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TCM Report, Winter

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TCM Report, Winter Contents THE COMPUTER MUSEUM BOARD OF DIRECTORS I The Director's Letter The Computer Museum is a non-profit. Kenneth H. Olsen. Chairman public. charitable foundation dedicated to Diglfai Equipment Corporation 2 Computers: A Look At The First preserving and exhibiting an industry-wide. Charles W. Bachman. Generation broad-based collection of the history of in­ formation processing. Computer history is Chairman. Executive Committee 8 The Core Process interpreted through exhibits. publications. Bachman information Systems 10 Alan J. Perlis Lecture: Evolution videotapes. lectures. educational programs. C. Gordon Bell and other programs. The Museum archives Encore Computer Corporation of Software Programming both artifacts and documentation and 13 Bits and Bites makes the materials available for Gwen Bell scholarly use. The Computer Museum 14 Member Tour Museum membership is available to Erich Bloch 15 Yard Sale individuals and non-profit organizations International Business Machines Member Coupon for $25 annually and to businesses for $125 Harvey D. Cragon annually. Members receive the quarterly Texas Instruments 16 The Computer Museum Slides Report. invitations to all lectures and spe­ 1984 Computer Era Calendar cial programs. new posters. and a ten David Donaldson percent discount in the Museum store. Ropes and Grey 17 Founders A Founders program is in effect during the Robert Everett The End Bit initial two-year period of the Museum. until The MITRE Corporation June 10. 1984. During this period individuals and non-profit organizations may become Sydney Fernbach Founders for $250 and businesses and chari­ Computer Consultant table Foundations may become Founders for C . Lester Hogan $2500. Founders receive all benefits of mem­ Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation bership and recognition for their important role in establishing the Museum. Theordore G. Johnson Digital Equipment Corporation The Computer Museum is temporarily closed in preparation for its move to Boston. Andrew C . Knowles III It will reopen at Museum Wharf in down­ Lexidata Corporation town Boston in fall 1984. For more informa­ tion. call (617) 467-4036. John Lacey Control Data Corporation THE COMPUTER MUSEUM REPORT Pat McGovern (ISSN 0736-5438) ComputerWorld The Computer Museum Report is published James McKenney quarterly by The Computer Museum. One Harvard Business School Iron Way. Marlboro. MA 01752. Annual sub­ George Michael scription is part of the membership of the Museum ($25 per year for individuals Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and nonprofit organizations and $125 Robert N. Noyce for corporations). Intel The purpose is to report on the programs Brian Randell and exhibitions of the Museum. The con­ University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne tents of The Computer Museum Report may not be reproduced without written consent. Jean E. Sammet International Business Machines The Museum Staff is responsible for the con­ tents of the Report. The opinions expressed Edward A. Schwartz do not necessarily represent those of The Digital Equipment Corporation Computer Museum or its Board of Directors. Kitty Selfridge. The design and production of the Report Chairman. Members Committee is done by Benson and Clemons. Henco Software. inc. Michael Spock STAFF The Children's Museum of Boston Director Erwin Tomash Gwen Bell Dataproducts Adminis tration Honorable Paul E. Tsongas Gen Rodgers. Coordinator U.S. Senator. Massachusetts Pat Maguire Comm unications Stephanie Haack. Coordinator Brenda Erie Exhibits and Archives Meredith Stelling. Coordinator lohn McKenzie Beth Parkhurst G regory Welch Bill Wisheart Membership Eileen Gardiner. Coordinator Programs Christine Rudomin. Coordinator Store The Computer Museum Carol Strecker. Coordinator Photo Credits: Sally Askins One Iron Way Marlboro. Massachusetts 01752 Phil Rosen pp .. 3. 4. 13. 14. 15 and cover Linda Davidson 617-467-4036 David Bromfield pp .• 1. 6 Merle Insigna Harvard University. Cruft Photo Lab p. 2 Bill Meany © 1983ITHE COMPUTER MUSEUM The Director's Letter The Museum is in a time of change: location, staff and exhibits. But our plan is to keep this Report in its familiar form enabling us to communicate our activities to you. One of the greatest changes has been the departure of Jamie Parker, the Museum's first employee and developer of all the exhibits. She left in August to get married and join her husband in Geneva. In her four years with the Museum, she used her photographic memory to conceptualize exhibits. Jamie had an intuitive feeling for the artifacts and how they could be exhibited even though her education was in art history not computer science. While with the Museum, she cataloged and put three times as much in the warehouse as we had on the floor. One of Jamie's last chores was to organize our yard sale. The yard sale allowed Jamie to weed our "warehouse." In her first years, she accepted everything because that was her job. The Museum ended up warehousing a number PDP-12s, 338 display systems and PDP-6s. Since Jamie knew what was what and what was best. she selected the items to selL thus cutting down our storage costs and providing the mem­ bers with a good day of poking through old junk and taking apart comput­ ers. The cover photo is a tribute to Jamie: one of the yard sale customers is carrying off his loot and inspecting the display of the ENIAC, an exhibit put together by her. A new crew of exhibit and archives employees will help us plan the space for Museum Wharf. Meredith Stelling has taken over as the Coor­ dinator. She has been with the Museum for a year handling publications and archives. Meredith, Greg Welch and Bill Wisheart are the main ex­ hibit staff and will be joined in January by Oliver StrimpeL on leave from The Science Museum in London. Jamie Parker In September, the new space at the Wharf seemed vast and barren, except for chalk marks on the floor indicating where the new exhibits would be positioned. But the space is already beginning to fill out with two truck loads of the SAGE (30,000 pounds). an IBM 1401 card system and a collection from the University of Illinois. Reviews of exhibit plans started in September. Sheila GrinneL devel­ oper of ASTC's travelling "Chips and Changes" exhibit. Bruce McIntosh, a designer, and Paul Tractman, senior editor, The Smithsonian, spent a day consulting on the proposed organization. Then on October 13th, board members Brian Randell and consultant Dick Eckhouse reviewed the next iteration. Successive refinements bring our plans in line with reality. The SAGE system will form the fulcrum of the exhibits leading into the computer generations on one floor, and backward in time to the revolutionary one-of­ a-kind computers on the other. The process of moving has now started and the enormity of the task ahead is clear. But the team is together and progress can be seen. Gwen Bell Director The Computer Museum ReportfWinter 1983/1984 Computers: A Look at the First Generation In 1955, Martin Weik compiled a What did computing look like dur­ Preliminary Findings: Technology "Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital ing its "first generation"-the time Most first-generation computers Computing Systems," providing a re­ from the dedication of ENIAC in 1946 to did use vacuum tubes, but not all in markable snapshot of the computer the mid-fifties? the same way. After ENIAC's dedica­ population. The survey briefly de­ The variety was astonishing. Ex­ tion. designers saw the advantage of scribes and gives specifications for perimental one-of-a-kind computers, tubes for speed. but sought to mini­ about 100 different machines in exis­ each with its own unique character, mize their number. Those computers tence as of December 1955. ruled. even though most incorporated used fewer tubes in their circuits, and Weiks inventory supplied the base vacuum tubes and drum memories. thus were more reliable and compact. to compile a fundamental reference stored programs and data internally. Solid state diodes. not tubes. per­ for collecting and research at The and communicated via Flexowriters. formed logical operations. This was Computer Museum. Records for each machine were gathered from contem­ While most were built with pioneered in SEAC in 1950. after which porary historical accounts in recent vacuum tubes. many also used relays only a few computers. such as the books and journals, operating manu­ and crystal diodes. Circle and Monrobot. continued to use als, and in some cases the machines For memory. they relied on delay tubes for logic as ENIAC did. themselves. Then the findings were lines. cathode ray tubes. drums. mag­ Between 1946 and 1955. at least a checked against those appearing in netic tape loops. paper tape, punched dozen relay computers were built. an Weik's original survey. cards, magnetic wire. and toward the indication that some designers did not This research was done by Paul E. end of the period. magnetic cores. agree with the prevailing view of the Ceruzzi, assistant Professor of History For input and ouput. they used superiority of vacuum tubes. One such at Clemson University with the aid of teletypes. punched cards. other paper person was Howard Aiken. who on Rod McDonald of Rider College, and tape readers. and CRT displays as visits to Continental Europe in the Greg Welch of The Computer Museum. well as Flexowriters. 1950's influenced the choice of relays Different specifications and descrip­ Their sizes ranged from that of a for several computers. Konrad Zuse's tions have been given to the same small desk to several large rooms full computer company also produced a machines over time for various rea­ of equipment bays with consoles one line of successful relay computers in­ sons. Rather than arbitrarily selecting could walk into. And their speed stalled mainly in Continental Europe. one description, the data was collected ranged from one to tens of thousands Some of the relay computers.
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