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CA PUBLICATIONo OF THE COMPUTERre HISTORY MUSEUM ⁄⁄ SPRINg–SUMMER 2007 REMARKABLE PEOPLE R E scuE d TREAsuREs A collection saved by SAP Focus on E x TRAORdinARy i MAGEs Computers through the Robert Noyce lens of Mark Richards PUBLISHER & Ed I t o R - I n - c hie f THE BEST WAY Karen M. Tucker E X E c U t I V E E d I t o R TO SEE THE FUTURE Leonard J. Shustek M A n A GI n G E d I t o R OF COMPUTING IS Robert S. Stetson A S S o c IA t E E d I t o R TO BROWSE ITS PAST. Kirsten Tashev t E c H n I c A L E d I t o R Dag Spicer E d I t o R Laurie Putnam c o n t RIBU t o RS Leslie Berlin Chris garcia Paula Jabloner Luanne Johnson Len Shustek Dag Spicer Kirsten Tashev d E S IG n Kerry Conboy P R o d U c t I o n ma n ager Robert S. Stetson W E BSI t E M A n AGER Bob Sanguedolce W E BSI t E d ESIG n The computer. In all of human history, rarely has one invention done Dana Chrisler so much to change the world in such a short time. Ton Luong The Computer History Museum is home to the world’s largest collection computerhistory.org/core of computing artifacts and offers a variety of exhibits, programs, and © 2007 Computer History Museum. All rights events. It’s where computing history lives. reserved. All artwork is copyright of the Computer History Museum unless otherwise credited. Printed Come visit us and see how far technology has come. in the USA. EXHIBITS For reprints and permissions, contact: Innovation in the Valley (now – September 2009) [email protected]. Core subscriptions are a member benefit; for membership information, see Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess (now – September 2009) the inside back cover. Address changes and other Visible Storage: 600+ Artifacts from the Museum Collection (now – May 2009) written correspondence may be sent to: Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine(September 2007 – August 2008) Computer History Museum Attn: Core Editor Timeline of Computing History (opening October 2009) 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Visit these and other exhibits online at: computerhistory.org/exhibits Mountain View, CA 94043-1311, USA On the cover: The eight founders of Fairchild Open to the public: Semiconductor in the company’s production area. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday: 1–4 p.m. Back row, left to right: Victor grinich, gordon Saturday: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Moore, Julius Blank, and Eugene Kleiner. Middle: Jean Hoerni. Front: Jay Last and C. Sheldon Roberts. Facing the group: Bob Noyce. Photo courtesy of 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA Stanford University Libraries, Department of Special +1 650 810 1010 Collections. CA PUBLICATIONo OF THEre COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM ⁄⁄ SPRINg –SUMMER 2007 coLLEctI onS R EMARKABLE PEo P LE ABo U t t HE AUt H o RS 4 Rescued treasures: 18 “Go off and do something A curator’s personal account wonderful” LESLIE BERLIN is project historian for It was a curator’s dream: a Robert Noyce is best known as the Silicon Valley forgotten warehouse filled to the Archives at Stanford the cofounder of Fairchild Semi- University. Her first brim with computer artifacts, conductor and Intel. Four stories book, The Man from Depression-era punch card from the life of Bob Noyce offer Behind the Microchip: equipment to mainframes and Robert Noyce and glimpses into what made him one the Invention of minicomputers. CHM’s senior of the twentieth century’s most Silicon Valley curator tells the story of how he important inventors and (themanbehindthemicrochip.com), won the 2006 Book Award from the American and volunteer Alex Bochannek, entrepreneurs. _By Leslie Berlin Association for History and Computing. sponsored by SAP AG, rushed to Leslie holds a PhD in history from Stanford. Dortmund, Germany, to save this EXPLo RE tHE coLLEctI on LUANNE JOHNSON, collection from destruction. 22 Slide-a-Mat Retailing System cochair of the _By dag Spicer prototype Computer History Museum Software 24 Man & Computer, 16-mm film Industry Special I n d U S t RY t ALES Interest Group, served 10 the It corporate Histories Project 25 IBM System/360 sales models as principal investigator for CHM’s Information Stories bring history to life. With 26 MacHack VI vs. Hubert dreyfus, Technology Corporate a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan paper tape Histories Project. Luanne has more than Foundation, the Museum reached 27 typed resignation letter from forty years of experience in the information out to those who worked at early J. Presper Eckert, Jr., to dr. Pender technology industry as a programmer, software information technology companies entrepreneur, and executive with industry- 28 Recent donations related nonprofit organizations. and collected their pioneering tales. _By Luanne Johnson LEONARD J. SHUSTEK is chairman of the EXHIBIt S CHM Board of conV E RSAt I onS 29 the Babbage difference Engine Trustees and a partner 12 the oral History collection in the investment firm In the nineteenth century, Charles VenCraft. The retired What was it like to work at Apple Babbage set out to build an auto- cofounder of Network in the early 1980s? In this excerpt mated calculating machine. A five- General Corporation (now Network from the Museum’s Oral History ton, 8,000-part construction of Associates), Len is an occasional consulting Collection, Bill Atkinson and Andy Babbage’s Difference Engine will professor at Stanford University, where he earned an MS and a PhD in computer science. be on display at the Museum Hertzfeld, major contributors to He is also a trustee of Polytechnic University the creation of the Macintosh, beginning in the fall of 2007. in Brooklyn, New York, where he earned his share anecdotes from the early BS and MS in physics. dEPARt MEntS days of Apple. _By Len Shustek DAG SPICER is senior 2 In this issue curator of the Computer History EXt R A o R d I n A RY IMAGES 14 My first computer Museum, where he 15 Why take pictures of computers? 30 donor appreciation has been since 1996. 31 Passages A former electrical The vision of photographer Mark 32 cHM by the numbers engineer, Dag also Richards helps us look at computers holds advanced degrees 32 crossword puzzle in new ways—as representations of in the history of science and technology from the University of Toronto their inventors’ ideas and dreams and Stanford University. and lives. COMPUTERHISTORY.ORg /CORE in T his issuE M ISSIon To preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and When I was a child, I hated history. It was boring, the teachers stories of the information age made me memorize irrelevant facts, and those facts bore no detect- V ISIon able relationship to my life. If “there is a history in all men’s lives,” To explore the computing revolution and its impact on the as Shakespeare’s Warwick tells King Henry IV, then what’s so human experience special about it? E XEc U t IVE dIREctoR & c E o John C. Toole The answer is that some history has impact. It changes lives. It inspires. It teaches. That is the history we must collect, and we B o ARd of L. curtis Widdoes, Jr. must find exciting ways to present it. t RUSt EES Mentor graphics Corporation Leonard J. Shustek VenCraft, LLC (President) Pierluigi Zappacosta This issue of Core has multiple examples of collecting and present- Sierra Science, Inc. david Anderson ing history that has impact. It starts with the remarkable story Sendmail of discovering a previously unknown treasure trove of the raw c. Gordon Bell B o ARd of material of history, in the form of hundreds of important artifacts Microsoft Corporation A d VISo RS hidden away in a warehouse in industrial Germany and destined Peggy Burke Sally M. Abel 1185 Design for the scrap heap. They were rescued, thanks to the generosity of Fenwick & West, LLP Lori crawford Gene Myron Amdahl SAP AG, in a mission worthy of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Infinity Capital William Aspray Andrea cunningham Indiana University CXO Communication Then on to another form of rescuing history: gathering the stories Paul Baran Mark dean of pioneers while they are still available to be told. The Sloan Robert Brodersen IBM Almaden Research University of California, Foundation–sponsored IT Corporate Histories Project used equal Center Berkeley donna dubinsky measures of web-based high technology and old-fashioned human Paul E. ceruzzi Numenta outreach to accumulate valuable materials for historians and Smithsonian Institution david Emerson Bill davidow researchers to use. Clarent Corporation Mohr, Davidow Ventures Edward feigenbaum federico faggin Stanford University The excerpts from our oral history of Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertz- Foveon Inc. Eric Hahn feld about their experiences at Apple give us insight into a remark- Samuel fuller Inventures group able company culture at a time when established companies were Analog Devices, Inc. dotty Hayes Burt Grad threatened by young upstarts. There is good advice here, too, from Intuit James Gray how programmers can be great to how everyone should live life. Gardner Hendrie Microsoft Corporation Sigma Partners Peter S. Hirshberg charles House Technorati We have many remarkable heroes in the computer industry. Here Stanford University Jeanette Horan Leslie Berlin presents anecdotes about Bob Noyce from her recent david House IBM Almaden Research Credence Systems biography. Leslie not only shows us various sides of the Intel Center christine Hughes cofounder’s personality, but also helps us find the lessons we can Burge Jamieson Achievement Plus learn from his successes and failures.