REPORTS OF VISITS TO WANG CORPORATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88G01332R000800960022-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 22
• Publication Date: May 13, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

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ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
Reports of Visits to WANG Corporation
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ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNAL USE ONLY
OIT-0396-86
13 MAY 1986
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
VIA: Edward J. Maloney
Acting Director of Information Technology
Deputy Director. o Information Technology - Operations
SUBJECT: Reports of Visits to WANG Corporation
1. Attached you will find relevant trip reports, as a follow-up to
Dr. Wang's recent visit to the EXDIR. While the specifics of the Agency
workstation direction have evolved, it is pretty clear that we were
communicative to WANG Corporation on our general direction. There are other
trip reports in the file which, taken together, show a pattern of effort on
the Agency's part to work closely with one of its major vendors.
2. I have also attached a recent article on WANG, the company and
chairman, to provide some general background.
Attachment:
As stated
ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNAL USE ONLY
STAT
STAT
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
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2 February 1984
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
Chief, Word Processing Branch, TD/PSG/ODP
STAT
SUBJECT: Report on Trip to Wang Labs on 25, 26 January 1984
STAT
1 . On 25 4, , Chief of Processing
Systems Grou , Chief of Systems Engineering Group and STAT
Chief, o ord Processing Branch visited Wang STAT
Laboratories in Lowell, Massachusetts to discuss Wang's res
onse to
p
STAT
Agency requirements for a multifunctional work station. Additional
details on this meeting are included in the trip report by
2. On 26 January 1984, remained at Lowell to STAT
discuss Wang's new electronic mail product, Wang Office and was
joined by Agency personnel from OC, OSO and the DDO/IMS.
3. A prototype of the tempest version of the Epson FX-80
printer which Wang proposed to satisfy a requirement of the OC
Intelligent Communications Terminal contract was shown to the Agency
personnel before the Wang Office presentation.
4. Al Fox from Wang Labs gave a Product Marketing presentation
on Wang Office. A Wang Office Network consists of a Wang VS and
multiple Wang Systems which can include the Alliance, OIS, VS, Wang
PC and Wang PIC systems. On the Wang VS System, VSOFFICE/l includes
time management task management, messaging, and electronic mail.
VSOFFICE/2 has the additional capabilities of V S/IIS word processing
software and information storage and retrieval capabilities whereas
VSOFFICE/3 adds Alliance work processing, information storage and
retrieval, business graphics and data inquiry/reporting software.
Wang Office on an Alliance System includes Wang Office Mail and a
Wang Office File manager. The File Manager requires a dedicated
work station and is limited to the management of mailed documents
(Visual Memory cabinets cannot be transferred). The VSOFFICE/l will
be available in June 1984. OC personnel asked a number of questions
concerning their present application, specifically requesting
information on applications interfaces for Wang Office.
S. Dave Fowler from Wang Labs discussed Wang Systems
Networking (WSN) in the afternoon which provides for a variety of
communications options between Wang Systems. WSN products are
developed in a framework similar to the Open Systems Interconnection
(OSI) model developed by ISO. The seven OSI layers fall into three
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88G01332R000800960022-5
functional categories in WSN: transports, services and
applications. WSN products include completely new products such as
Wang Office (application layer) as well as Wang repackaged products
such as File Transfer (services layer). WSN products should be
available in June 1984.
Distribution:
Orig & 1 - D/ODP
1 - C/TD/PSG/ODP
1 - WPB/TD/PSG/ODP
2 - ODP Registry
STAT
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
INSIDE THE INDUSTRY
Wang Is On The
Bleeding Edge:
Does T he Doc
for Have Founder The Rx?
An Wang is running his Office stems
~J firm again, but can he do enough soon enough?
An Wang, the foud
er chairm
,an,
chief executive, and patriarch of the
$2.3 billion company that and it became a $1 Million b
ears his by 1%4 Pant
. name, has spent 35 years reaching for
the top in American business, but he The calculators sold well through
stillspeaks the 196ps, but advances in el
rucs
Pe with the accent and hap- eventually enabled overseas c O
d p
hazar syntax of a Chinese tion to p
grant. An Wang's message, nonethe. Produce much cheaper or be be-
less, is dear--and meets. "We found the calculator be.
He does not qo f dearly
on fcius or mg based on a single chip or a few
LaO-tzu He doe. Instead he cites Red Auer- chips. Our calculators stopped selling
when the price ,5 competing brands
back, the American philosopher who dropped from $1,500
is also the general manager of the An Wang own to $S way,
NBA's Boston Celtics, on the subject we Wanrecalls. "We said, 'No wayay,
of the basketball playoffs. we're not interested in this., "
"I just read a book By 1971, the business of the company
called On & . Auerbach had shifted into the emerging
the Court, Wang re- again, ports. "When the Celtics world of word pith ui
8 e
q pment
were one o A yy
rn.
stery of electronic, a
two games behind in the fifth game of Dr' An WN'i hand on tM tug-
bind s
t
ade
m
ins
his
sevengai d bui
-me seres, he said, cane Wangsness acumen, made
worry about the six or With more than 50,000 users, P it
seventh game. PaineWebber analyst Stephen Smith- a ?n coin
Wont' about the sixth ame. ang ~'
8 And not world's was s th e
th
about the whole ame. is Uncertainty surrounds the founder largest word processing ven-
about the first quarter, then sere- himself. An Wang is 66 years old, pre- sed. By 1984 it had expanded into full
-omputer oed quarter, third quarter, the final sumably nearing retirement. His most , m ely the 2200 based office the quarter.' " obvious successor is his son, Frederick systems,
namely the 2200, year and VS OIS,
The concept is relevant to An Wang Wang's & but the prosper of Fred systems. Its revenue that year was $2.1
profits $210
r right
right now. His company, Wang Labo- thusiasm der Over or outside the billion, about with the
same of time, me, million.
s Inc was the an had the begun however,
ator ea corporate equiv- company (see related story, had bePerennial league leader until ry, page 38). of increased $ to feel the pressure it' a cof years ago. Now, ad one or va The p lems of Wang Labs have competition that was s perhaps couple l two games down in a series the roots, but key to most of them brought on by the cis fact
hanges and new
of ulength. that the eom uses of technology. changnology. and
puters
of uncertain n ' While the name reached a turning Dint. Standalone Mon in the office environment, alter-
word processing, the company's he- enou Processors no longer provide ing the configuration and the uses of
gemony in office systems is threat- tial revenue. They to generate substan_ office systems. As usage changed, so
geed ny powerful coin is _ have been overtaken
ened such as IBM rs-com by office systems did Wang's o-use, re It no longer r priced
, and , AT&T, Digital those systems must be integrated with Equipment Corp., vided easy-to-use, asonab
p., Data General corporate data word processors for Y Pce
Corp., and Hewlett-Packard Co. processing systems. t in secretaries and
Ea gs plun ed and, in most cases, that means that the sold usually
of
of continually after three decades office systems found must be integrated sold do itself lfe dealinmanagers. The company
Y rising profits, but the IBM s stems. with
co
company is now ma y What Wang has to do is $ with MIS manag-
to
co slightly Profitable, figure out how to live with IBM without Wa, who had quite particular loyalty the
Y ghty better of than it was in the feeling overwhelmed by it-_a delicate Wang, but quite a bit to IBM and the
spring quarter last year, when it report- exh~em
other l
ed l
l
e
ar a oss of $
esysted
p.
109
million. y complex task
._ms venors
Once upon a time, things were In response' in October of 1983
What' smore, users are dissatisfied. much simpler for An Wang. According to a Wang announced an ambitious plan start- Wang recent survey of 19 ed the company, now based ine Low- to introduce a wide-ran
installations by Pell, Mass., in 1951 at the south end of 8m$ series of
Products that included Pace, a fourth-
Inc., the company's users feel PaineWebber ebbe the
inc
gly ., that Wang 'ue 1 increas- Boston. Originally founded to make data--basabase en language management and remtion
pate in the officesi gain cannot specialty shifted devices, Wang' s
d system; the
DEC. Tare unhappy typesetting a uii Wang Office; and the Professional lm-
a They h company's high about the ment, then to electronic desa cula- age Computer.
and sot maintenance fees tors. The firm grsteadily it The plan didn t work. The products
spot spotty support, according to adapted itself to changing hY were extensively dela yed, and An
markets, Wang says now that developing
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88G01332R000800960022-5
INSIDE THE INDUSTRY
the products took longer than expect- ed a great deal of authority to Cun- Orders for the VS 300, the company's
ed. Whatever the reason, the delays ningham, to his son Fred, and to J. most powerful processor and the box
left customers in limbo, points out Carl Masi Jr., the executive vice presi- it's counting on to make big profits,
John McCarthy, an analyst at Forres- dent of sales and marketing, who re- are trickling, not rushing, in. Only
ter Research Inc., in Cambridge, signed last month. When the financial about 250 have been installed to date,
Mass., and a former Wang marketin
crunch
h
g
began,
owever, the founder, and the machine has suffered from
analyst. "There was a real lull in activ- who had left the day-to-day running operating system problems in a dozen
ity. And as time went on, Wang was of the company to others, returned to user shops since deliveries began a
missing a series of deadlines." lend his touch to the business oper- year ago. At the same time, DEC
The company was furthered bur- ations. The news that "The Doctor," claims to have shipped more than
dened with a growing bureaucracy as Wang's 30,000 employees refer to 2,000 of its comparable VAX 8600s
that hampered the delivery of service him, was returning helped restore and 8650s. (It should be noted that
and delayed orders of the data pro- some morale. It also reassured, to an DEC, with its stronghold among tech-
cessing systems it did have-orders extent, the nervous investors on Wall nical users, sells to a far wider range
that often were intended for MIS di- Street who could provide or withhold of customers than Wang does.) Sales
rectors, who were accustomed to the capital. of the VS 15, 65, and the new 5 and 6
red-carpet treatment they received An Wang has begun to take action. have been brisker, but the smaller ma-
from a competitor. "IBM has made its Some of his moves are more or less chines earn much less money on each
reputation with support. You pay symbolic. For example, he has begun sale than the high-end VS 300.
through the nose for it, but it's there," to appear in the company's advertis- The most recent sign of Wang's dif-
reports Clement Kichuk, vice presi- ing, and he has gone on the road to ficulties appeared just last month,
dent of MIS at Marketing Corp. of reassure the firm's major users that it when Masi resigned. Apparently un-
America, a Wang user in Westport, has direction. He has also taken happy with the company's marketing
Conn. "With Wang, we're on the steps within the company to reassert direction, An Wang had asked Masi to
bleeding edge all the time. It's a mat- his control: Wang's top three mar- take another position in the com-
ter of their rapid growth and not hav- keting executives now report direct- pany-overseeing Wang's joint ven-
ing as many people in the field as they ly to him, rather than through the ture investments. Masi quit rather
need." executive vice president of sales and than take the new job. He will say
At roughly the same time-the ear- marketing. only that "There was a period of frus-
ly 1980s-two of Wang's major com- Another effect of An Wang's tration that I don't want to go into in
petitors in the office systems market stepped-up activity is that it has, at any detail."
had made a successful transition from least temporarily, put to rest the issue Wang is not, however, without re-
technical computing to supplying full- of whether Fred will succeed him. The sources, chief among them a large
fledged office systems. Data General's elder Wang claims that for the time body of customers who tend to stick
Comprehensive Electronic Office and being the question is moot: "There's with the company, sometimes against
Digital Equipment's All-In-1 began to no understanding between him and their better judgment. "Almost all VS
woo customers away from Wang. me. I will continue to run the com- usess have a love-hate relationship
Then, in the fall of 1984, IBM's new pany as long as I enjoy it and my with Wang," explains Louis Giglio, an
comprehensive office strategy that re- health holds up." analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co., in New
volved around the System/36 mini- The Doctor has a lot of work to do. York, which recently completed a sur-
computer threatened to do the camp
Although many of the components of vey or large-scale Wang users. "Ev-
the IBM plan consisted of nroiected _ eryone is having problems with Wang
I UL the vvang community is overall
enough to delay purchases until po- satisfied with the equipment."
tential buyers could see what IRM wne
started late in 1984 and continued viuy one out or the iy customers
through 1985. New orders slowed polled expected to raise his spending
latv a year. i weive or tnem actually
not support the overhead Wang
Labs
had taken on in itc -- ri-., saw a net reduction in the value of
?` "i"
sorin 's loss oflino The predominant reason for cus-
miiI ,m 7-6-
the equipment itseu, but service and
to this day, which began with the .. ..
Hingham, the president An Wang had the mrormanon center at Ptizer Phar-
recruited to hPln #.21-0 en--A -C 'I. maceuticals, in New York, notes that
ai.iL. Ur,II carat service is rapialy un-
company's marketing efforts. Users faulted not Wang's Intagrabd omce proving, in the past the company was
By that time, An Wang had delegat- solution Ita.tf, but the lack of support "slow to fix a problem, and acrimon-
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
INSIDE THE INDUSTRY
k
,
mind is alreadynya,d rus manufacturing, and finance Cur urs . tie
and switched to M*etin in
The Doctor up' They think rently, he is Wan -ranking became
wants 'wteep the man_ g third-ranking systems r of office
agement in the. fivd wen rd. ears later
,
means his Y~ and that as a tima e when word sing
position will be kee
his eldest son, Frederick A. Wan. b I sales were boo
W
certainly ink Fred has the inside research In 1980, you~nng~rtg ang took over
nt. It was
track, says J: Carl Masi jr.-, whowas mhos then that urged the
Wang's to then that he p sales and marketing ex- make its bold Pronouncement t
until his d ,lure last toter 1983-the er ng t company 4
month. John Cunning unveilingg of 14
former products that were scheduled to hit
Wang President and now- chief ex. the market the followin
ecutive at Computer Consoles Inc., products, which may. 711 e
agrees, "I think Dr. Wang would like relational included the Pa ent
Fred to run the Place." But An Wang system, the data-base Wang Office mania tghee,
won't turn over the reins, Cunning- and the and the Professionalce for oinpt,
Image Cu.
ompuham predicts, until he is confident er, arrived much later. As a
that his son is ready. result
Fred Fred Wang is now 35 years old, didn't Ngo credibility suffered. ,I
W get
but whether he is ready a +-
es, I information on some
to take over not of the dates, think
The Wang Whose
One issue An Wang d Working,
talk about, at least oesn't like to hotly debated both inside and out-
offi
the core of the camblid s' c side the firm- Those who know him anndtr as executive vice president
W+er
That question is:: Wjto will lead oaya he is impulsive by nature and AftersSmd
Wang ' on "d wn
tempered.
I.aborat a fter 'The Doc- hot :$~ Uni-
tor" steps Nevert eIess, the younger FtY a dit>k mathemat-
down? Wang's history with the company for his
Wangg claims he hasn't msd de- tory father in w+~It.io .' as 0
vision. f also , indicates he is being groomed to lead pm y on
to as f4a"
ped as he's d1hro and run research and develo m produced the VS sezi" of
healthy. Others
howev
pnxes-
-=IV Law rd
the understanding the because
ions about whose fault it was." of the complexity
"Overall, I've been very satellite dishes at 67 Wang facilities, ly, along with the capability to cluster
of an min satisfied the programming is aimed at trainin
alter with Wang,"
g," says Ed Johnson, man- sales and support people and then g multiple VS machines. The cluster
icomputer systems at four VS
us- probably will accommodate at least
Amerifirst Federal Savings, in Miami. ers. Wang
"I've been less satisfied on the service to itsk to make also customers p. Theroduct intends to use the net- project draws the announcements The int of all thess.
side. The biggest thing is they're approval of Masi, who sa s e point of all these projects is to
stretched too thin." y The big- a place
o a Wang processing
J orate data processing
Kropper, Wang's top manufac gest single problem we had was cor- systems. F.csP
luring executive until m n ac munications. This allows them to have tend ~ Y~he corn anv in.
come president of Ina l co e left direct communication with Wang per- die of th to the mid-
lem, N.H., electronics maker, adviss ny levels and
in bwith enseen." customers, without catin s stem communi-
Wang "keep working hard on cus-
mainframes above it
tomer sorvice. I think the iron works The firm also has high hopes for and ersonal com uters,link
ano network
ow it quickly: do that,
very well, but you have to have the two joint ventures with two technol-the gy companies, Intem Inc. and now M has must no ns~ingle system Y Right
very worked out of invoicing, have deliv- the Telenova nova Inc. M, ang is ery, and so on." develo in a voice-data wor station range coOffice and nnects large-scale
that
According to An Wang, the com- to be rote rate wit
dearai frames, nud-
pany is taking steps to improve service rivals ranch and low end p ental systems,
to customers, as well as communica ing to develop a PBX. ova, it is wor Personal computers. In-
lions both with them and within the few o them em several midrange any y of the
company. " I have them and are long-term projects. In the others and several oflthem incompahe
d in the fiPlri .>, ..~
ers both hPrp of la short-term, this summer Wang will ble with VS either mainframes or personal
s---~~s probably introduce the 200, a ro-
communicahon is improved," y
An cessor that fits between its 3.3-MI PS computers.
Wang points out. "[[P VS 300 and 1.3-MIPS VS 100. More situation to w loconIBM will allow that
layers of manaement."
One major a ernes a $1 million _ powerful processors, or combinations hnut is anybody's
va television fort is a $1
ch begrian high end of the also will be added at the longs' Many analysts won't is
vaoedeasting in December. Beamed to VS line. B next sum- A working g system is
mer, a 5-MIPS dual-processor is like- president soon, according Jack Walsh,
president of Integrated Strategies Inc.,
Mav s loot
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
INSIDE THE INDUSTRY
And Waiting, In The Wings
'
"
wasn
t there,
Fred says now. "Part
of it was because some of the engi-
neers who did know were not able to
get their concerns to me or it wasn't
fully understood."
That misstep notwithstanding,
Fred Wang does have his supporters
within4 Wang. Even his sharpest crit-
ics concede that his skills as a man-
ager are improving. His advocates say
he has made several difficult deci-
sions, and made them wisely, during
the last few years, which have not
been an easy time for the company.
One of those decisions was the
move to open up Wang's proprietary
architecture to other vendors. Fred
Wang and his allies initially met stiff
opposition to the move. "There ab-
solutely wasn't unanimous agree-
ment," he reports. "But I was the
one who had to sign off on it, and I
was the one who had to convince
our leader."
The decision Fred Wang thinks was
his best was his appointment of Hor-
ace Tsiang, a low-key engineer who
had been with the company since
1969, to rem research and develop-
Senior v.p. Horace Tsiang Is credited with
developing Wang's Vs processors
ment. Tsiang, now a senior vice
president and Wang's chief develop-
ment officer, is credited with devel-
oping the company's VS series of
processors, on which Wang's future
hangs. "I think that making the VS
really fly has been his main accom-
plishment," Fred Wang says.
When the VS development effort
began in the early 1970s, a team of
software engineers had been dictat-
ing the direction of the product to the
hardware group, according to Fred
Wang. The approach led to a soft-
ware-heavy system: The operating
system and the rest of the software
created too much overhead for the
system. "What made it fly was that
Horace really began to understand
how the software worked, and then
redid a good portion of the hardware
to complement it."
On the question of Wang's future
leadership, Fred Wang is as non-
commital as his father. He agrees
that The Doctor doesn't have to
make a decision now on his succes-
sor because he's firmly in charge.
If, in time, Fred Wang does take
over, he believes he'll operate a lit-
tle differently. "I don't think my
role is to fill his shoes. You don't
replace him as the innovator with
another innovator," he explains.
"You create a department of inno-
vators. You don't replace him as
the person with all of the goals with
another person with all of the
goals. You create more of an orga-
nization that can do that." R.B.
a New York data processing consulting though; the company must be able to more complicated. Wang must contin-
firm. And it will probably be in the take advantage of them, and there are ue to provide users in the office with
form of a scaled-down 4300 series ma- those who doubt that it can. Kichuk, the kind of products they have come to
chine or an enhanced model of the PC at Marketing Corp. of America, says, expect from the fine. However, Wang
AT. "The d h
t
An Wang, however, thinks IBM's
shortcomings in the middle range will
not be so easily remedied. '-'IBM's
strength is in the mainframe area. To a
certain extent they have a de facto PC
standard. But they are very weak in
t e middle area, to link them too eth-
er. Th-___ eir systems are g not easily com-
atible. They are tryin to announce a
set of de facto standards, but they are
unwilling to spell out up front what
they are trying to establish.
"IBM hasn't even decided what
policy they are going to push," he
continues. "They are_tryine to tell us-
ers to go direct fromthe PC to the
mainframe, and et they have he
S stem/36, t e 8100, the Series/1 and
S stem/38, an none of them is really
coinntible. T ey are hesitating
whether there should be the three-
level or two-level approach."
IBM's weak points do not automati-
cally become Wang's strong points,
y on
aye enough experience must also learn to work with DP de-
as a major data processing vendor." partments, which need far greater sup-
He adds that Wang's documentation port, if its systems are to win a place in
is inadequate, and that the company's large-scale installations.
sales staff often doesn't understand An Wang recognizes this. "Essential-
the full implications of the technology ly, we have two clienteles," he says.
they're peddling. This came to the "There are MIS managers, whom we
surface, he notes, during the market- want to feel comfortable about us, that
ing of Pace, the fourth-generation lan- we have an integration scheme, the
guage and relational data-base man- ability to coexist with the mainframe
agement system. "Pace is a and other machines. And there are end
magnificent tool," acknowledges Ki- users. We're working with MIS to help
chuk, "but the marketing you see for the users develop the applications
it is usually simplistic. The impression they're going to run."
you get is, 'Here's this thing, you Learning to support two user cate-
plunk down the money, take it home, gories is just one of Wang's tasks. It
and it's up and running.' " must learn to operate in the world of
Wang cannot afford such an atti- MIS while maintaining its position with
tude now that it is dealing in full- office workers. An Wang knows what
fledged computer systems. When the he has to do. But that doesn't mean he
company sold only standalone word and his company will be able to do it.
processors, which are relatively easy And, even if they can, that they will be
to install and simple to operate, its able to do it fast enough. As Red Auer-
end users did not require extensive bach might remind the Doctor, the
support. Today, the requirements are clock is running. -Robert Buday
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
3.. .j
2 November 1983
Chief, Word Processing Branch, ED/P/ODP
STAT
SUBJECT: Report or44Trip to Wang Labs on
27 October 1983
1. On 27 October 1983,1 I, Director of Data
Processing, , Deputy Director for Processing,
STAT
STAT
STAT
, Chief, Engineering Division Chief, STAT
Systems Programming Division and Chief of the Word
Processing Branch visited Wang Laboratories, Inc. in Lowell, STAT
Massachusetts to discuss Wang's Corporate Strategic Plans for STAT
multifunctional workstations, networking and emerging office
technologies. Agency personnel also discussed Agency strategic
plans in these areas. Wang attendees included Sam Gagliano,
Vice-President of Product Marketing, Jon Addleston, Vice-President
of Office Systems Development, Bruce Hurwitz, Vice-President of
Systems Development, Eugene Shugoll, Vice-President of the Federal
Systems Division and others.
2. spoke about the IBM mainframe environment STAT
within the Agency and the requirement to integrate all future data
processing capabilities, such as work stations, voice and facsimile,
into this environment. A roundtable discussion on strategic
planning revealed that both organizations seem headed in similar
directions in many areas. However, Agency personnel pointed out
that the Agency has some very specific requirements with regard to
future multifunctional work stations. Wang suggested that follow-on
discussions be held with Agency and Wang technical personnel to
address Agency requirements in these areas. The first such meeting
was scheduled for 15 November 1983 at Wang in Lowell, Massachusetts.
3. A presentation and demonstration of the Wang Professional
Image Computer (PIC) was given by Bob Whyte of Wang Labs. The image
scanner, used for digitizing input documents, was demonstrated on
memoranda, maps and newspaper segments. Page layout composition was
demonstrated, integrating both images and text on the same page.
The PIC Notebook capability, with its associated image data, was
demonstrated using a real estate application which stored notes of
text on houses for sale and associated images of the houses and
floor plans. The integration of image and data processing was
demonstrated by digitizing a form, displaying the form on the
screen, and retrieving and editing stored data to the form.
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4. Phil Thomas of Wang Labs provided a TEMPEST Update
discussing the Wang PC, Wang Fiber optic products, the Wang VS/85
minicomputer, repackaging of the Alliance disk drives and laser
printers.
5. Aaron Zornes of Wang Labs led a discussion on data base
management for the Wang VS Systems and futuristic plans for a
distributed data base machine. MANTIS,.a fourth generation language
which runs on IBM mainframes;? will be developed for usage on the
Wang VS by the summer of 1984. MANTIS will be used in conjunction
with TOTAL on the Wang VS for reporting and relational queries.
PACE, a relational data base management system, will be developed to
interface with the Wang VS DMS (Data Management System) files. The
data base management system, FOCUS, will be adapted to the Wang PC.
STAT
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17 November 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
S11RJFCT: Trip Report - 15 November 1983
1. A meeting between WANG and, Agency personnel occurred in
Lowell, !-lass. on 15 November 1983 to discuss the Office of Data
Processing's next generation work station and related
communications network architecture needs. The list of
participants and the formal agenda is attached.
2. The meeting commenced with a brief overview of the
Agency's activities to promulgate the SAFE tri-level architecture
over OPP's services, including the proposed DO Upgrade. This
architecture embodies MVS back-end(s), running large applications
including hatch, PBMS, and cable dissemination services; VM
front-ends(s) supporting user interactive facilities that manage
the multiple activities (tasks or contexts) that a user has
initiated; (these two environments are to be interconnected by IBM
3088 technology and software, some of which is being developed by
ODP); and an intelligent work-station that will be
personal-computer based, in its next generation. (The current
generation work-station is the Delta Data 7260 (and functionally
equivalent 8260) which will be connected to the VM front-ends by
dedicated, twisted-wire circuits, using NCR COMTEN front-end
processors. ODP's pre-SAFE structures, which use primarily IBM
308X computers, is quite similar except that services in the MVS
environments are directly accessed, and are not integrated with
the VM environment. The VM environment currently supports ODP's
electronic mail package called AIM. Additionally, a prototype
full screen editor Host Based Word Processor (HBWP), which
exploits the PP8260, is available. As part of this evolving
architecture, with new text and non-text services, and with the
prospect of a new building on the Agency campus, it is expected
that the communications network supporting the terminals will also
evolve, probably encompassing LAN characteristics.
3. An implication of the hack-end service switching of the
SAFF architecture is that it changes the switching characteristics
needed for the terminal/work-station switching network. It is
hoped that the next generation communications architecture can be
based on a more commercially accepted, IBM compatible, approach,
perhaps utilizing IBM 3270 protocols, for example.
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
SUBJECT; Trip Report - 15 November 1983
4. Presently, the dedicated circuit network uses
asynchronous communications with an Agency developed block-oriented
protocol called CAM 'Conversational. Access Method) overlayed onto
it. This protocol is nearly independent ocf the specific
implementation of the DD 7260/8260, assures a set of functional
capabilities in the work-station, and provides host control of the
terminal. CAM resides in VM (and MVS) and allows an application
to present formatted data to the terminal, manages presentation of
data at the terminal, and can control terminal operator keyboard
functions.
S. Host control of the work-station, using CAh1 or its
equivalent, is desired, with the CAM commands, perhaps,
encapsulated in a more standard protocol, such as 3270. The CAM
(or CAM-like) commands would be interpreted in the work-station.
Performance issues related to the (large) protocol envelope would
still have to he addressed.
6. The CAM facility helps to support forms-fill activities,
supported by inherent Delta Data capabilities. These terminals
supported facilities include multiple page forms, field
validations, required fields, sub-fields, variable length fields,
highlighting, bold, blink, underline, etc.
7. The Delta Data terminal provides a set of word processing
primitives that have been used in the implementation of the HBWP
prototype. It is hoped that the next generation work-station will
provide word processing in the work-station and not in the host.
R. The terminal provides and the work-stations should
support presentation of at least 28 lines, although a full-page
display (66 lines) is desired. True vertical scrolling is
supported now. Horizontal scrolling would be a desirable feature
in the next generation device. A related approach, but not
functionally equivalent, would be the ability to display more than
RQ characters on a line.
9. The terminal provides extensive support to split/window
managenent. These capabilities have, as their logical extension,
the capabilities found in the Xerox/Apple (Lisa) technology. Each
Delta Data split/window is supported by its own cursor and tab
control. In the development of the Delta Data, the major
development difficulty involved memory management in supporting
splits. The logical extension of split management, which presents
a consistent user view of the users' activities and which
integrates context management within the host front-end and the
work-station, is an objective.
2
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 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP88GO1332R000800960022-5
SUBJECT: Trip Report - 15 November 1983
10. While mode switching (i.e.. PC operation, word
processing, terminal/host interaction) is an approach, the
objective still is to obtain a transparent of the modes to the
user. Insight into this "user transparency" can ba obtained by
examining the "virtual scrolling" facility in the Delta Data and
the implementation of the V14/370 IPM PC-XT variant, most notably,
the "virtual services interface". Virtual scrolling (i.e.
host-supported scrolling) could be effected by use of the "scroll"
key. Local vs host-supported scrolling would he transparent to
the user. The IBM virtual services interface can make a disk
write (local vs write to the host) transparent to the user. The
main idea is that the user is not aware of actions performed by
the workstation as opposed to actions performed by the host either
at request of the workstation or by command of the host.
]I. Additional network issues include the desire to have
"diskless" work-stations by using "file server" capabilities in a
sub-network (i.e. a cluster of work-stations), perhaps, with this
file server associated with the gateway to a backbone network
(which connects to the host). It would be desirable to have
interfaces from WANG communication facilities to IBM hosts that
operate at IB14 host channel speeds (2.5 - 3 Mbs). It would be
desirable to down-line load alternate character sets to the
work-stations. Also, there is a need to support 'who are you',
'what are you', and 'where are you' control characters.
12. In the afternoon, WANG reviewed its WANGNET family of
products, which are described in the referenced data sheets. It
was observed that an interconnection of PERIPHERAL Band and PC
Band facilities is an approach to the type of WANG
communications/IBM host desired, although fewer protocol
conversions (WANG to IBM to WANG to IBM would be preferable. At
the host end, connection to IBM 3274's was identified. Since Wang
has a capability to provide 327X support on the PERIPHERAL Band,
it might he possible to provide a 3274 interface, without first
emulating a 3278, by modifying Wang's device concentrator.
Connecting to IBM 3274 would not he best when connecting the
number of work-stations the Agency intends to support
. WANG indicated that the full WANGNET
spectrum !z could he allocated to a single service thus
supporting more work- stations in a WANGNET Band. The Agency
suggested that a VS based, front-end processor, that emulates 3274
(but in larger numbers) might he an extension to the WANG
networking products in order to support larger networks.
Similarly subnetwork gateways/file servers could be VS based.
STAT
3
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SIIRJFCT: Trip Report - IS November 1983
13. WANG discussed some of its futures relative to its
networking products. These included: prefabricated coax media
segnents (including amplifiers) to reduce cable plant installation
costs, support to IEEE LAN standards 802.3 and 802-S and