Henry Goodman's 1900 Series Activities
1 - University. I
graduated from St.John's College Cambridge in 1955
with a 1st class degree in mathematics. This was followed by a one
year post graduate diploma in Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing
involving programming the pioneer EDSAC computer
2 - In 1956
I joined de Havilland Aircraft as a Pegasus programmer and spent 4 years mainly
writing technical programs for aircraft design and flight test data processing
but also some commercial programming including a payroll for 3000 staff.
3 - In 1960 I
joined Ferranti Ltd where I led the team of 4 responsible for the Organisation
and Monitor Program (OMP) for the Ferranti Orion, the first multiprogramming
computer in the world.. I continued working on Orion
after the take-over of the Ferranti Computer Department by ICT until the
end of 1964.
4 - With the formation of ICT's Programming Division under Peter Hunt in December
1964 to produce software for the recently announced 1900 series I was tasked
with managing Operating Systems Branch in George Felton's Basic Programming
Department. This involved the design and implementation of what became the
George series of operating systems. Subsequent posts were Manager, Operating
Systems Department and Chief Technical Officer, George 3 Design Department
which continued until 1971.
5 - From 1971 to 1973, I was concerned with
the early design of software for what became the 2900 series. I ran the design
team for Supervisor D, a proposed transaction processing oriented supervisor which
was cancelled shortly after I left ICL in 1973.