50 years ago: a station for jet aircraft

50 years ago: a station for jet aircraft

50 years ago today was in Darmstadt, the German Computing Centre (DRZ) was founded. Unlike the time "computing center" computer installations in physical and technical institutes was the DRZ was independent of the universities and scientists of all faculties from all over West Germany. On the DRZ, they analyzed linguistic assistance with the computer problems, the parliamentary elections, agricultural price formation process or the distribution of students to universities by the ZVS. The employees worked in "monastic cells for scientists," which had been created in a specially designed building at the central computer.

In the 50 years leading scientists were aware of the problems in many scientific disciplines with the help of data processing could be addressed. One already in the FRG in 1951 convened the "Commission for electronic computers" designed a cross-regional data center that was open as a service provider to all scientists. The data center should be designed so that by the end of each century, the newest and fastest computers housed. Hubert Cremer, 1952 in Aachen, the first German computing machines colloquium was organized, the idea of ​​trying behind the establishment of the DRZ explain to outsiders: "They have to imagine that you had to build a station for the first railway, from which in due time, but must also start jet aircraft."

In addition to the technicians also welcomed the Humanities Building of the German data center. They raved about it, that the use of a computer and mathematical programming is not always the questions become deeper divide between the literary and scientific cultures will fill up. The end of the two cultures [3] was near. Innovative DRZ-employees such as the later Germanic Professor Gerhard Stickel on his DRZ Autopoeme calculated [4] were taken as evidence for this end.

The beginnings of the German data center were modest. IBM donated an IBM 704 computer and took over the maintenance. In the DRZ he could move only in 1962 after a year and was one of the German Research Society (DFG) and the Volkswagen Foundation purchased system replaces IBM 7090, which was again converted into a charge of IBM IBM 7094th This computer ran in 1966 in three shifts around the clock and was used by 340 institutions in Germany. DRZ planned by the then "upgrade" to an IBM System / 360 went wrong. Instead of the desired computer managed by DRZ a TR 440 to the DFG by AEG Telefunken. In protest, the then director took his hat, many employees left the DRZ. The end of the idea of ​​a nationwide supply of computing resources commented on the history of the data centers as follows: "To say a lie, that the countries and the universities also were very unhappy, the DFG took over by its own employees acting head of the DRZ that later. Darmstadt one branch of the Society for Mathematics and Data Processing has been transformed. "

While the computer of the DRZ are scrapped long ago, the building is built for them an incunabulum of architectural history. It now houses the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT), on 19 October celebrates the birthday of the German data center with a colloquium. Dieter Kempf is among the speakers of the tax consulting cooperative DATEV, operator of Germany's most commercially successful data center.