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.cb LOW OVERHEAD TIME-SHARING FOR STANFORD UNIVERSITY


	Stanford University will establish a new computation facility
for teaching, unsponsored research, and general computing by students.
The new facility called LOTS for %2Low Overhead Time-Sharing%1.
The first priority of LOTS is course work in engineering, computer science,
and other fields, but there will be sufficient resources for extensive
other use.

	The computer will be a Digital Equipment Corporation 2040, a new
computer in that company's PDP-10 series and compatible with the three
other PDP-10 facilities on Campus.  The initial configuration includes
256K 36 bit words of core memory, one magnetic tape unit, 200 megabytes
of file disk, and 32 on-line terminals.  The computer and terminals
will be located in Pine Hall at the north end of the Campus in space
formerly occupied by the IBM 360/67.  The computation speed and main
memory are approximately equivalent to the 360/67, but the machine will
be entirely oriented to on-line use and to the student and unsponsored
research community.

	The Director of LOTS will be Professor John McCarthy of the
Computer Science Department, and a search is under way for a full time Manager.
There will also be a faculty and student Advisory Board with representatives
from several departments and schools.

	The expected installation date is November 1, 1976 (possibly
August 1976).  Some courses will transfer their computing from the
360/168 to LOTS in Winter 1977, and the transfer of all courses that
are going to transfer will be complete by Fall 1977.  (If we can get
the machine in August, some courses will transfer in Autumn, and we
will try to complete almost all of the transfer by Spring.

	The staff of LOTS will consist of three people, a manager,
a systems programmer, and a secretary.  This is where the "low overhead"
will come from.  Complete manuals for the machine, its programming
languages, and its utility programs will be for sale in the Stanford
Book Store, and many of the programs will have HELP features.  The
tiny staff will be able to give essentially no help to users in
learning the system, and the fculty and graduate assistants will
have the responsibility of getting their courses on the machine.
This mode of operation is based on the experience with computers
faculty and students have gained over the years.  Since consulting
we expect that the more experienced users will help the others.
Users will be checked out to tear off their printer listings,
load paper in terminals and printers, and to restart the system
after crashes, since the machine will not have an operator.
Besides informal help, we expect a free market in programming
and consulting for researchers to develop, but TAs will provide
the consulting for the courses.


	The success of LOTS will depend to a large degree will
on student volunteer work, and many stuedents have already
helped and expressed interest.  Space will be provided for the
student volunteer staff, and they will be give substantial
responsibilities.