remember since uncommon symbolism is used. My personal preference is APL, but chaoun a son gout. All three versions of the 5100 can be obtained with memories of 16K to 64K in 16K increments. The size of programming spacewill depend upon which size memory is purchased. Memory size will also dictate whether or not a user can make use Of the program libraries available from IBM. A math library and a statistics library are available in APL (52K memory required), math and statistics libraries are also available in BASIC (only 16K required), but a business analysis library is also available for 52K BASIC systems. One of the features I liked was the communications capability. A Communication program is fed into the computer and executed. When the connection to the remote computer has been completed, the 5100 appears to be an IBM 2741 data terminal. Programs or data can then be exchanged between the 5100 and the remote computer. Thus the 5100 can be used to develop programs at a user's desk and then use these programs to access a remote data base. This also means that the 5100 has access to all of the programs resident in the remote computer, obviating rewriting of existing programs. The price for all this power depends on the configuration: 16K BASIC only $8,975; 64K APL/BASIC - $19,975; communications option $900; printer $5,675; auxiliary tape unit $2,300; I/0 adapters (for printer or tape unit) - $500; library program tapes - $500 each. For complete details and costs see your local IBM sales rep. MINICOMPUTER SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS T. C. Lewis University of Southwestern Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Datapro reports that compact, low-cost business data processing systems will soon be as comm o n p l a c e i n most offices as typewriters and copy machines. They report over 150 current minicomputer systems from 46 vendors in use. These systems are characterized by a price tag of $5,000 to $100,000, main memory from 8K to 64K, 16-bit words, data entry peripherals, and low-cost auxiliary storage. The pervasion of business systems is only beginning. In 1974 it was estimated that 30,000 systems worth over one billion dollars were in use with this figure expected to rise to 50,000 systems at 1.5 billion dollars in 1978. The total market appears to be over 500,000 systems. More specifically the applications are estimated as follows: 200,000retail firms, 125,000 manufacturing companies, 115,000wholesale firms, 80,000 building contractors, etc., to 1,500 hospitals. Computer M84~zine invites your psmticipation in a special issue on minicomputers used in business. Topics may range from stand-alone systems for the small business to stand-along systems or networked systems for large corporations. Some suggested areas of technical or survey nature are: financial control and banking, information retrieval, point-of-sale/retail, display graphical, and data base systems. Areas of application include hospitals, warehouse/ inventory, manufacturing, railroaxls, and accountiug. Of special interest will be survey papers of wide appeal and/or technical papers that describe solutions to problems encountered in business applications. Authors are invited to submit 4 copies of their manuscript to Dr. T. G. Lewis, Computer Science Department, B o x 4 3 3 0 USL, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, 7o501. (318) 233-3850 ~ . 538. Editor's Note: Ted Lewis is one of the Directors of SIGMINI. He is currently associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Within his tremendous range of professional interests is the use of minicomputers in business. -4-

/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/minicomputer-systems-in-business-qdWyPQy2DX