Former TCS CFO S Mahalingam chimes in on Jayant’s anecdote on the ICL 1903 system (you can read the post here)
This should be in the blog in FORTESS. Most TCSers will not directly relate to it – but they need to read this to understand how TCS was created and how we went about it in the early days of TCS, and indeed of the early days of the computerisation in India.
ICL 1903 played a major part in proving to Burroughs Corporation that we had software talent and we could provide off shore support to them even when we did not have a Burroughs computers. Dr Iyer and Haridas , the first software engineers who went to the US to get trained on Burroughs and also to do the first project, had the task of developing a language and data migration software from any computer to Burroughs Computer. To prove that TCS team in Bombay had the capability, we had to develop the initial set to run on Burroughs Computer. But we did not have a Burroughs Computer in India and so we decided to simulate Burroughs 1728 (if I recollect right, it was a 32-bit processor) on ICL 1901A at Crompton Greaves, Bombay and the ICL was a 16-bit one. The task was led by TSG Rao and had many stalwarts who would make the daily trip to Bandra to get ICL 1901A computer time. This project needed an in-depth knowledge of the ICL processor architecture.
ICL 1903 honed our capabilities to work on third generation language (COBOL) which was then the most popular computer language in the world. It also enabled us to work on complex design, development and implementation of many projects, including the most complex Bombay Telephone Directory project. It taught us a lot on how we needed to time share but also how we can optimise the usage. When our early professionals who got trained on ICL and who went to work in the US to work on the early projects, the client found them to have capabilities of a high order, setting the stage for the future success of TCS. IBM 1401 which was the only other computer that was available in India at that time could not have given us the experience to handle the new generation projects that Burroughs wanted us to be part of.
I did my initial projects on ICL 1903, such as designing and developing Fixed Assets and Financial Accounting systems for Tata Electric. When I went to the UK first to work on migrating programs and systems from ICL system to Burroughs, it was a cakewalk for me.
There are others who can pitch in on their experience with ICL and we can recreate the initial days in TCS.
S Mahalingam is the Vice-President of Fortess. TCS Career: 1970-2013; CFO and ED 2003-2013. More about Maha here.
