Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Andy Day · 23rd Oct 2006, 7:55 pm

Has anyone apart from me heard of Computer Automation? searching with google I can find only one reference to an ancient sales brochure from CA on the whole of the web. At one time they were the 4th largest mini-computer manufacturer in the world!

I worked for Computer Automation and its spin-off companies in the UK from 1976 to 1992. The company manufactured minicomputers widely used in process control and data-processing. Eventually the company went down under the tide of competition from microcomputers. The man behind Computer Automation was Dave Methvin, the CEO. He was also the designer of the early products such as the Alpha 8, Alpha 16, LSI 1 and LSI 2. He made a considerable amount of money out of royalties from IBM whose entry into the PC market infringed his early patents regarding memory address range allocation. The first product I was aware of was the predecessor to the Alpha 16, the Alpha 8, as its name suggests an eight bit minicomputer. The Alpha 16 merely doubled up this concept built using DTL and TTL devices. The LSI 1 was an early excursion into large gate arrays which formed the arithmetic logic unit and sundry other parts of the architecture of the computer. It was a dismal failure and was not released on the market. It was superseded by the LSI 2 which implemented the same architecture using standard TTL logic.

From 1980 to 1986 I ran the repair centre in the UK and had to cope with Dave Methvin's philosophy of allowing the customers to do the final 10% of his research and development. As far as the UK and European market was concerned the death knell was sounded when the production facility was opened up at Clonshaugh in Dublin, taking advantage of tax concessions offered by the Eire government. Quality plummeted to such a marked degree that sales suffered. After that the company found it very difficult to complete with the proliferation of personal computers and embedded microcontrollers which were flooding the market. The last I heard of Dave Methvin he was designing the world's first 64-bit microcomputer in his garage! This must have been about 1987, his involvement with Computer Automation having been sidelined by board decisions.

Anyone else come across them?

jjl · 23rd Oct 2006, 8:40 pm

Andy

In the late '80s I worked for Solid State Logic, the mixing console & pro audio company. At the time, they used the Naked Mini for the automation computer for their 4000 E and G series mixing consoles but I believe that projects were in hand to move to microprocessors for this function.

John

Andy Day · 23rd Oct 2006, 8:47 pm

I remember SSL. Were they based in Royston? I was on a training course with one of their guys, a lad of Chinese extraction. May have been about 1978?

jjl · 23rd Oct 2006, 9:22 pm

Andy

When I was with them, SSL were based in Begbroke, near Woodstock to the north of Oxford. I believe that they're still there.

John

coredump · 19th Nov 2006, 3:11 pm

A friend of mine at Uni in the mid-80s had one, a Naked Mini Alpha. We got it from an enthusiast in north London, and he called it Wilbur. My friend took it back to his room in the Uni halls and we ran it a few times. Don't know what happened to it after that, though.

John Honniball

Rob_Lewis · 20th Nov 2006, 12:26 pm

The philosophy of using the customer as R&D is nothing new...

Trish · 21st Nov 2006, 3:13 am

I'm not sure. But I seem to recall some of the early broadcast editing systems like CMX used the machines. They went on for a number of years until various other companies produced integrated systems using 8080's, Z80 and Motorola processors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjl

When I was with them, SSL were based in Begbroke, near Woodstock to the north of Oxford. I believe that they're still there.

Hoping not to get accused of too much thread drift. SSL are indeed where you say. I used to speak to a friend there that I had known for many years before he joined them. The chap in question was Mark Yonge. From what I last heard. He went on to manage the AES Standards Committee.

I also note one of your locations as being Ware. The home of Cintel. Which in the past was Rank Cintel and other arms of it. Also I remember visiting an aladdin's cave (1978) in the town that had some very nice old kit (mostly Marconi) and components for sale.

Trish

jjl · 21st Nov 2006, 1:33 pm

Trish

You have a PM.

John

Andy Day · 22nd Nov 2006, 7:52 pm

Wasn't it Cintel or Quantel who made the kit that did all the flashy graphics on Top of the Pops etc? That would have been in the mid eighties or so. And the Company I'm thinking of was SSL, made recording Consoles etc. Now who the hell was it in Royston? One of the last CA users was of course BA freight who were still using CA systems with big old CDC 14 inch disk drives right into the 90's. And RAC insurance services at Hitchin too.

Trish · 23rd Nov 2006, 1:42 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Day

Wasn't it Cintel or Quantel who made the kit that did all the flashy graphics on Top of the Pops etc? And the Company I'm thinking of was SSL, made recording Consoles etc. Now who the hell was it in Royston?

Quantel made the equipment that was used to death on shows like TOTP.

The only audio related company I know that was near Royston was what was then Rupert Neve. They are based in Melbourn.

Trish

Andy Day · 30th Nov 2006, 9:20 pm

Hi Trish, amazing what a prod to the grey matter does, of course, Neve in Melbourne! Blame the forgetfullness on the ECT!

Maindec · 8th Mar 2007, 2:57 pm

Brings back memories - I still have the programming card for the LSI-2.

My first job after leaving school in 1975 was with Micro Consultants, a sister company to Quantel. Micro Consultants used PDP11's and LSI-2's for data logging and similar applications. At this time, both systems had 8 inch single-density floppies. Access to these systems for development was limited, so we decided to write an RT-11 look-alike operating system for the LSI2, called MOSS-11 (Micro consultants Operating System).
A wrapper was written to make the CA programs think they were running under the CA operating system, whose name
escapes me, but seemed to use many IBM terms.
The only program I couldn't get to work in this way was the Fortran compiler - I suspect it used some attributes
which were not in the documentation I had.

I still to this day think that "CA" stands for Computer Automation, not Computer Associates!

23rd Oct 2006, 7:55 pm	#1
Andy Day Pentode Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 154	Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Has anyone apart from me heard of Computer Automation? searching with google I can find only one reference to an ancient sales brochure from CA on the whole of the web. At one time they were the 4th largest mini-computer manufacturer in the world! I worked for Computer Automation and its spin-off companies in the UK from 1976 to 1992. The company manufactured minicomputers widely used in process control and data-processing. Eventually the company went down under the tide of competition from microcomputers. The man behind Computer Automation was Dave Methvin, the CEO. He was also the designer of the early products such as the Alpha 8, Alpha 16, LSI 1 and LSI 2. He made a considerable amount of money out of royalties from IBM whose entry into the PC market infringed his early patents regarding memory address range allocation. The first product I was aware of was the predecessor to the Alpha 16, the Alpha 8, as its name suggests an eight bit minicomputer. The Alpha 16 merely doubled up this concept built using DTL and TTL devices. The LSI 1 was an early excursion into large gate arrays which formed the arithmetic logic unit and sundry other parts of the architecture of the computer. It was a dismal failure and was not released on the market. It was superseded by the LSI 2 which implemented the same architecture using standard TTL logic. From 1980 to 1986 I ran the repair centre in the UK and had to cope with Dave Methvin's philosophy of allowing the customers to do the final 10% of his research and development. As far as the UK and European market was concerned the death knell was sounded when the production facility was opened up at Clonshaugh in Dublin, taking advantage of tax concessions offered by the Eire government. Quality plummeted to such a marked degree that sales suffered. After that the company found it very difficult to complete with the proliferation of personal computers and embedded microcontrollers which were flooding the market. The last I heard of Dave Methvin he was designing the world's first 64-bit microcomputer in his garage! This must have been about 1987, his involvement with Computer Automation having been sidelined by board decisions. Anyone else come across them? __________________ The older I get, the faster I was!

23rd Oct 2006, 8:40 pm	#2
jjl Octode Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ware, Herts. UK. Posts: 1,082	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Andy In the late '80s I worked for Solid State Logic, the mixing console & pro audio company. At the time, they used the Naked Mini for the automation computer for their 4000 E and G series mixing consoles but I believe that projects were in hand to move to microprocessors for this function. John

23rd Oct 2006, 8:47 pm	#3
Andy Day Pentode Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 154	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? I remember SSL. Were they based in Royston? I was on a training course with one of their guys, a lad of Chinese extraction. May have been about 1978? __________________ The older I get, the faster I was!

23rd Oct 2006, 9:22 pm	#4
jjl Octode Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ware, Herts. UK. Posts: 1,082	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Andy When I was with them, SSL were based in Begbroke, near Woodstock to the north of Oxford. I believe that they're still there. John

19th Nov 2006, 3:11 pm	#5
coredump Triode Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Bristol, UK. Posts: 37	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? A friend of mine at Uni in the mid-80s had one, a Naked Mini Alpha. We got it from an enthusiast in north London, and he called it Wilbur. My friend took it back to his room in the Uni halls and we ran it a few times. Don't know what happened to it after that, though. John Honniball

20th Nov 2006, 12:26 pm	#6
Rob_Lewis Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: London Posts: 57	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? The philosophy of using the customer as R&D is nothing new...

21st Nov 2006, 1:33 pm	#8
jjl Octode Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ware, Herts. UK. Posts: 1,082	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Trish You have a PM. John

22nd Nov 2006, 7:52 pm	#9
Andy Day Pentode Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 154	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Wasn't it Cintel or Quantel who made the kit that did all the flashy graphics on Top of the Pops etc? That would have been in the mid eighties or so. And the Company I'm thinking of was SSL, made recording Consoles etc. Now who the hell was it in Royston? One of the last CA users was of course BA freight who were still using CA systems with big old CDC 14 inch disk drives right into the 90's. And RAC insurance services at Hitchin too. __________________ The older I get, the faster I was!

30th Nov 2006, 9:20 pm	#11
Andy Day Pentode Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 154	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Hi Trish, amazing what a prod to the grey matter does, of course, Neve in Melbourne! Blame the forgetfullness on the ECT! __________________ The older I get, the faster I was!

8th Mar 2007, 2:57 pm	#12
Maindec Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Maidenhead Posts: 1	Re: Computer Automation Alpha 8 & 16, Naked Mini? Brings back memories - I still have the programming card for the LSI-2. My first job after leaving school in 1975 was with Micro Consultants, a sister company to Quantel. Micro Consultants used PDP11's and LSI-2's for data logging and similar applications. At this time, both systems had 8 inch single-density floppies. Access to these systems for development was limited, so we decided to write an RT-11 look-alike operating system for the LSI2, called MOSS-11 (Micro consultants Operating System). A wrapper was written to make the CA programs think they were running under the CA operating system, whose name escapes me, but seemed to use many IBM terms. The only program I couldn't get to work in this way was the Fortran compiler - I suspect it used some attributes which were not in the documentation I had. I still to this day think that "CA" stands for Computer Automation, not Computer Associates!