{"id":5636,"date":"2026-04-15T18:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/?p=5636"},"modified":"2026-04-15T18:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:13:20","slug":"60-years-of-computing-at-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/development\/2026\/04\/15\/60-years-of-computing-at-kent\/","title":{"rendered":"60 Years of Computing at Kent by Eur Ing Bob Eager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Words by Eur Ing Bob Eager<\/strong><\/p>\n

I arrived at Kent as an undergraduate in 1970. I was there to read Electronics, and presumably to pursue a career in that field, but it didn\u2019t quite work out like that.<\/p>\n

In January 1971, I took a module in computer programming. I learned that the Computing Laboratory had been founded in 1966, to provide computing facilities to academics and graduates. It was equipped with a second hand Elliott 803 (https:\/\/hoc.lgfl.org.uk\/s2_elliot803.html<\/a>), a reasonable stopgap for two or three years. This was what is now known as a \u201cmainframe\u201d, or a single large computer, requiring air conditioning, dust filtration and a special power supply.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An Elliott 803 installation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new computer, an Elliott 4130 (https:\/\/www.ancientgeek.org.uk\/Elliott\/4100\/<\/a>), was ordered in 1968. Such was the pace of progress that by the time it had been delivered, Elliott Computers was no more. It had been subsumed into International Computers Limited, the result of the effective nationalisation of the major UK computer companies; this was part of Harold Wilson\u2019s \u201cwhite heat of this scientific revolution\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n

At this time, most computing was done by punching programs on special cards and submitting them to the computer room, later collecting a printout. The concept of \u201ctime sharing\u201d (sitting at a terminal and using the computer directly) was relatively new, particularly in the UK. A small group of computing staff at Kent decided that they would set time sharing up on the new machine and they had it working in under a year.\u00a0 They called this system the Kent Online System, or just KOS (https:\/\/www.ancientgeek.org.uk\/Elliott\/4100\/KOS\/<\/a>); it was very successful and was adopted by several other universities. This really put Kent on the map, especially because KOS was used by students from all disciplines, not just for programming and number crunching. This was the system on
\nwhich I cut my programming teeth.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An Elliott 4130 installation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I became notorious for doing unauthorised things to this system, until I was given some interesting programming tasks by Peter Brown, an excellent academic and a very nice person.<\/p>\n

A replacement computer system was planned for 1976 and was expected to be a machine from a large US manufacturer (not IBM). However, government pressure to \u201cbuy British\u201d resulted in the purchase of an untried system from ICL (yes, the same company later responsible for the ill-fated Horizon system). This was an ICL 2960 computer (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ICL_2900_Series<\/a>). By this time I was a part time programmer, and had to fight this rather hostile system on a regular basis! After three years the machine was retained but now running software from the University of Edinburgh. I was heavily involved with this, and I gave a talk about it recently (https:\/\/emas.bobeager.uk<\/a>) This was more successful and was very reliable; it was enhanced somewhat and was eventually pensioned off in 1986 (by which time ICL was well on the way to absorption by Fujitsu).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The University of Kent ICL 2960 system, circa 1978 – Photo by Trevor Potts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next (and last) major computer system came from the Digital Equipment Corporation, the US company that had lost the bid last time round. It was a Digital Equipment VAXcluster, consisting of four machines working together (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/VMScluster<\/a>). Although technically a mainframe, it was physically a lot smaller than its predecessor. It just so happened that I was well versed in this system, so I was heavily involved in running this too. This turned out to be a mixed blessing, as its connection to the university\u2019s rather unusual computer network was rather unreliable, not helped by the subsequent bankruptcy of the company that supplied the connection. The problems were eventually solved, but it was the death knell for the \u201cmainframe\u201d at Kent; personal computers were now the thing. The mainframe was downsized, and eventually it quietly disappeared.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
About half of the University of Kent VAXcluster – Photo by Trevor Potts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By this time, I had moved on to other things, but there is one thing I do remember. Around 2001, I hosted a retirement dinner in Darwin College for a number of Computing staff. One of the attendees had been the system software manager back in the days when I was doing \u201cunauthorised\u201d things to computers; I am sure he suspected me, and he probably decided to let sleeping dogs lie at the time. He asked me what I was doing now, and I told him that I was teaching computing, specifically in the area of expertise needed to do those \u201cnaughty\u201d things. He just said dryly, \u201cWhy am I not surprised\u201d.<\/p>\n

Today, the IT department is very different, supporting many different kinds of devices. Back in 1966, no student would have dreamed that incredible computing power would, in their lifetime, be available in their pocket.<\/p>\n

Those first Elliott machines were rated at less than a million calculations per second, whereas these days a good gaming computer will do more than two billion! Memory sizes (measured in bytes, or near enough characters) are similar; Elliott would have 20 or 30 thousand bytes, whereas a typical gaming system probably has 100 billion. I have been lucky enough to see the whole of this progression. I think it is wonderful. Just to conclude, here is my latest \u2018desktop\u2019 computer, with a banana for scale.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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