....

Now, even some internal accounting work is done on one of the 9830s,
and although this side only forms a
tiny proportion of the total computing
carried out, it is helping significantly
in making the laboratory more manageable. Project and product costing,
weekly returns and some forward
planning is being implemented
which keeps a part-time programmer
well employed.

CONCLUSIONS
Summarizing, it is the nature of the
work carried out in the department
which makes hands-on accessibility
so vitally important to the work

"

"

of this laboratory, and this in turn

has resulted in the acquisition of the
HP desktop systems. The sheer volume
of creative programming which has to
be carried out by different users means
that it could be very costly indeed if
the work were carried out on a large
machine. The system developed at
Whetstone is already several steps
along the road towards the ideal
distributed system: local computing
power exactly where it is needed and
a large mainframe processor in the
background for the bigger jobs.
(Hewlett-Packard Limited, King Street
Lane, Winners& Wokingham, Berks
R G I I 5AR, UK. Telephone: Wokingham 784774. Telex: 847178)

'2

:~">*':'~c~-i

~*:~:~.%~:~:~:~:::::~!!;~!:~i!~ii?~>~aii::~iiii~iii~iii~ii~iiii~ii~ii!~i~i~i~iii~ii:~iiiiii~iiii~iiiiiiiii

Over 20 companies are researching the

behaviour of ocean-going barges. The
aim of the project is to determine the
areas where existing commercially
available computer programs give
reasonably accurate results of motion
response of barges.
Because the beam-length ratios
and other characteristics of barges are
very different from those of ships, the
programs that are good for ship motions
do not always give realistic predictions
for barges. New programs developed
for predicting loads and motions for
wide-bodied members of loafing offshore structures should be applicable to
barge motions. However, both types of
program are likely to require a viscous
drag correction, especially when roll
motions are near to resonance.
The SIA bureau's computer services
are being used in this project. The
first phase entails 10 members of the
consortium running their own programs for various barge and wave
conditions. The National Maritime
Institute will then test small scale
models in their 400m X 14.6 X
7.6m deep tank, in the same conditions. The results can then be compared directly. The second phase will
be to investigate any discrepancies
shown, and the possibilities for
improving the programs or barge
design. (SIA Limited, Ebury Gate,
23 Lower Be/grave Street, London
SWI W ONW. Te/ephone: 01-730
4544. Telex: 916635)

LUCAS take
over Calma

Two new I000 F-Series computers from Hewlett-Packard, the 211 l f and
211 7F, feature separate hardware processors for faster execution of floatingpoint instructions, a special instruction set for hardware execution of
transcendental and logarithmic functions, 16k RAM high-performance
memory, and a set of microprogrammed routines that accelerate FOR TRA N
performance. (Hewlett-Packard Limited, King Street Lane, Winnersh,
Wokingham, Berks RG11 5AR, UK. Telephone: Wokingham 784774)

278

London United Computing Systems

have acquired Calma of California, a
supplier of graphics CAD systems.
An agreement in principle to
acquire the Calma Company has been
negotiated by United Telecommunications Inc., the parent company of
Kansas-based United Computing
Systems, of which LUCS is a whollyowned subsidiary. Calma's graphicsorientated systems are used in many
applications such as IC and PCB
design, mechanical design, drafting
and mapping. (LUCS Limited, 39
Gordon Square, London WC1H OPD)

computer-aided design