Detroit-Christchurch LINC

Press, 5 October 1985, Page 21

Detroit-Christchurch LINC

By 1

NEILL BIRSS

The head of the Burroughs development group responsible for the Christ-church-developed LINC software made his first visit to the LINC centre yesterday. Mr Jim Murtaugh, from Detroit, is vice-president and general manager of the system development group of the systems products division. LINC comes within Mr Murtaugh’s group, and the Burroughs staff in Christchurch who accept the product report directly to him.

Mr Murtaugh’s group develops mainframe hardware, software, and datacommunications equipment; in all, 40 per cent of Burroughs’ products. The group has 2115 employees at seven sites in three countries: five in the United States; and one each at Cumbernauld in Scotland’s Silicon ' Glen and Christchurch. ’

Mr Murtaugh has brought a $2.6‘ million purchase order for contract work at the Burnside software laboratory. LINC was developed by two Christchurch men, Messrs Peter Hoskins

and Gil Simpson, and was sold to Burroughs, on whose computers it runs. Messrs Hoskins and Simpson- own and run the software company which develops LINC under contract to Burroughs. Mr Murtaugh has been touring LINC test sites in Australia and New Zealand checking on the latest version of the software, JANC 11. In Melbourne, he saw a hospital applications system, based on LINC, developed by Burroughs staff. More LINC-based specialist systems are likely, he says. Mr Murtaugh indicated that Burroughs, whose headquarters are in Detroit, was well satisfied with its special relationship with the Christchurch development centre. He said the centre was the only outside organ-, isation he knew of which did contract development for his group in Burroughs. LINC II was originally to have been released late last year. The first deliveries were made last week.

“The (revised) release date was September, and we hit it,” Mr Murtaugh said,

obviously pleased about the Christchurch centre’s performance. The beefing up of the Christchurch centre with the installation of a huge 87900 mainframe computer, and the stationing of the Burroughs acceptance staff at the centre under Mr Jim Shivers had improved development. Previously, LINC’s ties with Detroit Burroughs headquarters were via the corporation’s California division. “Jim (Shivers) is LINC to Burroughs,” Mr Murtaugh said. The executive gave some hints of further directions of LINC. During his visit he will discuss with Messrs Hoskins and Simpson such possibilities as graphics. He did not elaborate whether these would be for LINC specialists to use in developing applications or for end-., users. •• He confirmed that' LINC on microcomputers is possible, but suggested the corporation would like LINC to . encompass porting of data between micros and mainframes or minis running LINC, rather than be a

stand-alone micro package. Mr Murtaugh believes LINC is at the head of the fourth-generaton software for computers. Burroughs as a whole endorses this view as the software is being featured in corporate advertising and promotion. Mr Murtaugh denied that the attractions of software development in Christchurch were the comparative costs of New Zealand labour and overheads. The people were the key, he said. Burroughs contracted LINC development to Christchurch because it wanted the people who were doing the work. Distance and isolation were no bar to software industry, he agreed, but marketing in the larger countries would be a problem for distant software industries, such as New Zealand. .Hls corpoLation filled ./.the ?<mairkfeUng.>/Sole for LINC. ’ The computer industry was always seeking new software ideas, but a good way for a software entrepreneur to start was as a consultant, he said. This provided cash flow and ex-

perience during initial product development. He believes that Japan’s fifth-generation quest is drifting off into the realms of artificial intelligence and expert systems. Mr Murtaugh believes that fourth-generation development will continue in data handling, with perhaps use of semantic data models. These may exceed the capabilities of relational models. As an example of semantic models, he cites the handling of an ID number. The semantic model would treat this as a special type of number on which there could be no additions. This might mean that ID numbers could be carried through calculations without being corrupted. Mr Murtaugh gave the impression,, of , confidence that there, would be a long- , term > relationsiMpv between Burroughs, Detroit- and' Christchurch, in LINC development. This would, however, always be subject to contract order ' following contract order. Contracting is about performance, not security.