- Email: [email protected]
New technology: society, employment and skill
Microprocessors in the workplace Health and safety monitor 9: prevention of occupational eyestrain - hazards of VDUs
Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS, UK (1981) pp 8 £I.00 A framework for the future: a sector by sector review of industrial and commercial training
Manpower Services Commission, UK (MSC) pp 40 (1981) New technology: society, employment and skill Council for Science and Society (CSS), UK (1981)pp 103, £7.50, £2.50 Each of these reports, from very different sources, deal with problems associated with 'new technology'. The ASTMS and MSC reports are fairly narrow, the former dealing with workplace hazards caused by VDUs, the latter looking at changing requirements in the organization of industrial training. The CSS report is the broadest, looking at new technology and its impact upon work and employment in its widest context. The ASTMS report says that the majority of eyestrain problems caused by VDUs are occupational rather than individual. There are two ways of dealing with these. The first is to limit the people who operate VDUs to those who can cope with the working conditions as they are, while the second is to design the workplace in such a manner that the problems do not arise. ASTMS argue strongly that the former is unacceptable, that no arbitary standards should be set and that union members should ensure that the best working conditions possible exist. At the same time long term studies into the problem should be undertaken. In contrast the MSC report is an across-the-board look at training from hairdressing to telecommunications and from printing to forestry. One of its key considerations is to take into account, 'the emerging demand for trained manpower in new technologies'. As such the report is a disappointment for, apart from in the most obvious areas like telecommunications and textiles, the only place where technical change receives a significant mention is
198
in the Ports Transport sector. As such it fits badly with the CSS report that suggests the impact is going to be much more fundamental. For them new technology is going to lead to profound changes, through a massive acceleration in the same kinds of changes that have been effecting work over the past decades and more. The biggest impact will not be on goods and services directly, but on the work through which these are supplied. CSS are concerned that the national welfare may find itself sacrificed to the consequences of individual decisions that will optimize the advantages of 'new technology' for single companies at the expense of the country as a whole, making comparisons with the results of the last industrial revolution. The implicit argument is for planning rather than laissez-faire,
where an attempt is made to direct technology so as to preserve and collaborate with skills to maintain job satisfaction and employment. For them the way forward is through learning the lessons of Japan, where a commitment on behalf of large companies to maintaining jobs for life gives them an incentive to use the ability and initiative of workers to the full, Scandinavia where trade unions have participated in the planning and introduction of 'new technology'; Mondragon in Spain where workers' cooperatives have ensured that the above principles have been followed; and the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Committee in Britain which showed by their 'Alternative Corporate Plan' for the Company that the talent and initiative required is latent within the Workforce.
Glyn Ford Manchester University, UK
6809 microcomputer programming and interfacing with experiments Staugaard A C, Prentice-Hal/International (1981) pp 270, £9.05 The Motorola MC6809 microprocessor is a high performance device that has been designed to be superior to any other currently available 8-bit microprocessor, while maintaining a 'programmer friendly' instruction set that is compatible with that of the 6800 at source code level. '6809 microcomputer programming and interfacing' is a very readable guide to the 6809, from the design philosophy through the instruction set to its interfacing with other devices from the Motorola family. Written in the form of a tutorial text, the book is aimed at the assembler level 6800 user who is transferring (or is thinking of transferring) to the 6809. The terms in which it is written, however, make it quite suitable for a newcomer to the 6800 series while the information contained is so comprehensive that the experienced user could make good use of the book as a reference manual. In its primary role of explaining the instruction set, the book is excellent, with repetitive functional descriptions
of each instruction type, programming examples and a set of questions (with answers) at the end of each chapter. The 19 addressing modes are explained with similar care, attention being drawn particularly to the flexibility that these addressing modes allow in the use of the registers and the manner in which completely position independent programming may be achieved by means of relative branch addressing and program counter relative addressing. Computer programming is an art in which absolute accuracy is required and, by the same token, in order to avoid confusion an instructional text of this type should be error free, particularly in the programming examples. Unfortunately this is not the case and although the repetitious nature of the explanations in the text are usually sufficient to resolve the ambiguities introduced by the few errors that do exist, they could still be the cause of considerable confusion to some readers. As with the instruction set, the 6809 architecture is also based upon that of the 6800, with refinements
microprocessors and microsystems
Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS, UK (1981) pp 8 £I.00 A framework for the future: a sector by sector review of industrial and commercial training
Manpower Services Commission, UK (MSC) pp 40 (1981) New technology: society, employment and skill Council for Science and Society (CSS), UK (1981)pp 103, £7.50, £2.50 Each of these reports, from very different sources, deal with problems associated with 'new technology'. The ASTMS and MSC reports are fairly narrow, the former dealing with workplace hazards caused by VDUs, the latter looking at changing requirements in the organization of industrial training. The CSS report is the broadest, looking at new technology and its impact upon work and employment in its widest context. The ASTMS report says that the majority of eyestrain problems caused by VDUs are occupational rather than individual. There are two ways of dealing with these. The first is to limit the people who operate VDUs to those who can cope with the working conditions as they are, while the second is to design the workplace in such a manner that the problems do not arise. ASTMS argue strongly that the former is unacceptable, that no arbitary standards should be set and that union members should ensure that the best working conditions possible exist. At the same time long term studies into the problem should be undertaken. In contrast the MSC report is an across-the-board look at training from hairdressing to telecommunications and from printing to forestry. One of its key considerations is to take into account, 'the emerging demand for trained manpower in new technologies'. As such the report is a disappointment for, apart from in the most obvious areas like telecommunications and textiles, the only place where technical change receives a significant mention is
198
in the Ports Transport sector. As such it fits badly with the CSS report that suggests the impact is going to be much more fundamental. For them new technology is going to lead to profound changes, through a massive acceleration in the same kinds of changes that have been effecting work over the past decades and more. The biggest impact will not be on goods and services directly, but on the work through which these are supplied. CSS are concerned that the national welfare may find itself sacrificed to the consequences of individual decisions that will optimize the advantages of 'new technology' for single companies at the expense of the country as a whole, making comparisons with the results of the last industrial revolution. The implicit argument is for planning rather than laissez-faire,
where an attempt is made to direct technology so as to preserve and collaborate with skills to maintain job satisfaction and employment. For them the way forward is through learning the lessons of Japan, where a commitment on behalf of large companies to maintaining jobs for life gives them an incentive to use the ability and initiative of workers to the full, Scandinavia where trade unions have participated in the planning and introduction of 'new technology'; Mondragon in Spain where workers' cooperatives have ensured that the above principles have been followed; and the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Committee in Britain which showed by their 'Alternative Corporate Plan' for the Company that the talent and initiative required is latent within the Workforce.
Glyn Ford Manchester University, UK
6809 microcomputer programming and interfacing with experiments Staugaard A C, Prentice-Hal/International (1981) pp 270, £9.05 The Motorola MC6809 microprocessor is a high performance device that has been designed to be superior to any other currently available 8-bit microprocessor, while maintaining a 'programmer friendly' instruction set that is compatible with that of the 6800 at source code level. '6809 microcomputer programming and interfacing' is a very readable guide to the 6809, from the design philosophy through the instruction set to its interfacing with other devices from the Motorola family. Written in the form of a tutorial text, the book is aimed at the assembler level 6800 user who is transferring (or is thinking of transferring) to the 6809. The terms in which it is written, however, make it quite suitable for a newcomer to the 6800 series while the information contained is so comprehensive that the experienced user could make good use of the book as a reference manual. In its primary role of explaining the instruction set, the book is excellent, with repetitive functional descriptions
of each instruction type, programming examples and a set of questions (with answers) at the end of each chapter. The 19 addressing modes are explained with similar care, attention being drawn particularly to the flexibility that these addressing modes allow in the use of the registers and the manner in which completely position independent programming may be achieved by means of relative branch addressing and program counter relative addressing. Computer programming is an art in which absolute accuracy is required and, by the same token, in order to avoid confusion an instructional text of this type should be error free, particularly in the programming examples. Unfortunately this is not the case and although the repetitious nature of the explanations in the text are usually sufficient to resolve the ambiguities introduced by the few errors that do exist, they could still be the cause of considerable confusion to some readers. As with the instruction set, the 6809 architecture is also based upon that of the 6800, with refinements
microprocessors and microsystems