EMAS System =========== The main changes to the software have concerned DAP scheduling; however, a new Director which supports multiple file indexes per user has been put into service. This is currently inaccessible until a subsystem which accesses these features is available. A distressing amount of skilled time has disappeared in investigating curious faults in the service. Many symptoms have been tracked to OCP3 executing conditional branches incorrectly about 1 time in 10**9. However, with the reduced level of engineering cover and fewer OCP specialists around too much effort here has fallen on software people. The discussions at Bush83 were encouraging, particularly the near support for an advanced user interface; a collection of bad features in the present system has been compiled together with a large number of possible ideas and improvements. Contacts with UKC have proved helpful but producing a coherent design from the very large kit of parts is difficult. Enough material for several subsystems is available and many good ideas will perforce have to be rejected. Further rounds of discussions have taken place with ICL about their future system to try to estimate the effort needed to move EMAS to a more modern range of hardware. Conclusions are still some way off but it seems that further developments to 2900 are not in the direction that ERCC would wish. UNIX Support ============ The Medical Computing and Statistics Unit (MCSU) PDP 11/44 is now on RCONET and has started its UNIX service role; PNX is now released on PERQ. All UNIX sites can now interchange mail and files with each other. The second UNIX Support Officer post has been filled by Mr Tony Luck from Warwick. He is to start on the 1st June. Pilot VAX/VMS Service ===================== Apart from a few irksome but minor defects with the communications software, the VAX/VMS service continues to be satisfactory even if not expanding for the moment. Quite a few enquiries have been received in response to a Newsletter article on a list of about 80 packages available for VMS. Since then further software catalogues have been received and the package list looks like expanding to about 500, a great quantity of unknown quality. The main hurdle to making concrete progress with the development of the service and its relationship with the other VAX/VMS systems in the University is the equivocal status of the service. The "market research" on interest in imported packages will continue in the hope that the future of the service will be decided upon in the near future. P.Stephens, K.Farvis, B.Murdoch. 20Mar83.