101-516: International Computers Limited ( ICL ) was a British computer hardware , computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. It was formed through a merger of International Computers and Tabulators (ICT), English Electric Computers (EEC) and Elliott Automation in 1968. The company's most successful product line was the ICL 2900 Series range of mainframe computers. In later years, ICL diversified its product line but
202-555: A magnetic drum as an intermediate random access device. The machine went on to have some success and sold in small numbers in Canada ( Saskatchewan Power Corporation retired serial number 0004 in early 1982) and the United States. In 1964, ICT purchased the computer division of Ferranti in another government-forced merger. Ferranti had been building a small number of scientific machines based on various university designs since
303-432: A monitor , mouse , keyboard , and speakers . By contrast, software is a set of written instructions that can be stored and run by hardware. Hardware derived its name from the fact it is hard or rigid with respect to changes, whereas software is soft because it is easy to change. Hardware is typically directed by the software to execute any command or instruction . A combination of hardware and software forms
404-410: A 24-bit word, divided up into 6-bit characters. Lower case and control characters were provided for by "shift" characters. The early machines (1904/1905 with hardware floating point) had only 15-bit addressing. Later machines (1904E, 1905E, 1906A) had extended addressing modes, up to 22 bits. The operating systems (Executives) were A later development was GEORGE3 , remembered with great affection by
505-458: A GPU integrated into the motherboard. Most computers also have an external data bus to connect peripheral devices to the motherboard. Most commonly, Universal Serial Bus (USB) is used. Unlike the internal bus, the external bus is connected using a bus controller that allows the peripheral system to operate at a different speed from the CPU. Input and output devices are used to receive data from
606-485: A centralized memory that stored both data and programs, a central processing unit (CPU) with priority of access to the memory, and input and output (I/O) units . Von Neumann used a single bus to transfer data, meaning that his solution to the storage problem by locating programs and data adjacent to each other created the Von Neumann bottleneck when the system tries to fetch both at the same time—often throttling
707-590: A commensurate increase in energy use and cooling demand. The personal computer is one of the most common types of computer due to its versatility and relatively low price. Virtual hardware is software that mimics the function of hardware; it is commonly used in infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and platform as a Service (PaaS). Embedded systems have the most variation in their processing power and cost: from an 8-bit processor that could cost less than USD $ 0.10, to higher-end processors capable of billions of operations per second and costing over USD$ 100. Cost
808-413: A cord, light or takes some kind of battery. Some companies, such as Dell and Apple , will recycle computers of their make or any other make. Otherwise, a computer can be donated to Computer Aid International which is an organization that recycles and refurbishes old computers for hospitals, schools, universities, etc. SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation , operating as SaskPower ,
909-528: A detailed personal interest in every aspect of VME/K design. To quote historian Martin Campbell-Kelly, "Mack had a good deal more autonomy than was good for the company." Not only was too much resource going into VME/K at the expense of the VME/B system that ICL's biggest customers were actually using, but the development of mainframe systems was also diverting expenditure from small business systems such as
1010-661: A generation of British programmers. A series of smaller machines were developed by the ICL Stevenage operation, consisting initially of the 1901 / 1902 / 1903 systems running E3 series executives (e.g. E3RM) and versions of the GEORGE operating system (initially GEORGE1). Later developments were the 1901A / 1902A / 1903A with their own Executives and GEORGE2. At a time (in the 1960s and 1970s) when IBM/360 series programs had to be recompiled to run in different machine and/or operating system environments, one significant feature of
1111-561: A nationwide carbon tax that made it more-expensive for SaskPower to operate both coal and natural gas plants in comparison to hydro, wind, and solar facilities. The federal coal regulations mentioned above would have meant that Boundary Dam units 4 and 5 would need to close at the end of 2019. However, in 2019 the Moe government was able to negotiate an equivalency agreement with the Trudeau government that allowed Boundary Dam unit 4 to run until
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#17327870100911212-506: A pioneering effort (although some utilities in the USA had been using such a system on its rural lines). It was at the time one of the largest such systems in the world. One of the last cities in the province added to SaskPower's system was North Portal in 1971 (which had been served up to this point from Montana-Dakota Utilities' distribution system in Portal, ND just across the border). SaskPower
1313-423: A province-wide electrical grid. The final step in creating a truly province-wide grid was to electrify the province's vast rural areas. The primary hurdle to rural electrification was the very low customer density in the province – approximately one farm customer per network mile (1.6 km) – and the extremely high cost of a network of the scale required by the vast distances between customers. After much study,
1414-412: A province-wide grid. It was also responsible under The Rural Electrification Act (1949) for the electrification of the province's rural areas, bringing electricity to over 66,000 farms between 1949 and 1966. To manage the high costs of electrifying the province's sparsely populated rural areas, SaskPower used a large-scale implementation of a single wire ground return distribution system, claimed to be
1515-533: A purpose-built factory at Ashton-under-Lyne .Ashton under-Lyne's team was noted for working on numerous mechanical innovations in the field of computer engineering. A state of the art printed circuit board plant was built in Plymouth Grove, Manchester in 1979, however financial troubles within the company forced its closure in 1981. Other offices included a facility at Bridgford House in Nottingham which
1616-425: A total generating capacity of 5,437 megawatts (MW) from 31 generating facilities, including three coal-fired power stations , ten natural gas stations , seven hydroelectric stations , eight wind power facilities and three solar facilities. Of these 31 facilities, 12 of them are operated by Independent Power Producers who sell electricity to SaskPower through a Power Purchase Agreement. The Chinook Power Station
1717-421: A usable computing system, although other systems exist with only hardware. Early computing devices were more complicated than the ancient abacus date to the seventeenth century. French mathematician Blaise Pascal designed a gear-based device that could add and subtract, selling around 50 models. The stepped reckoner was invented by Gottfried Leibniz by 1676, which could also divide and multiply. Due to
1818-400: A variety of plastics that are present in bulk in computers or other electronics can reduce the costs of constructing new systems. Components frequently contain copper , gold , tantalum , silver , platinum , palladium , and lead as well as other valuable materials suitable for reclamation. The central processing unit contains many toxic materials. It contains lead and chromium in
1919-444: A very similar commodity . Profit margins have also been reduced. Even when the performance is not increasing, the cost of components has been dropping over time due to improved manufacturing techniques that have fewer components rejected at quality assurance stage. The most common instruction set architecture (ISA)—the interface between a computer's hardware and software—is based on the one devised by von Neumann in 1945. Despite
2020-438: Is a 350MW combined-cycle natural gas power station near Swift Current that has come online in 2019. The Boundary Dam Power Station is a coal-fired station, the number 3 boiler of which was chosen for renewal as a carbon capture and storage facility . The SaskPower transmission system utilizes lines carrying 230,000 volts, 138,000 volts and 72,000 volts. There are 59 switching stations and 200 distribution stations on
2121-495: Is a growing movement to recycle old and outdated parts. Computer hardware contain dangerous chemicals such as lead, mercury, nickel, and cadmium. According to the EPA these e-wastes have a harmful effect on the environment unless they are disposed of properly. Making hardware requires energy, and recycling parts will reduce air pollution , water pollution, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Disposing unauthorized computer equipment
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#17327870100912222-427: Is a particular concern with these systems, with designers often choosing the cheapest option that satisfies the performance requirements. A computer case encloses most of the components of a desktop computer system. It provides mechanical support and protection for internal elements such as the motherboard, disk drives, and power supply, and controls and directs the flow of cooling air over internal components. The case
2323-466: Is also exploring additional low- and non-GHG emitting supply options including Saskatchewan hydro, and new technologies like CCS on natural gas and nuclear power from small modular reactors (SMR). The government of Canada’s proposed Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) would require SaskPower to reduce its GHG emissions to net zero by 2035. CER will impact 2,900 MW of baseload and dispatchable generation capacity. It’s expected this would significantly hinder
2424-601: Is also on track to achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 or earlier. In 2012, the Harper government introduced regulations to start phasing out coal-fired power plants in Canada. These regulations set an emissions limit for coal-fired generating units of 420 tonnes of CO 2 per GWh. The limit was to be imposed in 2015 on all new coal units, and would also apply to units built before 1975 starting in 2020, and to units built before 1986 starting in 2030, and would also apply to all units once they reach 50 years of age regardless of
2525-464: Is also part of the system to control electromagnetic interference radiated by the computer and protects internal parts from electrostatic discharge. Large tower cases provide space for multiple disk drives or other peripherals and usually stand on the floor, while desktop cases provide less expansion room. All-in-one style designs include a video display built into the same case. Portable and laptop computers require cases that provide impact protection for
2626-484: Is either true or false. Boolean algebra is now the basis of the circuits that model the transistors and other components of integrated circuits that make up modern computer hardware. In 1945, Turing finished the design for a computer (the Automatic Computing Engine ) that was never built. Around this time, technological advancement in relays and vacuum tubes enabled the construction of
2727-527: Is in fact illegal. Legislation makes it mandatory to recycle computers through the government approved facilities. Recycling a computer can be made easier by taking out certain reusable parts. For example, the RAM , DVD drive, the graphics card , hard drive or SSD , and other similar removable parts can be reused. Many materials used in computer hardware can be recovered by recycling for use in future production. Reuse of tin , silicon , iron , aluminum , and
2828-434: Is surrounded by cooling fluid) and direct-to-chip (where the cooling fluid is directed to each computer chip) can be more expensive but are also more efficient. Most computers are designed to be more powerful than their cooling system, but their sustained operations cannot exceed the capacity of the cooling system. While performance can be temporarily increased when the computer is not hot ( overclocking ), in order to protect
2929-537: Is the main component of a computer. It is a board with integrated circuitry that connects the other parts of the computer including the CPU , the RAM , the disk drives ( CD , DVD , hard disk , or any others) as well as any peripherals connected via the ports or the expansion slots . The integrated circuit (IC) chips in a computer typically contain billions of tiny metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). Components directly attached to or to part of
3030-547: Is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan , Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government , it serves more than 550,000 customers and manages nearly $ 13 billion in assets. SaskPower is a major employer in the province with over 3,100 permanent full-time staff located in approximately 70 communities. SaskPower was founded as the Saskatchewan Power Commission in 1929, becoming
3131-646: The 1900 Series of mainframes , and from English Electric Computers (EEC) the System 4 , a range of IBM System/360 -compatible mainframe clones, based on the RCA Spectra 70 . As of 1971, the United Kingdom was unusual in Europe for IBM not having more than 50% of the computer market, although an observer stated that the company constrained the size of its British subsidiary to keep ICL alive. Although still
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3232-539: The McNeill HVDC Back-to-back station . In 2022, SaskPower signed an agreement with Southwest Power Pool to increase transmission capacity between Saskatchewan and the United States. The agreement enables the import and export of up to 650 MW of power starting in 2027 . Incorporated under The Power Corporation Act (1949), SaskPower purchased the majority of the province's small, independent municipal electrical utilities and integrated them into
3333-567: The Queen's Award for Technological Achievement for the Series 39 in 1988. At the inception of New Range development, two operating systems were planned: System B for the large processors, and System D for the mid-range. System B was subsequently renamed VME/B . A third operating system, System T , was subsequently targeted at small machines. System D was dropped in order to focus efforts on VME/B and System T, renamed to VME/K (Confusingly, VME/B
3434-627: The Soviet Union , as the sale and installation of IBM computers (and other American technologies) there was politically sensitive and commercially restricted during the Cold War . The following remained with Elliott Automation and were never included in the formation of ICL: The 900 series were 18 bit binary computers. The 90x series were commercial machines. The 920x series were built to military specifications and used in military aircraft, mobile field deployed air defence systems and tanks. ICL
3535-664: The Westrex teletype as console, this was a major advance. The printers abutted to the wing and were initially integrated; they were soon replaced by the CPI shuttle printer and PBS. The printers ran at 300 or 600 lines per minute, selected by a hidden link. Computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer , such as the central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM) , motherboard , computer data storage , graphics card , sound card , and computer case . It includes external devices such as
3636-401: The operating system to map virtual memory to different areas of the finite physical memory. Computer processors generate heat, and excessive heat impacts their performance and can harm the components. Many computer chips will automatically throttle their performance to avoid overheating. Computers also typically have mechanisms for dissipating excessive heat, such as air or liquid coolers for
3737-412: The 1900 series was that programs would function unaltered on any 1900 system, without the need for recompilation. Unfortunately ICT, and later ICL, were unable to capitalise on this advantage to make significant inroads into IBM's customer base. During the same period, LEO was struggling to produce its own machines that would be able to compete with IBM. Its parent company, J. Lyons and Co. , did not have
3838-504: The 1930s and 1940s during the punched card era: British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) and Powers-Samas . ICT had thus emerged with equipment that would process data encoded on punched cards with 40, 80 or 160 columns, compared to the 64 or 80 columns used by IBM and its predecessors. In 1962, ICT delivered the first ICT 1300 series computer , its first transistor machine and also the first to use core memory . A small team from Ferranti's Canadian subsidiary, Ferranti-Packard , visited
3939-542: The 1930s and the labour shortage caused by the Second World War delayed the creation of a provincial power system for nearly two decades. By 1948, the Commission operated 35 generating stations and more than 8,800 km of transmission lines. However, most farm families who had electricity generated it themselves using battery systems charged by wind turbines or gasoline- or diesel-powered generators. Across
4040-563: The 1950s. None of these could be considered commercially successful, however, and Ferranti always seemed to be slow bringing its designs to market. Meanwhile, ICT management in England was looking to rejuvenate their line-up; their latest developments, the ones used to develop the FP 6000, were still not on the market. Management looked at the FP 6000 as well as licensing the RCA Spectra 70. In
4141-407: The 2903, whose sales were growing much more rapidly. ICL's finances deteriorated during the late 1970s, leading to the appointment of a new management team led by Robb Wilmot and Peter Bonfield . One of their first actions was to end VME/K development. This happened just at the time that VME/K had finally reached a level of performance and reliability that made it saleable; however, the customer base
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4242-979: The British Tabulating Company) and Croydon . The company had a large research, operating system and software development and support centre in Bracknell , another smaller one at Dalkeith in Scotland and a software development centre in Adelaide, South Australia, between 1970 and 1973, application development in Reading , and training centres at Moor Hall ( Cookham ), Beaumont College ( Old Windsor ) (sales, support and software) and Letchworth (Hertfordshire) (manufacturing & field engineering). The company also had manufacturing facilities in Park Road Mill, Dukinfield ; later replaced by
4343-403: The CPU and GPU and heatsinks for other components, such as the RAM . Computer cases are also often ventilated to help dissipate heat from the computer. Data centers typically use more sophisticated cooling solutions to keep the operating temperature of the entire center safe. Air-cooled systems are more common in smaller or older data centers, while liquid-cooled immersion (where each computer
4444-517: The Corporation adopted a single wire ground return distribution scheme, which lowered the cost of rural electrification significantly. The first year of the program set the goal of connecting 1200 rural customers to the network. The experience gained during the first years led to an increased rate of connections every year, leading to a peak yearly connection rate in 1956 of 7,800 customers. By 1961, 58,000 farms were connected, and by 1966 when
4545-556: The Manchester University MU5 . It ran the VME operating systems , and supported emulation of both the earlier architectures (1900 Series and System 4), either standalone (DME, Direct Machine Environment ) or concurrently with native-mode operation (CME, Concurrent Machine Environment). In the early 1980s ICL struck a deal to acquire semiconductor technology from Fujitsu, on whom they became increasingly dependent as
4646-656: The RCA Spectra 70 (the design ICT rejected). The result was the System 4 series. While there were a number of models in the range, the smaller 4/10 and 4/30 were seen as underpowered, and the more successful variants were the larger 4/50 and 4/70 models. A model 4/75 was also supplied to the EELM (later Baric) Bureau subsidiary and installed at Winsford , Cheshire as the hardware for a bureau-developed commercial system for interactive use by bureau customers. Although several multi-user commercial packages (e.g. sales and purchase ledger systems) were developed and tried with customers, this
4747-606: The Saskatchewan Power Corporation in 1949 with the passage of The Rural Electrification Act . The abbreviated name SaskPower was officially adopted as a trade name in 1987. Owned by the government through its holding company, the Crown Investments Corporation , SaskPower is governed by a Board of Directors who are accountable to the provincial government Minister Responsible for Saskatchewan Power Corporation. SaskPower has
4848-723: The UK public sector, including Post Office Ltd , the Inland Revenue , the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence . It also had a strong market share with UK local authorities and (at that time) nationalised utilities including the water, electricity, and gas boards. The company had an increasingly close relationship with Fujitsu from the early 1980s, culminating in Fujitsu becoming sole shareholder in 1998. ICL
4949-619: The United States from the Singer merger, and a variety of former Nokia Data sites in Sweden and Finland. ICL and its customers often referred to these locations by the Site Code, especially where multiple sites might exist in a town, for instance with the Putney headquarters building (now Putney Wharf Tower ) being LON11 (London 11), the training college at Beaumont being WSR01 (Windsor 01) and
5050-553: The aforementioned dates. In 2014, SaskPower rebuilt Boundary Dam unit 3 with a CCS system capable of capturing 90% of the CO 2 emissions of the unit, and 100% of the SO 2 emissions. In 2018, the Trudeau government accelerated the coal phase-out by mandating that all coal units must shut down by 2030, regardless of the year they were built. The Trudeau government also implemented
5151-548: The annual rate of improvement in hardware performance exceeded 50 percent, enabling the development of new computing devices such as tablets and mobiles. Alongside the density of transistors, DRAM memory as well as flash and magnetic disk storage also became exponentially more compact and cheaper. The rate of improvement slackened off in the twenty-first century. In the twenty-first century, increases in performance have been driven by increasing exploitation of parallelism . Applications are often parallelizable in two ways: either
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#17327870100915252-650: The atmosphere, landfill or waterways. While electronics consist a small fraction of total waste generated, they are far more dangerous. There is stringent legislation designed to enforce and encourage the sustainable disposal of appliances, the most notable being the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive of the European Union and the United States National Computer Recycling Act. E-cycling ,
5353-400: The bulk of its profits always came from its mainframe customers. New ventures included marketing a range of powerful IBM clones made by Fujitsu , various minicomputer and personal computer ranges and (more successfully) a range of retail point-of-sale equipment and back-office software. Although it had significant sales overseas, ICL's mainframe business was dominated by large contracts from
5454-404: The century – from 91,279 to 757,510 within 20 years – had led to a sharp increase in the demand for electricity. Finally, the provincial government had determined that the lack of inexpensive power was hampering the development of industry in the province. While the Commission began purchasing independently owned electrical utilities with the goal of interconnecting them, the economic situation of
5555-443: The design of the CPU, memory, and memory interconnect . Memory hierarchy ensures that the memory quicker to access (and more expensive) is located closer to the CPU, while slower, cheaper memory for large-volume storage is located further away. Memory is typically segregated to separate programs from data and limit an attacker's ability to alter programs. Most computers use virtual memory to simplify addressing for programs, using
5656-440: The design was incorporated into the earliest computers: punch cards for input and output, memory , an arithmetic unit analogous to central processing units , and even a primitive programming language similar to assembly language . In 1936, Alan Turing developed the universal Turing machine to model any type of computer, proving that no computer would be able to solve the decision problem . The universal Turing machine
5757-513: The directors of the corporation included: Chief Darcy Bear (Chair), Bryan Leverick (Vice-Chair), Neil Henneberg (Corporate Secretary), Terry Bergan, Amber Biemans, Shawn Grice, Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, Fred Mathewson, Rob Nicolay, Jeff Richards, Stephanie Yong and the Honourable Vaughn Solomon Schofield. By 2030, SaskPower plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over 50% compared to 2005. The corporation
5858-592: The end it was decided to go with the FP 6000 as the basis for a small line of small-to-midrange machines. The result was the ICT 1900 series , which would eventually go on to sell into the thousands. The 1900 Series, which derived from the Canadian Ferranti-Packard 6000, competed successfully in the UK with the IBM System/360 range from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. The design was based on
5959-497: The end of 2021 and Boundary Dam unit 5 until the end of 2024 due to SaskPower's investments into CCS technology on unit 3. To fill the gap in firm baseload capacity created by the retirement of conventional coal, SaskPower is relying on the new natural gas and import contracts. Additional supply options that are currently available include wind and solar, and at a smaller scale biomass, flare gas, and distributed generation options like residential solar from net metering. The corporation
6060-569: The exclusive right and the exclusive obligation to supply electricity in the province, except in the city of Swift Current and most of the city of Saskatoon . The Swift Current Department of Light and Power provides electrical services within the municipal boundary of Swift Current. Saskatoon Light & Power provides service to the customers within the 1958 boundaries of Saskatoon while SaskPower has responsibility for areas annexed after 1958. SaskPower serves more than 550,000 customers through more than 160,000 kilometres of power lines throughout
6161-631: The external world or write data respectively. Common examples include keyboards and mice (input) and displays and printers (output). Network interface controllers are used to access the Internet . USB ports also allow power to connected devices—a standard USB supplies power at 5 volts and up to 500 milliamps (2.5 watts ), while powered USB ports with additional pins may allow the delivery of more power—up to 6 amps at 24v. Global revenue from computer hardware in 2023 reached $ 705.17 billion. Because computer parts contain hazardous materials, there
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#17327870100916262-469: The financial might to develop a new line of machines. Not wanting to see its work go to waste, it sold its computer division to English Electric . English Electric had developed a series of machines over the years, notably the famous KDF9 and the commercially oriented KDF8 , but never had much commercial success. Now with serious financial backing at its disposal, the new company nevertheless decided not to come up with its own design, and instead licensed
6363-608: The first computers. Building on Babbage's design, relay computers were built by George Stibitz at Bell Laboratories and Harvard University 's Howard Aiken , who engineered the MARK I . Also in 1945, mathematician John von Neumann —working on the ENIAC project at the University of Pennsylvania —devised the underlying von Neumann architecture that has served as the template for most modern computers. Von Neumann's design featured
6464-461: The hardware from excessive heat, the system will automatically reduce performance or shut down the processor if necessary. Processors also will shut off or enter a low power mode when inactive to reduce heat. Power delivery as well as heat dissipation are the most challenging aspects of hardware design, and have been the limiting factor to the development of smaller and faster chips since the early twenty-first century. Increases in performance require
6565-456: The largest European computer company, in 1971 ICL had a poor reputation. When the companies were first merged the EEC order books were full, while ICT (which had twice as many employees) was struggling, perhaps because it was already obvious that the 1900 series was incompatible with the rest of the industry, with an architecture based on a 24-bit word and 6-bit character rather than the 8-bit byte that
6666-516: The latter a recent merger of Elliott Automation with English Electric Leo Marconi computers, which itself had been a merger of the computer divisions of English Electric , LEO and Marconi . Upon its creation, the British government held a 10% stake in the company and provided a $ 32.4 million research-and-development grant spread across four years. ICT was itself the result of a merger of two UK companies that had competed with each other throughout
6767-413: The limitations of contemporary fabrication and design flaws, Leibniz' reckoner was not very functional, but similar devices ( Leibniz wheel ) remained in use into the 1970s. In the 19th century, Englishman Charles Babbage invented the difference engine , a mechanical device to calculate polynomials for astronomical purposes. Babbage also designed a general-purpose computer that was never built. Much of
6868-525: The lungs, liver, and kidneys. Computer components contain many toxic substances, like dioxins , polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), cadmium , chromium , radioactive isotopes and mercury . Circuit boards contain considerable quantities of lead-tin solders that are more likely to leach into groundwater or create air pollution due to incineration. Recycling of computer hardware is considered environmentally friendly because it prevents hazardous waste , including heavy metals and carcinogens, from entering
6969-506: The metal plates. Resistors, semiconductors, infrared detectors, stabilizers, cables, and wires contain cadmium. The circuit boards in a computer contain mercury, and chromium. When these types of materials, and chemicals are disposed improperly will become hazardous for the environment. When e-waste byproducts leach into groundwater, are burned, or get mishandled during recycling, it causes harm. Health problems associated with such toxins include impaired mental development, cancer, and damage to
7070-443: The motherboard include: An expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard or backplane to add functionality to a computer system via the expansion bus. Expansion cards can be used to obtain or expand on features not offered by the motherboard. Using expansion cards for a video processor used to be common, but modern computers are more likely to instead have
7171-509: The number of instructions the machines need to use. Based on a recognition that only a few instructions are commonly used, RISC shrinks the instruction set for added simplicity, which also enables the inclusion of more registers . After the invention of RISC in the 1980s, RISC based architectures that used pipelining and caching to increase performance displaced CISC architectures, particularly in applications with restrictions on power usage or space (such as mobile phones ). From 1986 to 2003,
7272-500: The program concluded, the Corporation had provided power to a total of 66,000 rural customers. In addition, hundreds of schools, churches and community halls received electrical service during this period. SaskPower is governed by a board of directors that is responsible to the Minister Responsible for Saskatchewan Power Corporation. The board gets appointed by the lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan. In February 2024,
7373-431: The province and covers a service territory that includes Saskatchewan's geographic area of approximately 652,000 km (252,000 sq mi). This low customer density means that while most North American electrical utilities supply an average of 12 customers per circuit kilometre, SaskPower supplies about three. In fiscal year 2022-23, SaskPower sold 23,818 GWh of electricity for $ 2,844 million (CAD). SaskPower has
7474-507: The province, only 1,500 farms were connected to the electrical grid, most of them because of their proximity to the lines that linked cities and larger towns. In 1949, by an Act of the Provincial Legislature, the Commission became the Saskatchewan Power Corporation. The first task of the new Corporation was to purchase what remained of the province's small, independent electrical utilities and to begin integrating them into
7575-552: The recycling of computer hardware, refers to the donation, reuse, shredding and general collection of used electronics. Generically, the term refers to the process of collecting, brokering, disassembling, repairing and recycling the components or metals contained in used or discarded electronic equipment, otherwise known as electronic waste (e-waste). E-cyclable items include, but are not limited to: televisions, computers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners, telephones and cellular phones, stereos, and VCRs and DVDs just about anything that has
7676-440: The requirements. Even before the merger that created ICL was complete, a working party had recommended that the new company should develop a new range of machines offering "acceptable compatibility with the current ranges of both companies". This was also seen as a way to help "achieve company unity" for the newly formed organization. The resulting 2900 Series was launched on 9 October 1974. Its design drew on many sources, one being
7777-469: The rest of the marketplace. ICL initially thrived, but relied almost wholly on supplying the UK public sector with computers. The 1900s were sold in several countries worldwide, but the largest slice of the market was always in the UK, and the largest part of that in government, local authorities, and nationalised industries. Until the 1970s launch of the 2900 Series , the UK government had a single-tender preferential purchase agreement wherever ICL could meet
7878-417: The same essential architecture as 2900 series, but was a dramatic step forward in hardware technology. It was the first commercial mainframe to exploit optical fibres for central interconnect, and also introduced a multi-CPU (multinode) architecture transparent to the applications. The series included: The training video for the Series 39 featured the comedy duo Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry . ICL received
7979-646: The same function is running across multiple areas of data ( data parallelism ) or different tasks can be performed simultaneously with limited interaction ( task parallelism ). These forms of parallelism are accommodated by various hardware strategies, including instruction-level parallelism (such as instruction pipelining ), vector architectures and graphical processing units (GPUs) that are able to implement data parallelism, thread-level parallelism and request-level parallelism (both implementing task-level parallelism). Microarchitecture , also known as computer organization, refers to high-level hardware questions such as
8080-454: The separation of the computing unit and the I/O system in many diagrams, typically the hardware is shared, with a bit in the computing unit indicating whether it is in computation or I/O mode. Common types of ISAs include CISC ( complex instruction set computer ), RISC ( reduced instruction set computer ), vector operations , and hybrid modes. CISC involves using a larger expression set to minimize
8181-512: The southern System Support Centre (SCC) at Bracknell, Berkshire being BRA01 (Bracknell 01). BRA05 was the new headquarters of ICL (UK) Ltd, the company's UK sales and customer service division which moved from its original base at Putney Bridge House (LON13) in Fulham, London to a new building in Bracknell in the late 1980s. On its formation, the company inherited two main product lines: from ICT
8282-445: The system's performance. Computer architecture requires prioritizing between different goals, such as cost, speed, availability, and energy efficiency. The designer must have a good grasp of the hardware requirements and many different aspects of computing, from compilers to integrated circuit design. Cost has also become a significant constraint for manufacturers seeking to sell their products for less money than competitors offering
8383-468: The term superstructure to refer to the compilers, data management tools, and transaction processing software sitting above the operating system but below the user application – a category now often labelled middleware . The 2903 range was a rapid development to produce a small business computer to replace the 1901A. As far as possible it was developed from existing hardware and software, but configured for an office environment without underfloor cabling. It
8484-399: The transmission system. SaskPower has four interconnections to Manitoba , one interconnection to North Dakota , and one interconnection to Alberta . Manitoba and North Dakota are on the same grid frequency as Saskatchewan, which means interconnections can be made directly using a normal AC transmission line. Alberta is part of WECC , so the interconnection relies on an AC/DC-AC link via
8585-449: The unit. Hobbyists may decorate the cases with colored lights, paint, or other features, in an activity called case modding . Most personal computer power supply units meet the ATX standard and convert from alternating current (AC) at between 120 and 277 volts provided from a power outlet to direct current (DC) at a much lower voltage: typically 12, 5, or 3.3 volts. The motherboard
8686-526: The various Ferranti computer labs and saw their work on a next-generation machine. On their return home they quickly produced the Ferranti-Packard 6000 , developing the machine, compilers and an operating system (before these were common) and putting it on the market by 1963. A feature of the Executive operating system was its ability to multitask , using dynamic memory allocation enabled with
8787-501: The years progressed. The term "New Range" was used during development for the product line that was eventually launched as the 2900 Series , the operating system being known initially as VME/B and later simply as VME . Models included: These ran the VME and DME (emulation) operating systems, and were available in both single and multi-processor configurations, the later being known as Duals and SuperDuals (2966 and 2988 only). The company also developed: Series 39 followed
8888-462: Was David Pearson (computer scientist). VME/K development continued independently for several reasons. Early VME/B customers suffered significant performance and reliability problems, and the existence of an alternative product provided a safety net. Perhaps more significantly, VME/K was the brainchild of Ed Mack, who had been brought in by managing director Geoff Cross as ICL's head of research and development. Despite his wide responsibilities, Mack took
8989-451: Was a type of stored-program computer capable of mimicking the operations of any Turing machine (computer model) based on the software instructions passed to it. The storage of computer programs is key to the operation of modern computers and is the connection between computer hardware and software. Even prior to this, in the mid-19th century mathematician George Boole invented Boolean algebra —a system of logic where each proposition
9090-471: Was an initiative of Tony Benn , the Minister of Technology, to create a British computer industry that could compete with major world manufacturers like IBM ; the formation of the company was the last in a series of mergers that had taken place in the industry since the late 1950s. The main portions of ICL were formed by merging International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) with English Electric Computers,
9191-530: Was becoming the industry norm. The new board decided that the 1900 should be phased out in favour of the System 4, but shortly afterwards reversed their decision. It is probable that this was due to union and political pressure from the Wilson government. In any event, most of the original EEC board resigned over the interference as they believed that the 1900 series was doomed from the outset, being incompatible with
9292-811: Was concentrated in the United Kingdom, with its corporate headquarters in Putney in the London borough of Wandsworth. At the time of the original merger, the company inherited extensive engineering and manufacturing facilities in West Gorton , Manchester; Castlereagh in Belfast , Stevenage and Croydon from ICT, and from English Electric in Kidsgrove , Staffordshire and Winsford , Cheshire. Manufacture and assembly also took place at several factories in Letchworth Garden City (the original home of
9393-438: Was developed in Kidsgrove , VME/K in Bracknell .) The first large machines (the 2980 and 2970) were launched with VME/B. VME/K first saw service on the 2960. The chief architect of VME/B was Brian Warboys , who subsequently became professor of software engineering at the University of Manchester . VME/B was developed using the pioneering software engineering system CADES as the development environment. The architect of CADES
9494-496: Was founded by an Act of the provincial legislature as the Saskatchewan Power Commission in 1929. The purpose of the Commission was to research how best to create a provincial power system which would provide the province's residents with safe, reliable electric service. A provincial power system was desirable for many reasons. In the early days of electricity in the province of Saskatchewan, electricity
9595-405: Was largely unavailable outside of larger centres. Most electrical utilities were owned either privately or by municipalities, and none of them were interconnected. Because each utility operated independently, rates often varied significantly between communities – anywhere from 4 to 45 cents per kilowatt hour in the mid-1920s. The rapid growth in the province's population in the first decades of
9696-452: Was not commercially successful, and the service was soon withdrawn. The System 4 series ran the J (for Job) operating system. This was a batch operating system, although there was a variant that allowed interactive access called MultiJob. Under a framework called Driver, J was a successful operating environment for high volume commercial real time systems. Programming languages used were assembler and COBOL and Fortran (an Algol 60 compiler
9797-549: Was provided but not used much, if at all). The system was controlled from a console composed of a mechanical printer and keyboard – very like a Teletype. The assembly language (known as Usercode) non-privileged instruction set was identical to IBM System 360 Assembly Language; in privileged mode there were a few extras. System 4's compatibility with the IBM 360 made it particularly attractive to customers in Eastern Europe and
9898-707: Was rebranded as Fujitsu in April 2002. Fujitsu (UK) as the hardware and software supplier has been implicated in the British Post Office scandal , which has extended from the 1990s to the 2020s The ICL brand is still used by the former Russian joint-venture of the company, founded in 1991. International Computers Limited was formed in 1968 as a part of the Industrial Expansion Act of the Wilson Labour Government. ICL
9999-492: Was the headquarters of Rushcliffe Borough Council, but has since been converted into apartments. For some years ICL maintained a training and presentation facility for senior management at Hedsor House , near Taplow , Berkshire. Outside the UK, ICL's offices around the world were mainly sales and marketing operations, with some application development for the local market. The exceptions were development and manufacturing sites arising from acquisitions, such as Utica, New York in
10100-475: Was urgently needed to generate a cashflow that would support continuing 2900 development. The hardware was based on the 2900 DFC (Disk File Controller), and used the MICOS engine. The 2903/4 system cabinet housed the MICOS engine, Drico FEDS disk storage and a punched card reader. A wing attached at 45 degrees carried the operator's console which was a visual display unit ( VDU ): for 1900 users who were accustomed to
10201-506: Was very small, and by this time VME/B (which was renamed VME 2900) had also matured sufficiently to give confidence that it would meet the future requirements for the entire mainframe range. VME 2900 subsequently became simply VME and then Open VME , and continued to evolve. In 1980 it was marketed as "Your system for the 80s", and indeed that decade proved to be its heyday. It continued to give service to many loyal and demanding users, but has attracted few new users since 1990 or so. ICL used
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