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Computing History: a Personal and Industry View

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Computing History: a Personal and Industry View or attempted designs; seven reaIly suc- ceeded, about 20 are still trying, and a COMPUTING HISTORY: A whoIt flock are no longer with us. including American Computet, Atron, BIT, and Viatron. With some under- PERSONAL AND INDUSTRY standing of the historic generational patterns my goal was to get DEC into VIEW/GORDON BELL large scale integrated circuits and to establish the YAX line as a new stan- lis. and Herbert Simon wrote a letter to dard. And ironically, this year 20 years Science and identified computer sci- after the first PDP-8 was built, sales of ence. The next steps, what we now call the machine were higher than ever “the third and fourth generations’’ weren’t at all clear. At Carnegie, Allen Newel1 and I collected materials and years objects from past machines to build Ironically, his year 20 theories. This resulted in a book en- 1 der he fint PDP$ was titled Computer Srructuras that in- fluenced at least two generations of built des of the muchine computer architects. The concepts of the DEC Unibus and general registers were higher hnever. came from this work. Other Carnegie alumni extended and implemented thae ideas in subsequent (and future) since it is implemented on a single chip DEC computers. These developments and embedded in a word processor. came from a deep knowIedgc of past Now one of my goals is to con- computers, and how they were used sider not just the development of a sin- and gave some insights about the fu- gle company, but of the entire industry ture trajectory of computer evolution. -and not just archlrKture but pro- ach time I invest “in the past” It In 1972, when I returned to Dig- grammers and users. To this end, I has future payoff. ital, the third generation of computing, have been part of establishing The EThe first time that I invested in based on the integrated circuir, was in Computet Museum for everyone, The learning was in 1966. I went on leave full swing. While DEC had been a1- Museum came about through the gen- from DEC to borne a professor at most alone buiPding minis in the sec- erous sponsorship of DEC and Ken Carnegie Tech to learn about computer ond generation, the technological Olsen. science. Even though I had already barriers to building computers had helped develop the first minicomputer been lowered with the IC. A company The Role of the Computer Museum [the PDP-8) and the first commercial had only to understand packaging, Opened in Boston in 1984, The timesharing system (the PDP-6). in- logic design, peripheral interface de- Computer Museum has on display the dustry was unconcerned about the sign, and construction of software first interactive space game, “science” of CQmpUthg. components to start in the business. By Spacewar!; the first personal corn- In 1967, Allen Newell. Alan Per- 1970, about 100 companies had formed puter, the LINC. and the first mail-or- VOlUMf 10 NUMBER ll/CREATlVE COMWTING 175 COMPUTERS & EDUCATION der home-built machine, the Altair. Dozens of tmmplete industries have ml B national scale I have four con. The Computer Museum is designed to bccn fQI“n@ within 8 half dmstratr: cerns about tbi restructuring. help visiton understand the evolution a Chips: microcomputers, periphcr- First, the valne of the companies of computing. Computer generations, dS, IIIeXIlQieS. appears to be far larger than any poten- marking lechnologica1 time, are the e Eleezro rnechanicals: power sup tial market. At #he beginning of 1984, mah orpizing principle. The new plies, disks, VO,enclwures. 123 workstation companies had a technologies, staftup companies, and e Operating systems: comunica- vduation of tens of billions d doIh new products of each germittion are tians, database access, human VO. with a total market of Iess than $10 bil- listed and displayed. e Languages: (eg. dozens of assun- lion. At mmt, there may bE room for I Every time 1 visit the museum, I blers for a gircn micro), fourth genera- dohfitst rate CompmiCS. get insight relevant to m current prob- tion languages. Second, while the cycle crab lem. A month ago while looking at the Generic applications: word pro- some innovations in computing, most Honeywell 116, a very eady IC mini- cessing spreadsheets. of the pducta do not improve computer, and comparing it with Data a ProTessional/diocipline applica- productivity. The $‘metoo” less costly General’s first Nova, id- about bard tions: general business, solutions really cost the user when the size, pins, and function jelled. I also obstrvtd that nearly all of the micros repeated, for the third time, the tirne- worn me~tt~rymanagement evolution path that began in 1960 with the Man- chester University Atlas in the early m’s, which we followed with the Decsystem 10 in the late Ws,and then again with minis in the mid-7O’s. IBM‘s path was about the mewith ThiB new technology parnits Inmy the 360/370 evolution arid its minis. more new computer struchrres than The Computer Museum is not just ever Mort including for me and my engjineer friends; a e btltypesofdesktoptcmhalssnd dom high schodl students came to an pbones. esoteric lecture OQ coding in the 1930’s PdIt and desktop mal given by Donald Davies of England’s computers, mrkstatbm and shared National Physical Laboratory. Asked cornputem. if they gat anything from it they re- a Supmicrm which replacc mini plied that they were going to use sume and mainframes while providing in- of the ideas on setting secure codes for creased reliability and pwFomanEc by thar school computer. replication. When I tour the Science Museum I Hybrid ~PUtw-kI~h~yb in London with my British friends, computers and switches. they often mounted anecdotes of bow With the vast supply of venture the exhibitions turned peopfe on to sci- CapitaI, d1 YOU need to establish a eom- ence and technology. NOW1 see the pny is a computer with a word same thing at The Computer Museum: processor and spreadsheetwA perpaual bright kids and curious adults have a motion machine: for crating ampa- pIace where they can Iarn how nies can be expressed in a Pascal-like computers got to ’be the way they me way: day. prudure VENTURE Until The Computer Museum was ENTREPRENEWR CYCLE established, there was no place where while greed and not ftar do the objects, films, and programs of the begla past were collected. The Computer write businem plan; Museum prov&s this for the present gel venture Furids; and future generations of engine, exit job; programmers, artists, and hacken who start new company; will make history. build prduct; sell product AVwtmtlwFwtm sell company;(for Using the Museum to review the 100 times sales) past, just as I did in the Ws at Car- venture funds: = that ~QU,like me, were strongly in- ncgit, B view emerges of the future liquidiiy; fluenced by your first computer and evolutionary path of computing. end The current computer industry is stratified by Twcl of integration and The restructuring of thc indwtry CornpIeteIy product fragmentd, offer- is good for individuals who both take ing the ultimate in entrepreneurism. the risks and create new products. But .
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