Computing had developed at an astonishing pace over the last 40 years and Prof Alty has been involved in most aspects from working at the bits/bytes level to higher level management. As a member of the Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils between 1976 - 81) he chaired a very influential working party on microtechnology which had a major impact both in universities and in industry. One commentator wrote "this report should be tattooed...