It was never a record- photograph, and decided to breaker for speed, with a rescue it from storage. multiplication taking April After restoration, the museum between 5 and 10 seconds. began running Dekatron demos in Cooke-Yarborough justified 2012, and the Guinness Book of Poe, the Turk, and its slow operation as a tradeoff for reliability – from World Records recognized the machine as the world’s oldest May 1952 until Feb. 1953, it Babbage working digital computer in 2013. averaged 80 hours of running April 1836 time per week. For the oldest working analog computer, see [Jan 00]. In 1769, Hungarian author and Cooke-Yarborough went on inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen to design its successor, the unveiled his chess-playing Harwell CADET [Feb 00], automaton, the Turk. Although the perhaps the first fully Timothy Turtle machine was seemingly filled with transistorized computer. an elaborate arrangement of gears, the cabinet also April 1953 concealed a man controlling the Turk's movements. “Timothy Turtle” was a robot created by Jack H Kubanoff One of the most insightful which responded to flashing commentators about the light via two photocells in its device was by Edgar Allan Poe head. It could ‘search’ for food, in the article, “Maelzel’s Chess ‘play’, and also return to its Player” in April 1836. He ‘nest’ to recharge. Its shell was argued that if the automaton shaped wire covered in paper was real then it must be able maché. to use the result of an operation to make a decision Timothy's schematics were about the next (i.e. published in the April 1953 “conditional branching”). If the issue of the Radio & Television Turk had this feature then it News (online at would be far superior to Babbage's Difference Engine [June 14]. The Harwell Dekatron. Photo http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB by MichaelWilson78. /HistoryMakers/TimTurtle/TimT Conditional branching was one of urtleApr53.htm), probably the key element’s of Babbage’s The Dekatron was making it the first published robot Analytical Engine [Dec 23] which decommissioned in 1957, construction project. Kubanoff he'd started working on two years and the AERE ran a article supplied construction tips, before. competition to find it a diagrams and pictures for worthy new home. The building the tricky parts such as machine went to the the turtle’s head Wolverhampton and Oldest Working However, Timothy wasn’t the first Staffordshire Technical robot of this type; its use of College (later Computer photocells was quite similar to Wolverhampton University) Edmund C. Berkeley’s Squee [Aug April 1951 where it was used for 25]. Squee was described across teaching until 1973. The Construction started on the two issue of Radio Electronics in college also renamed it the Harwell Dekatron Computer in Dec. 1951 and Feb. 1952, but not WITCH (the Wolverhampton 1949 at the UK Atomic Energy in the great detail supplied by Instrument for Teaching Research Establishment (AERE) Kubanoff’. Instead, more Computing from Harwell). soon after the designers, Ted comprehensive plans for Squee Cooke-Yarborough, Dick Barnes, In 1973, the college donated could be purchased seperately. and Gurney Thomas, had visited the WITCH to Birmingham's The robot’s name was probably Maurice Wilkes’ [June 26] EDSAC Museum of Science and inspired by the 1946 children’s [May 6] in Cambridge for Industry, where it was put on book, “Timothy Turtle” by Al inspiration. The Dekatron became display until the museum Graham. operational during this month. closed in 1997.

The computer's name referred to In 2009, Kevin Murrell from its use of 828 dekatrons (gas- the National Museum of filled flashing decimal counting Computing at Bletchley Park DYSEAC is Mobile tubes) for storage, but it also happened to catch a glimpse utilized 480 relays and 130 of one of its control panel in a vacuum tubes.

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one had to travel a half inch April 1954 before making electrical The DYSEAC was a vacuum contact, and a key's resistance tube computer built by the to being pressed was National Bureau of considerable. Standards (NBS) for the US There were three versions, Army Signal Corps. It was the most common being the based, as the name suggests, Model 33 ASR, (Automatic on their earlier SEAC Send and Receive), which had machine [June 20]. It was a built-in tape reader and designed by Alan Leiner in tape punch. The “KSR” 1951, and became (Keyboard Send and Receive) operational this month. The BESK control panel. lacked a tape reader and punch, DYSEAC's claim to fame was that Photo by Liftarn. CC BY-SA while the RO (Receive Only) didn't it was housed in a truck, thereby 3.0. even have a keyboard. making it the first 'mobile' For a short time, the BESK Over a half-million Model 32s and computer. The vehicle's was the fastest computer in 33s had been made by 1975. The dimensions were approximately the world, able to perform an 500,000 th was gold-plated and 39 x 7 x 9 feet (i.e. RV sized), and addition in 56 μs and a placed on display. Serial Number weighed 12 tons. multiplication in 350 μs. 600,000, manufactured in 1976, The DYSEAC actually required the US Bicentennial year, was It performed its first two trucks: the computer, control painted red-white-and-blue and calculations this month, and console, input-output, and toured the country. remained in use until 1966. refrigeration units were in van no. From 1930, the Teletype 1, while vehicle no. 2 contained “BESK” is quite similar to Corporation was a part of AT&T’s the DC power supply, more “bäsk”, the name of a Western Electric manufacturing refrigeration capacity, and 1,700 traditional alcoholic drink arm, and so linked to Bell Labs cubic feet of space for cabling, and local to the Lund area where [Jan 1]. This is reflected in how spare parts. This second van only the UNIX [Oct 15] labels serial ports weighed 8 tons. Matematikmaskinnämnden as /dev/tty…; tty is short for was located. Nevertheless, the DYSEAC proved “Teletype”. useful, and another 'mobile' Before BESK, the Other influential terminals from machine, the MOBIDIC [Dec 1], Matematikmaskinnämnden the minicomputer days were the was completed in 1959. had funded the construction ADM-3A [May 19], and the DEC of the BARK (Binär For the world’s first ‘portable’ VT100 [Aug 00]. Aritmetisk Relä-Kalkylator), computer, in the sense of being Sweden’s first computer, ‘liftable’ by a human being (or which employed around two), see the RECOMP II [Jan 00]. 8,000 relays and 80 km of ALPAC Formed

cable. April 1964

BESK Calculates The ALPAC (Automatic Language The Teletype Processing Advisory Committee) April 1954 was made up of seven scientists The BESK (Binär Elektronisk Model 33 led by John R. Pierce [March 27]. SekvensKalkylator, or “Binary It was set up by the US Electronic Sequence Calculator”) April 1963 government to evaluate the progress of research in was Sweden’s first electronic ’s Model computational linguistics and computer, with around 2,400 33 became one of the most machine translation (MT). As part vacuum tubes and 400 popular terminals of the of their investigation, the group germanium diodes. 1960’s and 1970s, primarily considered the Georgetown-IBM as an IO device for It was developed by the MT experiment from [Jan 7] 1954, minicomputers. Matematikmaskinnämnden (the and examined Gilbert King's [Jan Swedish Board for Computing One reason was its low cost 13] Mark I and II translators. Machinery), modeled on the IAS (around $700) compared to The report, issued in 1966, was machine [June 10] which the other and intensely skeptical of MT, and design team had studied during a terminals of the time. instead emphasized the need for visit to Princeton. The chief Another was its use of the research into computational engineer was Eric Stemme, and newly introduced ASCII code linguistics. This led to a drastic his team were known as the [June 17]. In addition, reduction in funding for MT that "BESK Boys". pushing the keys was a good lasted for nearly two decades. form of exercise since each

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One infamous (and probably Mori later remarked: “Since I Instruments (TI) to build a apocryphal) MT example was the was a child, I have never version. ’s chip was called the phrase, “the spirit is willing but liked looking at wax figures. 1201, and TI called theirs the TMX the flesh is weak.” Translated into They looked somewhat 1795 [Aug 31]. Russia and back to English, it creepy to me.” The 1201 ended up being became “the vodka is good but the meat is rotten.” Similarly, “out of Separately from Mori, the somewhat different from the CTC first use of the phrase “the specification. For instance, Ted sight, out of mind” became “blind uncanny valley” came in a Hoff [Oct 28] and Stan Mazor [Oct idiot”. popular robotics book by 22] preferred to use RAM-based Jasia Reichardt called register memory, and added an “Robots: Fact, Fiction, and interrupt facility. Prediction”, published in GOB Intel's Hal Feeney handled the 1978. April 1964 detailed logic design and physical By the time an English layout of the 1201 under Faggin’s The Lawrence Livermore National translation of Mori’s article supervision, and his initials, HF, Lab (LLNL) (actually called the was due to appear in 2005, were etched on the top right of Lawrence Radiation Lab at the the phrase “uncanny valley” every chip. time) received the first four CDC had become so familiar to For a variety of reasons, 6600s [Sept 00]. English speakers that the eventually rejected both Intel and article’s title was changed to One of them became the hardware “The Uncanny Valley”. TI's , and instead for a new time-sharing OS built its own CPU with newer, developed by Bob Abbott, Tad faster TTL chips. A much worse Kishi, and Hardy, known as GOB. decision by CTC, even though This was at a time when time- Roche voted against it, was to sharing systems, such as MIT's abandon both chips' intellectual CTSS [May 3] and Multics [Nov April 1972 property to Intel and TI. 30], were still research efforts. Intel released the 8008, its One reason for CTC’s rejection of The GOB acronym apparently first 8-bit . It the Intel chip was its late delivery. stood for “Generous Omnipotent could execute between Electronic Design magazine Benefactor”, with the additional 50,000 and 100,000 carried the first public description feature of being the Russian word instructions per second, and of the chip on Oct. 25, 1970, along for God (i.e. бог) spelled came with a 14-bit address with an estimate that it would be backwards. By the summer of bus that could address a on the shelves by the first quarter 1965, the system supported 48 whopping 16 KB of memory. of 1971; the actual release teletypes. occurred a year later. Although the 8008's name Much later Abbott was one of the echoed the 4004's [Nov 15], TI also tried to market its chip, the technical advisor for the movie it wasn't an 8-bit version of TMC 1795 (the “X” was dropped “Sneakers” [Sept 9]. The NSA the 4-bit 4004; the similar since it meant “eXperimental”), by Agent played by James Earl Jones names were purely a describing it as a “central was given the name “Bernard marketing invention. Their processor on a chip”. Sales were Abbott” in recognition of his most important technological poor, and they eventually contribution. link was their use of the same abandoned it, focusing on silicon-gate design profitable calculator chips instead. methodology invented by Federico Faggin [Dec 1]. Meanwhile, Intel's 8008 (the The Uncanny Valley renamed 1201) was a roaring The 8008’s story began in success. So although TI was April 1970 1969 when Computer probably first with their 8-bit Terminal Corporation (CTC) chip, it was Intel who created the Masahiro Mori, a robotics decided to build its new microprocessor industry. professor at the Tokyo Institute of terminal Technology, published the article, [Nov 27] using a single chip “Bukimi No Tani” (The Valley of CPU rather than out of Eeriness) in the Japanese several TTL chips. KIM-1 Released magazine Energy. Phil Ray and Austin O. “Gus” April 1976 It suggested that as robots Roche, the CTC founders, became more human-like, a point asked and Harry The KIM-1 (Keyboard Input would be reached where subtle Monitor) was a small 6502-based Pyle to design the chip, and imperfections in their appearance [Sept 16] single-board fully- Roche persuaded Intel to would make them look unsettling, assembled computer developed produce it. which implied that robots should by Chuck Peddle [Nov 25], and never be made to look overly Just to be on the safe side, produced by MOS Technology. lifelike. CTC also got Texas

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It came with 1K of RAM, six 7- It was fast, rugged, sleek, segment LEDs (similar to those on lightweight (5 kg), and very a pocket calculator), a 24-key expensive ($8,000 – calculator-type keypad, an audio $10,000). By comparison, the cassette interface, and 15 Osborne 1 [April 3] cost programmable I/O pins. There around $1,800 at the time. were two connectors on the edge However, its intended of the board that could drive a audience were the military Teletype Model 33 ASR [five and high-flying executives, so entries back]. All this for a low price was somewhat price of $245. irrelevant. In an article in this month's Business Week BYTE magazine's review said, "it magazine, the Compass was will prove attractive to readers touted as “a Porsche for top who are not inclined to fondle executives.” hardware extensively.” There was a GRiD Compass on every space shuttle mission from 1983 to 1997, although NASA replaced its with a board that let it communicate with on- board instruments. After the Jan. 1986 Challenger disaster, the GRiDs that had been on the spacecraft were recovered and still worked. The US Special Forces also purchased the machine for use in combat, and it was rumored that the President’s “nuclear football” included a GRiD Compass at one time. The Compass' main weakness A working KIM-1 (2005). Photo was that it couldn't run on by en:Wtshymanski. batteries and, strangely enough, didn't have a carry The KIM came with good handle. These drawbacks documentation, and a “Kim-1 User were fixed in subsequent Notes” newsletter was edited by versions. Eric Rehnke. Several books were published on KIM assembly The machine was designed programming, including the by Bill Moggridge, and in popular “The First Book of KIM” later years, the company by Jim Butterfield, Stan Ockers, earned large sums from its and Eric Rehnke. Compass-related patents (e.g. the clamshell design) as When Commodore acquired MOS its innovations became Technology in 1976, Peddle commonplace. redesigned the KIM's board to become the internals of the The GRiD founders, John Commodore PET [April 15]. Ellenby (formerly of Xerox) and Glenn Edens, later said that the original concept was inspired by Alan Kay’s [May The GRiD Compass 17] Dynabook. The name "GRiD" stood for “Graphical 1101 Retrieval Information April 1982 Display”. For more space shuttle The GRiD Compass was the first stories, see [Jan 22], [Feb 24], laptop in a clamshell case, and [March 11], [Apr 10], [Aug 9], also had a unique 320×240-pixel [Oct 4] 6-inch electroluminescent display (ELD).

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