Demands for more effective information management, coupled with advances in computer hardware and software technology, have resulted in the emergence of the information utility concept, whereby computers specialized for information storage and processing serve as information nodes. The information nodes, which may be interconnected, can provide information management services to both conventional and personal computers. In this article the key hardware and software components of classical information systems are described to provide background on the requirements for an information utility. Four approaches to the development of specialized information nodes, drawing on various advances in technology, are presented: (i) firmware enhancement, (ii) intelligent controllers, (iii) minicomputer back-end processors, and (iv) highly modular database machines. The benefits of these advances will be systems that are more efficient, reliable, and easy to use.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/195/4283/1191.full.pdf

Trends in Computers and Computing: The Information Utility

Fiber optics is a facinating field of modern optics which depends primarily on the principle of total internal reflection. Fiber optics usually refers to the technique of conveying light or images through a particular configuration of glass or plastic fibers.

The History And Evolution Of Fiber Optics

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/195/4283/1179.full.pdf

Impact of Electronics on Employment: Productivity and Displacement Effects

Innovation strategies in the electronic mail marketplace

Proctoscopes have long been the conventional device for examining the lower intestine for carcinoma, polyps and other disorders. Their inflexible design has restricted examinations at best up to 20 to 25 cms. A manipulable, flexible fiber optic instrument has been developed which allows up to 55 cms of the lower intestinal tract to be examined without the need of surgery. The development of the fibersigmoidoscope and its use in examining patients in addition to other diagnostic instruments using synthetic fiber optics will be discussed. This work is under development through Health, Education and Welfare with Dr. B. G. Overholt, of the University of Michigan.

Fiber Optic Multiple Fibersigmoidoscope

An important application of fiber optics to data processing is to illuminate hole positions of punched-card reading-stations. In the IBM 59 Card Verifier, flexible incoherently oriented bundles are employed to provide a reliable, efficient, and practical method of sensing holes in punched cards. A phototransistor detects the light coming through open holes and then operates a reed relay directly. In addition, a mechanical light chopper also uses fiber optical components to provide light pulses for the electronic clock to time the machine. An electronic circuit is used to latch reed relays so that the useful signal is digital, rather than the analog hole-to-no-hole light ratio.

Optical Hole Sensing Using Fiber Optics

Electronic Mail: Electronic communication of information is more rapid than conventional transportation of documents.

The variety of ways in which optical techniques are now being applied to information processing problems will be reviewed and compared. Information to be processed is sometimes in optical or image form, i.e., image processing; in this case, optics is essential, at least for the input/output phase. Emphasis is placed on the problems of information storage by optical and photographic means. Also, optics has been used to good advantage for certain analog processing problems.

Robert J. Potter

Papers

The History And Evolution Of Fiber Optics

Optical Hole Sensing Using Fiber Optics

Electronic Mail: Electronic communication of information is more rapid than conventional transportation of documents.

The role of optics in information processing.