Volunteer Information Exchange Sharing what we know with those we know Volume 4 Number 13 December 20, 2014

Contribute To The VIE Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – to all the world-class volunteers and staff who make the CHM a great institution. This final issue of 2014 has another great early computer story—this one by our old friend and former docent, Bill Selmeier. Anyone know a computer that will do a budget? Thanks to Alex Lux for another update on our recent acquisitions. This article mentions an IBM “Watson” server blade. When Ginni Rometty, IBM's CEO, was here, she made that donation to us. John Hollar said, “I know right where it will go–right next to Deep Blue.” Also, Alex wrote a blog about another important acquisition. Check it out. And there is a new film in the Graphics Gallery, “When a Bit Became a Pixel.” Jim Strickland [email protected] Enigma NOT Missing When our Enigma “went missing” last month, it really went to Hollywood for a photo shoot. It was in the capable hands of Carol Stiglic, CHM Vice-president of Programming and Business Development, who documented the Enigma's (and Carol's) road trip. Contents And Carol adds: Contribute to the VIE 1 As an update, the TIME magazine Genius double Enigma NOT Missing 1 issue includes a TIME interview with The Imitation Game’s Benedict Cumberbatch (featured on cover CHM Blog 1 with our Enigma in the background) and an article In Memoriam: C. Sheldon Roberts 2 by The Innovators' author Walter Isaacson (which Antikythera Mechanism Update 2 includes the portrait photographer Dan Winters shot of our Enigma). More on the “IBM” M-1 2 Early Microcomputer Experience 3 3 ABC Article Correction CHM Blog 1401 Restoration on BBC 3 Recent CHM Blog Entries Recent Acquisitions 4 Kirsten Tashev keeps us up-to-date on How Much Did a UNIVAC I Cost? 4 new CHM blog entries. Links You Might Enjoy 5 • Here is one by Alex Lux on a recent acquisition and on history of the New Film in Graphics Gallery 5 tablet. Coming Events 5

1 In Memoriam Antikythera Mechanism Update We recently received the following from Dag Spicer: Here is a recent email from Tony Freeth, one of the AM’s [Antikythera Mechanism] chief investigators, about recent news dating the mechanism to 205 B.C.E. You may like to refer to his paper (link provided below). Feel free to update your visitor narratives as you see fit. o o o C. SHELDON ROBERTS I first heard the date of 205 BC from Christian Carman One of the “Traitorous Eight,” so named by and Jim Evans at a Workshop in Leiden. To my William Shockley, Sheldon Roberts left Shockley astonishment, I subsequently found the same date, also as one of the co-founders of Fairchild by studying the Saros Dial, but using entirely different Semiconductor. He passed away in McMinnville, methods! My own research was published before Oregon on June 6, 2014. theirs... He was born in 1926 in Rupert, Vermont. After http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi serving in the Navy as a radioman during World %2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0103275 War II, he received his Bachelors degree in ...but Christian and Jim have priority on the date. metallurgical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1948 and his Masters My paper is I think interesting and worth a look. I draw degree and Ph.D. in metallurgy from some speculative conclusions at the end about Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archimedes and Apollonios of Perga. My own view is that Archimedes almost certainly initiated the overall After a short stint with the Dow Chemical design (as suggested by Cicero's descriptions) but the Company, Sheldon went to work for Shockley Antikythera Mechanism is a later version, made after his Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, death. It may be that the design of Archimedes was California. simply copied or the Antikythera Mechanism could be a In 1957, Roberts and seven of his colleagues left development from it. In the ancient world (and also later) Schockley to form Fairchild Semiconductor where a good design - such as the Parthenon - was copied they established the foundation of Americas extensively throughout the world. However, the history of semiconductor and integrated circuit industry. He astronomical clocks runs against this trend - each one later left Fairchild to help co-found Amelco seems to incorporate different designs and ideas to its Semiconductor, now known as Teledyne. predecessors. Roberts held several patents in the It is such an amazingly clever device that it must have semiconductor field and authored articles and a been designed by someone at least as clever as book on magnesium and its alloys. Roberts' wife Archimedes - and there weren't too many people like of 57 years, Patricia, passed away in 2008 and, that around! he is survived by three sons, their wives and two Best wishes, Tony grandchildren.

More on the “IBM” M-1 Endicott History and Heritage Center in Endicott, NY. JIM STRICKLAND

In the last VIE, Alex Lux informed us that the CHM had acquired an M-1 rifle manufactured by IBM. (During WW II, IBM put much of its manufacturing capability toward producing military hardware.) A quick personal story, in a trip last year to the IBM archives, I asked to see an M-1. They did not have one! They had some of the rods used to ream out the barrels as a late step in manufacturing. But no gun. I found later, that IBM Endicott's museum had had an M-1, which had been manufactured there, but along So, we have an IBM M-1 and to the best of my with their entire museum, it had been given to the knowledge, IBM does not.

2 Early Microcomputer Experience reinforced glass window. When I found the correct door, BILL SELMEIER someone came and unlocked it. In the mid 1970s, I worked for IBM in Raleigh, North It took about half a day. I signed a non-disclosure but I Carolina, trying to get the company into new business was never told their specific product plans. I was asked areas. I was intrigued when a store opened at the local to review a product marketing questionnaire about a shopping mall to sell microcomputers. I think from the hypothetical console with TV, phonograph and radio, start, my initial question was, “Can you show me what but that also had word processing and arithmetic you have that can do a home budget.” They generally capability. They said that wasn't their product, just a had something, but it always seemed too rigid or retail product in the right price range of what they were cumbersome. Were they designed for the considering. We discussed their distribution plans programmer's home and not everyone's home? But, I through IBM stores. I suggested they should use learned that many of their products came from the San general microcomputer retail stores but they felt that Francisco Bay area. didn't allow them the account control that they wanted. Since part of my job was working with our sales people Months later, I found out this group did not develop a on the West Coast, I decided I would visit some of these personal computer but became a laser disc company in companies on my next trip out there. I went to the Sol Los Angeles. On the trip home I shared the plane with computer company and a couple of others in the East Lee Dixon, a key designer of IBM UPC (Universal Bay that I no longer remember the names of. While Product Code – bar code) laser checkout scanners. interesting, none of them appeared to be powerful Lee had been to the Kingston, NY lab that day where he enough or able to do my budget application. had seen a console TV with an IBM logo on it. After I returned to my office I engaged in some water In 1979, I was in the Computerland store in Louisville, cooler conversations about what I had discovered with KY, still looking for an appropriate family budgeting some of our product engineers and was amazed to program. The owner said he had just received a new learn that they, along with some Field Engineers, six program that he could demo. This was my introduction people in all, had decided to start a retail computer store to VisiCalc. After watching it for 15 or 20 minutes, I in Raleigh. To protect themselves from any “conflict of used the store phone to ask my wife to come to meet interest” with IBM, they had consulted with the Field me there as I was about to spend $2,200 for an Apple Engineering legal console and were told that since IBM II+ and some software. was not building microcomputers there should be no Within the month I had a month-by-month five year conflict with a microcomputer retail store. The group projection of revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities pooled their start-up money and spent some of it. But all coming down to an end-of-month net worth. I the product development division's legal console showed it to a neighbor but he was mostly interested in uncovered it and said there would be a conflict. knowing if it could pick winners at the horse track. Management agreed and began working on how to My marketing team had sold many small and mid-range refund the money that the employees spent because of mainframe systems and some of those customers could the difference between legal opinions. to grow to large mainframes. I brought some support In the first quarter of 1978, I helped out with a project at people in to work with them. One night at dinner at my IBM Headquarters. While there, my Industry Director home, I showed them the Apple II+ and noted that it asked me what I wanted to do in IBM. I said, “I want to started without needing an “IEBH”1 anything. A simple put a computer in every home in America!” “Hello” got it started. But they were more impressed I think that surprised him and he replied that I needed to that we played a bowling game and it displayed in color. talk with some people. About two weeks later I was That little machine did a lot of business planning for my asked to go to the Sears Tower in White Plains, New marketing team and did it very well. York. I got off the elevator to an empty lobby with four gray metal doors each with a small, four inch wide 1 IBM software was prefixed with confusing identifying nomenclature including prefixes like IEBH.

ABC Article Correction 1401 Restoration Interview on BBC. Ed Thelen pointed out an error in John Gustafson's In conjunction with receiving the Tony Sale article on the ABC in the most recent VIE. There Award for the CHM'1401restoration project, was a statement, “The Klystron tubes flash violet Robert Garner was interviewed on BBC. His when ... ." portion of the interview starts at about 24:25 This was a slip of the key, John tells us. It should minutes into the show. have read, “ The thyratron tubes ...”

3 Recent Acquisitions ALEX LUX VOTRAX Type-'N-Talk (TNT)- When connected to a computer, a VOTRAX SC- 01 phoneme synthesizer chip inside the TNT audibly reproduces text that has been typed or otherwise input into the computer. Rather than a stored vocabulary, it created its robotic-like speech from a set of rules that describe the English language and its nuances. Because most alphabetic letters in English have more than one phonetic value, the TNT used 64 synthetic phonemes in various combinations to create an unlimited vocabulary in English as well as many other languages. Because these vocabulary rules were capable of being inserted in user’s software programs, extra RAM or ROM was not required. Applications included computer-aided instruction in education, aids for the non-reading and verbally impaired population, audio alerts for a number of computer programs, and entertainment. X7342.2015, Gift of David Nash Listen to a VOTRAX Type-'N-Talk IBM Watson server blade- This IBM Power 750 server blade is one of 90 that comprised the first version of Watson, IBM’s groundbreaking artificial intelligence system, which, in 2011, handily dominated two of the all-time best Jeopardy! television program players, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. The system analyzed the content of the trivia game show’s natural language clues more accurately and quickly than its flesh and blood competitors with an open-domain question-answering (QA) system – Watson’s “brain.” The QA system had been input by IBM engineers with a wide swath of facts and information amounting to several terabytes of content, resulting in the ultimate Jeopardy! player. The inside of the server blade is signed by the team that worked on the project. X7335.2015, Gift of IBM computer was renamed as the Universal Automatic How much did a UNIVAC I cost? Computer (UNIVAC). The contract called for having the JIM STRICKLAND machine ready for the 1950 census. In December of Like so many questions, this one needs a little further 1947, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) definition: What did the first one cost? What did the had incorporated. census bureau pay? What did other buyers pay? The Census Bureau’s ceiling for the project was We know that the US Census Bureau was the first $300,000. Eckert and Mauchly were prepared to absorb customer for the UNIVAC I. So, let's start there. any overrun in costs in hopes of recouping from future contracts. The company contracted with the US In December of 1945, while completing the ENIAC, John government to provide three more computers: for the W. Mauchly, Eniac's co-developer with Presper Eckert, Census Bureau (their second), the Air Force, and the approached the Bureau of the Census in order to sell the Army Map Service, at a price of $159,000 for the first idea of a large-scale electronic digital computer as an machine and $250,000 for the other two. efficient tool for census work. To this end Mauchly and Eckert studied census data processing and learned that Development progress continued to be slow and magnetic tape was a significant sales argument. expensive and EMCC essentially ran out of money and on February 1,1950 EMCC sold to Remington Rand Inc. In March of 1946, the two inventors left the Moore School and the “Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation” became because of a controversy over the school's new patent the “Univac Division of Remington Rand.” policy and founded Electronic Controls Corp. In October of 1946, ECC received a study contract from the National Remington Rand realized that the UNIVAC was going to Bureau of Standards acting on behalf of the Bureau of the cost much more than projected and its lawyers Census to provide specifications and a prototype of unsuccessfully tried to re-negotiate the government magnetic tape storage and a mercury delay line memory contract for additional money. Under threat of legal action, at a fixed fee of $75,000. however, Remington Rand had no choice but to complete the UNIVAC at the original price. Several other non- The study project proceeded slowly and it was not until governmental accounts did cancel their orders rather than 1948 that the actual design and contract was finalized. pay the increased amount. The final result of the study was the specifications for the EDVAC II computer. On completion in 1948, the study On March 31, 1951, UNIVAC passed the Census contract was amended by $169,000. Shortly after that the Bureau's acceptance test and it was dedicated on June

4 14. The system was not shipped until December 1952; it • What did the UNIVAC I cost? Almost $1,000,000. remained in Remington Rand's facility and was used by • What did the census bureau pay for that first UNIVAC? Remington Rand and the Census Bureau. Almost $300,000 ($75,000 for study; $169,000 for It tabulated part of the 1950 population census and the design and development; $55,400 to the NBS for their entire 1954 economic census. In 1954, the second contract administration support.) That was for their UNIVAC I was installed at the Census Bureau. Both first system; they paid $159,000 (all to Remington operated successfully until being retired in1963. Rand) for their second system. Originally priced at $159,000, the UNIVAC I rose in price • What did other users pay? Price varied from $250,000 until they cost between $1,250,000 and $1,500,000. A up to $1,500,000. total of 46 systems were eventually built and delivered. And of course those numbers would be almost ten times To answer our original questions: as much in today's dollars.

New Film in Graphics This movie about the history of Links You Might Enjoy Gallery computer graphics is titled "When a Bit Became a Pixel" • EDSAC reconstruction underway BASED ON INPUT FROM KIRSTEN and it's informative and fun. • 1949 MONIAC Computer uses Water TASHEV AND JON PLUTTE Many thanks to a lot of people • New Clues About Antikythera Machine The Graphics theater (behind who made this possible: Dag the teapot) in Revolution is now Spicer, Chris Garcia, Jenny De • ENIAC panels on display at Fort Sill playing a CHM produced movie La Cruz, Eric Dennis, German Oklahoma about the history of computer Mosquera, Kirsten Tashev, and • Celebrating the mouse. This video clip graphics. This movie was many others. from SRI in 1968 shows Doug originally conceived during the At long last Revolution is whole! Englebart explaining the mouse and making of Revolution but was I hope you get a chance to stop also shows the chord keyboard. not completed due to by over the holidays and check extenuating circumstances. it out!

Coming Events (Click for details) Date Day Time Event 6:00 PM Member Reception Composer & Cellist Philip Sheppard in Conversation with Sid Jan. 29 Thur. 7:00 – 8:30 Program Lee's Will Travis 6:00 PM Member Reception Feb. 3 Tues. FIA Formula E [Electric] Racing: Drive the Future 7:00 – 8:30 Program 12:00 – 1:15 PM Believer Author David Axelrod in Conversation with Museum CEO Feb. 18 Wed. Book Signing at 1:15 PM John Hollar Talking to the Future 2015 Talking to the Future is a live annual event that brings local high school students and their teachers together with a diverse group of innovators to share ideas on how to solve real-world problems Feb.27 Sat. 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM and learn the steps necessary to transform ideas into technology- based solutions. The schools participating are John F. Kennedy High School, Burlingame High School and El Cerrito High School. 6:00 PM Member Reception Becoming Steve Jobs Authors Brent Schlender & Rick Tetzeli in April 7 Tues. 7:00 Program Conversation with Museum CEO John Hollar 8:30 Book signing 6:00 PM Member Reception The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage Author Sydney May 5 Tues. 7:00 – 8:30 Program Padua in Conversation with Google Doodle Leader Ryan Germick 8:30 – Book signing 5