Olympia Multiplex 80
Olympia Multiplex 80 was a computer-controlled data acquisition system from the Olympiawerke in Wilhelmshaven , the market leader in the 1970s.
history
Olympia Multiplex 80 is an exemplary application of the PDP-8 mini computer systems from DEC in the history of technology . It was a "key to tape" data acquisition system like Maestro I from Softlab just a few years later, in the mid-1970s .
DEC PDPs were relatively inexpensive (the PDP-8 was available for less than US $ 20,000) and were quickly used in universities and as process computers, for example in the computerization of AT & T's American telephone network .
The central processing unit of Multiplex 80 was controlled by one or two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers. About 20 recording stations were connected to the central unit in multiplex mode.
The control software of Multiplex 80 was written in PDP assembler by Norbert Dumke, the logic modules and hardware control by Gerd Müller. The application and sales concept for the banking and savings bank sector was by Kurt Günther and Klaus Hanken.
The inauguration of Hall 1 of the Hanover Fair CeBIT 1970 - "Center for Office and Information Technology" was a high point in the company's history for the Olympiawerke. By the end of the 1950s, the office industry had advanced to third place among the branches of industry exhibiting at the Hanover Fair. In 1970 Olympia was the largest exhibitor in the new CeBIT hall and presented Multiplex 80.
The first installation of Multiplex 80 was successfully completed in the summer of 1969 at Deutsche Bank Hamburg. This was followed by installations at several major banks and savings banks in Hanover, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Munich, Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris.
In early 1972 the direct transfer was without going through magnetic tapes, first at Siemens - mainframe computers developed.
Data acquisition systems Multiplex 80 with a total value of more than 10 million marks were installed in the Federal Republic of Germany by 1976. Commercial applications predominated in this "two-pronged" system: Olympia took over direct sales for the banking and savings bank sector, and Multiplex 80 was offered by Kabel- und Metallwerke Gutehoffnungshütte AG (Kabelmetal) for the acquisition of operating data .
In the 1960s, due to the lack of other procurement options, Kabelmetal developed a DE system with decentralized acquisition and centralized recording of data for its own production facilities and then began to sell these systems to others.
Historical pictures
Central unit with data acquisition stations
Installation in Vienna in 1971
Central unit with two PDP-8 mini computers
hardware
The central processing unit of the Multiplex 80 was controlled by DEC PDP-8 minicomputers with 4 or 8 KB main memory.
The recorded data was written to tape in blocks, then transferred offline to a mainframe using IBM-compatible magnetic tapes . The tape was recorded with 9 tracks of 800 CPI, NRZI or 1600 CPI PE (phase encoding).
- ANSI INCITS (R2003) Magnetic Tape for Information Interchange (9-Track, 800 CPI, NRZI; 1600 CPI, PE; and 6250 CPI, GCR)
- DEC PDP-8 detailed description: PDP-8
software
- Olympia Multiplex 80 software
Documentation of test software for the magnetic tape control (Norbert Dumke)
PDP-8 assembler code (Norbert Dumke) magnetic tape control
Planning a check routine 1971: Current account value date - flowchart (Tamas Szabo)
See also
- History of technology in computer science 1970s Maestro I.
- Beginnings of the software crisis
- Edsger W. Dijkstra
Individual evidence
- ↑ Question about the addition: see discussion page Discussion: Olympia Multiplex 80
- ↑ Kabelmetal sold DE systems for 10 million marks. (No longer available online.) Computerwoche , March 19, 1976, archived from the original on September 29, 2007 ; Retrieved January 25, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
