INTRODUCTION ACME, Advanced Computer for MEdical Research, is apprcaching the end cf it's fTfth year-as a researcrand development facility. This report describes the accomplishments of the first nine months of the current fiscal year which ends July 31, 1971, and plans for FY1972. We find that we are starting a period of transition fcr two reasons. AWE was designed as a research support facility but now faces the task cf reconciling the needs of computer science oriented research and pub- lic utility type timesharing services. During the coming year we must move toward supporting cne cf these functicns on alternate hardware. In addition, ACME started to charge fee-for-services in March, 1969. We do not expect the user community to have adequate financial support, to pay ACME's full costs by the end of FY1972. Therefcre we are re- questing a l5-month extension to the grant peri.& tc complete this critical period of transition. More development tasks have been iden- tified for FY19'72 than can be accomplished by existing staff and budget. A condensed list of tasks will be made in three tc four months. lie hope that ACK5 and N.I.H. can reach an agreement on the retention of income for use at Stanford by t'nai; time. (1) A. Fiscal Year 1971 - In Retrospect 1. ACME System The past year has been a very successful one in terms of improving gen- eral service levels for users of the AC14X computing service. Our majcr accomplishments were in these areas: o improved reliability 0 long record handling o implementation of LISP o small machine support One of our basic goals was to improve hardware reliability. The mean- time between failures for hardware increased by a factor cf 4 in FYl971. The mean-time between failures fcr all unscheduled downtime increased by a factor of 2.5. Another highlight cf the year has been the announcement to users of ne:.: small machine assemblers. There are now over 40 small machine systems in the Stanford University Medical School. Most of these systems are Digital Equipment Corporation machines. The macro assemblers now handle PDP-8, PDP-11, and LINK Computers. The extension of the file system to handle long records -,;ias a ma:cr ac- complishment. Historically, ACME has had a fixed block length cf 1968 bytes per record. With the new file system, records are spanned sc that the new maximum record length is 65,535 bytes. Another milestone has been the implementation of a LISP interpreter and LISP compiler under ACME. The ACVE systems staff also implemented a powerful graphics support pack- age, an overlay system for various statistical subroutines to reduce the amount of core required by the system, and made many modifications to the communications software. 2 -. User Projects Significant progress was made on the Drug Interaction Program being de- signed and developed to provide warnings to physicians whenever a pres- cription is likely to interact adversely with an earlier prescription given to a patient. (2) I. SUMNARY A Clinical Laboratory Information System has gone through the development stage and is now ready for implementation. The DENDRAL research project staff became familiar with ACME and started t8a use the new LISP compiler under ACME. DETSDRAL refers to the program which infers a structural hy- pothesis from mass spectral data. We made some progress in shifting users to a paying basis for ACNE ser- vices. 3. Fiscal Year 197'2 - Looking Ahead 1. ACME System Our major commitments are to maintain at least our present service levels and tc .;ove toward generating added revenue. We are investigating three paths which will improve service and reduce 3u.r cperating expenses. o Retain stand-alone Medical School System. o Move ncn-realtime computing to 360/67 and build front-end system for realtime users. o Share facilities with the Hospital ADP Group. The ACME staff is especially interested in providing additional suppcrt to small machine users throughout the medical community. The Stanford Medical Schcol contains many small machines and the users cf these de- vices have repeatedly expressed interest in more and better suppcrt f-r them. We also understand that the Biotechnology Resources Branch is in- terested in computer to computer communications networks. During the balance of this grant period, we will continue to improve the reliability of the existing system. ACNE has been charging fee-for-service since March 1969. There has been little incentive to increase revenues since every dollar received in income reduces the grant by a comparable amrunt. In the coming year we will ask that income derived from fee-for-service ,ivitle 2, part- be retained at Stanford to support biomedical computing act icularly extensions to ACME's core research activities. 2. User Projects During fiscal year 1972, ACM% will support: . DENDRAL o Drug Interaction Program o Clinical Laboratory Instrumentation o Other applications (3) Other applications will be considered as opportunities arise. Charging rates for AC!!IE services will be increased at varying intervals over the next two years. The goal of these changes is to eliminate the subsidy in the present rate structure SC that ACME users will pay full cost recovery for the services received. In addition, a Cardiac Care Unit Monitoring System will be started if ACTIIE's income can be used to support expanded core research activities. C. Request for Grant Extension In March 1.X$9, ACME started to charge fee-for-service to the users. Y?e hoped that by the end of the current three year grant peric,d, AC!.7E user income plus charges to ACME core research projects ?or computing service would equal total ACT?!E cperstions ccst. A 15 :-.onth extension is needed for two reasons: (1) ACME users need mclre time to obtain computing dollars in their budgets; and (2) the t:*ansiitian tc alternate hardyTare requires more than the one year remaining in the existing grant. D. Overview of Five-Year AOIE Experiment In 1966, ACME received a three-year grant from the Biotechnology Resouces Branch from NIH (then called the Special Research Rescurces Branch). T'he two goals V:ere: o Development of an on-line realtime data ccllection an 5 control system. o Development of a PL/AC!ME compiler that could be learned and used conveniently by medical staff. In 1966 we decided that one large central resource could fill those re- quirements more effectively than multiple smaller systems in each of the laboratories. The experiment has been a great success. The PL/AC?.IE compiler can indeed be learned and used very easily by the medical staff. It was the first known demonstration of an incremental compiler. The outcome with respect to the realtime data ccllection user has not been similarly successful. ACME found that medical users require an extremely high degree of reliability which was most difficult tc, achieve with the large computing systems of the 1960's. Therefcre, many users have acquired small machines which are capable of achieving very high reliability and can be dedicated to a single purpose. The econcmics of small machines locked far different back in 1965 when the AOIE propcsal was written. The rate of change in this field has been truly dramatic. Design cf a realtime data collection system fcr today's environment might well involve a number (4) of smaller processor's as dedicated systems, some of which need to be hooked to larger systems. Computing problems requiring many cycles but minimal core and other hardware, can best be handled by the mini or midi systems. However, the small computers are proving inadequate for a small subset of user programs, are becoming more complex, and need big machines. The next step entails a marriage of the small machine systems which have been developed in the early 1970's with new communications technoiogy as well as more stable and reliable larger systems. ACNE is proitd of what it has accomplished and has demonstrated an abilLty to cope with realtime data collection problems. ACE is nearing comple- tion of the second year of a three year renewal grant. The primary problem addressed In the proposal for this renewal period was to make the ACME system more reliable. Although much has been accomplished to achieve this goai, limltaticns of system 360 hardware, complex software develope? locally, and reliability requirements imposed by the medical profession indicate needs for future developments in this field. (5) PUT I. ACME FACILITY DEVELOP?.EENF (6) II. ACNE FACILITY ACCOMPLISH~IENI'S - FY1971 A. Software Modifications 1. Improvements in Reliability A primary goal of the ACNE staff has been to improve system reliabllit;. The results of our effort may be seen in Table A which shckrs :.:ean Tir-e Between Failures for the PL/ACKE system on the 363,/50 for FYl973 a i? '1 ; FY1971. During that time N!I'BF for hardware-caused system failures a:-:, XTBF for all reasons, including hardware increased as fcZllo!is: TvITBF FY1970 FY1971 hardware caused 64.3 246.6 all reasons 34.4 e4.e Some of the specific steps taken to accomplish this goal are ;?eekly meetings with lBM systems engineers and customer engineers, imprCvnd standards of cleanliness for the machine room, written procedures for ACME operatcrs, and engineering changes from ?BI$. One major factcr was a system modification which allows concurrent use by systems prc- grammers and users during the evening shift. This gave the systems staff an experimental module without affecting the users. Prier to this, we had to mount new systems before they were ccmpletely debugged since there were very few times when we could dedicate the entire sys- tern to the software staff. 2. Long Length Records File support routines were mofified so that a PL/AC!:E user can specify a logical record size greater than physical block size, A single READ or WRITE statement can reference up to 65k bytes of data. The size of physical blocks on disk has'been kept at 2000 bytes. 3. LISP Compiler An interpreter and compiler for LISP (List Processing Languages) was added. This in effect gives the ACME system a second language. Tc? enter LISP mode as opposed to PL/ACME mode, the user includes a LISP keyword in his PROGRAM statement. LISP was implemented at the request of the DEIJDRAL research group, but may be used by any recognized user. (7) II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLIS~XJTS - FYI971 4. Small Machine Support Assemblers As we indicated in the Annual Report for last year, ACME implemented a small machine assembler program for PDP-8's and PDP-11's. This year it became operational and users may now write at an ACME terminal in PDP-8 or PDP-11 operation code. A PL/ACKE program will assemble their code and print back diagnostics. When the program is debugged, a user can load it directly frcm ACME to the small machine via a 2701 p'ort or a line through the 1800 processcr without going through the paper tape or card phase. Communicaticns Package A communications package has been written to handle comrLu.nicaticn,: Cf- tween the Model 50 and smaller front-end machines such as tpze l&y? zv^ idi ---; PDP-11. One major change in the coI>munication system ;:as tc aSa:t t?c code in the Mcdel 50 to support the PDP-11 in the same manner as tYhe 1800 is currently supported. Detailed plans have been made tc ?.zzr;ify the software in the Yodel 50 to permit non-57hl devices tz log-cn to the ACME system via the PDP-11. At present all log-ons must cccur via the IBM 2702 transmission control unit. Campus Computer Link A link between ACME's PDP-11 and the Stanford Campus PDP-9 allows ACT+3 users to exchange data with all departments of the University. By the end of the current fiscal year we Twill ccmplete a project which allows prcgrams and data to be transmitted from ACi,IE disk stcrage to Campus disk storage and vice versa. An ACID user will be able to run produc- tion versions of jcbs cn the Campus 360/67 in batch mode and a user of the Stanford ORVYL systern will be able to ccmmunicate directly with ACME and transfer data and program files. 5. Other Software Developments Utilization Measurements Several new utilizaticn measurements have been developed. We now knot: the number of users per half hour interval for weekdays and weekends. Utilization data include the number of users excluding staff, core pages used for various types of use, nurcber of realtime lines open, an5 ma:<- ima used during each half hour period including the ACME staff users. II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLIWMENTS - FY1971 Translator A PL/ACbcE to PL/l program translator was completed. It is primarily in- tended to accolrmodate ACME users who wish to run productlcn programs in batch mode at the Stanford Campus Facility. It also aids those who move to other Universities which support PL/l batch service but not an inter- active PL language. Compiler Improvement Several incremental compiler changes were implemented. PL/l type fcp:ats were added to the PUT EDIT statement and a STRIW spticn added tc. the GZT and PUT statements. The user now has full capability of the GET and FTl statements and can format character strings. In addition, other significant accomplishments this past year include: o new public prcgrams added, primarily statistical o project and data set protection increased o ACKE data set tc OS data set ccnversion o cverlay of ACME load module o SYSGErJ of OS Release 18 o support of new hardware: Sazeltine :?odel Beehive Model 3 Litton Node1 30 by use of key?:crds 2000 and displays printer B. Hardware Modifications 1. tiqumJerWn~S in Reliability Early in ACME's history we purchased special devices from Il3.1. identified as a 27OX and four 270Y's. These devices were used for medium data rate acquisition for the realtime system. Unfortunately, this hard:;are never operated reliably and during the past year IB:;: repurchased it fro-. Stan- fcrd University. This has been the biggest factcr in increasing n~rt- hardware reliability. The new PDP-11 and existing 2701 Data Adapter have replaced some of the functions of this hardliare. Part of the sale pi*oCeeSs have been spent tc design and build a special interface between ACI\3Z ani, the mass spectrometer. We have labeled this new device a 2732 interface. 2. Addition of PDP-11 The PDP-11 computing system acquired last suer has been installed and interfaced to the Model 50. At present the PDP-11 is being used to drive alphanumeric displays, a special printer, and a Sanders contrcller. The Sanders controller was originally driven by a 27OY. A PDP-11 disk has (9) II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLISHT/?ENTS - FY1971 been ordered and will be delivered before the end of FY1971. This disk, which has approximately 2.4 megabytes of capacity, will be used fcr the Drug Interaction Program initially. 3. Addition of Displays and Printer We added two Hazeltine Alphanumeric Displays and one Litton Printer fcr the Drug Interaction Program. The Hazeltines were replaced by Beehives because of problems experienced with shift keys. If one hit the shift key and an alphanumeric character, a spurious character resulted. 4. Modification of 1800 Four analog input ports and 8k of core >Tere added to the 1800 Frocesssr. The additional core has permitted implementation of a new coriunicatiens syste;l and allowed users to store data directly on the 1803 disk Iwhether cr not the I.lodel 50 was operating. The added analog input pcrts have in- creased the nur;lber of lines which can be handled simultaneously from 12 to 16. 5. Other HardbTare Changes 2314 Conversion ACME's 2314s will be converted tc 2319s in the near future. This is a field modification w-hich will reduce rent on the units by a few hundred dcllars per month without changing any of the technical characteristics. Lomi Linda 'Graphics Terminals TVJO of these terminals are to come to Stanford University in the month of May. User Interfaces Over the past year several interfaces between ACNE and user realtime in- strumentation have been designed and installed. Among these are inter- faces to gas chromatographs, plotters, XY recorders, and other small machines such as PDP-11 and PDP-8. C. User Services The goals of the User Services Group of the ACNE Froject are to: o offer individual and specialized help to the users o train the user in the use cf the ACfiE system o make information about the use of changes to the ACbIE system readily and easily available (10) II. ACT4E FACILITY ACCO~4PLISHI:ETYlYS - F-Y1971 For purposes of discussion, the functicn cf the TJser Services i;rc~~p vi11 be divided intc three activities; Consulting, Educaticn and Documentatio?. 1. Consulting The consulting staff consists of one part time member and three full time members. One full time member of the consulting group specialized 59 statistica problems, another in mathematical consulting. We ether f~:..ll time consultant and the part time consultant are available for ccre gen- eral problems. By the end of April, the latter tlxc ccnsultants xi11 be relocated to an office recently constructed in the AC?,IE mac'hine rc'cr- where they will be more accessible to users. All consulting staff member.: maintain a consulting activity log which alloxss them to fclio-/r-up an5 tc spot problem trends. It is an important scuree cf input tc the AC1.T courses, the ACXE manual, and the ACTViE system. 2. Education ACME offers couxses in the PL/ACME prcgraxning language and the use of t:?e A(XE systelr. An introductcry course consisting of three l-l/2 hcur sessicns is offered twice a rcnth. Last year 189 members of the medical ccx:uqity attended these courses. A 4-l/2 hour advanced course for realtime users was offered 3 times last year. The total enrollment was 21. These ccurses have been and will continue t o be modified by user needs and problems. Since we now have a LISP compiler, AC!!VE is offering a LISP seminar. This is a 2 bcur introduction tc some of the fundamental concepts cf LI3P. as well as a descripticn of applications best suited for LISP. The first such seminar had an enrollment of 26. 3. Documentation A publicly available program named NEWS is in the AC%X system. T'>i s g;sre j the user immediate notice of any changes to the ACFE system cr any ether it,<-ms of interest. The user may call this prcgrar::, and by the use of ap- propriate "keywords" (e.g. PLOTTING), retrieve all information that is of particular interest to him. Newsletter ACME pulishes a Computing Newsletter on an as needed basis to infcrm users of: o new programs and subroutines o changes in ACME's operating schedule o ACME course and seminar schedules (11) II. ACNE FACILITY ACCOZPLISm4ENTS - FYl971 o neiw ACME dccuments o changes in staff o use of computers in medicine PL/ACME Manual The PL/ACME Manual is a complete reference manual, with a complete def- inition of the PL/AC!ME programming language, a detailed explanaticn cf its usage, and extensive examples. A new 300 page additicn was distri- buted in November, 1970. This year we plan to supplement the j.;anual with a thirty to forty page Primer. The PL/ACNE Primer will teach the basics of the PL/ACKE language using step-by-step lessons with simple examples . 4. User Tape Service Report In May 1969, a tape dumping and restoring service was prcvided jihereby a user could remove files from direct access storage Nhen cn-line re- trieval was not required. Later the files may be copied back to disk. Dumping is the process of moving a file from disk to tape; restoring is the inverse. The user always pr'ovides his cwn tape. As of April 20, 1971, 2lh individual requests fcr file dumps had been submitted. The requests came from 69 users; 31 requests from a single user; and 122 requests (57% of the total) frcm 11 users. 9,300 indi- vidual files have been dumped for a total of 268,150 blocks of ,C@O characters. This volume is more than twice our disk capacity. Rest'ore records have been kept since April 1970. 92 requests were sub- mitted for a total of 34,760 blocks covering 1028 files. 25 users have requested the service. One user of the 25 has asked for restcres 27 times. II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLISHMEN'I'S - FY19-71 D. ACME Personnel CURRENT DIRXCT STAFF Approximate ITE' At Present Principal Investigator Joshua Lederberg, Ph.D. 0 Associate Principal Investigator Mward ?eigenbauT, Ph.D. 0 Director Ronald Jamtgaard Assistant Diirector L. Lee Hundley Consultant to the Director Gio Wiederhold Systems Programmers Rober% Berns Russell Briggs Regina Frey Charles Granieri Ying Lew Stuart Mil?er Applications Programmers 1 -35 .5 1 1 Robert Fiassett Linda Crouse Robert 13ale Gary Sanders Jane Vhitner Voy Wiederhold 1 2 .? 1 .2 5 Terminated $7 Time m:~~ile During Past Year At AC!:3 3avid ZummirLs David Zmerson Serge Girardi David Grav Cle Cisterby Ken Salisbury Donald Nilson Ray Liere Research Assistants William Berman .5 (plus Computer Science Department related work at ACME) - .+ - .L I 1 1 FTE is defined as "ffil time equivalent". (13) II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLISHME~S - FY1971 CURRENT DIRECT STAFF Approximate FTE Terminated A:, Present During Past Year Summer Student Heln Douglas Brotz Andrew Saal Operations Charles (Class (Manager) 1 Richard Cower 1 James Matous 1 Ames Meek James Rieman :: Jan Sutter 1 Lee Weatherby .2 i'ee Whitely .2 Secretaries and Administrative Aides PIadeline Aranda 1 Yucinda Miller 1 TCTAL AC3E fR,wT EFFORT (FTE)~ 18.20 Policy Committee Members Malcolm Bagsha++ V.D. Robert Baldwin, Ph.D. J . Weldon Bellville, M.D. Byron William Brown, Jr., Ph.D. Eoward Cann, M.D. Charles Zickens Avram Goldstein, M.3. ;;onald tiarrison, pc1.D. Ccurtney Jones 3 2-t Kopell, I6.p. -;iliott LOT,-: nCh Y LII "irZL, Ph.?. Charles Sandoval James Vantassel Trammel ;onas .1 - 2 Excludes summer student employees and those terminated during the year May 1, 140 through April 30, 141. (14) II. ACME FACILITY ACCOMPLISHKEWI' - FY1971 Policy Committee Members Bruce Stocker, M.D. Howard Sussman, M.D. Jobst Von der Groeben, M.D. John L. Wilson, M.D. Boxiness Manager Robert Langle II. ACME FACILITY ACCOb!PLISHMU4TS - FY1971 E. ACME Organization The principal investigator of ACME has in effect subcontracted to the Stanford Computaticn Center the tasks of developing, implementing, and operating PL/ACME. With the advice of the ACNE Policy Committee, he has directed the research activities and given much policy guidance. Since last September, the acting Director of the Stanford Computation Cbr&er (SCC) has been Charles Dickens. In addition t3 ACME, th~r;i~~c;o;a~;us Facility and a Stanford Linear Accelerator Facility. each facility reports to Mr. Dickens. In recent months, SCC has taken steps away from this facility organization toward functional organiza- tion. As a result of this change, ACME systems programmers will be grouped with systems programmers from the Stanford Linear Acceleratcr Center and Campus Facility. Similarly, operations and user services functions will become functionally crganized. We hope that this change will improve service to users. Another group which has worked actively on the ACI:IE prcject in the past year has been the User Charges Sub-Committee of the ACI.IE Policy Co;?r-.ittee. This group reviews requests for subsidized use of the ACI,IE system and sets the Policy guidelines on such matters. III. ACW'S FJTITI?E DIRXZTION A. The Transition Problem 1. Statement of the Problem Two factors are forcing us to radically change the ACME Facility. T'ne first is financial and the second is choosing to serve special research versus general computer users. The dollar problem is based upon estimates of income from fee-for-service over the next few years. ACME estimates that income from users w-ill not equal the cost of providing PL,/ACriIE services over the next two years. income estimates amount to roughly t-tro- thirds of the direct operating costs where such costs are estimated at $650,000. This level of operating costs includes maintenance and operating staff but no development work, and is based on rental rates of existing 360/50 hardware. iJtilization of ACM3 is not the problem; ACY"E's users simply do not have adequate fiunds in their budgets to permit contin-u-ng current usage at full cost recovery rates. If the current level of usage could be maintained while charging competitive service rates, the resul- tant income would exceed costs. The second problem involves the dichotomy between computing support for computer science oriented research versus "p-ublic utility" computing services for a broad community of users. Initially, ACME was a research facility developing new software and hardware for medical research users. We were successful in fostering a substantial community of users who are dependent upon ACME for stable, reliable services with high availability requirements. The computer-science researcher can no longer obtain the system for 24 hours of continuous use to test new concepts. Service goals have been given higher priority than research goals. This choice was fcs- tered by the N.I.H-request to institute fee-for-service. in order to increase income, services had to become stablized. The problem now is to find a cost effective means of providing P3/AC'Z type computing services to a community which has become dependent upon ACME. The current community does not have enough dollars to keep the existi.ng system on a stand-alone basis. Three alternate paths appear to warrant further study: 1. iietain a stand-alone facility, by shifting to a smaller system or finding additional financial support; provide front-end processor for realtime users. 2. Move the time-sharing users to Stanford's 360/67 after mounting an interactive PL-language; fulfill realtime needs on a new front-end processor. 3. Share selected facilities between the Medical School, ACME and the Hospital Data Provessing Group. Note that . aths 1 and 2 both include front-end processors. The front-end system could be duplicated to provide one for normal realtime services and another for dedicated use by various research projects. III. ACME'S FUTURE DIRECTION These and other paths w-ill be studied over the next few months. Part of the investigation will include an analysis of the extent to which user files on disk are current and regularly used; what fraction of disk usage represents programs as opposed to data files; and dependence upon PL/ACIG features. This information will be used to estimate the effort involved in any future conversion. After completing the various studies, we hope to have at least two years in which to design and implement the follow-on system. This assumes N.I.H. will approve the request for extension. A more detailed schedule i.ncluding target dates for realtime and timesharing substitutes should be available by early Fall, 1971. The intervening studies 7pdill also provide answers to such questions as: o HOW do service rates compare between ACME and Campus Facilities? o V&at hardware alternatives really exist for replacement of the 360/50 in a stand-alone fashion? '&at changes would be required to mount PL/ACI@ on these? o If a stand-alone system were added for computer science oriented medical research, what would be the marginal or incremental costs associated with non-realtime users? Could they help pay for the faci.lities Ttithout compromising research objectives? o Should relationships with private companies be considered in which Stanford offers certain software (FL/ACME) in return for computing services? o What is the minimum size hardware facility acceptable to large control programs for realtime research (such as '37~""? dJ..1L.1._ 0 How will computing networks influence the next generation of computing at Stanford? The above list covers just a few of the questions to be considered by the faculty and Computation Center staff. 3 II . Discussion of Alternatives to be Explored Three paths have been selected for discussion. Additional alternatives will be added as they arise. a . Path 1: Retain a Stand-Alone Facility in the Medical School The current ACME system is a stand-alone facility in the Medical School. This arrangement could be retained by current hardware or by a shift to (18) alternate hardware sucl? as an IBM 370/145. Two advantages of a stand- alone system are more direct control by the medical communitjr and more flexibility to change than a larger service center with several tholJsand users. Three disadvantages are the relatively high fixed cost, the dichotomy in goals between research and service computing needs, and the inability to make convenient use cf all the ot'ner computing services available on Campus. IBM has recently announced a 370/145 system which, with 1 million bytes of high-speed core plus comparable amounts of disk storage and peripheral devices, collild be rented for about $4,000 less per month than AC% is paying for the 360/50 system. The primary difference between these two configurations is that the current system has 2 million bytes of bilk core (8 microsecond) and 128k of 1 microsecond core. The T70/145 core would be faster than 1 microsecond. The current AC?@ system s;ould not b-ork well in the limited amount of core described here. However, it mag be feasible to modify the ACM3 system so that 1 million bytes of high- speed core of the 370 system could handle the computing requirements of the Medical Center better than the current system. The technical re,quire- ments of shifting to this newer generation of hardware will be reviewed when we study the feasibility of retaining ACM? as a stand-alone facility. This path will become feasible if users in ;he STAW3.3 medical community can identify funding levels and so?Jrces adequate to cover the costs of operating a large system. A determination of potential fund availability twill be made by late summer, 1971. Two types cf operation could res-Jlt. One is a service center providing time-sharing services with emphasis upon small machine support. Another Is a research support system designed tc support a limited number of research groups working in ccmputer science related areas. The latter mode of operation could entaT a relatively large system (370/145, PDP-13, etc.) requiring several research groups in order to provide adequate financing. To date attempts to identify a fe%T (four to six) research groups which might each provide $100, OC3 or more per year for computer service have proven unfruit?ul. An estimate of $,500,000 in annual income from service fees for operation as a service facility ratlher than a research facility appears in Section TX. ?:ne question to be resolved is whether additional income might be forthcoming from within ACKE's user population. b. Path 2: Move Timesharing to 360/67; Add Front-End Processor f?r 3eal- time Needs Description of Stanford Campus Facility. Both AC33 and Campus Facilities are part of the Stanford Computation Center. The Campus Facility operates a 360/67 with one million bytes of core, and serves apprcximately j.03 persons in the Stanford community. It is located about 500 yards from the ACME machine room. The Campus Facility supports approximately 20 languages in batch mode an2 three languages in timesharing mode. Services offered include a pcwer3.l (19) III. ACME'S FUTURE DIRECTION text editor, express batch and production batch services, plotting, remote job entry, and the possibility of handling some special devices with a PDP-9. At this time the Stanford Computation Center is merging toward a functional rather than a facility organization. As a result, ACME systems programmers are now grouped with systems programmers from the Campus Facility and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Facility. User services and operations personnel will soon be similarly organized. Sketch of Work Entailed. Considerable study will be required to evaluate the work required to merge the ACNE and Campus Facilities. The problem has been reviewed in a cursory fashion with the following results, PL/ACTZ offers two types of services: the first is timesharing and the second is realtime data collection and control. The realtime data collection and process control functions would be moved to a smaller front-end machine. Current thinking is that the front-end processor would have 75 million bytes of disk storage attached to it and be capable of handling data rates faster than the ACNE system now does. The timesharing portion of ACME service would be transferred to GRVYL, the timesharing monitor of the Campus Facility. This would be done by writing a new compiler under ORVYL but several segments of this compiler could prob- ably be copied directly from the current ACME system. An initial review of the task indicates that two to four man-years of effort might be required to mount an interactive PL/l subset under ORVYL. It is essential that the transition to any alternative system be made with mini- mum changes to ACME users. Some of the options currently being reviewed in- clude the mounting of PL/C,the PL/l supported under IBM's TSO, or a revised form of PL/ACNE. The ability of the ORVYL monitor to handle its present load plus the PL/ACM.E load is also being studied. At the present time, we can merely indicate that one potential path for AC%IE's future is to merge with Campus Facility and reduce the fixed cost of a large hardware instal- lation while providing comparable levels of service. Yne realtime data collection and process control front-end machine would be designed for high reliability and availability. It would sey--e '-. number of users and provide access to large disk storage devices o.. :.,e central facility. One potential method of fulfilling the needs sere redefined to more closely resemble a proper subset of FL/l, the researcher could easily specify whether his program should execute in an interactive enviro-nment or in production batch under PL/l. The high level lanwage should also be able to produce assembly code for a selected number of computers. Specifically, it should support compilation of assembly code for the user's small machine. d. Small Kachine Support Small machine support requires convenient networking capability. Software and hardware rnlJst be available for communication between the mini-computer and the central facility. For example, a researcher might want to use his mini's console teletype for requesting services from the central cGmp.dter. The results could be shipped back to the mini and placed on an output device such as a plotter, dl.splay, or magnetic tape. A library of software packages for execution in the small machine is desirable. These programs could be written for specific functions such as communication with the central facility and for device handling. Access to the central facility must be on-line and from a number of device types. In addition to the current 2741 typewriter terminals, access should be possible from other devices such as alphanumeric displays and the user's own computer. Thus the concept of networking should be carefully designed and incorporated into the system. (22) III. ACME'S FUTURE DIRECTION e. Access to Storage Easy access to a large data base is of paramount importance. Storage capabilities should be at least as large as the current filing capacity (466 million bytes). Concentration on reliability of the files will guarantee that the user's data is secure from destruction. At the same time realtime data acquisition requires a data rate to direct access devices that is double the current rate, i.e., from 10,000 to 20,000 cha.racters per second. Security of medical data demands that a filing system be reliable and include guarantees against unauthorized access. Software and hardware features axe available for access protection and must be included in any redesign. Since zhe cost of fast direct access devices is high, the system should provide a simple procedure for removing data to an off-line device such as magnetic tape or tape cassette when it is no longer needed for on-line access and fcr copying it back to the direct access device. f. Graphics Graphic support must be available through the central processor and the user's mini-computer. Generalized support of a large number of devices does not appear to be required. Rather, specific applications should dictate what graphics support should be included. g* System Measurement No system should be implemented without designed-in measurement and evaluation tools. A future system should incorporate evaluation aids fcr determining such measurements as performance, usage of the various com- ponents, and measurement of user programs. h. User Support The central facility staff should not be isolated from the user's applica- tion. Management and programmers should be actively involved with the users of the system they have provided. Such involvement can include preparing project proposals, selecting and installing hardware, designing the user's program and in some situations, loaning staff for implementa- tion of the user's system. In any case, staff consultation should be readily available for solutions to user problems. i. Reliability and Availability From ACME's experience we find that the user community has extremely high reliability and availability requirements. We see as a possible solution (23) III. ACiXE'S FUTURE DIRECTION a host of small machines dedicated to on-line tasks with a large system providing backup. Because of these requirements we have put such emphasis on small machines in the foregoing discussion. B. Extensions to PL/AC!MlX Services 1. Funding Priority Various extensions and additions to FL/ACME services are listed in the following two sections. Although we would like to do all of them during the coming year, we cannot because of financial limitations. Top priority must go to the aforementioned transition studies and implementation. There- fore, only some of the PL/ACME changes described below will be realized in FYl972. 2. New Services a. Small Machine Equipment Pool ACME proposes to acquire a small machine equipment pool for users through- out t:he Medical Center. The purpose of the pool would be to let research teams use small machines for limited periods of t,ime. Wherever possible ACM! would charge the user an appropriate fee for use of the har&;iare. If the >jork is closely identified with the core research activities of ACKE there would be no charge. The primary assumption behind this request is t,hat a limited number of identical small machines and peripheral .flits would provide flexibility for various types of experimental set-ups. 7or example, one experiment may require 4k of core and a small disk unit ?&ereas another experiment could entail l?k of core and a tape unit. If these units are available within ACME, it may be possible to avoid having separate systems fcr every research group and may promote a far more efficient use of computing, hardware. Cne idea to be explored in this area would be contributions to the equipment pool of small machine systems which are presently being used very little. b. Investigation of Kational IYetworks We understand that the Biotechnology Resources Branch is interested in determining the relevance of National Networks of Computers to the :iealth Care field. The Artificial intelligence Laboratory at Stanford has participated in such a network. This local experience in the field coupled with the professional staff at ACM3 puts us in a good position to study the applicability of network computing to medical problems. if N.1.I-I. is interested in early evaluation of network techniques, Stanford wculd propose joining a network or establishing a link with a remote university site. The budget request for the coming fiscal year does not include any funds for the kind of hardware presently manufactured by Bolt, Baranek and (2.4) III. ACME'S F'UTURZ DIRECTION Newman (IMP and TIP). However, the AWE staff will be alert to potential applications that could utilize such a linkage. In addition, early in Fy1q Le., we will weigh the advantages of being associated with a local or national network if N.I.H. wants to pursue the subject. Comments of the Biotechnology Resources Branch are invited. 3. &tensions to Existing Services a. Support for Small Machines Included in this area are: o macro-assemblers for small machines other than the PDP-8, PDP-11, and LINK, 0 simulator for small machines in ACME. 0 utilities for loading small machines connected to the system and handling tape I/@, etc. o user support: a collection of a small machine code library to be shared by users; documentation on small machine projects; development of standard interface hardware for connecting various small machines to larger systems on Campus. o study of the feasibility of operating a library of small machines and peripherals. o small machine compiler: a small machine compiler should be written in PL/ACME or some high-level language to permit users to program their small machines in a subset of PL/ACFZ. It would be desirable to some day incorporate into this compiler a model of the small machine parame:ers for each user. This would permit the large machine to determine ?ihiCh functions would be done in the large machine and which in the small. The o???? machine would also compile code for the small computer. b. Compiler Improvements Extensions to the PL/ACME compiler are planned in tbro specific areas; text editing and information retrieval. Two or three commands, probably "move", "change", and "copy" will be added for text editing. Information Retrieval A limited information retrieval capability will be added. The ACM! file system is well organized to accommodate certain information retrieval (25)