Replacing Old Faithful

Sometime this month a truck will stop outside the Kiewit Computation Center, some men will unload some boxes, and a new stage in Dartmouth's computer story will begin. The boxes will contain $2.4 million worth of computer hardware that Kiewit computer services director John S. McGeachie '63 says will dramatically improve computer service at the College.

Computer jocks and Kiewit officials alike reacted with ecstasy when the Board of Trustees authorized the purchase from the Honeywell Corporation. "I've been dreaming of the new system ever since I heard they were thinking of it," one sophomore said and, we understand, a group of Kiewit administrators were so thrilled they went to a tavern in Hartland Four Corners, Vermont to celebrate.

The purchase follows more than a year of negotiations with Honeywell which McGeachie characterized as "very tough." Stories about the negotiating sessions have already been mythologized around campus, but administration officials are being tight-lipped about the whole matter. "The deal isn't finished yet," said Cary Clark '62, assistant legal affairs officer. "It won't be finished until we get it in the barn and working." Honeywell's list price for the equipment is $3.6 million.

The Kiewit people were willing to rave about their purchase and provide us with a five-foot-long computer print-out which explains the advantages of the Honeywell 66/40 system. It is, to begin, a fourth generation system introduced in 1974, and it will replace the current system, in operation since 1966 but apparently unable to keep pace with the strains and sophistication of computer use at the College.

The new system comes with improved memory capabilities and a feature that diagnoses - and corrects - hardware problems that have plagued the old equipment. Computing speed will increase by 30 per cent, response time will be faster by as much as 40 per cent, and development and testing of software will also be accelerated.

Purchase of the new equipment is made possible in part by a $500,000 gift from Mr. and Mrs. Peter Kiewit '22. The remainder of the purchase price will be made up from the College budget ($50,000 each year for the next ten years), the sale of the old equipment (the used computer market apparently is not unlike the used car market), and increased revenue from outside use of the new computer.