REPORTS OF VISITS TO WANG CORPORATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90G00993R000100090004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 13, 1986
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90GO0993R000100090004-3
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
OIT-0396-86
13 MAY 1986
VIA: Edward J. Maloney
Acting Director of Information Technology
ADMINISTRATIVE INTERNAL USE ONLY
Deputy Director of 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
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-/
OIT/FO
4
13Mayl986)
Distribution:
Original to Addressee
1 - DD/O/OIT
1 - FO/Chrono
2 - OIT Registry
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90GO0993R000100090004-3
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~: (}?t' t/
2 November 1983
Chief, Word Processing Branch, ED/P/ODP
SUBJECT: Report on,,Trip to Wang Labs on
27 October 1983
1. On 27 October 1983,1 (Director of Data
STAT
Processin , Deputy Director for Processing, STAT
Chiet, Division ChiefsTAT
Systems Programming Division and C le of the Word STAT
Processing Branch visited Wang Laboratories, Inc. in Lowell,
Massachusetts to discuss Wang's Corporate Strategic Plans for
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.I (spoke about the IBM mainframe environment
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
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17 November 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SJRJF.CT: Trip Report - 15 November 1983
1. A meeting between WANG and. Agency personnel occurred in
Lowell, Hass. 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, DBMS, 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 Vii environment. The 1rM environment currently supports ODP's
electronic mail package called AIM. Additionally, a prototype
full screen editor [lost Based Word Processor (HBWP), which
exploits the PPR260, 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
SAFE 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 riore commercially accepted, IBM compatible, approach,
perhaps utilizing IBM 3270 protocols, for example.
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stIBJr(:T: Trip Report - 1 5 November 1983
4. Presently, the dedicated circuit network uses
asynchronous comnunications with an Agency developed block-oriented
protocol called CAM 'Conversational Access Method) overlayed onto
it. This protocol is nearly independent oh the specific
implementation of the TD 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.
5. Host control of the work-station, using CAI.1 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, hold, 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.
8. 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 he the ability to display more than
80 characters on a line.
9. The terminal provides extensive support to split/window
management. 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.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90GO0993R000100090004-3
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90GO0993R000100090004-3
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 be obtained by
examining the "virtual scrolling" facility in the Delta Data and
the implementation of the V14/370 IBM 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.
]l. 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 he desirable to have
interfaces from WANG communication facilities to IBM hosts that
operate at IBM host channel speeds (2.5 - 3 tabs). 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 PERIPI1EIAL Band and PC
Band facilities is an approach to the type of WANG
communications/IBM host desired, althou h fewer protocol
conversions (!SANG 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 be 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-statinnc the Agency intends to support STAT
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.
spectrum M1Hz could he allocated to a single service thus
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SI-RJFCT: Trip Report - 1S 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 802.5 and