Philanthropically-minded Control Data GmbH has initiated a partnership programme intended to enable East German universities and research institutes to use the same computer technologies as their West German counterparts. The programme has already seen the installation of one of Control Data’s Cyber 830 systems and network at the Humboldt University in East Berlin, giving East German researchers access to information at the Free University in West Berlin, and on the DFN German Research Network. This has been followed by the gift of another Cyber 830 to the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena partnered with the University of Erlangen. For both installations, the computers, system and networking software are all being provided free by Control Data, whose East German regional manager Klaus Oelmann claims that while the technical know-how is clearly there in the East, the equipment currently installed prevents this knowledge from being used efficiently.
