SOFTWARE management is a term which inspires many different reactions from the broad range of practitioners in the field of data processing. The term has many dimensions ranging from the first and second line manager of a software development activity who plies his trade with little to fall back on other than his prior experience, and native skills and intuition. Contrast this with a senior executive who, because of lack of understanding of software management, is frustrated in trying to determine if his company can produce a software program on schedule and within budget. The data processing landscape is littered with examples of major software developments which faltered and then expired. That this situation should exist, after almost a quarter-century of experience with implementing these systems, is one of the enigmas of the rapidly expanding data processing industry.

Microprogramming is a rapidly emerging technology for the implementation of the control section of modem digital processing systems. An assessment was made of this approach to control unit design three years ago in a series of papers derived from the Third Annual Workshop on Microprogramming and published as a special issue of this TRANSACTIONS. This technology has matured in the ensuing three years, and an updated assessment has been prepared again as a special issue of this TRANSACTIONS based upon the papers presented at the Sixth Annual Workshop. The extent of realization of past predictions is reviewed and current trends are discussed. Finally, an attempt is made to assess future developments that may be expected to occur in the applications of microprogramming.

The IBM 705 memory system utilizes magnetic cores both as a storage element and also in a matrix address selection system. The magnetic core has been established as a memory element for large data processing machines. The core compares very favorably with other means of storage with respect to such factors as speed, reliability, size, cost, life, and simplicity of associated electronic circuitry. The memory consists of a main 20,000 character unit and a 512 character storage unit. Both are three-dimension coincident current systems with the larger containing 35 planes of 4000 cores each and the other consisting of seven planes of 512 cores each. The basic memory cycle is 9 μs long when operating with the input-output units or on internal transfer of data. When operating with the central processing unit a 17-μs cycle is required. Data may be transferred within memory in five character blocks, and the five character instructions are transmitted to the control unit in one-memory cycle. Transfers between memory and the input-output and arithmetic units is serial by character. Use of the magnetic core matrix switch greatly reduces the electronic equipment required to drive the memory. Simplified circuitry requiring no adjustments eliminates any maintenance time required for making routine adjustments. Indefinite life of the core eliminates any replacement problem of the basic storage element itself.