RFC 588: London Node Is Now Up

Network Working Group                                          A. Stokes
Request for Comments: 588                                          UKICS
NIC: 20217                                                  October 1973

                         LONDON NODE IS NOW UP

   The London node of the ARPANET has been on the Net (Address 42) since
   early September.  It consists of a TIP (Address 170) and, at present,
   a local HOST (0), a PDP-9, which front-ends the Rutherford High
   Energy Laboratory 360/195 located 60 miles from London and connect to
   it by a 2.4 Kbps line.  The specific details of the 360 will soon
   appear in the Resource Notebook, but, in brief, it has 2 megabytes of
   fast store (750ns), a fixed head disk and a large number of other
   peripherals.  It operates under OS/MVT release 21.7 and HASP II
   version 3.1, with a locally written message switching system MAST and
   an interactive editor ELECTRIC.  In addition to the local hardware,
   it supports about 20 remote workstations, which are, in many cases
   GEC 2050s simulating IBM 1130s.  Eventually, other Hosts will be
   attached to the Very Distant Host Interface (Address 234).

   The PDP-9 at the Institute of Computer Science also simulates a 1130
   with 2 card readers, 2 card punches, two line printers, three MAST
   consoles, and a system console.  It has a 16K (18 bit) words store, a
   256K word drum and a number of devices usually attached by modem
   interfaces.  The 1130 simulator software has been interfaced to an
   ARPA system, which, at present, has IMP-HOST, HOST-HOST, ICP, and
   TELNET protocols.  The TELNET link is initially to the PDP-9 from
   whence the user may login to the 360 provided one of the two MAST
   ports is available (the third being for local use).  The access is to
   ELECTRIC, and the user may enter and edit files, submit them to the
   batch stream, and inspect the output interactively from a terminal.
   The facilities will be extended soon to allow the printing of jobs at
   TIPS and later the RJE and FTP protocols will be implemented.

   The 360 is available for limited experimental use, and a free login
   facility has been provided (GUEST).  This account has a very limited
   allowance (currently, 1min CPU time/week), and is designed only for
   demonstration purposes.

   All jobs under this account must be Class X, which has a maximum run
   time of 10secs.  Proper accounts, for which there will be no charge,
   can be arranged for appropriate users by contacting KIRSTEIN@ISI.  It
   is not planned, at present, to make the 360/195 a normal service
   HOST, like for example, the CCN machine.  However, the machine will
   be made available for cooperative projects involving a US group and

   an interested party in the UK.  Of particular interest to us are
   applications in Network measurements, high energy physics, and
   accelerator design, though other projects would be considered.

   Primitive HELP facilities exist on both the PDP-9 and the 360, and
   they are accessed by %H and TYPE JB=HELP, respectively.  Up to date
   details will be given in the message obtained on connecting to the
   PDP-9 and in the PDP-9 Help file.

   ... A typical scenario is attached.

   The intention is to keep the PDP-9/360 available as a HOST between
   19.00 and 09.00 local time, as well as a number of periods during the
   day (the local time is 8 or 9 hours ahead of California, and 5 hours
   ahead of the East Coast).  There will be no operator available on the
   PDP-9, although during the day and at least the early part of the
   evening, there will be users in the computer room who will give
   assistance where necessary.  The "operator's console" is a Teletype,
   so any messages sent during the night will be read in the morning,
   and we will try to send replies to all queries (if you tell us where
   to reply to Network mail for our site may be send to KRISTEIN@ISI, or
   to myself (IDENT=AVS) at the NIC.  Connection problems should be
   referred to Peter Higginson (NIC ident = PLH).

   ... Enc.

   HELLO 315
   @1 42
   LOGGER
    OPEN
   INDRA COMPUTING SERVICE - 17 27 GMT ON 06 NOV 73
   TYPE %H<CR> FOR HELP

   &h
   THE HOST AT ULICS IS A PDP-9 FRONT END TO AN IBM 360/195
   COMMANDS TO THE PDP-9 ARE:
   %HELP (%H)
   %LOGIN ID=**.ACCT=**
   %LOGOUT
   %OPERATOR (%O)
   %STATUS (%S)

   ALL COMMANDS TERMINATE WITH CARRIAGE RETURN
   WHEN NOT LOGGED IN TO 360 ALL LINES GO TO OPERATOR

   WILL USA USERS PLEASE TYPE A COUPLE OF LINES SAYING WHO THEY
   ARE BEFORE THEY LOG IN TO THE 360

   FOR FURTHER HELP LOGIN TO THE 360 WITH:
   %LOGIN GUEST
   AND IF SUCCESSFUL TYPE:
   TYPE JB=HELP

   THE IMB 360/195 IS UP

   THE SYSTEM HAS NO PROMPT AND ONLY TWO CONTROL CHARS:
   CTRL U TO CANCEL A LINE
   DELETE (177) TO DELETE A CHAR

   % login guest
   USER 8 F7 BL= 113/250 TL= 197 NL= 13 TG= 8 NG= 2 TJ= 0.01 NJ=  3
   SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT TONIGHT AS PER THE SCHEDULE BETWEEN 1730-
   1854HRS.
   **ELECTRIC TERMINATING IN 0 MINS 50 SECS. AVAILABLE AGAIN AT 1847
   HRS **
   %logout
   OK   F7 BL= 113/ 250 TL= 198 NL= 14 TG= 8 NG= 2 TJ= 0.01 NJ=  3
   @c

   CLOSED T
   CLOSED R