About the talk

The origins and development of the Content Addressable File Store (CAFS), ICL’s unique hardware search engine, were described to the Computer Conservation Society in a talk given in January 1993. On that occasion Professor Maller concentrated on the remarkable capabilities of this innovative hardware. This talk will offer an overview of the other half of the story, the development of the facilities of the associated software. The two main items are the General Enquiry Package which was used with CAFS 800, and its successor product INDEPOL which, after a chequered early history went on to give outstanding service for a great many years in conjunction with CAFS-ISP.

The talk will be illustrated by reference to the successful exploitation of the joint hardware and software system by a wide variety of users, both in the UK and in widely-scattered countries overseas. These users include national and local government, the armed services, universities, police forces and other investigative agencies. It was also used with conspicuous success within ICL itself.

The talk will be followed by discussion on the topics raised.

For a brief description of CAFS see the Wikipedia entry – click here to view.

About the speakers           Hamish Carmichael and Martin Wright

Hamish Carmichael. Read classics at Oxford, so naturally became a programmer. Served with Powers Samas, ICT and ICL for thirty-six years. For nearly twenty of those years was an enthusiastic CAFS advocate and marketeer.  Fellow of the British Computer Society. Formerly Secretary and currently Archivist of the Computer Conservation Society. Other interests: family history, versifying, and the avoidance of gardening

Martin Wright retired from ICL in 1998 after 37 years with the company and its predecessor ICT. Most of his time was spent as a consultant in the Government and Defence areas, but he was also involved in the development of INDEPOL after some years spent in exploiting CAFS 800. This led to the exploitation of INDEPOL in both the home and international fields, in Defence and Police applications. These varied from Stores Control to Fraud Investigation to Police Incident Recording in locations from Bath to Botswana.

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