163 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
163 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
|
||
|
||
File: A HISTORY OF ESS
|
||
Read 15 times
|
||
|
||
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
||
$ $
|
||
$ THE HISTORY OF ESS $
|
||
$ --- ------- -- --- $
|
||
$ $
|
||
$ $
|
||
$ An original phile by: $
|
||
$ $
|
||
$ $
|
||
$$$$$$$$$$$$-=>Lex Luthor<=-$$$$$$$$$$$
|
||
$ $
|
||
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Of all the new 1960s wonders of
|
||
telephone technology - satelites, ultra
|
||
modern Traffic Service Positions (TSPS)
|
||
for operators, the picturephone, and
|
||
so on - the one that gave Bell Labs the
|
||
most trouble, and unexpectedly became
|
||
the greatest development effort in
|
||
Bell System's history, was the
|
||
perfection of an electronic switching
|
||
system, or ESS.
|
||
|
||
It may be recalled that such a
|
||
system was the specific end in view
|
||
when the project that had culminated
|
||
in the invention of the transistor had
|
||
been launched back in the 1930s. After
|
||
successful accomplishment of that
|
||
planned miracle in 1947-48, further
|
||
delays were brought about by financial
|
||
stringency and the need for further
|
||
development of the transistor itself.
|
||
In the early 1950s, a Labs team began
|
||
serious work on electronic swithcing.
|
||
As early as 1955, Western Electric
|
||
became involved when five engineers
|
||
from the Hawthorne works were assigned
|
||
to collaborate with the Labs on the
|
||
project. The president of AT&T in 1956,
|
||
wrote confidently, "At Bell Labs,
|
||
developement of the new electronic
|
||
switching system is going full speed
|
||
ahead. We are sure this will lead to
|
||
many improvements in service and also
|
||
to greater efficiency. The first
|
||
service trial will start in Morris,
|
||
Ill., in 1959." Shortly thereafter,
|
||
Kappel said that the cost of the whole
|
||
project would probably be $45 million.
|
||
|
||
But it gradually became apparent
|
||
that the developement of a commercially
|
||
usable electronic switching system -
|
||
in effect, a computerized telephone
|
||
exchange - presented vastly greater
|
||
technical problems than had been
|
||
anticipated, and that, accordingly,
|
||
Bell Labs had vastly underestimated
|
||
both the time and the investment needed
|
||
to do the job. The year 1959 passed
|
||
without the promised first trial at
|
||
Morris, Illinois; it was finally made
|
||
in November 1960, and quickly showed
|
||
how much more work remained to be done.
|
||
As time dragged on and costs mounted,
|
||
there was a concern at AT&T and some-
|
||
thing approaching panic at Bell Labs.
|
||
But the project had to go forward; by
|
||
this time the investment was too great
|
||
to be sacrificed, and in any case,
|
||
forward projections of increased
|
||
demand for telephone service indicated
|
||
that within a phew years a time would
|
||
come when, without the quantum leap
|
||
in speed and flexibility thaty
|
||
electronic switching would provide, the
|
||
national network would be unable to
|
||
meet the demand. In November 1963, an
|
||
all-electronic switching system went
|
||
into use at the Brown Engineering
|
||
Company at Cocoa Beach, Florida. But
|
||
this was a small installation,
|
||
essentially another test installation,
|
||
serving only a single company. Kappel's
|
||
tone on the subject in the 1964 annual
|
||
report was, for him, an almost
|
||
apologetic: "Electronic switching
|
||
equipment must be manufactured in
|
||
volume to unprecedented standards of
|
||
reliability.... To turn out the
|
||
equipment economically and with good
|
||
speed, mass production methods must
|
||
be developed; but, at the same time,
|
||
there can be no loss of precision..."
|
||
Another year and millions of dollars
|
||
later, on May 30, 1965, the first
|
||
commercial electric centeral office
|
||
was put into service at Succasunna,
|
||
New Jersey.
|
||
|
||
Even at Succasunna, only 200 of the
|
||
town's 4,300 subscribers initially had
|
||
the benefit of electronic switching's
|
||
added speed and addItional services,
|
||
such as provision for three party
|
||
conversations and automatic transfer
|
||
of incoming calls. But after that, ESS
|
||
was on its way. In January 1966, the
|
||
second commercial installation, this
|
||
one serving 2,900 telephones, went into
|
||
service in Chase, Maryland. By the end
|
||
of 1967 there were additional ESS
|
||
offices in California, Connecticut,
|
||
Minnesota, Georgia, New York, Florida,
|
||
and Pennsylvania; by the end of 1970
|
||
there were 120 offices serving 1.8
|
||
million customers; and by 1974 there
|
||
were 475 offices serving 5.6 million
|
||
customers.
|
||
|
||
The difference between conventional
|
||
switching and electronic switching
|
||
is the difference between "hardware"
|
||
and "software"; in the former case,
|
||
maintenence is done on the spot, with
|
||
screwdriver and pliers, while in the
|
||
case of electronic switching, it can
|
||
be done remotely, by computer, from
|
||
a centeral point, making it possible
|
||
to have only one or two technicians
|
||
on duty at a time at each switching
|
||
center.
|
||
|
||
The development program, when
|
||
the final figures were added up, was
|
||
found to have required a staggering
|
||
four thousand man-years of work at
|
||
Bell Labs and to have cost not
|
||
$45 million but $500 million!
|
||
|
||
The End
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
Lex Luthor
|
||
|
||
|
||
[Courtesy of: Sherwood Forest ][]
|
||
[914/359-1517]
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
[1-34, Last=26, Quit=Q] Read File #
|
||
|