Fujitsu - Bracknell - BRA01

[starmonkey]

Another ex-HP'er here - spent a bit of time in Amen Corner and now visit occasionally for meetings.

Still living in the area though!

[tr7v8]

starmonkey said:

Another ex-HP'er here - spent a bit of time in Amen Corner and now visit occasionally for meetings.

Still living in the area though!

Noooo not that next door, I mean Dell House...

[Origin Unknown]

Perik Omo said:

Origin Unknown said:

Anyone here work at HP in Pinewood, Crowthorne before it closed? I have fond memories of that place and loved working there. Every work place should have its own bar!

Yep me, from 1996 until it closed (up the stairs through the doors then turn left and go right to the end by the windows) then got moved to that god awful office at Amen Corner from whence I escaped to France in 2007!!

Was an amazing place. I started my apprenticeship there as one of two of the monkeys that ran round supporting the education facility (under John Gard). I left in 1998 so I suspect we crossed paths at some point as everyone seemed to know everyone.

[s70rmp]

prg123 said:

I used to work at ICL BRA01 as a computer operator in the late eighties

They used to have over 20 mainframes in the ground floor running a mix of ICL VME, DME and TME.

The machines I worked on were Series 3900, Series 2900 and briefly ME29's and Series 1900.

Used to love working on VME a wonderful operating system. We seem to be going back to that methodology with VMWARE

- Pete

I worked at MAN05 back in 1987-89 then moved to Ferranti's who's main system was running on 2988 running George3, now that was a system. They also had a 3900 system.

While at MAN05 I remember the "I" Service was the first Quad 3900 series level 80's in the world.
They were building the S3X (Essex) machines in the development hall next door.

by 'eck that's taking me back

Edited by s70rmp on Monday 26th May 01:05

[snowy]

I worked in ABI01, that closed down and we were moved to BRA06 (I think) it was the ICL Repair Centre, left BRA06 in 1991 to work on the CHoTS project, finally leaving ICL in 1998

[prg123]

s70rmp said:

prg123 said:

I used to work at ICL BRA01 as a computer operator in the late eighties

They used to have over 20 mainframes in the ground floor running a mix of ICL VME, DME and TME.

The machines I worked on were Series 3900, Series 2900 and briefly ME29's and Series 1900.

Used to love working on VME a wonderful operating system. We seem to be going back to that methodology with VMWARE

- Pete

I worked at MAN05 back in 1987-89 then moved to Ferranti's who's main system was running on 2988 running George3, now that was a system. They also had a 3900 system.

While at MAN05 I remember the "I" Service was the first Quad 3900 series level 80's in the world.
They were building the S3X (Essex) machines in the development hall next door.

by 'eck that's taking me back

Edited by s70rmp on Monday 26th May 01:05

I was one of the first operators at BRA01 to work on the 3980 mainframes. I wrote a load of SCL code to help automate operator jobs. Great fun....I can still remember the opera command S WSD,,OPS to show the printer queue (shortcutted to WSD OPS) also S JS to show the job scheduler etc...

Also remember some of the commands to " paint the screen" ---- SMSG (HEX(0C21022302)) to clear the screen and put the cursor at the top left

[s70rmp]

Been trying to remember commands from the oper but can only remember parts like T OPS&AD

George3 had a load of local customised commands , like CML (change media to laser) WWW (show what was waiting and working)

Used to spend night shifts with feet up on the twin screen console with the keyboard built into the desk

[prg123]

Hmm you didn't have tape ring fights then..... only us then lol

- Pete

[s70rmp]

prg123 said:

Hmm you didn't have tape ring fights then..... only us then lol

- Pete

Oh yes we had them, if memory serves right we had 50 or 60 tape drives around the computer room and thousands and thousands of tapes, on the evening/night shift youd prepare your self at start of shift my ensuring you had 10 or so rings in your arm for emergency attacks !

What I used to hate was when some idiot shuffled the punch cards before you ran a job.

or worse a large job input on papertape would fail with about an inch left of 600 feet already read !

Edited by s70rmp on Monday 26th May 14:21

[NormalWisdom]

Origin Unknown said:

Perik Omo said:

Origin Unknown said:

Anyone here work at HP in Pinewood, Crowthorne before it closed? I have fond memories of that place and loved working there. Every work place should have its own bar!

Yep me, from 1996 until it closed (up the stairs through the doors then turn left and go right to the end by the windows) then got moved to that god awful office at Amen Corner from whence I escaped to France in 2007!!

Was an amazing place. I started my apprenticeship there as one of two of the monkeys that ran round supporting the education facility (under John Gard). I left in 1998 so I suspect we crossed paths at some point as everyone seemed to know everyone.

My Mum worked there as did an early girlfriend both having moved there from the site at Winnersh crossroads which is now Sainsbury. Before Pinewood was built, I used to play with mates there on the site of what was a derelict sanitorium. In fact we watched the filming of an episode of the New Avengers there!

[DervVW]

prg123 said:

DervVW said:

full circle it seems... VMWARE does have a whiff of mainframe about it. Although I am not the biggest fan of VME

From what I remember VME was superb I was an ace SCL developer and did a lot in COBOL, Application Master and IDMSX programming.

I also remember a residential COBOL course at Beaumont Windsor, which was really a lot of fun...

That's what started me on the long road to programming...

Happy memories....

- Pete

I think if you were there near the start it was better, at least in my experience those who were working on it in the 80s seem to love it. But people like me who were in nappys in the 80s have been spoiled by other OS I think.

[john_r]

I'm usually in LON22, but pop into BRA01 for the day every couple of weeks or so for meetings as required...

[enjo]

I once delivered a batch of products there (first sheet metal product that I had designed that went into production as it happens) but am based in Guildford.

[thefrog]

Worked in BRA03 in early 90s (started april 1991) - (the brick building next to BMW just past BRA01, used to be a honeywell building, not been there for a long while...). Then moved to BRA01 when they closed 03 and finally REA08 on Kings Road in Reading.

All this between 1991 and 1994, working on the DRS3000 and DRS6000 hardware testing... those were the days, also down to what was Ferranti for environmental testing, down the salt mine in Salford for EMC testing and over to Kidsgrove from Salford when parts needed to be modified to pass EMC tests.

[Mephistofleas]

HP contractor plankton here but in LYM01 if you can guess..

[anonymous-user]

I did my student thick sandwich placement at Hp service centre in Winnersh, spent a couple of months at Hp pinewood way back in 1989-1990 automating the managers project report using Lotus with macros.

It was a very enjoyable year and I learn't an awful lot that is still useful today. The chap who set it up was called Pat Hatton.

[TheProfessor]

12 year stint at RG12 1XL (C&W) in the good old days before it all went to hell in a hand cart.......

Was really useful as just up Longshot Lane was BTB

Is that dive of a pub called (if memory serves me correctly) The Bridge still standing?

[badgerade]

TheProfessor said:

12 year stint at RG12 1XL (C&W) in the good old days before it all went to hell in a hand cart.......

Was really useful as just up Longshot Lane was BTB

Is that dive of a pub called (if memory serves me correctly) The Bridge still standing?

It's still there.. fine during the lunch hour but not so nice in the evenings!

[anonymous-user]

Yes it's still there. Nothing else within walking distance as you'll know!