IBM System Is Criticized By Professor

The additional speed of the Harvard Computation Center's new IBM 360/65 is not needed, and IBM computers frequently do not work, some professors and graduate students in the Harvard Computing Center claim.

"I don't understand why we always buy IBM computers," William H. Bossert, associate professor of Applied Mathematics said. He said that the five IBM computers the Computation Center now have are often out of order. "Our past experience with IBM has not always been satisfactory," he claimed.

The Faculty Committee for the Computing Center made the decision to rent the IBM computer 360/65 on the basis of a study done by the Computing Center last year on computing requirements at Harvard.

Lewis B. Ward, professor of Business Research and head of the Faculty Committee for the Computing Center, said that the Committee chose the machine which was most economical. The Committee also considered the Univac 1108 and the Control Data Corporation 6400.

Ward said that some members of his committee had objected to IBM computers on the grounds that they are too complex, and not helpful in doing research Dean Ward said that the CDC was "a beautiful computer," but that the IBM model had more business processing capabilities.

One graduate student in Applied Mathematics claimed that the IBM machines were only useful for cataloguing and problem solving. Students doing more complex research work use the PDP 1, a computer not owned by the Center he said.

Professor Bossert said that the Computing Center was forced to be conservative in its choice of machines, since it depends for funds on the money students pay for computer time. It is forced to buy instruments which it is positive will be used a good deal, Bossert said.

Last year, a committee headed by Charles F. Mosteller, professor of Mathematical Statistics, recommended that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences provide the Computing Center with more funds and equipment. Bossert said that these recommendations have been poorly implemented. "The Computing Center is doing a fine job ... the Faculty of Arts and Sciences isn't making interesting efforts in instructional use of computers," he said. He added that "the money we spend for students is less than many other schools of our level."

The Computing Center now has six computers, five of which come from IBM. It owns only two of these, and will sell one back to IBM when it rents the new machine. The Center bought the old computer at an educational discount of 60 per cent. The new one will be rented at a smaller discount