Unix and Mainframes
Of course, not all computers can conveniently fit on a desktop. In 1983, the world of the "big" mainframe, spinning its tape drives in an air-conditioned room, was still in existance. Heck, there was still some card punching going on at UCSB as late as 1987!
Hey Abbott! (The Computer Center)
My first contact with Unix, mainframes, and the like was at the UCSB Computer Center in 1983. The Computer Center, at that time, provided computer support service to all of the administrative departments, and a diminishing number of academic departments on campus. (Many academic departments were starting to get their own machines).
Computer Center equipment available for the general public (i.e. undergraduate students) included the following:
- two PDP 11's, named "Abbott" and "Costello". If I recall correctly, "Abbott" was mostly used by academic departments, students, and the Computer Club, while "Costello" was primarily for administrative users. (Was it just me, or did Abbott tend to be "down" a lot more often than Costello? But I digress...)
- An IBM 360 mainframe, that ran operating systems such as MVS, CMS, and the Wylbur editor. Although these operating system were still heavily used, I never used them all that much (except for certain types of printing--see below)
- A variety of terminals, mostly Teleray T1061's and a few Infoton's, but we did have a couple of VT100's, including one with "Retro-Graphics". There was also a Tek 4014 storage scope terminal (that did upper case only--not too good for Unix, really).
- A noisy Printronix printer that also tended to break down just when it was most needed. (Never fear, though, it was possible for Unix users to print on the MVS laser printer, through some special Unix commands that actually submitted a batch job to the IBM mainframe. This particular Printronix could print bitmapped graphics as well (the output from the Unix "plot" command), although it took forever to do so. Another useful program was the unsupported "fakeset" command, that could convert the output of "troff" into Tektronix or Printronix format.
And of course there was plenty of documentation on all of the systems, which was useful (until someone barfed all over it one night and it didn't get cleaned up over a three-day weekend. . .)
Every Computer Center terminal, as well as the dialup lines, could access any one of the two PDP-11's, or any of the operating systems on the IBM 360. At first this was done by two Interdata switches named "Dewey" and "Louie". (What happened to "Huey"? It quit working one day and was never replaced). Eventually, the Interdatas were replaced by an Ungermann-Bass network. This network allowed access from Computer Center terminals and dialups to not only the Computer Center machines, but also most of the major departmental mainframes, as well as to the library catalog.
Relax! Get a VAX!
Although this grafitto was scrawled on a wall at the Computer Center machine room, there were no VAXen there. There were plenty at the Computer Science department, though.
- Csilvax or "Cecil" was the undergraduate machine, primarily for Computer Science projects. It was also used for ACM programming contests.
The Csilvax terminal room consisted of about 30 Zenith H19 terminals and a Printronix printer (which unfortunately did not support graphics like the one back at the Computer Center did). There were also a couple of dialup lines as well.
- Engrvax was mostly used by upper division and graduate Comp Sci. and Engineering students. Their terminal room featured several BBN BitGraph high-resolution, portrait-mode black and white terminals (with mice!). These terminals could even do sound effects, although that was highly discouraged. Later on, they got four Tektronix 4107 terminals (with an easy to use graphics description language). Printers included the usual Printronix, as well as a Versatec electrostatic printer (which we mere undergraduates were discouraged from using, as it was a "finicky device that would break down if you looked at it the wrong way" according to one CS professor). There was also a big (19" screen) Tektronix terminal connected to a Tektronix color inkjet printer, with a sign saying "This printer is NOT for public use". Most users were blocked from logging in to that terminal, but of course that didn't stop one or two users from switching the cables with a "normal" terminal, in order to gain access to the printer.
(At a later date, IBM AT's running XENIX were installed in both the csilvax and engrvax terminal rooms. For some reason, they were only available during restricted hours; the lab attendant would come around and lock them up at a certain time of the night).
- Cslvax (not to be confused with csilvax), otherwise known as research. This machine handled faculty research for many departments, not just computer science. It had a lot of features that most campus users could only dream of back in 1983 (like Usenet and off-campus e-mail). It could be accessed from just about any other machine on campus (including the Computer Center), so it didn't have a terminal room of its own. Although it was primarily a research machine, occasional class accounts (like computer music, which had its own filesystem) could be found there.
- Aslan: This was the computer science faculty machine; it was eventually supplemented with, and later supplanted by, individual Sun workstations.
- Other Departmental VAXen: Chemistry had a VAX (which ran VMS, while just about every other Vax on campus ran Unix). Physics had a VAX (also VMS). I think Psychology had a VAX (VMS) and a bunch of Terak terminals. Geography had a VAX (running Unix) and a tiny terminal room. Eventually, Music got a VAX (running Unix) to support the Csound program.
I'd imagine, most of the VAXen are now gone, replaced by workstations and/or PC networks.
Computing at UCSB, in general
Most Unix accounts were assigned in conjunction with classes. One could also buy time at the Computer Center (about $1-5 per hour, depending on how processor-intensive the program was). The UCSB Computer Club also gave out free computer time on the Computer Center machines, in increments of about $25-50 per quarter, depending on how many people were in the club at a given time.
Most students (other than myself) didn't seem horribly interested in these machines, except as a way to complete class assignments and such. I read about the legendary "hacker communities" at places such as Stanford, Caltech, Dartmouth and MIT; but I certainly found little evidence of such a group of people at UCSB. (I guess the beach was too strong a call...)
Mainframe computing at UCLA
When I arrived at UCLA in 1987, and visited their Computer Center, it was almost like taking three steps backward. Unlike Unix-friendly UCSB, UCLA seemed to be almost a complete IBM JCL shop. (There was one Unix machine, but the cost to use it was too high).
By that time, though, most departments were moving toward local area networks. Companies like IBM and Novell were donating equipment to several campus departments. So, except for e-mail and (later) Internet access, there was little reason for many users to directly deal with the mainframes anymore.
Internet access for most users at UCLA (e.g. other than people who could claim a connection with the Department of Defense) was unavailable until 1989, I think. (Of course the computer and engineering departments probably always had access...)
Of course, we could always subscribe to BITNET mailing lists. I was on the Amiga list, and could also download files from the mailing list, although putting them together so that they would run on the Amiga was generally a big mess. I also had a friend who was heavily involved in the Tianamen Square movement, and he would get tons of e-mail.
UCLA also had a computer club, with some limited Internet and Usenet access (usually via one of the Computer Science machines)
More fun with VMS
Between 1990 and 1996, I had a couple of jobs where there was a VAX. In both cases, the VAX was running VMS. I learned to write a few batch files in order to expedite certain tasks (I recall one program that would dial up a library database and download searches to a local file).
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