing and a guide to the UTS remote job entry station. A list of software items and their support levels was released.

The major project was the rewriting of the Centre's guide to all processors on the Univac system. This work is still in progress.

A Weekly Bulletin has been published throughout the year. It includes notification of changes and additions to the services and facilities offered. It is also used to report faults and software restrictions.

The Computer Services Centre Bulletin ·was published every two months. It contains articles on changes and improvements to equipment and facilities; a summary of material from the Weekly Bulletin; operational statistics; staff changes; reports of meetings of the Computer Centre Users' Committee, and of the Users' Forum; a transcript of the Suggestions Book; 1 pie 1 charts summarising computer usage over the preceeding two months.

Internal documentation of the Centre's own use was prepared. This consists of:-A catalogue of all documentation at the Centre; A list of all computing products at the Centre; A list of standards relevant to computing at the Centre.

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~ APPLICATIONS LIBRARY The Centre maintains an extensive library of mathematical,

statistical and utility programs. Part of the library consists of 'subroutines' or modules, which a user employs within his own program. A large part of the library consists of 'processors', languages, and packages. These are 'stand-alone' programs which accept user commands and data.

During 197S the NAG subroutine library was purchased on trial for one year and was implemented. The GENSTAT package was also implemented. Edition 7 of IMSL was installed in both FORTRAN V and ASCII Fortran versions.

Utility programs for the support of the high-quality printing of the Diablo terminal were developed and consolidated.

As Univac has indicated that FORTRAN V will be replaced by ASCII Fortran, attention has been given to the problem of converting the library. Although some of the present packages are available in versions which are compatible with ASCII Fortran, much work is required to convert existing routines or to find substitutes.

(e) PLOTTING AND GRAPHICS

Some time was spenton reviewing the plotting and graphics facilities. Because of the change of Fortran compiler, it is necessary to develop a library of routines to support plotting for ASCII Fortran users .

. 6. NETWORK DEVELOPMENT

During the first quarter of 1979, a substantial amount of work was invested in converting ANU network software to a new release of the DECNET system (DECNET Phase II) used for network communications. This software became operational in June and unfortunately suffered a number of reliability problems which were gradually diagnosed and corrected over the suc~eeding 3 months.

Dur"ing the later part of the year, most effort was aimed at consolidating existing software, improving the user interface to the network, and preparing for the installation of the Network Systems Corporation Hyperchannel which has now been ordered. This device will, in the first instance, provide high speed communication between the Univac and the network. The network now supports hardware connections for 80 terminals connected directly to the Network Controller, with another 8 connected via the Coombs node, which was brought into production in December.

Planned developments for 1980 include some uncompleted projects from 1979. In particular, the high ·speed link between the Univac and the network (NSC Hyperchannel) vlill be implemented during the first quarter of 1980, it is hoped that at least 2 more remote nodes will be installed, and the file transfer project proposed for 1979 will be undertaken as a matter of high priority. The reliability issue is also ongoing 5 and plans for 1980 include the implementation of a more advanced fonn of crash recovery.

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In the hardware area, 1980 projects include the installation of a major extension to the network cable in the SGS area, and completion of the redesign of the NIBs which was commenced in 1979. Existing NIBs will be gradually replaced by the new version during 1980 and 1981.

7. SYSTEMS PERFORMANCE

Three kinds of measurement give some information on systems performance. First, there are data showing details of hardware and software failures; secondly, a detailed profile of the workload over any desired interval may be obtained from the System Log File; and finally, a comprehensive breakdown of internal Operating System activity can be obtained through software instrumentation. In addition, the Operating System supports an accounting system which accumulates 11 charges 11 for use in terms of Standard Units of Processing (SUPS).

During the past twelve months, an analysis of Ull00/42 performance based upon reduction of the aforementioned data was carried out to identify shortcomings with the machine. Data gathered in this survey has been used to model various hardware configurations using simulation techniques in order to deliniate an appropriate long term growth path. This exercise involved in part the preparation and execution of two independent benchmark suites in the United States. It is to be noted that an increase in computing capacity in excess of twice that provided by the existing Ull00/42 is necessary in order to satisfy immediate demands within the University.

The Ull00/42 is available to users on a 24 hour basis with the exception of certain periods set aside for hardware maintenance, for software development and for routine operational requirements. Central complex maintenance is scheduled for four hours every Monday morning; much of the peripheral maintenance is carried out on-line. There is a four hour period every Sunday morning during which all user files are backed up. Also, files altered throughout each day are backed up every evening but this does not disrupt user access. In all, approximately 10% of the total time each week is scheduled for systems overheads of these types.

Table A presents a breakdown of the amount of time available after systems overheads have been accounted for. It may be seen that in general, the system is running for over 90% of the scheduled time. The low percentage availability recorded in September may be accounted for as follows:

- numerous hardware problems on 8440 disc drives; and - a serious software problem associated with removable

disc, packs.

TABLE A Time during which the machine was available to users as a percentage of total time available after removing system overheads.

Jan 94.2 Feb 94.5 March 92.5 April 90.4 May 89.5 June 93.3 July 94.3 August 96.3 Sept. 82. 3 Oct. 89.2 Nov. 90.0

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As the system has dual CAU processors and several memory banks, it is possible to operate the machine with one CAU and/or memory bank out of service. During some months the downgrading was due to scheduled FCOs, a type of hard/>lare upgrade, and hence cannot be considered as a failure. It is worth remarking that demand users rarely notice the effect of losing one CAU; the effect of losing a memory bank is substantial. A number of other hardware failures are possible including problems with mass storage and other peripheral devices and breakdown of the Network Controller. An analysis of data for these failures indicates a similar pattern to that demonstr.ated for the main system.

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE

Systems programming efforts within the Centre are twofold, namely the maintenance of existing software and implementation of new software. Maintenance activities include the location, documentation, and elimination of errors, notifying vendors of problems and implementing their patches, and providing documentation, information and consultation of existing features. Thus, software maintenance is primarily concerned with providing a stable environment for the user.

The implementation of new software falls into two categories, namely, internally developed software and externally supplied packages. During 1979, a substantial amount of software development has taken place, particularly in areas associated with the Network. In particular:

- conversion from level 32 to level 36 of the Univac Operating System (EXEC8) and modification of appropriate utility programs

the latest Univac version of 1 E1 level FORTRAN is ready to be implemented as the primary production compiler

- an extensive perfonnance study of the Univac system was carried out

- a comprehensive benchmark exercise was undertaken to enable an appropriate upgrade path to be evaluated.

It is expected that a number of projects will be completed during 1980, including:

- Network Systems Corporation HYPERCHANNEL support between the Univac 1100 and PDP 11/50

- enhanced Network high level Services the use of transaction techniques to assist in proc~ssing high volume interactive work

- improved system recovery during unattended operation - design and implementation of resource allocation mechanisms.