One Of The Jobs I Did, That I’m Most Proud Of
In the early 1970s, I developed and attempted to market a simultaneous differential equation solving program called SPEED, which stood for Simple Program for the Efficient Evaluations of Differentials or something like that.
It wasn’t very successful, but two companies asked me to write some for them.
- For Time Sharing, I put the central algorithm into their simultaneous differential equation solver to move the program up to the next level.
- WS Atkins, asked me to install it on their computer.
SPEED had a few advantages over typical simultaneous differential equation solvers of the time like IBM/CSMP.
- IBM/CSMP needed at least an IBM 360/50 computer, which I ran it on at ICI in Welwyn Garden City, where I was a general mathematical dogsbody. But SPEED could run on a dial-up line to a time-shared computer like a PDP-10.
- The time-shared computers as used by Time Sharing and WS Atkins, gave the big advantage, that as the size of the computer increased, the size of the problem, that could be tackled in proportion.
- IBM/CSMP and SPEED both had a simple column-oriented report writer, which unsurprisingly ended up in Artemis, which I wrote a few years later.
- I can’t remember, who at ICI gave me the tip, but I used a sophisticated version of the Runga-Kutta algorithm, that everybody used and some probably still do today. The version, I used was called Runga-Kutta-England, where like me England, was a graduate of Liverpool University.
This summary by Google AI described the algorithm.
The England version of the Runge-Kutta method (developed by R. England) is a highly efficient 4th/5th order embedded numerical integration formula. By reusing intermediate slopes across two methods of differing orders, it provides a highly reliable built-in error estimate for adaptive step-size control.
Does anybody still use Runga-Kutta methods? I suspect not!
A breakthrough of sorts came, when WS Atkins asked me to produce a larger system of the SPEED software, that could handle several tens of thousands of equations.
- Atkin’s client was the Water Resources Board and they were modelling the water distribution system for a large part of the UK.
- Prominent in the project was a Dr. David A, Dimeloe and we became friends and had dinner with our wives a couple of times.
- But I never received a copy of the report, that was written or heard any more since about 1975.
- But judging by the fact, that we seem to have adequate supply of water in the UK and problems seem to be all about sewage, politics, management and finance, I feel that David and his team, must have done a good job.
- I was also never asked to fix any bugs in the software.
I did have some trouble getting the money I was owed from the intermediary in the deal, but I eventually retrieved it through the County Court without a solicitor.
Thoughts On Alstom At Derby
In the 1970s, I worked at ICI Plastics in Welwyn Garden City in a section called Computer Techniques.
We had a unique mandate from the Divisional Board, that allowed us to stick our nose into anybody’s business.
We certainly weren’t short of computing power, as in addition to the Division’s IBM 360 and dial-up services to GEISco, we had one of the handful of PACE 231R analogue computers in the UK.
Note.
- These machines didn’t use many semiconductors.
- These beasts could solve up to a hundred simultaneous differential equations and display the answers as graphs on the printers.
- Other UK companies and institutions with a PACE 231 R, included BMC, British Rail Research and Cambridge University.
- Two were linked together and these did the calculations for the Apollo flights.
- Their finest hour would surely have been to use their flexibility and power to bring home the stricken Apollo 13.
I got an interesting introduction to the industrial world in my three years at Welwyn.
One of our problems, was recruiting enough specialist engineers and programming staff.
So in the end, at one of our Monday morning meetings, we wrote our own advert for the Sunday Times.
We got all the staff we needed, but they weren’t the sort of recruits, you’d normally expect in the 1970s. Two were Indian and two were American, but all were recent immigrants. But they were certainly good enough to solve our problems.
I don’t think the Personnel Department were amused at our independent recruitment exercise.
I sometimes wonder if Bombardier (now Alstom) in Derby has a similar recruitment problem.
I am a Control Engineer and all these hybrid systems, that will power the transport of the future, be they trains, planes or automobiles, need lots of engineers with similar skills to myself and those of computer programmers. So do local companies; Rolls-Royce, JCB and Toyota, who probably have their own skill shortages in these areas, nick the best from Alstom.
It should be noted that in the railway press, it has been said that the Aventras from Derby were late because of software problems.
The Anonymous Widower 