DEC PDP-10 computers were only used as transaction processing (TP) systems by a few companies. I went to work at Ramada Inns' IT subsidiary (Micor) in January 1978. They had three PDP-10s used for both general enterprise support and transaction processing. At the time, my expertice was with TOPS-10, the PDP-10's operating system. While at Micor, I was part of a team which was contracted by Thrift Drug for advise regarding their TP system. I provided input from the OS perspective.
After a year of working on TOPS-10, Micor needed me to move over to support and enhance the TP system they had developed. Myself and another systems programmer worked on improving the performance and robustness of the TP software. I learned a lot about a TP system - a LOT.
In 1980 I returned to On-Line Systems to work on future systems. But a year later, myself and a couple of hardware engineers from On-Line were tasked with improving the uptime of Thrift Drug's TP system which was, at the time, 70-some percent. It took a while but within a few months we had stabilized the system and its operation. The following letter is one I've treasured.
