1 Oral History Interview with Brian Randell January 7, 2021 Via Zoom
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Technical Details of the Elliott 152 and 153
Appendix 1 Technical Details of the Elliott 152 and 153 Introduction The Elliott 152 computer was part of the Admiralty’s MRS5 (medium range system 5) naval gunnery project, described in Chap. 2. The Elliott 153 computer, also known as the D/F (direction-finding) computer, was built for GCHQ and the Admiralty as described in Chap. 3. The information in this appendix is intended to supplement the overall descriptions of the machines as given in Chaps. 2 and 3. A1.1 The Elliott 152 Work on the MRS5 contract at Borehamwood began in October 1946 and was essen- tially finished in 1950. Novel target-tracking radar was at the heart of the project, the radar being synchronized to the computer’s clock. In his enthusiasm for perfecting the radar technology, John Coales seems to have spent little time on what we would now call an overall systems design. When Harry Carpenter joined the staff of the Computing Division at Borehamwood on 1 January 1949, he recalls that nobody had yet defined the way in which the control program, running on the 152 computer, would interface with guns and radar. Furthermore, nobody yet appeared to be working on the computational algorithms necessary for three-dimensional trajectory predic- tion. As for the guns that the MRS5 system was intended to control, not even the basic ballistics parameters seemed to be known with any accuracy at Borehamwood [1, 2]. A1.1.1 Communication and Data-Rate The physical separation, between radar in the Borehamwood car park and digital computer in the laboratory, necessitated an interconnecting cable of about 150 m in length. -
The Roots of Software Engineering*
THE ROOTS OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING* Michael S. Mahoney Princeton University (CWI Quarterly 3,4(1990), 325-334) At the International Conference on the History of Computing held in Los Alamos in 1976, R.W. Hamming placed his proposed agenda in the title of his paper: "We Would Know What They Thought When They Did It."1 He pleaded for a history of computing that pursued the contextual development of ideas, rather than merely listing names, dates, and places of "firsts". Moreover, he exhorted historians to go beyond the documents to "informed speculation" about the results of undocumented practice. What people actually did and what they thought they were doing may well not be accurately reflected in what they wrote and what they said they were thinking. His own experience had taught him that. Historians of science recognize in Hamming's point what they learned from Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions some time ago, namely that the practice of science and the literature of science do not necessarily coincide. Paradigms (or, if you prefer with Kuhn, disciplinary matrices) direct not so much what scientists say as what they do. Hence, to determine the paradigms of past science historians must watch scientists at work practicing their science. We have to reconstruct what they thought from the evidence of what they did, and that work of reconstruction in the history of science has often involved a certain amount of speculation informed by historians' own experience of science. That is all the more the case in the history of technology, where up to the present century the inventor and engineer have \*-as Derek Price once put it\*- "thought with their fingertips", leaving the record of their thinking in the artefacts they have designed rather than in texts they have written. -
Timeline of Computer History
Timeline of Computer History By Year By Category Search AI & Robotics (55) Computers (145)(145) Graphics & Games (48) Memory & Storage (61) Networking & The Popular Culture (50) Software & Languages (60) Bell Laboratories scientist 1937 George Stibitz uses relays for a Hewlett-Packard is founded demonstration adder 1939 Hewlett and Packard in their garage workshop “Model K” Adder David Packard and Bill Hewlett found their company in a Alto, California garage. Their first product, the HP 200A A Called the “Model K” Adder because he built it on his Oscillator, rapidly became a popular piece of test equipm “Kitchen” table, this simple demonstration circuit provides for engineers. Walt Disney Pictures ordered eight of the 2 proof of concept for applying Boolean logic to the design of model to test recording equipment and speaker systems computers, resulting in construction of the relay-based Model the 12 specially equipped theatres that showed the movie I Complex Calculator in 1939. That same year in Germany, “Fantasia” in 1940. engineer Konrad Zuse built his Z2 computer, also using telephone company relays. The Complex Number Calculat 1940 Konrad Zuse finishes the Z3 (CNC) is completed Computer 1941 The Zuse Z3 Computer The Z3, an early computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse working in complete isolation from developments elsewhere, uses 2,300 relays, performs floating point binary arithmetic, and has a 22-bit word length. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations but was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in late 1943. Zuse later supervised a reconstruction of the Z3 in the 1960s, which is currently on Operator at Complex Number Calculator (CNC) display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. -
TCM Report, Summer
Board of Directors Corporate Donors Contributing Members John William Poduska. Sr. Benefactor-$lO.ooo or more Pathway Design. Inc. Patron-$SOO or more Chairman and CEO AFIPS. Inc." PC Magazine Anonymous. Ray Duncan. Tom Eggers. Belmont Computer. Inc. American Exr.ress Foundation Peat. Marwick. Mitchell & Co. Alan E. Frisbie. Tom and Rosemarie American Te ephone & Telegraph Co." Pell. Rudman. Inc. Hall. Andrew Lavien. Nicholas and Gwen Bell. President Apollo Computer. Inc." Pencept. Inc. Nancy Petti nella. Paul R. Pierce. The Computer Museum Bank of America" Polese-Clancy. Inc. Jonathan Rotenberg. Oliver and Kitty Erich Bloch The Boston Globe" Price Waterhouse Selfridge. J. Michael Storie. Bob National Science Foundation ComputerLand" Project Software & Development. Inc. Whelan. Leo R. Yochim Control Data Corporation" Shawmut Corporation David Donaldson Data General Corporation" Standard Oil Corporation Sponsor-$250 Ropes and Gray Digital Equipment Corporation" Teradyne Hewlett-Packard Warner & Stackpole Isaac Auerbach. G. C . Beldon. Jr .. Sydney Fernbach Philip D. Brooke. Richard J. Clayton. Computer Consultant International Data Group" XRE Corporation International Business Machines. Inc." " Contributed to the Capital Campaign Richard Corben. Howard E. Cox. Jr .. C. Lester Hogan The MITRE Corporation" Lucien and Catherine Dimino. Philip H. Fairchild Camera and Instrument NEC Corporation" Darn. Dan L. Eisner. Bob O. Evans. Corporation Raytheon Company Branko Gerovac. Dr. Roberto Guatelli. Sanders Associates M. Ernest Huber. Lawrence J. Kilgallen. Arthur Humphreys The Travelers Companies Core Members Martin Kirkpatrick. Marian Kowalski. ICL Wang Laboratories. Inc." Raymond Kurzweil. Michael Levitt. Carl Theodore G. Johnson Harlan E. and Lois Anderson Machover. Julius Marcus. Joe W .. Charles and Constance Bachman Matthews. Tron McConnell. -
A Purdue University Course in the History of Computing
Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Department of Computer Science Technical Reports Department of Computer Science 1991 A Purdue University Course in the History of Computing Saul Rosen Report Number: 91-023 Rosen, Saul, "A Purdue University Course in the History of Computing" (1991). Department of Computer Science Technical Reports. Paper 872. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cstech/872 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. A PURDUE UNIVERSITY COURSE IN mE HISTORY OF COMPUTING Saul Rosen CSD-TR-91-023 Mrrch 1991 A Purdue University Course in the History of Computing Saul Rosen CSD-TR-91-023 March 1991 Abstract University COUISes in the history of computing are still quite rarc. This paper is a discussion of a one-semester course that I have taught during the past few years in the Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue University. The amount of material that could be included in such a course is overwhelming, and the literature in the subject has increased at a great rate in the past decade. A syllabus and list of major references are presented here as they are presented to the students. The course develops a few major themes, several of which arc discussed briefly in the paper. The coume has been an interesting and stimulating experience for me. and for some of the students who took the course. I do not foresee a rapid expansion in the number of uniVcCiities that will offer courses in the history of computing. -
Alan Turingturing –– Computercomputer Designerdesigner
AlanAlan TuringTuring –– ComputerComputer DesignerDesigner Brian E. Carpenter with input from Robert W. Doran The University of Auckland May 2012 Turing, the theoretician ● Turing is widely regarded as a pure mathematician. After all, he was a B-star Wrangler (in the same year as Maurice Wilkes) ● “It is possible to invent a single machine which can be used to compute any computable sequence. If this machine U is supplied with the tape on the beginning of which is written the string of quintuples separated by semicolons of some computing machine M, then U will compute the same sequence as M.” (1937) ● So how was he able to write Proposals for development in the Mathematics Division of an Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) by the end of 1945? 2 Let’s read that carefully ● “It is possible to inventinvent a single machinemachine which can be used to compute any computable sequence. If this machinemachine U is supplied with the tapetape on the beginning of which is writtenwritten the string of quintuples separated by semicolons of some computing machinemachine M, then U will compute the same sequence as M.” ● The founding statement of computability theory was written in entirely physical terms. 3 What would it take? ● A tape on which you can write, read and erase symbols. ● Poulsen demonstrated magnetic wire recording in 1898. ● A way of storing symbols and performing simple logic. ● Eccles & Jordan patented the multivibrator trigger circuit (flip- flop) in 1919. ● Rossi invented the coincidence circuit (AND gate) in 1930. ● Building U in 1937 would have been only slightly more bizarre than building a differential analyser with Meccano. -
TCM Report, Spring
Alan F. Shugart Contents BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS Richard L. Sites Ronald G. Smart 1 John Willia m Poduska. Sr.. Chairman David Ahl. Mr. and Mrs. Rolland B. Arndt. Charles E. Sporck The Director's Letter Apollo Computer. Inc. Isaac L. Auerbach. Robert W. Bailey. Ph.D.. Ivan and Marcia Sutherland John Banning. Alan G. Bell. Gregory C .F. Del Thorndike and Steve Teicher Dr. G w e n Bell C. Gordon Bell Bettice. Alfred M. Bertocchi. Richard Billings. Erwin Tomash Encore Computer Corporation Allen H. Brady. Daniel S. Bricklin. Fred and Jean De Val pine 3 Dr. Gwen Bell Nancy Brooks. David A. Brown. Gordon S. Charles P Waite Howard Hathaway Aiken Brown, Lawrence C. Brown, Marshall D. Stephen L. Watson The Computer Museum Butler. Charles T. and Virginia G. Casale. Harvey W. Wiggins. Jr. The Life of a Computer Pioneer Danald Christiansen. Richard J. Clayton. William Wolfson Erich Bloch George Towne Clifford. Howard E. Cox. Jr .. G regory W. Welch National Science Foundation Henry J. Crouse. David N. Cutler. Joe Cychosz. 13 Harvey D. Cragon Gerald Davis and Francoise Szigetti. Clive B. CORPORATE MEMBERS University of Texas, Austin Dawson. F. de Bros, Bruce A. and Frances M. A Conversation Delagi. Jack Dennis. Nick de Wolf. L. John David Donaldson Doerr. James R. Donaldson. Philip H. Dorn. BENEfACTOR- SIO.OOO or more with the Hackers Ropes and Gray Gregory L. Duckworth, Ray Duncan, Thomas Apollo Computer. Inc: Eggers. Dan L. Eisner. Bob O. Evans. Robert Bank of America Foundation· 16 Robert Everett A. Farmer, Andrew D. Feit. Tse-yun Feng. -
Annual Report of the ACM Awards Committee for the Period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006
Annual Report of the ACM Awards Committee for the Period July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006 1. BASIC INFORMATION 1.1 List of Committee Members and Terms of Office Calvin C. Gotlieb, Co-Chair 4/1/98-6/30/06 James Jay Horning, Co-Chair 7/02-6/30/06 Martin Abadi 8/04-12/31/06 Hal Abelson 12/03-12/31/09 Alfred V. Aho 2/01-12/31/05 David H. Bailey 12/31/08 Ruzena Bajcsy 1/04-12/31/07 Mary Gray Baker 11/04-12/31/07 Victor Basili 7/02-12/31/07 Michel Beaudouin-Lafon 8/04-12/31/07 Alan Berenbaum 12/03-12/31/05 Reinaldo Bergamaschi 12/31/09 Nina Bhatti Judith Bishop 6/03-12/31/06 Dines Bjørner 8/04-12/31/07 Ronald Boisvert 10/04-12/31/08 Stephen R. Bourne 12/31/10 Eric Brewer 3/05- John Seely Brown 1/01-12/31/07 E.G. Coffman 6/03-12/31/06 Patrick Cousot 9/04-12/31/07 Carlos de Lucena 2/01-12/31/05 James W. Demmel 12/31/09 Adel S. Elmaghraby 6/02-12/31/05 Joan Feigenbaum 5/01-12/31/05 Christian Freksa 7/05- Bernard Galler 2/01-12/31/05 Nicholas Georganas 12/03-12/31/07 Carlo Ghezzi 12/31/08 Adele Goldberg 12/31/09 Sandra Graham 3/05-12/31/06 James N. Gray 6/02-12/31/06 William D. Gropp 12/31/06 David Harel 1/05-12/31/09 Laura Hill 12/31/11 Charles H. -
Media Technology and Society
MEDIA TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Media Technology and Society offers a comprehensive account of the history of communications technologies, from the telegraph to the Internet. Winston argues that the development of new media, from the telephone to computers, satellite, camcorders and CD-ROM, is the product of a constant play-off between social necessity and suppression: the unwritten ‘law’ by which new technologies are introduced into society. Winston’s fascinating account challenges the concept of a ‘revolution’ in communications technology by highlighting the long histories of such developments. The fax was introduced in 1847. The idea of television was patented in 1884. Digitalisation was demonstrated in 1938. Even the concept of the ‘web’ dates back to 1945. Winston examines why some prototypes are abandoned, and why many ‘inventions’ are created simultaneously by innovators unaware of each other’s existence, and shows how new industries develop around these inventions, providing media products for a mass audience. Challenging the popular myth of a present-day ‘Information Revolution’, Media Technology and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in the social impact of technological change. Brian Winston is Head of the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Westminster. He has been Dean of the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University, Chair of Cinema Studies at New York University and Founding Research Director of the Glasgow University Media Group. His books include Claiming the Real (1995). As a television professional, he has worked on World in Action and has an Emmy for documentary script-writing. MEDIA TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY A HISTORY: FROM THE TELEGRAPH TO THE INTERNET BrianWinston London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. -
Alan Turing's Other Universal Machine
viewpoints VDOI:10.1145/2209249.2209277 Martin Campbell-Kelly Historical Reflections Alan Turing’s Other Universal Machine Reflections on the Turing ACE computer and its influence. LL COMPUTER SCIENTISTS know about the Univer- sal Turing Machine, the theoretical construct the British genius Alan Turing Adescribed in his famous 1936 paper on the Entscheidungsproblem (the halting problem). The Turing Machine is one of the foundation stones of theoreti- cal computer science. Much less well known is the practical stored program computer he proposed after the war in February 1946. The computer was called the ACE—Automatic Comput- ing Engine—a name intended to evoke the spirit of Charles Babbage, the pio- neer of computing machines in the previous century. Almost all post-war electronic com- puters were, and still are, based on the famous EDVAC Report written by John von Neumann in June 1945 on behalf The Pilot ACE, May 1950. Jim Wilkinson (center right) and Donald Davies (right). of the computer group at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the roles. Computers were in the air and of one, and over the next few months University of Pennsylvania. Von Neu- universities at Manchester, Cam- he evolved the design of the ACE. His mann was very familiar with Turing’s bridge, and elsewhere established report was formally presented to the 1936 Entscheidungsproblem paper. In electronic computer projects. Out- NPL’s executive committee in Febru- 1937, Turing was a research assistant side the academic sphere, in Lon- ary 1946. at the Institute for Advanced Study at don, the National Physical Laboratory Although the ACE drew heavily on Princeton University, where von Neu- (NPL—Britain’s equivalent of the Na- the EDVAC Report, it had many novel mann was a professor of mathematics. -
The 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Report on a conference sponsored by the NATO SCIENCE COMMITTEE Garmisch, Germany, 7th to 11th October 1968 Chairman: Professor Dr. F. L. Bauer Co-chairmen: Professor L. Bolliet, Dr. H. J. Helms Editors: Peter Naur and Brian Randell January 1969 2 2 The present report is available from: Scientific Affairs Division NATO Brussels 39 Belgium Note for the current edition: The version of this report that you are reading was prepared by scan- ning the original edition, conversion to text through OCR, and then reformatting. Every effort has been made to do this as accurately as possible. However, it is almost certain that some errors have crept in despite best efforts. One of the problems was that the OCR software used kept trying to convert the original British spellings of words like ‘realise’ to the American spelling ‘realize’ and made other stupid mistakes. Whenever the OCR program was unsure of a reading, it called it to the attention of the operator, but there were a number of occasions in which it was sure, but wrong. Not all of these instances are guaranteed to have been caught. Although the editor tried to conform to the original presentation, certain changes were necessary, such as pagination. In order that the original Table of Contents and Indices would not have to be recalculated, an artifice was used. That is the original page breaks are indicated in the text thusly: 49 indicates that this is the point at which page 49 began in the original edition. If two such indicators appear together, this shows that there was a blank page in the original. -
History and Philosophy of Programming
AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012 Birmingham, UK, 2-6 July 2012 Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming Liesbeth De Mol and Giuseppe Primiero (Editors) Part of Published by The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour http://www.aisb.org.uk ISBN 978-1-908187-17-8 Foreword from the Congress Chairs For the Turing year 2012, AISB (The Society for the Study of Artificial Intel- ligence and Simulation of Behaviour) and IACAP (The International Associa- tion for Computing and Philosophy) merged their annual symposia/conferences to form the AISB/IACAP World Congress. The congress took place 2–6 July 2012 at the University of Birmingham, UK. The Congress was inspired by a desire to honour Alan Turing, and by the broad and deep significance of Turing’s work to AI, the philosophical ramifications of computing, and philosophy and computing more generally. The Congress was one of the events forming the Alan Turing Year. The Congress consisted mainly of a number of collocated Symposia on spe- cific research areas, together with six invited Plenary Talks. All papers other than the Plenaries were given within Symposia. This format is perfect for encouraging new dialogue and collaboration both within and between research areas. This volume forms the proceedings of one of the component symposia. We are most grateful to the organizers of the Symposium for their hard work in creating it, attracting papers, doing the necessary reviewing, defining an exciting programme for the symposium, and compiling this volume. We also thank them for their flexibility and patience concerning the complex matter of fitting all the symposia and other events into the Congress week.