CERN/FC/1511 Original: English CERN LIBRARIES, GENEVA CONFIDENTIAL 23 November, 1972
CM-P00088149
ORGANISATION EUROPÉENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLÉAIRE CERN EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Hundred-and-twenty-third Meeting
Geneva - 19 December, 1972
ADJUDICATION CONCERNING THE COMPUTER SYSTEM
FOR THE 300 GeV ACCELERATOR
This adjudication concerns the computers for the control system of the 300 GeV Accelerator.
Requests for tenders for this equipment were sent to eighteen firms in the CERN Member States and to three firms in the USA on 21 August 1972. Thirteen offers were received by CERN by the closing date, 13 October 1972.
The Finance Committee is invited to agree that a contract be negotiated with A/S Norsk Data Electronikk for the manufacture, delivery and commissioning of twenty-four computers and peripheral equipment, and of those options that CERN decides to exercise, based on their offer to CERN for a fixed cost not exceeding 5 000 000 Swiss francs.
72/256/5/e CERN/FC/1511
ADJUDICATION CONCERNING THE COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR THE 300 GeV ACCELERATOR
Introduction
1. The adjudication, referred to under item II-18 of document CERN/FC/1424, concerns the supply of computers and peripheral equipment for the control system of the 300 GeV accelerator.
2. Due to the large size of the accelerator, and the complicated control problems resulting, it is necessary to have a system made up of a number of small computers distributed in the various auxiliary buildings, together with either one medium-sized computer or several smaller computers at the central control area. CERN expressed a preference for the latter arrangement.
3. In May 1972, a preliminary enquiry for the complete system, including the data transfer, was sent out to 88 firms in 12 countries. Replies to the questionnaire were requested by the end of June 1972 and the response to this enquiry is shown in Table I. Of the 29 firms returning the questionnaire, 21 suggested systems using multiple small computers for the central control, three suggested systems using a single central computer, and the remaining five offered design services or data links.
4. An analysis of the replies confirmed the advantages of using multiple small computers for the central control, and it also showed that very few of the firms offering computers gave any detailed solution for the problems of the data transfer system. On the other hand, there were firms that were only interested in the data transfer. Therefore it was decided to split the system, and issue separate invitations to tender for the computers and for the data transfer system. This adjudication concerns the computers and peripheral equipment only.
Invitation to tender
5. The invitation to tender for 24 computers and peripheral equipment, together with some optional equipment, was sent on 21 August 1972 to 18 firms in seven Member States, and to 3 firms in the USA, chosen as a result of the response to the preliminary enquiry (see letter to members of the Finance Committee, reference: LAB.II-DI/CP/RF-35.22, dated 23.8.1972). The closing date for offers was 13 October 1972. CERN/FC/1511 Page 2
6. The options included some additional core-store and peripheral equipment which is likely to be required when the system is fully developed, and also the controllers for driving the CAMAC interface system. The controllers were included as an option since in some cases they are available from the computer manufacturer and in others from specialist firms.
7. The tenders were opened on 18 October with the following results :
- 13 firms had submitted a tender; - 8 firms had declined.
The names of these firms are given in Table II.
Analysis of the offers
8. The list of firms which have submitted an offer and the prices at tender opening are given in Table III. Despite the request for an inclusive net price, in many cases the total given on the tender form does not take into account discounts offered, or include such items as carriage, supervision of installation, commissioning, etc., which are priced separately. There were also some arithmetical errors. These have been taken into account and the cost of the standard and special software offered has been included in the total prices given in the second column of Table III.
9. Technical discussions have been held with all the firms submitting tenders, either before or after the tenders were received, and most of the firms have been visited and given the opportunity to demonstrate the equipment offered.
10. None of the offers fulfilled every requirement of the specification, and the number of major and minor departures from this are given in Table III. A minor departure is one that would not seriously interfere with the use of the equipment for the purpose required, and thus could be acceptable to CERN.
11. Particular attention has been given to those firms making the four lowest offers to ensure that they have understood fully all the requirements of the specification and to explore areas where there was some doubt as to whether the equipment of fered met the requirements. The number of major discrepancies in these four cases are summarized below, and details are given in the Appendix. CERN/FC/1511 Page 3
Major departures from Firm Computer specification Hardware Software Norsk Data NORD-10 0 1 C.I.I. Mitra 15 6 6 Data General Nova 820 7 6 Philips P860 7 9
12. In the particular conditions applicable to the tender, it was stated that if the equipment offered did not meet the requirements of the specification and if it seemed possible, within the time scale required, to commission additional work to make it meet the require- ments , the estimated cost of doing so would be added to the bid price for the evaluation.
13. In the case of Norsk Data, there are no major hardware departures. For the other three offers, most of the hardware departures are a result of the achitecture of the computers, and so do not lend themselves to correction by a customer or his agent. The major software departure in the case of Norsk Data is the absence of an interpreter. It is estimated that it would take three man- months to change the BASIC compiler into an interpreter, and if this was done by a specialist firm, it would cost about 30 000 Swiss francs. The same could apply to one of the departures in the case of C.I.I., where a BASIC compiler is also available, and at rather higher cost in the case of Philips, where there is no BASIC at all. However, most of the other software departures given in the table above would require major modifications to the operating systems to correct, and could not be considered in the time scale required.
14. In the specification, certain preferences were expressed for additional facilities or for particular ways of satisfying the requirements. Out of a total of 12 preferences, the four offers fulfilled the following number:
Norsk Data 9 C.I.I. 4
Data General 6 Philips 4 CERN/FC/1511 Page 4
15. The technical questionnaire called for an evaluation of the times needed to perform four simple "benchmark" tests by the computers proposed. These times have been used to calculate the "time factors" given in Table IV. The smaller the time factor the faster the computer can complete the tests. The best time factor is given by the Norsk Data NORD-10 computer.
16. The offer from Norsk Data is the only one out of the four lowest that meets, or can be made to meet, the specification. As can be seen from Table III, the only other offer which has no hard- ware deficiencies is that from Digital Equipment Corporation, and that is almost 60% higher in price.
17. The computer offered by Norsk Data is the NORD-10. This is a replacement for the NORD-1, which has been in production for five years, and of which 82 examples had been installed up to July this year. The NORD-10 is a natural development of the NORD-1, taking advantage of recent advances in construction techniques, and providing some additional facilities. These include hardware floating-point arithmetic as standard, and an optional virtual memory scheme. All the software offered by Norsk Data is available now and has been demonstrated to CERN's representatives. It was developed for the NORD-1, but will run on the NORD-10 without any change whatsoever.
18. CERN is satisfied that Norsk Data has the technical and material facilities to carry out the development and production of any items not yet available for the NORD-10, within the time-scale required. The NORD-10 will be in production at the beginning of 1973, and Norsk Data have given the undertaking that, should there be any unforeseen delay in the production, they would supply CERN with equivalent NORD-1 computers temporarily without any extra cost to CERN. In addition, they have offered to supply two NORD-1 computers to CERN, on free loan, for applications program develop- ment.
19. The specification emphasized the need for reliabili- ty in the equipment for this application. Norsk Data provided failure records for 50 NORD-1 computers, from which it was possible to compute Mean Time Before Failure figures of over 10 000 hours for the CPU and over 20 000 hours for the memory. A large proportion of the installations carried out by Norsk Data up to now have been on board ships, and the computers are very robustly constructed to withstand the vibration and other adverse conditions. All the peripheral equipment offered which is not of Norsk Data manufacture is known to CERN to be of the highest quality and to have a good reputation for reliability. CERN/FC/1511 Page 5
Options
20. CERN asked for quotations for a number of additional items, reserving the right to order some or all of these options either with the main contract, or at a later time to be agreed. The prices for these options are given in Table V. It will be seen that, taking only the cases where all the items are available, the additional price for all options from Norsk Data is amongst the three lowest and these are covered by a total spread of under 6%. Assuming all options are taken up at the time of signing a contract, the total prices including all options for the firms making the four lowest bids for the basic equipment are as follows:
Philips Not all items available Data General 4 306 399 Swiss francs Norsk Data 4 851 080 Swiss francs C.I.I. 5 745 790 Swiss francs.
21. The firms were asked to give a list of recommended spare parts, with prices. In the four cases being considered, the total prices were as follows:
Philips Not quoted Data General 88 457 Swiss francs Norsk Data 90 780 Swiss francs C.I.I. 300 000 to 350 000 Swiss francs.
22 It has been stated in paragraph 16 that the offer from Norsk Data is the only one in the four lowest that meets, or can be made to meet, the specification. This situation is not changed when the optional items and spares are taken into account. Including these, the total price comes to 4 941 860 Swiss francs.
23. The price of the Norsk Data offer is fixed in Swiss francs and there is no price variation.
Recommendation
24. The Finance Committee is invited to agree that a contract be negociated with A/S Norsk Data Elektronikk for the manufacture, delivery and commissioning of 24 computers and peripheral equipment, and of those options that CERN decides to exercise, based on their offer to CERN, for a fixed cost not exceeding 5 000 000 Swiss francs. CERN/FC/1511 Page 7
TABLE I RESULT OF PRELIMINARY ENQUIRY
No Other Answered Country reply Declined reply question- Total naire
Austria 1 1 Belgium 1 1 Denmark 1 1 2 France 4 3 2 6 15 Germany 9 4 2 3 18 Italy 3 2 5 Netherlands 1 1 Norway 1 1 Sweden 1 1 Switzerland 4 1 1 6 United Kingdom 12 4 3 6 25 USA 1 1 2 8 12
TOTALS 36 14 9 29 88 CERN/FC/1511 Page 9
TABLE II
LIST OF FIRMS TO WHOM THE INVITATION TO TENDER FOR THE COMPUTERS AMD PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT WAS SENT
Country Firm Reply
Denmark Christian Rovsing* A/G Herlev Declined
France C.I.I. Louveciennes Tender Intertechnique Plaisir Tender Lebon Informatique Rueil-Malmaison Declined La Télémécanique Rueil-Malmaison Tender
Germany Heinrich Dietz Mülheim Tender AEG-Telefunken Konstanz Declined Friedr. Krupp-Atlas Bremen Declined Siemens AG Karlsruhe Tender
Italy Laben Milan Tender Pignone Sud Milan Tender Selenia Rome Declined
Netherlands Philips N.V. Apledoorn Tender
Norway Norsk Data Oslo Tender
United Computer Technology Hemel Hempstead Tender Kingdom Ferranti Ltd Wythenshaw Declined G.E.C. Borehamwood Declined Information Computer Systems Crewe Tender
U.S.A. Data General Corporation Rijswijk Tender Digital Equipment Corporation Geneva Tender Varian International Basel Declined
* Representing "Group l", a consortium which includes AEG-Telefunken, Saab Data and I.C.L. TABLE III CERN/FC/1511 PRICES AT TENDER OPENING (in Swiss francs) Page 11
Is all Prices Departures from specification proposed Delivery Ref. Firm Hardware Software software Remarks At tender Inclusive available promise ** major minor major minor opening now? 1 Philips A.G. 2 582 670 2 856 640 7 0 9 0 No As required Price subject to increase 2 S.E.N. Electronique (Data General Corp.) 2 997 293 3 063 173 7 2 6 2 No As required Fixed price SF
3 A/S Norsk Data Elektronikk 3 506 903 3 552 930 0 3 1 4 Yes As required Fixed price SF
4 Compagnie internationale pour l'Informatique 3 876 466 3 876 466 6 1 6 3 No As required Price variation
5 Information Computer Systems Ltd 3 964 588 3 935 706 1 2 5 3 No Software late Fixed price £
6 La Télémécanique 4 763 000 4 096 180 5 5 5 5 No CAMAC late Fixed price SF
7 H. Dietz Elektronik 4 281 300 4 366 300 6 2 7 1 Yes If ordered by Fixed price DM until end 30.11.72 1973
8 Intertechnique 3 355 000 4 855 000 7 3 3 1 No If ordered by Price variation after end 1.12.72 1973
9 Digital Equipment If informed Prices could rise by up to Corporation 5 469 290 5 672 100 0 3 3 1 No by 31.12.72 10%
10 Laben 2 394 432+ 5 752 776 6 5 1 0 Yes As required Fixed price to end 1974 Some hardware Siemens-Albis 1 0 0 No Price variation 11 5 609 815 5 833 015 3 & software late 12 Computer Technology S.A. 6 784 450 6 283 861 1 2 0 0 No As required Subject to change
13 Pignone Sud 6 130 000 6 610 000 3 0 2 0 Yes As required Fixed price
+ Original price quoted for eight computers instead of 24.
** Including delivery, commissioning, standard and special software and adjusted to allow for discounts. CERN/FC/1511 Page 13
TABLE IV
BENCHMARK TESTS
Firm Computer Model Time Factor
Norsk Data NORD-10 1.5
D.E.C. PDP 11/45 2.2
C.I.I. MITRA 15 2.4
Pignone Sud GE-PAC 3010 3.1
Data General NOVA 820 3.6
D.E.C. PDP 11/40 4.0
Siemens 330 4.6
Télémécanique T 1600 5.1
Computer Technology MODULAR 1 5.8
Laben LABEN 70 6.4
I.C.S. MULTUM 10.7
Intertechnique MULTI-20 11.6
Dietz MINCAL 621 23.7*
Philips P 860 No figures supplied
*Resulting from absence of hardware integer arithmetic.
The time factor is the sum of four numbers obtained by dividing the time given by the manufacturer for each test by the average time of all the computers for that test (leaving out obvious anomalies). TABLE V CERN/FC/1511 Page 15 PRICES OP OPTIONAL ITEMS (in Swiss francs)
Additional Additional Hardware CAMAC Visual Cassette Subsidiary Silent core store fixed-head f.p. crate display tape units console line Ref. Firm Totals 12 x 8K discs arithmetic controllers units 5 max. computer printer 6 max. 4 max. 55 max. 17 max. 1 only 1 only
not not not not 1 Philips 236 390 338 340 54 504 55 572 684.806 available available quoted available S.E.N. (Data 2 General) 191 556 189 144 106 144 330 000 244 067 79 835 56 475 46 000 1 243 221
3 Norsk Data 202 320 272 100 standard 313 500 276 760 93 000 76 520 63 950 1 298 150
not C.I.I. 426 086 33 288 896 610 175 428 89 461 19 640 1 886 844* 4 246 331 available
5 I.C.S. 170 252 242 748 13 645 302 610 267 974 23 198 71 902 129 297 1 226 626
6 Télémécanique 312 696 212 798 37 840 279 070 189 037 47 300 118 766 98 900 1 296 407
included in Dietz 220 500 126 000 104 900 77 200 7 283 050 53 760 computers 440 045 1 305 455
8 Intertechnique 300 000 276 000 44 000 412 500 255 000 110 000 63 000 32 000 1 542 500
not D.E.C. 239 320 176 400 82 900 82 475 113 160 1 638 495 9 664 400 229 840 available
not not 10 Laben 399 720 329 532 1 085 535 356 660 137 312 54 425 2 363 184 available available
11 Siemens 321 000 517 800 69 040 474 650 660 195 287 650 126 135 217 000 2 673 470
not not 12 C.T.L. 404 760 333 360 1 332 650 274 550 88 350 168 630 2 602 300 available quoted
13 Pignone Sud 471 600 296 400 standard 998 250 444 550 65 000 148 350 01 900 2 506 0 50
* Prices applicable only if all items ordered at time of main contract. CERN/FC/1511 APPENDIX
MAJOR DEPARTURES FROM SPECIFICATION FOR THE FOUR LOWEST OFFERS
Very detailed consideration was given to the computer hard- ware and software offered by the firms submitting the four lowest offers. Technical information was taken from the tender documents, from the literature supplied before or with the tender and from technical discussions with the firms. The departures from specification noted below have been confirmed from at least two of these sources. In some cases, a number of shortcomings, which individually could be classed as minor, combine in such a way as to form a major departure. The minor departures shown in Table III are in addition to these.
1. Norsk Data - NORD-10
Hardware
None.
Software
No interpreter. Norsk Data have implemented the language BASIC in the form of an incremental compiler rather than an inter- preter. However, BASIC is integrated into the operating system and relatively little work is required to turn the compiler into an interpreter.
2. C.I.I. - Mitra 15
Hardware
(a) Maximum core memory is 32K words. The specification calls for all Midi-computers to be capable of expansion to a least 64K words. In the case of the service computer, which- requires to have 64K when delivered, C.I.I, propose to supply two processors coupled together. The software to make them behave as one machine to the operating system does not exist, but C.I.I, estimate that this would take six man-months to write. No specification was given for this software, nor was the cost included in the total.
(b) Insufficient number of registers in the CPU. The specification calls for four, including two index registers. The Mitra has three, including one index register. CERN/FC/1511 APPENDIX Page 2
(c) Inadequate addressing facilities. The points in which it fails to meet the specification are: no auto-indexing, unable to address more than 32K words, immediate field of only 128 words, no stack handling.
(d) Insufficient number of DMA channels. Six are required, but in the Mitra only three are available to the user.
(e) No semiconductor memory is available, as required.
(f) No cassette or other simple magnetic tape units are available, as required.
Software
(a) The Assembler is a single pass program, which handles only a single input stream, has no macro-definition facilities and disc input/output is via a "special System file" only.
(b) The Editor has rectricted input/output, no character string search facilities, no display or listing output, and no access to characters within a line.
(c) The Linker program is inadequate, and even the proposed new version will not satisfy the input/output requirements. It will work via a special System file only.
(d) No interpreter. C.I.I. have implemented BASIC in the form of an incremental compiler rather than an interpreter. This is not integrated into the System and has severe restrictions.
(e) The FORTRAN compiler produces object code incompatible with that from the Assembler.
(f) The file manager does not handle user named files or allow concatenation, as required.
3. Data General - Nova 820
Hardware
(a) There are no "freely available" hardware index registers - those so-called (AC2 and AC3) are part of the addressing structure and are also used for subroutine calls. There are no software index registers. The specification calls for at least four index registers to be freely available simultaneously to the programmer, including the two hardware registers. CERN/FC/1511 APPENDIX Page 3
(b) There is only one hardware interrupt level, and this system uses an "index" register, causing addressing limitations. A minimum of four hardware interrupt levels are called for.
(c) Inadequate addressing facilities. The points in which it fails to meet the specification are: no byte addressing, no software index registers and no stack handling.
(b) Inadequate instruction set. The points in which it fails to meet the specification are: shift instructions limited to single bit rotation, no comparison between memory cells, overhead on subroutine jump, no illegal instructions.
(e) The current state of interrupts awaiting service cannot be read by the CPU as specified and the masking facilities for controlling individual interrupts do not meet the requirement for "full program control".
(f) Multiplication and Division is for unsigned numbers only.
(g) The hardware floating-point unit is a peripheral which is not supported by the operating system and is not used by the system programs.
Software
(a) Incompatibilities exist between the disc-based and the core- based Executives which require different means of access to the internal routines. This does not meet the requirement that programs must run on the Mini - and Midi-computers without change.
(b) The Loaders (separate Loaders are required for the two configurations) do not allow deferment of program start, as required.
(c) No facilities are provided within the Executives for the required management of hardware interrupts, or for masking. This can only be done by direct access to the System tables, and Data General state that this requires "extreme caution".
(d) Changes to the running algorithm, including the linking of programs to interrupts, are not possible through the Executives. Linking has to be done at System Generation time. Changes to the algorithm require access to the System tables, as for the interrupt mask. CERN/FC/1511 APPENDIX Page 4
(e) The Executive cannot provide full control of input/output when the Memory Expansion Controller is installed. This is required for the Service computer and for expansion of any of the Midi-computers above 32K words.
(f) It is not considered that ALGOL satisfies the requirement for a language suitable for text handling.
4. Philips - P860
Hardware
(a) Maximum core size is 32K words. In the tender Philips suggested this might be overcome by adding P880 computers, but this did not comply with other specification requirements. Philips now state that the P860 will be available with 64K by the end of 1973, but what changes will be necessary to the operating system are not known.
(b) No CAMAC controllers are available and it was stated in the tender that none was planned. CERN was informed later that Philips now intend to develop a controller.
(c) The tender stated that no hardware floating-point arithmetic was available for the P860. Subsequently, Philips have informed CERN that they could purchase a separate floating- point processor and adapt it as a peripheral to the P860 computer. It is not known what consequential changes to the operating system would be required to make it meet all the requirements.
(d) No semiconductor memory is available.
(e) No read-only memory or separate hardware bootstrap loaders. Philips claim that these requirements are satisfied by the Memory Protect scheme, but they do not include in their offer the extra core memory that would be required.
(f) Selective program control of the hardware interrupts is not not possible.
(g) The Philips offer provides for a single multiplexed input/output unit instead of the separate DMA channels specified for the data links and for the CAMAC controllers. The P860 computer can have a maximum of two DMA channels and at least six were specified. CERN/FC/1511 APPENDIX Page 5
Software
(a) All processors forming part of the monitor work only between "special System files" on the disc and therefore fail to meet the requirement to accept multiple input streams and to be able to specify file output. The file manager has no facilities for concatenation and cannot take advantage of contiguous blocks.
(b) The Editor as described in the reference manual does not exist, and even as defined does not provide for character search or provide facilities for listing all or part of a program.
(c) The Linking program does not produce directly loadable modules. It is not possible to specify top or bottom address or provide the core load tables specified.
(d) It is not possible to defer the execution of a program entered into core by the Loader.
(e) The Debug program places serious restrictions on the writing of user programs, and is not fully implemented.
(f) The Assembler is single pass and has only limited macro- definition facility.
(g) The Executive is inadequate in that it is only possible to connect programs to hardware interrupts at System Generation time, and there is only limited access to its internal routines.
(h) No interpreter is offered. Philips state that they would like to co-operate with CERN in the design of a BASIC inter- preter.
(i) No additional compiler for text handling is offered.