January the ERA Atlas for the NSA [Oct 24]

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In 1947 the Navy awarded ERA design, and other problems the “Task 13” contract to build involving differential equations. January the ERA Atlas for the NSA [Oct 24]. In 1950 ERA started selling this machine MTAC Begins commercially as the ERA 1101 [Dec 10], 1101 being Jan. 1943 binary for 13 of course. The first computing journal was Seymour Cray [Sept 28] probably “Mathematical Tables joined the company in and Other Aids to Computation” 1951, and his first design (MTAC), whch was founded by credit was the ERA 1103 Raymond Clare Archibald in [Oct 00]. Washington D.C. during this In 1952, Remington Rand month. [Jan 25] acquired ERA, and As the name suggests, it initially continued to sell the 1101, focussed on maths, but also although now as the found space to publish the “UNIVAC 1101”; naturally, landmark article, “The the 1103 became the “UNIVAC Electronic Numerical Integrator 1103”. Harder perusing a prototype and Computer (ENIAC)” by Anacom (1946). Photo by Edwin The ERA group within Herman H. Goldstine [Sept 13] Harder. Remington maintained close ties and Adele Goldstine [Dec 21] in to the NSA, creating the "Bogart" July 1946. for them in 1954. It was the ﬁrst The Anacom continued to be By 1960, reﬂecting the computer to employ solid state employed until the end of the increasing obsolescence of diodes, and also used core 1980's for analyzing nonlinear tables, the journal changed its memory [May 11]. electric power systems, although name to “Mathematics of Disappointingly, it wasn't named it became increasingly unique. Computation”. after the actor Humphrey Vannevar Bush‘s [March 11] much better known differential Bogart, but John B. Bogart, city editor of The New York Sun analyzers [June 23] were all newspaper. Bogart is chiefly decommissioned by the early ERA Founded remembered for the quote: 1960's. Jan. 1946 "When a dog bites a man, that's For the oldest working digital not news. But if a man bites a computer, see [April 00]. During WWII, code-breaking dog, that's news." work in the US Navy was run by a clandestine group with the deliberately vague title, Faster Than "Communications The Anacom Supplementary Activity – Jan. 1948 Thought Washington" (CSAW). For example, CSAW was responsible Westinghouse's Edwin L. Harder Jan. 1953 for building versions of the UK's led the team that built the first The 'popular' textbook, “Faster Colossus [Jan 18] for breaking general-purpose analog than Thought: A Symposium in Japanese codes. computer, the Anacom (short for Digital Computing Machines,” ANAlog COMputer). A After the war, budgets were cut edited by Bertram Vivian description of the device by Bowden (later Baron Bowden), for most military projects, Harder and G.D. including CSAW, and the Navy was published in the UK. McCannappeared in the Jan. Bowden is sometimes called was worried that the group’s 1948 issue of AIEE Transactions. expertise would be lost. The England’s first computer answer was private enterprise – The Anacom comfortably filled a salesman due to his involvement Engineering Research 40-foot long room. It noisily in promoting the Ferranti Mark Associates, Inc. (ERA) was employed mechanical relays 1 [Feb 12]. formed in Jan. 1946. It was until 1953 when the machine The book's preface begins: based in the hangars of a former was upgraded to use vacuum “During the last year or two aircraft factory in St. Paul, tube-based switches. most people must have heard of Minnesota. Before the rise of digital the remarkable devices often The technical side of ERA was computers, the Anacom was the called “Electronic Brains”; every headed by Howard Engstrom, workhorse calculating device at schoolboy knows that there are William Norris [July 14], Ralph Westinghouse, used for oil-flow in existence some very Meader, and around forty other problems, nuclear reactor complicated machines which are former members of CSAW. capable of astounding feats of

arithmetic. This book contains Whirlwind I.” John Backus [Dec It was designed to sit under a descriptions of several of these 3] called it “an elegant concept (big) desk, and came with monsters…" elegantly realized.” several largish peripherals that sat on top of the desk – a tape Incidentally, the use of Laning and Zierler were reader, typewriter, tape punch, “electronic brain” had become members of Charles Adam’s [Feb and console. popular after a speech by Lord 6] Science and Engineering Louis Mountbatten [Oct 31] in Computation Group at MIT, The RECOMP II may have been 1946. which was responsible for many the first commercial of the programming firsts transistorized computer, but the “Faster than Thought" wasn’t associated with the Whirlwind. IBM 608 [Oct 7] probably the first 'popular' book on digital shipped first, in Dec. 1957, but computers (e.g. see [Feb 22], Other possibilities for first was marketed as a calculator. [March 27], and [Nov 26]), but it compiler are those for Hopper’s IBM’s first transistorized stored- was remarkable for its range of A-2 [May 00] and IBM’s program 'computer' was the contributors, a stellar cast of Speedcoding [Sept 9]. IBM 7070 from 1960, mostly British researchers, who Another caveat is that "George" introduced as part of the 7000 contributed 26 chapters wasn’t a general-purpose series [April 26]. covering the history of programming language, instead computing, and current For those of you wondering focusing on solving algebraic application areas. They included about the "II", the RECOMP I was equations. John Bennett [July 31], Tom designed for the military, and Kilburn [Aug 11], Christopher Unfortunately, "George" could completed the previous year. Strachey [Nov 16], Alan Turing generate code that took ten For the world’s first ‘mobile’ [June 23], Maurice Wilkes [June times longer to run than hand- computer, in the very general 26], and Frederic Williams [June crafted machine code for the sense of being able to move 26]. same task. It was only with about, see the DYSEAC [April FORTRAN [Dec 00] that this Turing and Strachey 00]. For the first mass-produced problem of speed vs. abstraction collaborated on a chapter about portable microcomputer, see was solved. games, which looked at chess [April 3]. [June 25], draughts (checkers), and Nim (specifically the inner workings of the Nimrod [May RECOMP II is 5]). RPG Introduced Appendix 1 was a copy of Ada Portable Jan. 1961 Lovelace’s [Dec 10] “Sketch of Jan. 1958 In 1959, IBM assigned the task the Analytical Engine Invented of designing software for by Charles Babbage . . . with The Autonetics RECOMP II was ordinary business users to Notes by the Translator” [July an early transistorized Barbara Wood and Bernard 10], the first account in English computer, which was proudly Silkowitz. Their answer was of Babbage’s [Dec 26] Analytical advertised as being ‘portable’. "Report Program Generator" Engine [Dec 23]. However, the computer weighed around 200 pounds, and was 4.7 (RPG), introduced a few months The book remained in print until cubic feet large. Tellingly, the after the first IBM 1401's [Oct 5] 1968. ads showed two men carrying it had shipped. across a building site. A user filled out “specification sheets” for a business problem, George in the such as a payroll calculation which listed the input, the Whirlwind output format, and the calculation to be executed in Jan. 1954 between. The “Algebraic System” RPG was part of an attempt to (sometimes known as “George”) move customers away from IBM was perhaps the first compiler Electric Accounting Machine for a “high-level” language, in (EAM) equipment, towards that it translated mathematical computers. IBM's flagship EAM formulae into machine code. product was the 407, which goes "George" was implemented by J. some way to explaining RPG's Halcombe Laning and Neal design. RPG parallelled how a Zierler on the Whirlwind [April user had to wire a 407’s control 20], and described in “A panel which had specific areas Program for Translation of Part of a Autonetics Recomp II for input, calculations, and Mathematical Equations for ad (1958). Evan Koblentz. (c) output. North American Aviation, Inc. 2

for talking about a called AI winter [Oct 28] of the Dial F for minicomputer is probably due to late 1980's. DEC's John Leng [Aug 26], by In particular, Minsky and Papert Frankenstein way of fashion designer, Mary rejected the use of multi-layer Quant. Jan. 1964 neural nets, which they termed a

“Dial F For Frankenstein” a short “sterile” extension of the story by Arthur C. Clarke [Dec perceptron idea. This was before 16], appeared in the Jan. 1964 Perceptrons it was realized just how issue of Playboy magazine. It powerful such multi-layer recounts how a complex Published extensions actually were. telephone network becomes Jan. 1969 The book's hypnotic cover (pink sentient, and thereafter causes spirals on a neon red global chaos. Namely, “At 0150 “Perceptrons: an Introduction to background) refers to one of the GMT on December 1, 1975, Computational Geometry” was perceptron's limitations – every telephone in the world written by Marvin Minsky [Aug defining a function that correctly started to ring”! Next day will 9] and Seymour Papert [Feb 29]. determines a shape's see chaos all over - radio It should not be confused with connectedness. stations shutting down, stock the revised edition from 1987, markets and banks shutting which spent a considerable Frank Rosenblatt [July 7] down, traffic signaling systems number of pages addressing the published the first paper on down, electricity grid behaving criticisms of this first edition. perceptrons in 1958. He and erratically, military weapons Minsky knew each other at the launched without human Bronx High School of Science. authorization, planes almost Minsky later compared the first crashing, …" edition of his and Papert's book At some point, Tim Berners-Lee to the fictional "Necronomicon" [June 8] read the story (perhaps in H. P. Lovecraft’s stories, not in Playboy since he was only because it was known to many, nine years old at the time), and it but read only by a few. became one of his inspirations According to Lovecraft, the for developing the Web [March "Necronomicon" is a textbook of 12]. This seems a tad strange magic capable of summoning the since the intelligent network had Old Ones. The very act of taken over the world by the end studying the text is inherently of the story. dangerous, as those who attempt to master its arcane

knowledge generally meet a terrible end. There is supposedly CDC 449-2 Mini a copy in the Widener Library of Harvard University, a short Jan. 1967 First Edition of Perceptrons distance from Minsky’s office at (1969). Marvin Minsky, Seymour The first published appearance MIT. Papert. (c) The MIT Press. of the phrase “mini-computer” was in Datamation’s Jan. 1967 “New Products” section, which As the title suggests, Minsky and announced CDC’s [July 8] 449-2; Papert's main topic was the ANIMAL the term was used as an perceptron, a type of neural Jan. 1975 abbreviation for “Special network developed in the late Miniature Computer” 1950's and early 1960's [July 7]. On the face of it, ANIMAL was a In retrospect, perhaps the book mildly diverting question-and- CDC delivered a prototype 449-2 spent too much time answer game, written by John to the US military the next year highlighting the limitations of Walker for the UNIVAC [March (probably to the NSA [Oct 24]). perceptrons, which most 31] 1100/42. It asked the user It weighed 12 (or 13) pounds, readers took as a criticism of the twenty questions in an attempt and measured just 4 x 4 x 9 entirety of neural networks. The to guess their chosen secret inches – small enough to fit into result was a dramatic shift in AI animal. an overcoat pocket. research towards symbolic logic based techniques. However, ANIMAL had a In other words, the 449-2 wasn’t nefarious side: it included a a minicomputer in the sense of These techniques proved fragile PERVADE subroutine which DEC’s PDP-1 from [Nov 00] when applied to real-world attempted to copy ANIMAL to 1960, which is usually problems, and the ensuing every directory accessible to the considered the first commercial disappointment was a major player. Although ANIMAL was example of that type of machine. reason for the onset of the so- first released in April 1974, the The first use of “minicomputer”

PERVADE component was only The magazine was originally added in Jan. 1975. intended as a short-term, three Nibble Begins issue explanation of Tiny Basic Walker let the program loose in Jan. 1980 [Oct 10]. However, good sales San Francisco, and it reached persuaded a switch to regular The Nibble magazine focused on Washington DC. after just a publication, with editoral duties hobbyist Apple II [June 5] week It multiplied so quickly taken over by Jim C. Warren programming. It was founded by because UNIVAC users often had from the second issue. Warren Mike Harvey in his living room. very permissive file permissions, would later co-organize the and the program jumped to West Coast Computer Faires A highlight was a regular column other computers so easily [April 15]; [March 3]. called “Disassembly Lines”, in because tapes containing the which Sanford Mossberg game were shared widely. M.D. presented assembly listings he had reverse-engineered from ANIMAL's spread was only interesting parts of Applesoft’s halted by an upgrade to the Old SCO Founded BASIC.SYSTEM, DOS 3.3 [Aug UNIVAC’s Exec-8 OS which Jan. 1979 12], and PRODOS [April 24]. In modified the file status tables later issues, he turned his that PERVADE employed. Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), attention to the Apple IIGS, ANIMAL continued to work but based in Santa Cruz (not dissecting its ROM routines. PERVADE would now quietly unsurprisingly), was best known terminate. for selling three UNIX variants “Nibble” stands for half a byte or for Intel x86 machines: Xenix four bits. If you’re something of The story that a HUNTER [Aug 25], SCO UNIX (later known a Medievalist, it may also be program was developed to track as SCO OpenServer), and spelt “nybble” or “nyble”. David down and kill PERVADE is sadly UnixWare. The company was B. Benson may have possibly just a story. It’s probably derived founded by Doug Michels and coined the term in 1958 at the from the true history of Creeper his father, Larry. Los Alamos National Lab. [March 15], the first virus, which did have counter-attack Eric Raymond [Dec 4], in his Eric Raymond’s [Dec 4] “The software written for it, called the book “The Art of UNIX New Hacker’s Dictionary” lists Reaper. Programming”, called SCO the other (somewhat unlikely) “first UNIX company” because names for various bit sizes, Walker later became the co- earlier vendors had been including: author of AutoCAD [Nov 29], and hardware manufacturers or founded AutoDesk. Telco's. • 2 bits: crumb, quad, tydbit, morsel; In 2001, SCO sold its UNIX rights • 5 bits: nickle; DDJ to Caldera Systems, which later confusingly changed its name to • 10 bits: deckle; Jan. 1976 SCO, and then to “The SCO Group”. Santa Cruz Operation • 16 bits: playte, chawmp (on a Dr. Dobb’s Journal (in full: (the original SCO) is now 32-bit machine). “Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Tiny Basic sometimes referred to as “Old Calisthenics and Orthodontia”; SCO”, “Santa Cruz”, or the in short: DDJ) was created by classier “SCO Classic”. Seiko UC-2000 Dennis Allison and Bob Albrecht Unlike “Old SCO”, “The SCO [Feb 18] at the non-profit "The Group” (i.e. the new one) was Jan. 1984 People’s Computer Company" not based in Santa Cruz, but (PCC) [Oct 00]. DDJ was the first The Seiko UC-2000, the self- hailed from Utah, and was later regularly published magazine to proclaimed “Wrist Information incorporated in Delaware. The focus on software rather than System” was perhaps the first founder of Caldera was the hardware. commercial wearable computer. evocatively-named Ransom There was no Dr. Dobb – “Dobb” Love. It featured a ten-character, four- was a contraction of Dennis and line 50×28 pixels monochrome It was “The SCO Group” that Bob. The reference to LCD screen, a 4-bit CPU running pursued a series of legal battles orthodontics was expanded at 32 kHz, 2 KB of RAM, and 7.5 known as the SCO-Linux upon in the magazine’s subtitle: KB of ROM. Functionally it was controversies; see [March 6]; “Running Light without more like a programmable [Aug 10]. Overbyte.” The basis of the joke calculator than a computer, but was that microcomputer two add-ons increased its memory was very expensive, so capabilities. One was the rather compact coding was essential, ridiculous-looking UC-2100 which meant using as few bytes QWERTY keyboard, that (“bites”) as possible. Eric strapped to your forearm. This Bakalinsky was responsible for dubious idea had debuted the coming up with the title. year before in Seiko’s Data-

2000. The more useful extra was microprocessors. It included a the UC-2200 docking station, TMS34010 separate floating-point unit which included a small thermal (FPU), a canny decision since printer, a keyboard, an extra 4 Shipped math performance was KB of RAM, and a plug-in 26 KB Jan. 1986 becoming essential. ROM pack with Microsoft BASIC. The Texas Instruments Another clever decision was to [Oct 1] TMS34010 was the adopt a fabless manufacturing first programmable model. MIPS licensed its chip graphics chip, and was designs to semiconductor used in several famous vendors who had access to a arcade games, such as foundry, and so they shouldered Mortal Kombat [Oct 8]. the expensive burden of manufacturing the chips. Unlike other microprocessors of the time, the TMS34010 supported instructions for Java Named drawing 2D bitmaps, and arithmetic operations for Jan. 1995 manipulating pixel data. Prev: [Sept 3] Next: [Feb 23] Later versions added support for floating point and Sun Microsystems’ Green Project A Seiko UC-2000 (center top) 3D. [April 8] had shifted away from plugged into a UC-2200. Note the smart appliances for interactive thermal printer of the right and In 1990-1992, the TMS34010 TV to embrace the Web. At the ROM pack on the left (1984). (c) became the basis for the Texas time, its programming language, Seiko Instruments Graphics designed by James Gosling [May Architecture (TIGA) video co- 19], was called Oak processor boards used by MS- Other ROM packs contained DOS and Windows. However, Unfortunately, a trademark games and you could even TIGA eventually lost out to search for the name showed that transfer a game off the 2200 Super VGA [April 2], even it was already taken – by a video onto the watch, and so play it though it was technically card manufacturer called Oak anywhere. The 2200 could also superior. Technology. As a stopgap, Oak be connected to a desktop was renamed O.A.K. so the

machine to transfer data system's source code didn’t need between the computer and to be modified, but a proper watch. MIPS R2000 name change was eminently During the 1980's, Seiko kept Jan. 1986 desirable. releasing new versions of the The first semi-public alpha watch, looking for a winning John L. Hennessy’s [Sept 22] release of the language was formulae. Some of them could be MIPS Computer Systems planned for March 1995, so a directly connected to PCs released the R2000, the first brainstorming session was through a RS232 cable, commercially-available called to come up with naming removing the need for the 2200 microprocessor to implement a ideas. By now, the team had docking station, such as the RC- MIPS architecture, and the first moved to new offices at 100 1000 (the "Wrist Terminal") widely available commercial Hamilton Ave. in Palo Alto (the from 1984. RISC (Reduced Instruction Set former DEC Western Research Computer [May 30]) processor. A 1985 model, the Epson RC-20, Lab). At some point during the was equipped with a touch- MIPS (an acronym for session someone suggested Java, screen, perhaps the first ever, "Microprocessor without in honor of their favorite drink long before the Apple Watch Interlocked Pipeline Stages"), from the "Peets Coffeehouse" [April 24]. employed a unique five stage nearby (probably the one at 153 pipeline design that became a Homer Ave). None of them achieved the benchmark for judging later success that Seiko had hoped Gosling remembers: “The RISC processors. It could for, despite the fact that the UC- meeting, arranged by Kim complete one instruction per 2000 was worn by Tommy Lee Polese, was fundamentally cycle in an era where non-RISC Jones in the 1986 action film continuous wild craziness. Lots microprocessors needed several “Black Moon Rising”. of people just yelled out words. cycles per instruction. Who yelled out what first is For more wearables, see [June The R2000 was a 32-bit MIPS unknowable and unimportant. It 8]. For secret wearables of the design that competed with the felt like half of the words in the 1960's see [Aug 14], [?? 1934] Motorola 68000 [Sept 26] and dictionary were yelled out at Intel 80386 [Oct 17] one time or another.”

When the company lawyers reviewed the names, they cleared three possibilities from a trademark standpoint: Java, DNA, and Silk. A vote revealed that the name DNA got the most “most liked” and the most “least liked” votes, so was dropped. James Gosling pushed for Java over Silk, and thus Java was christened. However, Kim Polese, as product manager, had the final say over the moniker, so she should probably be designated the person who named Java.