Amidst claims of backing a real winner, Tote Credit Ltd, the credit bookmaking arm of the Horserace Totalisator Board, has ordered an XA2000 Model 120 fault-tolerant processing system from Stratus Computer Ltd. The UKP500,000 machine will be installed in a custom-built site in Wigan, and will replace the nine regional offices currently used by the company for the batch processing of customer bets placed over the telephone. The Tote began to consider methods of providing its 50,000 customers with a quicker and more efficient service some two years ago, and designed in house transaction processing software for a pilot scheme to run on its existing ICL systems. Fault-tolerance – and hence Stratus – became an issue when the company realised that a completely reliable system, capable of processing the enormous volumes of data normally generated just before the off of a race, was absolutely essential for meeting long-term customer and company needs. ICL was unwilling – or unable – to give the guarantees on up-time and peak transaction rates that the Tote wanted. Immediate benefits will include the aggregation of all Tote bets for onward transmission to racecourse pools, and a highly detailed customer transaction statement. The XA2000 Model 120 provides 16Mb of memory, 800Mb of hard disk storage, and runs under the proprietary Stratus VOS operating system: the system will be linked to a maximum of 250 asynchronous lines and terminals once installation – targeted for October – has been completed. Conversion of the software – from ICL’s ME29 Cobol to Stratus Cobol – is currently being carried out by Manchester based Mancos Computers Ltd. Future plans include the integration of Horserace Totalisator Board’s business, by the networking its second, Tote Bookmakers, subsidiary, with Tote Credit.
