A GENERAL-PURPOSE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73T00325R000100010047-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Sequence Number: 47
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/09/23 CIA-RDP73T00325R000100010047-1
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Research Laboratories
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UNITED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
A
EAST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
A GENERAL-PURPOSE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

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UAIMS
United Aircraft Information Management System
UAIMS is a computer-based, general-purpose, information management system. The
system presently consists of five components that could have a profound impact on
the future development of man-machine interactive information systems at UAC. The
system components are the following: (1) a control program providing program
scheduling and on-line communication control between computer programs and remote
typewriter and~or CRT terminals, (2) message control utilities providing for the
transmission of messages in and out of an application program, (3) file control
utilities providing for the use of removable storage files, (4) data management
utility programs providing for the dynamic storage and retrieval-of data, and (5) a
general-purpose information storage and retrieval system.
The operation of UAIMS enables application programs to be scheduled from remote
terminals connected to the computer system. A system's operating language is avail-
able for scheduling of programs. As requests for program scheduling are received
by the control program, the requests are "posted" and subsequently scheduled by the
control program at the earliest possible time. As many programs can be scheduled
for service from the computer as can coexist in the computer's memory. This opera-
tion is known as multitasking and enables maximum allocation of computer resources.
UAIMS allows for the scheduling of any program retained in the computer system's
library.
Once a program is scheduled by the control program, all subsequent transactions
with the computer are in the language of the particular application program. The
control program is still responsible, however, for the actual transmission of mes-
sages between the application program and the remote terminal. The message control
utility programs provide the necessary link between the control program and the
application for coordinating the handling of messages. The utility programs give
the capability to the application program for managing message buffers and notifying
the control program when to output or input a terminal message.
From the preceding description it can be seen that, through availability of
just the UAIMS control system and message utility programs, on-line data processing
services can be provided to remote terminal users. Applications can be written in
a high level programming language (e.g., Fortran or COBOL) and designed to provide
an on-going interchange of information between the man and the program.
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The other UAIMS components (data and file management utilities and the
general-purpose storage and retrieval system) are provided for use by application
systems that require management of a data base. The purpose of the data management
utility program is to provide the capability to application programs for managing
information. This capability relieves the application programmer from designing
his own data management scheme, which in large information systems can be a diffi-
cult and time-consuming task. The data management utility programs are capable of
providing management to very complex and dynamic data organizations. In general,
the information management concept used involves a technique where elements of
information are dynamically processed in a list-oriented structure. The utility
programs provide for defining elements of the data base, defining the desired data
structure, storing elements in the data base, and searching the data base. The
generality of the utility programs enables processing of either the very simplest
or very complex hierarchical data structures. As is the case with the message
utility programs, the data management utility programs can be accessed by programs
written in a high level programming language.
The general-purpose storage and retrieval system is an application program
that provides general on-line information services. The system uses the data
management and message control utility programs and is available to any remote
terminal user desiring only to store or retrieve information of a data base. The
system does not provide for any special-purpose processing such as mathematical
analysis of data. When special processing is required, an application program
would be written using the data management utilities. It is important to note that
the data management utility programs provide a standard way of managing a data base
to all programs using the utilities. Therefore, the general-purpose storage and
retrieval system can be used to query or update any data base generated by arty
other application program using the data management utility programs.
The general-purpose storage and retrieval system consists of a control program,
a language processor, a data base build processor, and a query processor. In addi-
tion to the referenced processors, a rich user's language has been designed for use
by the storage and retrieval system. The language is English-like, easy to use,
and makes available all the capabilities of the system to remote terminal users.
Figure 1 illustrates the UAIMS system components. The system is nearly
operational on an IBM 5360 Model 50 computer shown in Fig. 2. The 360 computer
has been installed at UARL primarily for development of man-machine interactive
systems. All application programs operating within the UAIMS system will reside in
a library of programs located on a storage disk. Requested programs will be loaded
into main memory by the 360 computer's operating system on command from the UAIl~IS
control program. Data stored by application programs will be retained on either
storage disks or drums and can be retrieved as needed.
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UAIMS SYSTEM COMPONENTS
REMOTE
TERMINALS
UAIMS
CONTROL
ANY STORAGE AND
APPLICATION RETRIEVAL SYS.
MESSAGE MESSAGE
CONTROL CONTROL
UTILITIES UTILITIES
DATA~FILE DATA~FILE
MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
UTILITIES UTILITIES
CENTRAL~DATA BASE
FIG. 1
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UNITED AIRCRAFT RESEARCH LABORATORIES IBM SYSTEM/360 MODEL 50
2811 2303
STORAGE DRUM
CONTROL STORAGE
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