IDM 500 MAINTENANCE COURSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00142R000100410003-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 22, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/22 : CIA-RDP85-00142R000100410003-5
FRO IM
SUBJECT
Chief Remote Computer Facilities
On 13 March 1983, land
myself traveled to Los Gatos California to attend the IDM 500 Maintenance
Course. This course is designed mainly for field engineers and maintenance
personnel and taught by Britton'Lee product support engineers. Although the
instruction was at times very technical, we were able to gain quite a lot of
hands on experience and knowledge. This knowledge along with the excellent
handouts on the IDM 500 has helped put the hardware in a perspective that
is understandable. We are now much better prepared to write the operating
procedures we will need to begin running the IDM 500.
The Britton Lee instructors made very little mention of running the IDM
as a back end processor to a large mainframe system. When we questioned
them on this subject we realized that their knowledge of such things as
the Auscom Interface was very limited. The course material concentrated
on the hardware and firmware of the IM 500 with attached disk and tape
drives.
The course agenda began with a brief description of the 1DM 500 and how
the company got started. We were then given a tour of the Britton Lee
manufacturing plant that included viewing the creation of an IDM 500 from
beginning to quality assurance testing and shipping. The afternoon session
covered Disk Configuration, Format Routines, System Booting and IDM Commands.
This session which carried through the second day, proved to be the most
informative instruction of the course. It cleared up some gray areas and
allowed us to view the 1DM as a standalone CPU capable of storing and retriev-
ing data from both memory and disk. After completing each classroom session,
we were given hands on time with the IDM to practice what we had covered.
We were allowed to take the IDM apart and put it back together, including
connecting the disk and tape drives and the system console. These hands on
exercises helped put everything we covered in the classroom in the proper
perspective.
The remainder of the agenda covered Theory of operation of each board
followed by trouble-shooting and diagnostics work shops. The material in
these session was of the OHMS and RESISTORS variety and for the most part
over our heads. The work shops were valuable because enabled us to actually
load the diagnostics from disk, tape and floppy disk and view the IDM console
response. Britton Lee admits that their diagnostics are still in development.
They have completed a very user friendly version of the Tape Controller
Diagnostics which we were allowed to try out. The Disk Controller Diagnostics
should be completed in Revision 27. These diagnostics enable the operator to
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/22 : CIA-RDP85-00142R000100410003-5
follow a series of prompts and look for standard responses from the IDM. If
an improper response is received you are alerted that this is the problem area.
The diagnostics are designed to trace bad areas on the various boards which
makes them more applicable to shops that will repair their own boards.
To summarize the IDM 500 Maintenance Course, I would say that we gained
sufficient knowledge and experience to make it worth the time and expense.
I would recommend this course in its present form to the Operations Division
System Technicians simply because if nothing else they will come away with
a good understanding of how the IDM works. This knowledge will put them in a
much better position to make decisions conserning the IDf. It will also qualify
them to talk to support personnel with confidence about steps to correct IDM
problems. I would also recommend this course to the Engineering Division
personnel who will be involved in configuring and maintaining the IDM 500.
A condensed version of this course leaving out the very technical material
would be good for the Operators. The basis knowledge needed to effectively
run the IDM 500 could be gained from such a course.
lief, Remote Computer Facilities Branch
Computer Technician, CAMS2 Ccrnputer. Facility
Distribution:
Original - addressee
2 - D/ODP
2 - ODP Registry
1 - C/OD
1 - C/IF
1 - File
2 - OD File
(25 March 1983)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/04/22 : CIA-RDP85-00142R000100410003-5