Jan 1

New AP for DBSIG (LEI) - Clive Davenhall

New AP for IUESIG (UCL) - Dave Mills

Feb 1

New AP for IPESIG (2nd) (CAR) - Grant Privett

New member of ADAM porting team (RAL) - Ian Jenkins (from Informatics)

4

Jo Murray resumed work for Starlink at RAL after a visit to Australia.

6

Starlink review panel meets at Cambridge.

First KAPPA application working under Unix.

12-13

SMM/37

16

The portable ADAM kernel was released for Unix systems for the first time.

This provides the ADAM parameter system, in addition to the subroutine

libraries released previously. It means you can now run your own ADAM

programs from the shell on a Sun or DECstation.

19

SUC/24. The meeting recommended the go ahead for a DEC leasing deal.

If this is implemented, Starlink will have:

* more than 150 CPUs in all

* more than 50 Unix machines (SUN and DEC)

* more than 100 workstations (VMS and Unix)

* more than 1000 SPECmarks of CPU power.

This would give about 1 SPECmark of CPU power per user. In the early

80s with VAX 780s and 750s we had about 1/100 SPECmark per user.

Mar 1

Paul Collison became Site manager of Oxford node.

31

Ken Hartley left Starlink (ADAM porting group).

Apr 6

Richard Nicholson replaced Michael Garrett as JOD Site Manager.

14

Starlink review panel met at Southampton.

Jun 10/11

SMM/38 (CAM)

Base line funding

92/93

93/94

94/95

1992FL provision

2089

2360

2355 (kPounds)

(recurrent/staff)

Full restoration

2089

2565

2675 (kPounds)

Cost of RAL manpower/MY

39.5

41.7

43.7

15

SUC/25 (Durham)

16

Starlink Bulletin 9 (Apr) distributed.

30

Last ARGS image display (at Armagh) came off maintenance. This was

Starlink's first image-display device. It was replaced by Ikons, and

these in turn are being replaced by workstations.

Jul 6/17

Loan of Silicon Graphics workstation to test ADAM port.

Aug 17

Andrew Broderick joined the Project as an industrial placement student

31

Jo Murray left Project.

Sep 11

Rolf Habing replaced Brian Heaton as KEN site manager.

18

Sunhil Sidher replaced Graeme Willoughby as (acting) IMP site manager.

25

KAPPA release on DECstations and SUNs.

Oct 1

Martin Murphy replaced Paul Brown as ARM site manager. Paul remains BEL site manager.

5

SUC/26 (Armagh), last one.

29-20

SMM/39 (AGM/5) at Cosener's House. Record attendance (50); photo taken.

Nov 1

Alan Penny became acting Project Scientist.

Jan 31

Gordon Bromage (Project Scientist) left the Project to take up the post

of Professor of Astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire.

Feb 1

National Audit Office began a 6-week in-depth study of Starlink

8

First Alpha-based machine acquired by Starlink. Dave Terrett is using it to

port Starlink software.

9

John Sherman announced that we have more Unix than VMS workstations.

Summary of current Starlink CPUs:

Multi-user

Workstation

Total

VMS

51

57

108

Unix

2 (SUN)

80 (46 SUN, 32 DEC, 2 HP)

82

Total

53

137

190

15

Anne Charles joined Project as part-time assistant to Mike Lawden.

She will be doing VMS software releases.

18

SMM/40 (RAL).

Mar 1

Nick Eaton became Site Manager at Imperial College, replacing Sunil Sidher. This

position replaces Nick's previous position as the ADAM System Contract Programmer.

Alan Penny confirmed as Starlink Project Scientist.

22

SP/1 First meeting of Starlink Panel (at RAL). Allocated money to sites for Capital equipment.

31

Julian Gold (VIMSIG Programmer, CAM) left Project.

Apr 1

Stuart Robinson (ADAM port, RAL) left Project.

30

Starlink's expenditure estimate for FY 1992/93 in kPound:

RAL staff costs 583

Recurrent 1192

Capital 295

TOTAL 2070

RAL overheads are 13.3/MY. Recurrent includes expenditure on site management and

programming contracts (450k).

May 1

John Deacon joined Project as assistant to Site Manager at UCL.

Ian Skillen (Site Manager, CAM) left Project.

Jun 1

Jodrell Bank ceased VMS operation; Starlink's first all-Unix site.

Glasgow University got a grant to set up a Starlink node.

Dave Berry (IRASSIG, MAN) left Project.

9-10

SMM/41 (Sussex University).

15

Starlink placed its largest ever order for hardware: over 250kPounds.

Jul 1

Geraint Lewis joined Project as User Support Assistant at Cambridge.

QMW Site Manager funding increased from 50% to 100%.

2

Andrew Broderick (Student, RAL) left Project.

13

SP/2 Starlink Panel meeting.

16

Richard Saxton (XRAYSIG programmer, LEI) left Project.

Aug 1

Liverpool John Moores University got a grant to set up a Starlink node.

12

Barbara Bromage was replaced by Barry Kellett as RAL Site Manager.

Sep 1

Shashi Kanbur joined Project as Site Manager at Glasgow.

Subhash Rehan replaced Rolf Habing as Site Manager at Kent.

Peter Bunclark joined Project as Site Manager at Cambridge (60%).

Alan Scott joined Project as Site Manager at Liverpool John Moores.

Peter Draper, Dave Berry, Horst Meyerdierks contracts extended 3 years.

13-17

ADAM workshop 1993, La Palma.

30

Chris Brindle (Site Manager, Hatfield), left Project.

Oct 22

SP/3.

27-28

AGM/5 (SMM/42) Cosener's House.

31

Ian Jenkins stopped working for Project.

Michael McSherry (BEL) left Project.

Nov 5

Paul Rees (RAL) left Project to go to La Palma.

22

Tim Gledhill joined Project as Site Manager, Hatfield.

Dec 1

A windfall of about 300k Pounds became available to Starlink. It was

spent on hardware upgrades to speed the move to Unix.

Jan 5

Mrs Pamela Murray started as assistant to Site Manager at Durham.

10

USSC supported on Sun/Solaris 2.x and AXP/OSF1 and released to sites.

11

Last release of VMS Starlink application under old distribution

mechanism. In future, only infrastructure updates will be distributed.

11-15

Starlink had a stand at the AAS meeting in Washington DC.

17

First USSC update that covers all 4 supported systems.

20

Rhys Morris (CAR) left Project.

21

NAO report "Value for Money" on 4 RAL projects (including Starlink) published.

25

Official opening of the Glasgow node.

First comprehensive list of user locations produced.

31

Margaret Ellis (RAL) left Project. Tina Stocks replaced her temporarily.

Deadline for the return of Starlink Software Survey Questionnaire 93/94.

Feb 4/5

Starlink had a stand at "Astrofest" in London, organised by Astronomy Now magazine.

8

Jo Grant ("Temp") started keying in Starlink Software Survey data.

16/17

SMM/43, Coseners House.

28

Jo Grant finished keying in the SSS data.

Mar 1

Nicky Robbins started as Admin assistant at RAL.

2

RAL shut down its VAX cluster.

4

Tina Stocks (admin assistant) left Starlink.

7

Karen Brazier joined Starlink as User Support Assistant at ROE on a 6-month fixed-term contract.

8

STADAT upgraded from a VAX II to mVAX 3800 with more disk space.

11

CAM had several of their Unix workstations stolen, value about 100k.

17

ADAM Review Panel Meeting 1 at RAL.

21

Official opening of the Liverpool node (LJM).

David McGavin joined Starlink as User Support Assistant at ROE on a 12-month fixed-term contract.

Apr 5-8

ENAM (European & National Astronomy Meeting) in Edinburgh. Starlink had

a stand with demos & a glossy.

6

CAM shut down its VAX cluster.

May 1

Michael Bang joined Starlink as Site Manger at Manchester.

MRA counted as a separate user centre from CAM, David is the Site Manager.

16

Kevin Ferguson replaced David McGavin as User Support Assistant at ROE.

23

ADAM Review Panel Meeting 2, London.

26

Dave Mills left the Project.

Jun 8-9

SMM/44, Cardiff.

15

Martin Clayton joined Starlink as IUESIG programmer at UCL.

Jul 29

Richard Nicholson (Site Manager, JOD) left Starlink.

Dave Shone became acting Site Manager at JOD.

Aug 16

James Albinson (Site Manager, KEE) left Starlink.

Tim Naylor became acting Site Manager at KEE.

19

Laurence Jones (Site Manager, SOU) left Starlink.

Sep 19

Starlink Glossy No 2 released (Starlink's Software Environment)

26-28

ADASS IV conference in Baltimore. (Terrett, Clayton, Wallace attended),

Oct 1

New Starlink site at Sheffield. Address: Dept of Physics, University

of Sheffield, Hounsfield Road, SHEFFIELD, S3 7RH. Site Manager: Mr Phil Thorpe.

Mike Hill became Site Manager at SOU.

4

First of the new Starlink Software Strategy Groups (SSGs) met.

Nov 1

Barry Smalley replaced Tim Naylor (acting) as Site Manager at Keele.

2-3

AGM/6 (SMM/45), Coseners House.

9

Starlink Panel meeting.

Dec 12

Ray Riggs replaced Dave Shone (acting) as Site Manager at Jodrell Bank.

Bernie McNally is now a Site Manager Assistant at Edinburgh.

31

Target date for completing move from VMS to Unix. Met by all sites except EDI, KEN, QMW

(waiting for CGS4DR software from Hawaii) and SUS (late starter). All sites are running USSC.