Source : Internet (Translate to English with Google Translate)
This article certainly does not pretend to tell the whole story of this center. But he sets some benchmarks and sets some milestones to invite further study.
Some elements for ... a story of Philips Data Systems - France
Philips Data Systems was founded in the Netherlands in the 1960s. A new research and production center was built in Apeldoorn. A first series of computers "main-frames" was developed under the name P1000, declined in 3 models P1100, P1200 and P1400.
Although it was the era of the great systems inspired by the IBM 360, it was also the era of appearance of minicomputers. And Philips decided to charge France to develop a line of P800 mini-computers, in the shadow of Dutch systems.
It is an electronics laboratory of Philips Industry, installed in Bobigny who took charge of this project. Very soon the brand new Philips Data Systems France division moved to Fontenay-aux-Roses, in former industrial premises located a little below the EDF research center.
The team consisted of a boss appointed by the Dutch management - Mr Van Der Sloot - and executives coming (mainly) from Bobigny: Mr Dubreux with advanced studies, Mr Maroufi with the electronic studies, Mr Bertaux with the assisted design, M. Lemaire in software, M. Lebreton in the design office ... Evidently Bobigny's small laboratory was not enough for the task and the company recruited massively young passionate school leavers and swept the few engineers already trained in the discipline and available on the market.
That's how I joined the team in 1969, from CII, to work in computer-aided design. The more I think back then, the more I am struck by the youth and the enthusiasm of this team, and by the trust the elders gave us: six months after my arrival, I went on a 6-week mission to the United States, with Didier Strube, a young polytechnician, to study CMOS development techniques and contract possibilities with Collins, Fairchild and IBM ...
In 1969, the big project in Fontenay was the P880 minicomputer. This machine aimed directly at competing with the IBM 1130. This was felt even in the presentation of the machine in the shape of a large office, but - honestly - less elegant than that of IBM! The machine used the same technology as the P1100 series, namely Philips integrated circuits in Diode Transistor Logic (DTL). The printed circuit boards were surprising: they were multilayered (2 outer planes for the logic, 1 internal plane for each voltage), all drilled in 2.54 mm pitch, with all the holes metallized. Replace yourself at the time and judge the technological bet - successful, but at what price ... Another peculiarity was the track layout: all vertical on one side, all horizontal on the other, with a judicious number of "mini" bridges between tracks.
The P880 study was accompanied by the study of a P816 graphics console. Superb machine with huge screen operated of course in "sweeping". Recall that at the time we did not have fast memory capabilities to make bit map graphics like today, and that the graph was here totally "vector" to the vector line by vector on the map. 'screen. The P880-P816 assembly has been used in particular in several Philips centers for the design of integrated circuit masks.
The P880 had to go on sale in 1970. Philips Data Systems France had set up its sales department square Max Hymans (At the time each Philips division had a fully independent technical management and sales management). The machine was technically good, faster than its IBM 1130 target, with a "reasonable" selling price (for the time). But precisely the IBM 1130 were not sold but rented. Despite the urgent demands of our sales representatives, the Dutch management has never wanted to accept this solution, and the P880 has remained confined to the industrial field, design and automation.
Fontenay was in crisis ... Apeldoorn saw us pretty much confined to small studies under their direction, but that did not satisfy our young enthusiasts. Mr. Prades - former head of CII's civil software department - had joined our center for some time and had taken charge of the studies. Given the lack of clear guidelines, and the number of engineers to occupy, he took it upon himself to launch the study of the project "Sagittarius", a range of minicomputers in TTL technology, industrial oriented 19-inch rack.
As early as 1970, parallel studies with P880 were carried out to equip it with auxiliary synchronous and asynchronous communications cabinets, according to ECMA standards, and especially according to the standards ... IBM! On this occasion, we developed our skills in TTL circuits, LSI CMOS, logic simulation, in particular using the Cassandre software developed at IMAG by MM. Mermet and Anceau. Also studies have progressed quickly, and the official decision to produce a P850 range was taken in Apeldoorn.
The premises of Fontenay had allowed the manufacture of the P880 and P816 in a "prototype" approach. They were unsuited to the series production envisaged for the P850 range. It is the Radiotechnique factory in Rambouillet that has unveiled a workshop between its radio production lines (a packaged Philips chain, a Radiola packaged chain ...) to ensure our fabrications. This was the beginning of a long cooperation, initially difficult - a young engineer and a workshop manager do not speak the same language - but very productive and led the Rambouillet factory to become a pilot plant for computer fabrications.
The range was declined in P850, P852, P856 at the beginning I think, then came to add P851, P855, P857 ... with rather good results.
However Apeldoorn had launched the project of a new P2000 range. Technology, development tools, everything was back in studies, a huge amount of research began. But all the European computer science was marking time and alliances were becoming necessary.
Let us recall in two words the creation of Unidata which brought together CII, Siemens and Philips. A first Unidata machine was announced: it was actually a P2000 start-up developed by the Philips center in Brussels. There was talk of a rapprochement with English ICL, and suddenly France announced that it was pulling out of the game. Philips Data Systems which had bet on Unidata stopped almost immediately all its activities in Apeldoorn ...
The production of the P850 range continued a moment. A new director has arrived, spurring a new dynamism in activities oriented "smart card" and security. The closure of the "Data Systems" division did not result in the disappearance of the center but its return to the fold of another industrial division of Philips, and finally its attachment to TRT.
But this is another story…
Philippe DENOYELLE
Dear M. Denovelle,
ReplyDeletemy French is not good enough to write in this language. In the seventies I have been working in the Philips Research Laboratories Hamburg as a supporter for all computer hardware. We had two P-1400, two P-880 (one with a P-816 display) and many P-800.
As I understand the P-800 were ment for process control (as they were used in the Elcoma semiconductor production). I think the main difference was the built in bus. The first generation had the Sagittaire bus, the CPUs were P-855 and P-860. The second generation had the Belier bus, the CPUs were P-852, P-856 and P-857. The third generation had double-euro cards and the GPBS-bus, the CPU was P-851, and there was a process interface system named MIOS. Another PDS factory was in Siegen-Eiserfeld, where office systems (P-4500) were produced. The fourth generation of P-800 had the same unified UPL-bus as the office machines, the CPUs were P-853 and P-854. After this there came a single chip P-800, but I do not know what became of it.
I could still say more, I was one of the developers of the PM 4400 table top P-800 systems, but the space here is limited. Please answer if you like.
C.-F. von Ahlften
There is a free e-book covering all of Philips PTS history - from beginning to demise. Perhaps you can find some answers to your questions here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377777427_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Philips_Data_Systems
Delete