Timeline

1950s

  • 1951: Dr. W. M. Whyburn began planning for a University high-speed computer
  • 1955: Bureau of the Census expressed interest in cooperating on the University's efforts to secure a large computer
  • 1957: Proposals: Sperry-Rand for a 1103-A and IBM for a modified 701
  • 1957: An addition to Phillips Hall has been authorized
  • August 1959: Univac 1105 installed in the basement of Phillips Hall — photos

1960s

  • March 30, 1960: Dedication of the Computation Center — see Dedication Program
  • January 1965: Payroll put on Univac
  • Summer 1965: Triangle Universities Computation Center (TUCC) formed
  • February 1966: IBM 360/30 replaced Univac 1105
  • April 1966: IBM 360/40 at TUCC
  • September 1966: IBM 360/75 installed at TUCC and 360/30 connected
  • August 1967: IBM 360/40 replaced 360/30 at Computation Center
  • Summer 1967: Separate Administrative Data Processing group
  • October 1967: RCA Spectra 70/35 installed at ADP
  • 1967: NC Memorial Hospital connects IBM 2780 to TUCC
  • September 1968: J.W. Hanson resigned as Computation Center Director, Paul Oliver became the new Director
  • September 1968: Vol. 1, No. 1 Computation Center Newsletter
  • October 1969: RCA Spectra 70/46 replaced 70/35 at ADP

1970s

  • 1970: RCA Spectra 70/45 installed at NC Memorial Hospital
  • January 1970: Paul Oliver resigned as Computation Center Director, James J. Batter became the new Director
  • September 1970: IBM 360/50 replaced 360/40 at Computation Center
  • September 1971: IBM 370/165 replaced 360/75 at TUCC, and TUCC's 360/75 replaced 360/50 at Computation Center
  • October 1972: Univac Series 70/7 (Ex-RCA) replaced 70/46 at ADP
  • November 15, 1973: CALL-OS, interactive time-sharing system, available at UNC, accessible from teletypes
  • March 1974: Terminal rooms with clusters of Model 38 Teletypes opened in Connor and James residence halls providing students access to remote batch, CPS, TSO, and CALL-OS
  • October 1974: Morrison terminal room open
  • January 1975: Bibliographic search system available for chem abstracts, engineering index, and psychological abstracts
  • March 1975: Craige terminal cluster open
  • Fall 1975: Honeywell 66/40 replaced 70/45 at NC Memorial Hospital
  • Spring 1976: Computation Center adds an IBM 370/155 II
  • March 1976: Danziger's History of Data Processing 1930's - 1976 [Page 1 of 2] [Page 2 of 2]
  • November 1976: Some staff move from Phillips Hall to new space in the NCNB building on Franklin Street
  • March 1977: A second IBM 370/165 is in use at TUCC
  • January 1978: Diablo model 1620 replaced IBM 2741 in the terminal room -- excellent print quality, recommended for printing final copy
  • August 1978: Terminal facility open at Ehringhaus
  • January 1979: Distributed Computing Services group formed to support interactive services and decentralized computing
  • January 1979: Operating system for IBM computers moving from MVT to MVS
  • January 1979: Move staff, the Programming Services group, moved to NCNB
  • March 1979: Microcomputers: The North Carolina Educational Computer Services, a division of UNC General Administration, held a meeting of those interested in educational and research uses of microcomputers
  • November 1979: Amdahl 470 V/7 installed at TUCC
  • November 1979: Terminal cluster in Carroll Hall
  • November 1979: Computation Center report on word processing equipment

1980s

  • February 1983: Replaced 16-year old IBM 360/75 with an IBM 4341-L1. See the photos.
  • March 1983: Jim Kitchen became Acting Director of the Computation Center replacing James J. Batter
  • April 1983: Replaced 7-year old IBM 370/155 with an IBM 4341-M11.
  • Spring 1983: Seminar series on parrallel computing systems, at TUCC
  • May 28, 1983: "Report of the Provost's Committee on the Study of Computing Resources and Services Devoted to Instruction and Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill," commonly known as the Garner Report, recommends that planning begin for a regional large-scale computing capability to be installed at TUCC.
  • June 1983: Microcomputers on State Contract: Apple IIe and III, Atari 800 and 1200XL, Franklin Ace 1000 and 1200, Radio Shack I, II, III, and 12, Texas Instruments 99/4a, DEC Professional, IBM PC
  • June 1983: Replaced IBM 4341-L1 with an IBM 4341-M2.
  • July 1983: MVS operating system available for testing at UNCCC.
  • September 1983: BITNET: Because It's There. Article in UNCCC Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 -- TUCC connecting to nearest member, Virginia Polytechnical Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia.
  • September 1983: "TUCC's Role in the Microcomputer Explosion" article in UNCCC Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 discusses what was happening at Duke, UNC, NCSU, and the North Carolina Educational Computing Service (NCECS).
  • September 29, 1983: User Meeting, summary in Newsbrief #92 includes "The major topic of the September 29 user meeting was the University's need for a 'truly interactive' computing service as expressed in the 'Report of the Provost's Committee on the Study of Computing Resources and Services Devoted to Instruction and Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.' The users expressed a need to be able to run programs interactively, particularly Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) program..."
  • January 1984: SAS82.3 replaced SAS79.6
  • January 1984: MVS replaced MVT as the operating system at UNCCC.
  • January 1984: Electronic mail service, UNIX news/mail, available through North Carolina Educational Computing Service
  • March 1984: FPS-164 attached array processor installed at TUCC, access to a Control Data CYBER-205 through TUCC, TUCC's 3081 upgraded from Model D to Model K
  • April 1984: IBM Corporation grant to the college of Arts and Sciences to conduct a computer-aided curriculum program (3-year grant valued at $750,000, 53 IBM personal computers, supporting equipment and software, and funds to develop instructional materials)
  • April 1984: Data Collection at IRSS on the Data General
  • July 1984: Seven-track tape drive at TUCC removed
  • July 1984: Converting 3330 disk to 3350
  • July 30, 1984: IBM 4381 P2 replaced IBM 4341 M2 and 4341 M11
  • August 29-30, 1984: UNCCC 25th Anniversary Celebration
  • September 1984: T1 line replaced existing communication lines to TUCC
  • October 1984: 10 IBM PCs installed in microlab (with 32 Apple IIs)
  • October 22, 1984: First meeting Macintosh Users Group
  • November 1984: Three PCs in the microcomputer lab now communicate with the mainframes at UNCCC and TUCC
  • January 1985: TUCC has email (BITNET), UNCCC is looking at it
  • January 1985: Electronic class rolls available
  • February 1985: One Mac acquired for PC lab
  • March 1985: John H. Harrison appointed Associate Provost
  • April 1985: SAS unveils PC software
  • July 1985: Equipment for visually disabled
  • August 1985: Microcomputing Support Center formed
  • August 1985: Computer labs in Phillips, Undergrad library, Cobb, Conner, Craige, Ehringhaus, Hinton-James, Morrison, Parker, and Spencer
  • September 1985: Large screen projection for classrooms
  • October 1985: RAM Shop article in Newsbrief
  • February 1986: SAS User Group meeting
  • March 1986: Free email for all faculty, staff and students available
  • April 1986: Dialup access to search online catalog
  • May 1986: QMS (what is this?)
  • May 1986: Laser printer available for use
  • July 1986: Groves became director
  • July 1986: Removed burster and decollator
  • September 1986: SAS available for PCs
  • November 1986: Online documentation, especially for email
  • December 1986: Last card reader removed
  • February 1987: Dialup access speed now 2400 bps, as well as 1200 and 300
  • March 1987: VAX 11/780 installed
  • March 1987: Micro labs added in Davis Library
  • March 1987: Hypertext demo
  • April 1987: NAME directory available for people with TSO email
  • April 1987: Classroom Technologies Service Center begins operation
  • April 1987: Internet documentation available
  • May 1987: Microcomputers with projection are in Hanes Art Center, Greenlaw, Phillips, Saunders
  • June 1987: Computation Center becomes Academic Computing Services (ACS)
  • July 1987: UNC Computation Center becomes Academic Computing Services
  • September 1987: Sitterson Hall dedication
  • November 1987: Micro statistical lab opens in Manning
  • February 1988: FAX service offered at Academic Computing Services
  • April 1988: Convex C210 installed
  • May 1988: Molecular Modeling Lab christened
  • May 1988: Online information service planned
  • June 1988: 4381 model 23 with 32 meg replaced 4381 model 2 with 16 meg
  • August 1988: Convex C220 replaces C210
  • August 1988: Campus information system INFO announced (using VTX on VAX)
  • August 1988: 4381 model 24 with two processors and 48 meg replaced model 23
  • November 1988: ACS Listserver ready for use
  • November 1988: NeXT demo
  • November 1988: VAX 6220 with two processors and 64 meg replaces 11/780 (five times faster)
  • December 1988: Campus directory online
  • January 1989: VM/CMS available at ACS
  • January 1989: ACS had documentation online
  • April 1989: 4381 upgraded S24 to 92E
  • April 1989: ODVC formed
  • May 1989: VAX 6330 with three processors replaced 6220
  • July 1989: 16 meg added to 4381 for a total of 64 meg
  • October 1989: 9600 bps dial-in service available
  • November 1989: UNC policy on software piracy issued
  • Fall 1989: Cray YMP/432 to NC Supercomputing Center

1990s

  • June 1990: TUCC closed
  • November 1990: Graves becomes Associate Provost
  • March 1991: ACS becomes part of Office of Information Technology (OIT)
  • April 1991: Tape robotics system on IBM (MVS)
  • May 1991: TCP/IP available on MVS
  • WAIS document searching in test
  • September 1991: Ehringhaus computer cluster opens
  • September 1991: Portable workstation for testing: 17 lbs 20MHz
  • October 1991: Sun unveils multiprocessing servers
  • December 1991: Extended Bulletin Board Service (BBS) available
  • April 1992: Conference on distance learning (at NCSU)
  • May 1992: MS Windows on lab machines
  • May 1992: Email aliases available
  • June 1992: SunSITE agreement, ftp repository
  • July 1992: UnCover available
  • September 1992: Campus directory searchable
  • December 1992: BBS becomes LaUNCpad
  • January 1993: SunSITE has web server
  • January 1993: One millionth micro lab user signed in
  • February 1993: USA Today available via new readers
  • April 1993: Internet courses offered
  • May 1993: Info available through Gopher
  • July 1993: List of email lists available on SunSITE
  • Summer 1993: Move email from BITNET to Internet
  • December 1993: Library has gopher server
  • July 1994: Micro and mainframe help desks combined and moved to Wilson Library
  • October 1994: Daily Tar Heel on the web
  • November 1994: Journalism school to offer cyberpublishing and cybercasting course
  • December 1994: INFO moved to the web
  • December 1994: IBM gives $1 million in computer equipment
  • February 1995: OIT begins site licensing
  • June 1996: OIT becomes Academic Technology and Networks (ATN)
  • August 1996: First RESNET connection
  • September 1996: The Fifth Estate debuts
  • March 1997: Internet 2 initiative
  • May 1997: Metalab receives grant
  • July 1997: Marian Moore comes to ITS
  • January 1998: ResNet opens on South Campus
  • February 1998: Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI)