Mini and Microcomputer Use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Past, Present and Future

摘要

In early 1981, the Electronics Engineering Department Head initiated a study of mini and microcomputer use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The purpose of this study was to establish a firm foundation for making certain management decisions about computer acquisition. The report describes the methodology, presents the results of the study, and makes some observations and interpretations of the data. The report indicates that LLNL has been and will continue to be an enthusiastic user of DEC equipment. DEC is likely to supply well over half, but certainly not all, of the minicomputers that LLNL's programs will require. The economy of scale achieved by using a large number of one vendor's products has resulted in an impressive savings in time and dollars. It has provided our programs with a highly trained, mobile staff of engineers who can apply their previously-gained software and hardware knowledge to current tasks. The data do not indicate any danger of becoming dependent on a single vendor.