Looking back at how we worked 40 years ago and our
priorities, it seems that the challenges in the 1970s were
incredibly similar to those that are faced today.
In the past 40 years there have been many significant advances
in technology. Being at the forefront of technological innovation
today is just as intriguing and exciting as it was in 1971, when I
began work at an IBM think tank, some of the findings of which
found their way into Project Chess, the development of the personal
computer.
This multinational task force was assembled from countries
including the UK, France, Germany and the US.
The team was given special authorisation to bypass normal
company restrictions to review the business needs for a computer
system and enable IBM to get a product to market as effectively as
possible, while ensuring maintenance, support and upgrades were
addressed in a practical and pragmatic fashion.
Remember, this was a time when IBM ruled the computer industry
roost. It was the era of the mainframe and the data processing
department, when computers were run by teams of highly skilled
people - the data priests and priestesses who resided over the
precious computer system resources.
They fed in the right numbers into rooms full of large,
expensive boxes to produce reams of line printer output that
business executives could then mull over. Online systems were a
rarity and relatively expensive.
It is fair to say that, for most, access to data processing was
restricted or limited. A request for a report could take several
days, or even weeks, before the relevant information was handed to
a business executive. In general, we were working in a
batch-oriented world.
At that time, IBM realised that there would be huge demand for
computer systems to assist businesses in organising their
commercial applications, data and corporate information.
With the limited success of systems such as the IBM 5100, it was
clear that the approach to the future market potential, in a broad
sense for all systems, had to be re-assessed.
The biggest hurdle that had to be overcome at IBM during 1971
was changing the traditional approach internally. The research
project, which looked at the business needs of a company, not the
technological requirements, indicated that a small, or micro,
computer system was needed.
This was a difficult concept to accept given that mainframes
were the essence of the market and the company at that time.
As well as reviewing the business requirements, the cost of the
system was taken into consideration, and the target set at
$1,000.
Once this concept was agreed and finalised, Don Estridge, who
had been part of the initial and early discussions, and his team of
engineers went on to design and develop a system which became the
known as the PC, and was launched 10 years later in 1981.
Looking back at how we worked then and our priorities, it seems
that the challenges in the 1970s were incredibly similar to those
that are faced today.
There was an appreciation that any business system needed to be
affordable, installable, maintainable and upgradeable to provide
support and enhancements effectively and profitably. I know that,
for many, it is hard to imagine now, but back then we were all of a
mainframe mindset.
Believe it or not, we aspired to provide the kind of service and
support that many end-users take for granted today.
In my 30-plus years in the IT industry, technology has changed
and advanced beyond all recognition and it is being used in ways
that many at that time would have found difficult to imagine.
Yet many of the challenges are the same - someone still has to
take responsibility for installing the system and ensuring it is up
to date.
What we learned from Project Chess about affordable, usable and
manageable computers still resonates today and is very much at the
heart of modern IT.
Alan Wallman is vice-president EMEA at storage networking
supplier Emulex and sits on the board of the Storage
Networking Industry Association Europe
More about the birth of the PC:
www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc/p1.html
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