ICL Books

The following is a list of ICL Books in the Centre for Computing History collection. It is not an exhaustive list of and other books may have been published. If you have a book that you would like to donate to our collection, please view our donations page.

There are 8 ICL Books in our collection :

Order By : Title - Release Date - Publisher

Date: February 1996 An ICL Anthology - Anecdotes and Recollections from the People of ICL

Hamish Carmichael has had a very happy thought in taking the initiative to collect anecdotes and recollections from the people of ICL, and so to edit and produce this Anthology.

Those of us who were and who still are privileged to work in the most exciting and significant industry so far created by the human race will recall that our colleagues came together from BTM, Powers Samas, and the computer activities of GEC, EMI, Ferranti, English Electric, LEO, Elliotts, Singer and other companies. The strategy of consolidating all the parts making up ICT was the work of Cecil Mead. The creation of ICL was - I suppose fairly - the desire of Harold Wilson’s government. - Arthur Humphreys.

Chapter 6 presents an anthology of quotations about LEO, mainly from LEO Computers personnel.

Edited by Hamish Carmichael

Dewey: 338.7610040941

This book is signed inside "All The Best - Hamish" this was signed for Tony Priest who kindly donated to us.

Publisher: Laidlaw Hicks
Author: Hamish Carmichael

Date: January 1972 BASIC for ICL Pocket Edition

Part of general series including Aids to Program Design, Introduction to Computer Systems, Introduction to Data Communications and Introduction to Real Time. A description of the facilities of the BASIC language which are common to most versions, including the 1900 Series and System 4 implementations. ISBN 0 900482 12 5. 83 Pages.

Date: December 1989 ICL Series 39 An Introduction to VME

This ICL Series 39 An Introduction to VME is a quality publication of 168 pages with coloured illustrations

The ICL Series 39 was a range of mainframe and minicomputer computer systems released by the UK manufacturer ICL in 1985.

The Series 39 range was based upon the New Range concept and the VME operating system from the company's ICL 2900 line, and was introduced as two ranges:

Series 39 "Estriel" systems (Series 39 Level 40 and above, including multinodes), which replaced previous mid-range and large processors from the 2900 range, and needed a full computer room environment
Series 39 DM1 systems (up to Series 39 Level 30), which were intended to replace the smaller processors such as the ICT1901/2, the ICL2903/4 and the ME29 ranges. These brought mainframe class operating system facilities into the office environment, a first for ICL

The original Series 39 introduced the "S3L" processors and microcodes, and a nodal architecture (see ICL VME) which is a form of Non-Uniform Memory Access which allowed nodes to be up to 500 metres apart.

The Series 39 range introduced Nodal Architecture, a novel implementation of distributed shared memory that can be seen as a hybrid of a multiprocessor system and a cluster design. Each machine consists of a number of nodes, and each node contains its own order-code processor and main memory. Virtual machines are typically located (at any one time) on one node, but have the capability to run on any node and to be relocated from one node to another. Discs and other peripherals are shared between nodes. Nodes are connected using a high-speed optical bus using multiple fibre optic cables, which is used to provide applications with a virtual shared memory. Memory segments that are marked as shared (public or global segments) are replicated to each node, with updates being broadcast over the inter-node network. Processes which use unshared memory segments (nodal or local) run in complete isolation from other nodes and processes.

The semaphore instructions prove their worth by controlling access to the shared writable memory segments while allowing the contents to be moved around efficiently.

Overall, a well configured Series 39 with VME had an architecture which can provide a significant degree of proofing against disasters, a nod to the abortive VME/T ideas of the previous decade.

This book is in pristine condotion and was veryvkindly donated by Tony Priest

Date: November 1989 ICL Technical Journal Volume 6 Issue 4 November 1989

Publisher: ICL

Date: 1978 ICL Training - Glossary of Basic Computer Terms

Publisher: ICL Training
Author: ICL

Date: 22nd March 1990 ICL: A Business and Technical History

The history of ICL is synonymous with the history of the British computer industry. ICL was formed by a series of mergers in response to the increasing market dominance of the large American corporations, particularly IBM. The struggles between these two giants and the inherent problems and implications of competing with US multi-nationals are examined in detail in Campbell Kelly's wide ranging study. At the time of writing in the late 1980s, the author was given unrestricted access to ICL archives and his lucid account of the company, its set-backs and successes makes for a compelling and informative read. This book, which was Winner of the Wadsworth Prize for Business History (1989), will be of great interest to anyone involved in business or the computing industry. Refers to LEO Computers.

Includes many black & white photographs including:
Hollerith pin-box tabulator 1904
Typical Hollerith installation 1920
Powers-Samas small card sorter
ICT 1301 computer 1962
Ferranti Orion 1963
Ferranti Atlas
1900 operating system
ICL Bracknell computing hall 1974

First published: 1989

ISBN-13: 978-0198539186
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds

This was kindly donated by Tony Priest.

Publisher: Oxford University Press
Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly

Date: 1985 Perq Log

This is the log book by P Mellor, from 1985 to 1988, to log all the functions and errors carried out on the Perq, which is now also housed in our collection

Publisher: .
Author: P Mellor