The decade of personal empowerment is earmarked by the selection of the personal computer as Time Magazine Man of the Year in 1982. The decade saw a proliferation of computer labs offering ubiquitous access to personal microcomputers and computer terminals on campus, many providing access to two mainframe-resident instructional delivery systems. MUSIC (Multi-User System for Interactive Computing) gave students a free, interactive computing system for instruction in computer skills essential in the technology-oriented workplace. PLATO (Personal Learning and Training Opportunities) installed on dedicated Control Data Corporation mainframe to provide supplemental classroom instruction in the arts and sciences.
UGA entered the supercomputing age during the decade with the installation of the CYBER 205 and CYBERPLUS supercomputers from Control Data Corporation. The Advanced Computational Methods Center is established to provide the means by which the educational, research, and service objectives of the University in advanced, high-performance computing are to be met.
HIGHLIGHTS: Computer Center first in country to install CYBER 18/30 (for USCN use), 1977; Georgia Information Distribution Center (GIDC), a data search and retrieval service functions as "Resource Sharing Center" in a project with EDUCOM, 1979; COSMIC celebrates 15 years, 1981; Advanced Computational Methods Center established, 1984; IBM 4381 installed to support expanding efforts of University Libraries, resulting in 50% increase in average transaction volume, 1985; Punch card services terminated, 1987.
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Actually, the computer center did not install the Cyber 18/30. The machine was installed in Room 206 of the Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center and used by the Department of Statistics and Computer Science. I know... I was there!
Oh... I forgot... at the time MUSIC was the McGill University System for Interactive Computing. It was installed on an Omega 480, an IBM plug-compatible machine. One of the access labs was in Boyd GSRC in Room 208. The room used Hazeltine 1510 terminals. They were horrible terminals!
The Department of Statistics and Computer Science was amongst the first departments to buy micro computers. We had two Northstar Horizons that were purchased as part of a research project. We also had an LSI-11 owned by one of the professors and a Heathkit machine owned by one of the student workers.
We would have done better but the politics by the computer center prevented Computer Science from doing it's own thing. Eventually, Harris Corp. dropped a couple of systems on the newly formed Department of Computer Science. But that happened right after I left in 1984.
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