ROBERT L. DATRICK 9935 DONNA 213/349-2225

 

COMPUTER SPECIALIST NORTHRIOGE, CALIFORNIA 91324
July 25, 1970

Memorandum To: Paul Armer, Director Stanford Computer Center

From: R. L. Patrick

Subject: Operations Audit of ACME Facility
(7/13/70 - 7/16/70)

CC: Ron Jamtgaard, Director ACME Facility

Dr. William Miller, Deputy Provost for Computing
Introduction

During my visit to the ACME Facility, I reviewed almost all

aspects of operation and support for the facility. I enjoyed
the full cooperation of Mr. Jamtgaard and found all of his people
pleasant, cooperative, and willing to answer my questions. I en-
countered no lack of cooperation nor any administrative details
which detracted from my studies. During my visit, I worked some
of all three shifts, and conferred extensively with the following
people:

Charles Class

Linda Crouse

Dave Cummins

Regina Frey

Serge Girardi

Lee Hundley

Ron Jamtgaard

Joshua Lederberg

Stu Miller

Gio Wiederhold

Operations Crew

IBM Installations Planners
In addition to the conversations with those listed above,
I enjoyed several visits to the three laboratories within the
Med Center who were running on-line to ACME with experiments
or data reduction.

Prior to visiting ACME, I reviewed the original grant re-
quest to determine the goals of the facility. In the broadest
terms, I found six goals:

A. Real-time data acquisition

B. Real-time control of experiments

C. On-line deferred data reduction

D. Development of interactive programs

E. Training of users on the system

F. Access to the Campus Facility for heavy production.

In my visits I found that the project has successfully accom-
plished all goals except F. There is as yet no useful bridge be-
tween ACME and the Campus Facility. I also found that the project
has been more successful in accomplishing Goals C, D, and E than
they have in supporting the real-time user. There is a risk, if
this trend is allowed to continue, that ACME will become fust
another time-sharing system. If the real-time portion of ACME
is allowed to wither and die, ACME will find it difficult to com-
pete in terms of cost and service with other time-sharing systems
available commercially and more highly tuned to efficiency.

The ACME Project has survived its adolescence and must now
reorganize for maturity, set objectives and schedules, measure
progress against plans, and apply precious resources against proven
needs.

RLP
7/25/70