Workstations and Mainframe Computers Working Together

I n recent years, the number of intelligent workstations in use throughout the world has grown at an ever-increasing rate. This fact is also true at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, a major research facility of IBM. For many years, the Watson Research Center has been at the leading edge in the use of interactive computer systems (containing a very large computing facility and actually having more terminals than people). Recently, the population of terminals has shifted to greater and greater numbers of intelligent workstations, especially the IBM Personal Computer. The reasons for using workstations at the Research Center instead of terminals include increased productivity, easier personalization, and, especially in the research environment, the ease and low cost of attaching specialized equipment.