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Please note - the exact source of this document seems uncertain.
It was OCRed from what appears to be a 1981 draft introduction and catalog
for the original "Computer History Museum" in Boston, Mass.
It shows a serious attempt to organize the wide ranging chaotic field of
calculating/computing architecture, interacting with the rapidly changing technology.
I suspect the organization of computer history, devices, software, ... will never be solved to
anyone's complete satisfaction.
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Digital Computer Museum Catalog (1981)
INTRODUCTION
Starting a computer museum today presents analogous problems to
those that of the second duchess of Portland. Born in 1714, she
was an insatiable shell collector who relied on artistic
arrangements until she hired a student of Linnaeus (1707-1778) the
father of botanical classification systems. Then the collection
was re-arranged according to a taxonomy that would help the viewer
understand evolution and relationships. Computing devices -- as
beautiful as shells to many people -- need a theory-based
classification system.
The purpose of the Digital Computer Museum, to document and
preserve the evolution of the computer, from its earliest origin
to the latest developments, demands a rigorous, disciplined
classification scheme that focuses on the computer itself.
Intuitively, those who have tried to understand computer
evolution to consider a tree structure the basis of taxonomies
but none have been fully developed for the purpose. (Bell and
Newell, 1971; Bell, McNamara and Mudge, 1978; Rogers, 1980;
Science Museum, 1975, Sieworek, Bell and Newell, forthcoming).
The National Science Foundation tree (Fig. 1) of early computers
shows roots and connections but does not name branches. A number
of partial systems and some generally agreed upon terms exist for
defining a classification system. The Computing Reviews
classification system for contents works very well for the
extraordinarily broad range of materials including "mathematics,
engineering, the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and
other fields with critical information about all current
publications in any area of the computing sciences." (Sammet,
1980) The work of the AFIPS Taxonomy Committee, Taxonomy of
Computer Science and Engineering, provides a confusing
semi-lattice covering all possible issues. (AFIPS Taxonomy
Committee 1980) Other trees look at only a part of computing.
(Weizer 1981, Sammet 1969) The evolutionary model has also
resulted in the identification of generations. (Rosen, 1969)
THE GENERATIONS
Within the broadly accepted idea of technological generations,
clear criteria can be identified to mark each one. These are:
- A new base technology
- A new machine structure
- Satisfaction of a need constraint
- Significantly different use.
Generational change is modeled by a series of distinct steps
with a new base technology at a significantly different level.
The technology base never meets the aspirations and dreams of
mankind perceived needs are continually rising. A new base
technology only creates a higher takeoff plane. (Maslow, 1943)
with each new invention, one or two prominent people often note
that it will fulfill all the future computational needs; but each
time the aspiration for more computational power only grows.
Computers themselves are a technology that may influence a
wide spectrum of other phenomena, such as communications and
manufacturing. Since the fifties they have become one of the
prime movers of technological advance.
A number of ideas and machines are designed and even built
out-of-phase with a technology. Ideas that occur before their
time often lie dormant in the inventors notebook until the
technology evolves to match the idea. Later historians illuminate
these early concepts, showing the contemporary entrepreneurs that
they are not inventors but only implementers of ancient ideas.
In the mid-twentieth century, some letters of Wilhelm Schichard
dated 1624 were unearthed. These contained the drawings for the
first known digital machine to perform calculations. (Cohen 1980)
It is very doubtful that these ideas transmitted from Schichard to
his friend Kepler influenced any of the mechanical calculators
that were subsequently developed. Similarly, Leonardo's notebooks
included drawings for many engineering devices including a
calculator, but the mechanical technology at the time had simply
not progressed to the necessary degree. The actual inventors that
develop a baseline machine for a technology are often tinkerers
with that technology and not scholars searching the literature for
ideas.
When one or more significant ideas are transformed into a
project, then its execution includes inventions that become part
of the technological base. A new generation is marked after the
project has proven itself, shown not to be a fluke, and adds a new
layer to the technological base. The Computer Revolution and
beginning of the electronic generation added the technological use
of vacuum tubes in orders of magnitude never before experienced in
the ENIAC project and the use of magnetic core memory from the
Whirlwind project. Since a generation is a convergence of
technology and inventions, marking its emergence by a single event
is inappropriate. A clustering of events, including patents,
publications, and start-up dates that converge are used to justify
the selection of a particular year, that then has approximately a
five percent accuracy.
The Museum collections begin in 1620 with the beginning of
the "Craft Generation". Prior to that information processing was
carried out manually, much the same for all of history. Using the
product of processing rate and memory size to measure computing
power, a 20 order of magnitude increase can be counted since
people used stone-based, single register for arithmetic. The most
significant gap a revolutionary change occurred with the
beginning of the computer era. Before then, memory size was
essentially constant at one. Afterwards, computing power began to
increase at roughly twice the exponential rate of all past
generations.
The name of the generation indicates wide-spread application
and use of a predominant technology. The idea that leads to a
project triggering a new generation always occurs before the
beginning of that generation. The starting date of a generation
is marked by the incorporation of a technology into production of
a new product, concurrent with significant use. in most cases
devices from a previous generation continue to be designed,
manufactured and used, often supplying a base on which the new
generation is built.
Table I lists the need, use and representative inventions for
each of the generations. During the pre-computer generations,
evolution was exponential -- each period being half as long as the
one preceding it. The rapid change is similar to manufacturing
learning curves, whereby a particular unit cost declines by 10-20%
each time the cumulative number of units of a given type are
built. In the Computer Age, the naming conventions given by
industry have been used, and they seem to accurately fit the
model.
Generations are primary organization element for the
collection and its representation in the catalog. The first four
sections present the pre-computer generations. Then the fifth
section is devoted to the pioneer computers that spanned the
revolutionary bridge. And the remainder of the catalog and
collection is open ended; inclusive of all historic generations,
i.e., at least one generation removed from the present
technological generation or fifteen years old.
THE TAXONOMY
Structuring a taxonomy has paralleled the development of the
collection and the exhibits at the Digital Computer Museum. The
PMS classification describing the structure of computing
structures provides the basic framework. (Sieworek, Bell and
Newell forthcoming) PMS allows any computing or software structure
to be described hierarchically in terms of eight basic information
processing primitives; but does not deal with functional
behavior, e.g.., interrupts except those that can be implied by a
structure. The PMS system is generally used to provide a
structural representation of the components of digital computer
systems, in contrast, this taxonomy only encompasses whole
computing systems and their antecedents. The following compares
the two breakdowns:
| MUSEUM TAXONOMY | CODE | CODE | PMS
|
| Memories | M | M | Memories
|
| Controls | K | K | Controls
|
| Transducers | T | T | Transducers
|
| Links & Switches | S | S | Switches
|
| . | . | L | Links
|
| Calcula | D | D | Data Operation
|
| . | . | P | Processor
|
| Digital Computer | C | C | Computer
|
| Automata | A | . | .
|
The criteria defining the tree is the structure of the
computing device, neither the organization that made it nor the
purpose that it was meant to fulfill. To make an analogy with the
animal kingdom, if the bone structure of a horse is that of a fine
race horse then it would be classified as such; it would not
matter if it were bred by the government and used to pick up
garbage, in computing, the EDSAC, built at Cambridge University,
is neither classified as an English or university computer but an
EDVAC-related machine in the same family as the Maniac and ILLIAC.
Thus, differentiation of manufacturers, countries, or by intended
users is not part of the taxonomy.
The classical scientific taxonomy system with its seven
levels has been adopted to organize and classify all species of
relative inventions. The two top levels, kingdom and phylum, are
technology and information, respectively. The Museum collection
deals with seven classes within the phylum of "information."
(Listed above) Each class, like a specie, has life that starts
within a given generation, flowers, and then becomes functionally
incorporated within another class. Each started, almost as an
independent thread, but are now beginning to merge into two
dominant classes: computer and automata.
Memory is probably the oldest class starting with early
markings on caves and continuing both as significant parts of
computers and automata and also as all kinds of human-readable
aids to the brain. See ..... for more complete explanations.
Controls reach back to early analog devices, such as the
creek water clocks, and have been significant in the mechanization
process. At the beginning of the 19th century, card controlled
looms gave the notion of sophisticated pattern control to
industrial processes via the use of a larger scale memory data-set
than hitherto used. Card control ended with a great flourish in
the early nineteen sixties with the tabulating machines. Again
with the computer on the chip, earlier technologies of control
devices are rapidly becoming obsolescent to be replaced by the
"on-board" micro-processor.
Transducers take information in one form and put it into
another. They are often associated with memory systems, allowing
their replication, printing use type (an intermediary form) to
duplicate the information into books, the books are then
"secondary" memory for people. Transducers really began with the
Guttenberg's movable type 'and include teleprinters, tape
transports, the telephone, and television sets. These machines
are becoming more and more sophisticated and less and less able to
be differentiated from computers.
Calculators, other than the manual bead devices, did not
develop until the 19th century and have now virtually been
displaced by computers. These are the data operators to do the
arithmetic in PMS notation. Either calculators are embedded in
computers or computers (as they have miniaturized) are embedded in
what has traditionally been considered a calculator. The taxonomy
of Class Calcula is worked out and explained in the text. (See
....)
Links and switches evolved out of the need for a large number
of subscribers all desiring the use of a single system. The first
telegraph was a simple device transferring information from a to
b. But the growth of the telegraphy and telephony systems in the
late nineteenth century created a need to establish elaborate
networks linked together with a switching system. The current
generation of computers still depend on new methods of linking and
switching for cross communication.
Digital Computers emerged in the late forties from a
combination of calculator, control, transducer, links and
switches, and memory technologies. The section on Pioneer
Computers shows the combination of elements that were adopted by
the first 16 machines, many of which were patched together with
emphases on different Classes. The Class Digital Computer,
itself that emerged is certainly more than the sum of these parts,
as each has converged and been modified and molded into a new
phenomena.
Automata actually started very early with man's desire to
replicate himself and their great population explosion took place
in the sixteenth century. But only recently, have useful automata
been put to work for human purposes and are contemporary to the
latest generation of computers. Thus, this class is presently not
included per se in the collection; but will be included in the
future.
Each of these seven Classes is broken down into Order,
Family, Genus, and then identified by Species. Table 2 lists the
criteria used for the breakdown of the Classes. Specific
descriptions for each of the class are found throughout the
catalog.
TABLE 1.
PRE-COMPUTER GENERATIONS
| .
| MANUAL
| CRAFT
1620
| MECHANICAL
1810
| ELECTRO-MECHANICAL
1900
|
| NEED
| Taxes
| Trade
Exploration
| Industrial
Land Division
| Census
Business
|
| USE
| Counting
| Arithmetic Navigation
| Surveying
Weaving
| Sorting
Accounting
|
| MACHINE
| Abacus
| Tables
Gunter's Rule
| Planimeter
Jacquard loom
| Hollerith Census Machine
Friden calculator
|
COMPUTER GENERATIONS
| .
| ELECTRONIC 1950
| TRANSISTOR 1960
|
| NEED
| Defense Weather prediction
| Space Science
|
| USE
| Firing Tables Weather Forecasting Management
| Simulation Training programmers Accounting
|
| MACHINES
| Whirlwind, UNIVAC 1, ERA 1101
| CDC 160,IBM 7090, IBM 1401, PDP-1
|
TABLE 2.
Criteria used in differentiating orders, families, and genus.
| CLASS
| ORDER
| FAMILY
(Technology)
| GENUS
| Memory
| Machine interface
| Storage material
| Structure of
access movement
| | Controls
| .
| Complexity
| .
| | Transducers
| .
| Phenomena
| .
| Links &
Switches
| .
| Complexity
| .
| | Calcula
| Analog or Digital
| Complexity
| Structure
| | Digital
Computers
| .
| .
| .
| | Automata
| - to be developed
| .
| .
| |
MANUAL AGE
Although the study of mathematics is very ancient, the
objects that lead to the birth of the computer are very sparse
until the early seventeenth century, when the craft generation
starts. Various ways of using coins, beads, stones, and rope
evolved. Among these the abacus and its derivatives are probably
the most widespread.
DIGITAL CALCULA
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SINGLE REGISTER - BEAD
The abacus is the earliest known computing device and the
first hand-held calculator. It postdated the invention of
the decimal system by the Egyptians circa 3000 BC. The
Greeks and Romans built and used the abacus based on
Hindu-Arabic numerals. Unlike earlier notations and devices
using stones and marks, the abacus utilizes positional
notation, including the representation of zeros, differences,
with capabilities for multiplication and division. The
Chinese abacus has beads in groups of 5 and 2, representing
decimal digits. The Japanese first modified this to 5 and I
and then 4 and I, a system known as bi-quinary representation
that was also used in early electronic digital computers such
as the IBM 650 (ca 1955).
In the operation of the abacus, a single register
machine, the moving of the beads also immediately provides
the answer.
- Abacus, 22x16x3 cm, Wood, 9 Digit, (B93.80).
- Abacus, 2x4x6 cm. Green, Marble and Brass, 9 Digit,
(B95.80).
- Counting Beads, 27x19.5x1 cm, 10 digit, Red, Black, and
Green Beads, Wood and Metal, Paint worn off beads,
beads missing on top, (B141.80).
- Soroban, 4x11x29 cm, (B26.79).
Soroban, 10x2x40 cm, Wood and Bamboo, 21 Digits,
(B94.80).
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CRAFT GENERATION
By 1620, the beginning of the craft generation, the abacus
and counting table devices were in use and mathematical tables
were made. In printing, the ability to use movable type was far
ahead of paper technology, but a need existed for a convenient
calculator or lookup table. John Napier of Herchiston, a
mathematically oriented scholar, was bent on making long
multiplication "free from slippery errors." His two major
inventions logarithms (1614) and an inscribed set of rods or
bones (1617) with number series that could be carried in the
pocket and used as a look up table, immediately became quite
popular. The bones were finely crafted sets that were sometimes
paired with an abacus or a slate as a storage device. Although
they are classified as manipulable tables, it can readily be seen,
that their existence might have stimulated ideas for mechanical
calculators. The invention of logarithms did, in fact, lead to
the rapid development of slide rules, analog calculating devices.
In 1620, Gunter placed the logarithmic scale on a rule and then a
sector, and these devices rapidly came into widespread use
satisfying the growing needs of exploration and trade. The speed
of adoption of such devices, carried by navigators, was rapid,
with developing trade and exploration and the ease in which they
could be copied and crafted. Scientifically the use of logarithms
and slide rules were aids to the development of mathematics and
use of the mathematical tools in astronomy and for the
academicians in the age of enlightenment. Thus, two devices, the
bones and the development of rules with logarithmic scales, mark
the beginning of the craft generation that was to last about 200
years.
MEMORY
Non-human interface is the first criteria that divides Memory.
The earliest aids to human memory were neither machine writable or
readable, ranging from stone markings, to beads, and papyrus
scrolls. This group also includes the hand-crafted and personally
read Napier's bones. The next Order of Memories are those that
are either writable or readable by machine, ranging from printed
books to semiconductor ROMs. And finally the third Order, both
machine writable and readable did not begin to develop until the
Electro-mechanical Generation.
NON-MECHANICAL MEMORY
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FIXED PHYSICAL STATE
Napier's bones act as tables that can be rotated. Each
rod is inscribed with a set of numbers facilitating the
multiplication and division of large numbers. John
Napier, Laird of Merchiston in Scotland, invented the rods
and described them in his RABDOLOGIAE, (1617). He wrote
that the multiplication and division of great numbers is
troublesome, involving tedious expenditure of time, and
subject to "slippery errors." His tables reduced these
difficulties to simple addition and subtraction, and won
immediate recognition. A set of Napier's bones is usually
made of boxwood or ivory and often contained in a box or
case that would fit in a pocket. A set usually contains 10
rods, plus extras representing squares and cubes.
Use. Addition is accomplished by reading the appropriate
bones along the diagonal. To obtain a product of 224 x 44,
the rods 2, 2, and 4 are put alongside each other, and the
result is read off by combining the numbers in the fourth
row 0/8, 0/8, 1/6 for the correct answer 896. This
is repeated and the two products added together to give
9856. The bones are sometimes paired with an abacus to
provide a store.
- Napier's Bones. , ca 1700, 8x6x2 cm, Wood, (B27.79).
- "SUMADOR CHINO". , 7.5x20x30 cm. Brown, Green, Paper,
Wood, Glass, Loaned by Jim Rodgers (X10.80)
A set of Napierian rods incorporated with a reusable
surface.
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WRITABLE OR READABLE MEMORIES
PAPER - RANDOM ACCESS
- "Table of the Products and Numbers" by Charles Hutton,
1781, 28x42x1 cm, (B2.76).
Compiled in 1781 by Charles Hutton, this early
book of mathematical tables contains the products of
the numbers I through 1000 by the numbers I through
100. It also contains squares and cubes of numbers
and conversion tables for units of measurement. One
of the main problems with handcrafted books is the
number of errors. On one page alone, every figure is
off by one thousand.
- "TRIGONOMETRIA" by William Oughtred ,,,, published by R. &
L.W. Leybourn, 1657, 14x18x3.5 cm. Original leather
binding, (B160.81).
The original set of logarithmic tables and their
explanation as made by William Oughtred, who made
significant improvements on the slide rule.
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ANALOG CALCULA
Analog calculators work by analog, that is, they create a
physical model of a mathematical problem. Many physical
situations can yield mathematical results, provided they can be
interpreted properly. The extent of a lateral or a rotational
movement of a mechanism or the voltage level on a wire are
examples of quantities which can be used to represent numbers.
The most important breakthrough for analog calculators, however,
came with the invention of logarithms by John Napier in 1614.
This enabled the processes of multiplication and division to be
carried out by addition and subtraction through proper positioning
of number series along sliding rules. The results are
interpolated between the marks on the rule. Other types of analog
calculators include devices used in drafting, measuring and
integrating, e.g., parallel, rules, planimeters, pantographs and
harmonic analyzers.
The families in this order are divided according to the
complexity of the mechanism itself single part, two-three part,
multiple part, complex and programmable. This reflects a rough
evolutionary development with multiple part devices not developing
until mechanical tooling was improved, in the early nineteenth
century.
SINGLE PART
DRAWING INSTRUMENTS
- Drawing instruments, ca 1800, 15x17x30 cm. Brass, Wood,
Marble, Cornelius Conklin (owner), (B92.80).
- Drawing Instruments, 20x11x4 cm. Steel & Brass,
(B19.78).
Cased English drawing instruments made in the
second half of the 19th century. Brass and steel
instruments, ruling pen with ivory handle; 13
separate items in lift-out tray. Small boxwood rule
in space below. Rosewood veneered case and
instruments in fine condition except that the large
compass is missing its pivot locking nut and the brass
has become a bit dull.
- Drawing Instruments, ca 1850, 16x7x2.5 cm. Green,
Shagreen Case, Brass, Steel, Ivory, Silver & Ebony,
(B106.80).
- Drawing Instruments, ca 1900, 6x16x2.5 cm, Black Case,
Brass, Steel, Wood, Cardboard, (B130.80).
- Drawing instruments, 7x15x2 cm case. Wood, Fabric,
Brass, Steel, (132.80).
- Drawing instruments, 10x19x4 cm box. Wood, Brass,
Velvet, (B133.80).
FIXED RULE
- Parallel Rule, ca 1870, 45x6x1 cm. Rosewood and Brass,
(B24.78).
- Parallel Rule, W.H. Harling, ca 1890, 4x33x8 cm. Steel,
(B20.78).
-
Cased presentation of an English rolling parallel
rule. Pasted to the inside cover is the presentation
certificate, "Bradford Technical College Prize Awarded
to Fred Inman at the Annual Examination, 1893, by
order of the Lords of the Committee of Her Majesty's
most honourable privy council on education."
- Parallel Rule, T.S. & J.D. Negus, 8x45 cm. Brass,
Inscribed with Degrees (B104.80).
Parallel Rule, ca 1890, 3.5xl5x.2 cm. Ebony and Brass,
(B122.80).
- Proportional Rule and Protractor, C.W. Dizey, New Bond
St. London, ca 1890, 4.3xl5.2x.2 cm. Ivory, (B120.80).
A protractor and architect's proportions are
inscribed on one side; engineer's scale and vernier
on the other.
- Proportional Rule and Protractor, United Chemical
Engraving Co. Ltd., 1932, 15x5x.2 cm, Cream, Plastic,
Inscribed D.A.E. Carter, (B121.80).
Protractor and table with set scales at 1/20,000,
100,000, and 250,000 inscribed on one side. The other
side has scales of one half inch and one inch to the
mile, a scale of 1/20,000 in meters and listing of
metric equivalents.
- Rolling Parallel Rule, 6x46x2.5 cm, Brass, Patent No.
160100, (B105.80).
- Rule and Ruled Compass, 3x12 cm. Metal, "W.B.Pierce Co.
Civil Engineers", (B138.81).
2-3 PART
- "A Treatise on a Box of instruments and the Slide Rule
for the Use of Gaugers, Engineers, Seaman, and
Students", by Thomas Kentish, Henry Carey Baird,
Industrial Publisher, Philadelphia, 1864, 12x18x2 cm,
Original cloth cover, 228 pages with a folding plate,
(B159.81).
- The use of 2-3 part analog calculators for
practical geometry, trigonometry, and logarithms are
explained. Special sections deal with circles and
navigational calculations.
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GUNTER RULE
About 1607 Edmund Gunter devised a scale that was to be
the predecessor of the modern slide rule. In 1623 he
published a description of this scale that is composed of two
scales of the logarithms from I to 10 placed end to end.
Although Napier conceived of the logarithm allowing
multiplication or division to be accomplished by addition or
subtraction, Napier relied on look up tables.
Use. A pair of dividers is used to measure a distance
(the multiplicand and the multiplier) along the rule and add
it to another distance, the multiplicand, forming the
combined distance, the product, on the rule. The accuracy of
an answer is limited by the length of the rule and the user's
ability to resolve a number.
- Gunter Rule, ca 1800 5x60x.5 cm, wood, (B4.76).
- Gunter Rule, 15x3x.5 cm. Boxwood, (B41.79).
- Navigator's Gunter Rule, ca 1800, 5x60x.5 cm. Darkened
Boxwood, Minor Warping And Edge Chipping, (B54.80).
|
SECTOR
The sector is used to solve problems of proportion and
works on the principle of similar triangles. Sectors were
made with a variety of scales for use in calculation by
navigators, surveyors, gunners, and draughtsmen. At first
sight they look like a jointed rule usually made of ivory,
brass, wood, or sometimes silver. First described by both
Galileo in Italy and Thomas Hood in England the sector was in
use by 1600.
Use. A pair of dividers is necessary to read the
relationships on all sectors. This instrument is marked:
"Chords, Sec, Lines, Tangents, tan, Ver Sine, Sines, & Num."
The scale layout permits this sector to be used as a Gunter
rule as well, although it is not laid out to follow any of
the five editions of Gunter.
- Navigator's Sector, 33x6x1 cm. Boxwood With Brass Hinge,
21 Scales On both Sides and Outside Edges, (B21.78).
- Navigator's Sector, 4x16 cm, Cream, ivory and Brass,
Chipped, (B102.80).
- Navigator's Sector, 1800C, 16x3.5x.3 cm. Ivory, Lee &
Son, Portsea Engraved, (B119.80).
|
SLIDE RULE
In 1654, Robert Bissaker made the first real slide rule
in which the slide worked between parts of a fixed stock.
(Pugh 1975) The term slide rules applies to all instruments
designed so as to allow relative motion between the indices
and the scales. The classification used here is that
established in the Science Museum Catalogue i.e., straight,
circular, spiral or cylindrical, and log-log. The collection
illustrates the improvements in slide rules. Originally made
of boxwood, brass or ivory, in 1886 Dennert and Pape started
to use scales on strips of white celluloid to give much
greater distinction in reading. The spiral and cylindrical
scales allowed an increase of effective length, hence
accuracy, without equivalent increase in size. It also shows
the diversity and specialization that resulted for peculiar
needs at particular times.
STRAIGHT SLIDE RULES
- Slide Rule, Dietzgen, 26x3x1 cm. Wood and Paper,
(B145.81).
- "Slide Rule 689", KEUFFEL & ESSER, ca 1950, 32x6x1 cm,
(B32.52).
- Slide Rule, Foto-mem Inc., 2xl4x.5 cm, (B37.79).
- Slide Rule, Keuffel & Esser Co, Gift of Dick Clayton
(D 50.76).
- Coggeshall Slide Rule, ca 3800, 4x33x.5 cm. Boxwood and
Brass, Hinged with Two Slides, (B109.80).
- A modified Coggeshall type slide rule with one brass
and one wood slide. Navigational scales including
meridian, chords, latitudes, and hours are inscribed.
Freeth and Co. Brimingham is overstamped.
- Coggeshall Rule, Stanley Rule and Level Co., New
Britain, Conn, 32x4x.4 cm. Wood and Brass, (B146.81).
- "Measuring Made Easy; Or the Description and Use of
Coggeshall's Sliding Rule", by J. Good, much Enlarq'd
by J. Atkinson, Sen. London.", W. Mount and T. Page,
at the Postern on Tower-hill, 1744, 10x16x1 cm, ,
Paper and Leather, 96 Pages with 2 folding Engraved
Plates. Portion of Spine lacking but still tight,
without fly leaves., (B139.80).
- Taylor (1966) lists John Good (1706-33) as a
mathematical teacher and notes a 1751 edition of this
work edited by Atkinson, A maker of slide rules. The
first plate illustrates Coggeshall's Sliding rule.
Coggeshall Timber Slide Rule, Richardson and Co.,
Middleton, Co., 4x31.5x.3 cm. Boxwood, Brass, and
Steel, (B147.81).
- "Hydralculator", Lewis & Tylor, Limited, ca 1940,
7xl9x.5 cm. Cream, Cardboard, One Rule on one Side,
(B113.80).
- "Hydralculator", patent number 396,533, published
by Lewis & Tylor Ltd., Gripoly Mills, Cardiff, the
manufacturers of "underwriter" super fire fighting
hose, for the use of their "Friends in the Fire
Service."
- Use. To find the quantity of water discharged for
any given nozzle and a known pressure, place press on
scale "b" opposite nozzle on scale "a', and read
discharge through window in slide. To find height of
jet for given pressure and nozzle diameter, proceed as
above and read opposite arrow in center of slide, the
height given on scale "d" for the appropriate nozzle.
- Inland Revenue Slide Rule, Dring & Fage, 1825, 60x5x1
cm. Boxwood, One ink Stain, (B55.80).
- The rule is specially arranged for the use of
excise officers and maltsters in gauging computations.
Slide rules for this purpose were first devised by
Thomas Everard in 1683, and modified by Vero,
Leadbetter and others, in this example, four scales
appear on one side and the other side is blank.
"Leadbetter Slide Rule", Dring and Fage, ca 1800, 31x3x2
cm. Brown, Boxwood, Four Sided Slide Rule with Slides
on each Side, (B108.80).
- "Musketry Rule of 1918", Metallograph Corp., ca 1918,
3x13 cm. Black, Metal, (B83.80).
- Teaching Slide Rule, Welch, 2x23x125 cm. Black,
Masonite, With Hangers, (B103.80).
- "Thomlinson's Equivalent Paper Slide Scale", J
Thomlinson Ltd Glasgow, ca 1940, 8x58x1.5 cm. Brown,
Wood, One Sided with Two Moving Rules, (B107.80).
- This specialized rule was designed for the paper
and printing industry. The A scale indicated length,
B scale the breadth, and area in square inches was
read off the C scale. The D scale was used to read
off translations of inches to centimeters, kilos to
pounds, 480 and 500 sheet reams, and various weights
of different standard paper cuts.
- Timber Slide Rule, L.&I.D., ca 1800, 60x5x1 cm, Boxwood,
(B30.77).
- Use. On one side, the A line on the rule and the
B and C lines on the slider are each numbered twice
from 1-10, reading from left to right. The fourth
line E is inverted, and is so arranged that 144 is
opposite I and 10 on the A line. So that if length in
feet on E be set opposite thickness in inches on C,
the volume in cubic feet is read off on B opposite
width in inches on A. The B line is subdivided into
tenths, while the A, C, and E lines are subdivided
into fourths. On the other side of the rule are A, B
and C lines with the girt line (marked D) numbered
from 4-40 and bearing various gauge points. The A and
D lines are subdivided into fourths. The two edges of
the rule bear scales of inches divided into
quarter-inches.
- Timber Slide Rule, Stanley Rule & Level Co., 4x30 cm,
Brass and Warranted Box Wood, (B99.80).
- Timber Slide Rule, Stanley Rule & Level Co., 4x30 cm,
Brass and Warranted Boxwood, Cracked, Warped and
Stained, (B100.80).
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CIRCULAR SLIDE RULES
- "Boucher's Calculating Circle", Manlove, Alliott, Fryer
& Co., (B52.79).
- "Circular Concise Slide Rule", ca 1960, 8d cm, White,
Plastic, No. 28; Reverse has Standard Equivalency
Tables, (B114.80).
- Circular Slide Rule, The Cleveland Twist Drill Co., ca
1920, 8d x.3 cm. Cream, Plastic, Printing worn off,
(B125.80).
This specialized rule is copyright 1911, The
Cleveland Twist Drill Company.
- Use. The rule indicated drill speeds for wrought
iron, machinery steel and soft tool steel. One side
shows revolutions per minute for diameters ranging
from one-sixteenth to three Inches for both high speed
and carbon steel drills. The other side shows tap and
drill sizes and the decimal equivalent for inch
divisions.
- "E.A. Sperry's Calculator", KEUFFEL AND ESSER, 6d x2 cm,
Pocket Watch Style, (B97.80).
- "Fowler's Calculator", Fowler & Co., , 6d xl cm,
(B59.80).
- "Fowler's Textile Calculator", Fowler & Co, ca 1900,
6.5d x.7 cm. Chrome, Glass, Paper, Two-sided Circular
Rule, (B112.80).
- Short scale type of "Fowler's Textile Calculator"
with two scales on one side. The other side holds a
table equivalency for weft, looms, and reeds.
"Fowler's Calculator", Fowler's (calculators) Ltd Sale,
ca 1920, 6d xlcm, Chrome, Glass and Paper, Long Scale
Calculator, (B124.80).
- "HALDEN CALCULEX", J. Halden & Co., Ltd., ca 1910, 6 cm
diameter. Metal ring with glass discs covering paper
scales, (B158.81).
- Cajori in his "history of the Logarithmic Slide
Rule" (1909) lists this unique instrument as No. 211
and notes the manual.
- Lord's Calculator, R. Waddington, Coventry, 7d xl. 5 cm,
Chrome and Glass, (B123.80).
- "Palmer's improved By Fuller Computing Scale", J.F.
Fuller, 1847, 28x28x.5 cm. Cream and Black, Cardboard,
"Fuller's Time Telegraph" is on the Reverse,
(B110.80).
- "Palmer's Computing Scale" patented in 1843 by
Aaron Palmer was improved and produced by J.E. Fuller
in 1847. This model is printed from the original
Palmer plate with Fuller's name and own patent added
to the engraving, done by George C. Smith, 186
Washington St., Boston. The reverse side, "Fuller's
Time Telegraph" was patented in 1845.
- Use. "Palmer's Computing Scale" was used to
calculate square measures, cubic measures, timber
measures, grain measures, liquid measures and interest
rates from 3 percent to 10 percent on a daily and
monthly basis. "Fuller's Time Telegraph" (on the
reverse) was used to calculate time lapse in days or
weeks between any two given dates. In concert these
two measures would be useful to dealers in grain,
alcohol and other commodity trading.
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SPIRAL SLIDE RULES
- "Fuller's Spiral Slide Rule", Stanley, 1902, 9x9x33 cm,
Cardboard, Mahogany, Brass, (B5.76).
- Designed in 1878 by Professor George Fuller, the
logarithmic line is arranged spirally on the surface
of a cylinder. The logarithmic line is in 50 turns,
giving a working length of 41 feet 8 inches. All
numbers of four figures either have a mark upon the
scale or are midway between two marks, so that results
accurate to four figures are easily obtained.
- Use. By means of movable cylinders any length of
spiral line may be at once transferred to any other
part of the scale, and multiplications and divisions
containing a series of factors can be worked with
facility. Logarithms of numbers are given by means of
a scale on the longer index arm together with a
circular scale on the first cylinder, so that powers
and roots are obtainable. The surface of the middle
cylinder bears printed tables of decimal equivalents,
natural sines, etc.
- "Fuller's Spiral Slide Rule", Stanley, ca 1880, 33x10x10
cm, paper, wood, metal, (B51.79).
- "Thacher's Calculating Instrument 4012", KEUFFEL & ESSER
ca 1920, 13x13x63 cm. Wood, Varnished Paper, and
Brass, (B29.77).
- Patented in 1881 by Edwin Thacher, an 1884
instruction book notes, "The original rule in use is
12 inches long, with radii of II and 5 1/2 inches, the
divisions of which are cut by hand, copying from a
machine divided plate. In the present instrument the
radii are 60 and 30 feet, the divisions of which are
printed directly from machine divided plates. Those
plates contain over 33,000 divisions, calculated to
seven places of decimals from Babbage's tables by
using a common multiplier, every line being subjected
to correction for error of screw and temperature
variations, so that possibly every line center is
within .0001 inch of its true place."
The instrument consists of a cylindrical slide,
which admits of both rotary and longitudinal movement
within an open metallic framework of 20 equidistant
triangular bars. The bars are connected to rings at
their ends which admit rotation within standards
attached to the base. Upon the slide are wrapped two
complete logarithmic scales, each of which is divided
into 40 parts of length equal to half that of the
slide. The parts follow each other in regular order
around the cylinder, and the figures and divisions
which constitute any part of the right are repeated on
the left, one line in advance.
- Use. By the rotary and longitudinal movement of
the slide any of its divisions may be brought opposite
to or in contact with any division on the fixed
scales. The divisions on the upper lines are
transferred to the slide by means of a pointer fitting
over the bars, which is also convenient for retaining
the position of any division on either line while the
slide is being revolved into the required position.
Near the commencement of each scale on the slide is a
heavy black mark designed to catch the eye.
- "Thacher's Calculating Instrument", KEUFFEL & ESSER,
1925, 16d x58 cm. Wood, Brass, And Varnished
Cardboard, (B56.80).
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LOG-LOG SLIDE RULES
- "DIETZGEN MULTIPHASE STYLE-M IMPROVED DECIMAL TRIG TYPE
LOG RULE", EUGENE DIETZGEN CO., 1954, 5x32x.4 cm,
Aluminum and Plexi, (B144.81).
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DMCAT1.3f
MECHANICAL GENERATION
The second pre-computer generation started about 1810 and was brought
about by the change from hand craft to mechanical technology. Two
machines establish the beginning of the period: the Jacquard loom and
:he planimeter. In the 1790 's Joseph Jacquard integrated a design
)based on the ideas of Bouchon, deVaucauson, and Falcon, for an
automatic harness controlled by punched cards connected to an endless
roll that would mechanize fancy weaving. This was shown at an
'exhibition in Paris in 1801 and by 1812, ten thousand Jacquard loons
were in operation in France alone. (Strandh, p. 195). The planimeter,
the first instrument for directly measuring an area bounded by an
irregular curve, appears to have been invented by the Bavarian
engineer, J. M. Hermann in 1814. It was improved by Lamule in 1816,
and constructed in 1817. (Pugh, 1975) With the need for surveying
and recording land ownership, the planimeter rapidly came into
widespread use.
In the mechanical generation, hand-crafted slide rules were spawned
for a wide variety of uses; by revenuers to calculate tax on alcoholic
leverages, lumbermen for cordage, printers for paper quantity, and
traders for interest rates. (Turner, 1980) A company still exists in
the North of England that makes specialized slide rules. Although the
technology is based on a previous generation and two-three part analog
calculators do not need mechanization, they were improved by
industrialized forms of production.
The production of mechanical calculators did not start at the
beginning of this generation. In 1820, Thomas of Colmar, an insurance
agent, experimented with a four-function calculator, but it was not
built or distributed until the 1850s. The real flowering of the
mechanical calculators began in the last ten years of the century when
Baldwin, Burroughs, and Felt were in business in the U.S., and Odhner
had started his company in Russia.
ANALOG CALCULA
(described in the Craft generation)
2-3 PART
LEVEL REFERENCE
- Gunnery Level, Swift & Anderson Inc., ca 1910, Lead,
Brass and Glass, (B66.80).
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INTEGRATOR
Integrators are analog calculators that perform the
mathematical integration function. The two-three part
mileage readers are indeed very primitive forms of this
phenomena, in calculus, integration is carried out by
continuously summing up rectangles whose height is
represented by the value of a function and whose width
approaches zero. The infinite sum of all of these results
is a value that represents the area under the function, in
an integrator this process is duplicated by means of a
wheel sliding on a rotating cone or disk. As the function
increases, the wheel is slid further out on the disk,
making it spin faster to account for the greater area under
the function.
- "Morris's Measuring Instrument", Morris, 5.5d xl cm,
Metal, Paper, Cloth, Glass, (B128.80).
- Map Measure and Compass, Tacro Inc., 7x3.5x.5 cm,
Chrome, Paper, Glass, (B129.80).
- Map Mileage Reader, Depose B.C., 12x3.5dx.5 cm. Metal,
Paper and Glass,, (B140.80).
- Map mileage reader and compass, SELSI, ca 1930,
11x3.5x.5 cm. The handle also serves as a pencil,
(B152.81).
MULTIPLE PART
LEVEL REFERENCE
- Sextant, Heath and Co. Ltd., ca 1920, 35x25x17 cm,
Certified at The National Physics Laboratory,
(B69.80).
- "Platometer", J. Sang, ca 1860, 9x15x37 cm. Brass,
(B6.76).
This instrument for directly measuring an area
bounded by an irregular curve is based on an idea
developed by the Bavarian engineer J M Hermann in
1814. The first commercially successful devices were
made by Ernst of Paris, in 1851, John Sang of
Kirkcaldy invented and made a "platometer" resembling
the planimeter of Ernst.
- Use. Operation is based on continuous
integration. A curve is traced using the pointer,
with the area read off on the dial after the complete
perimeter has been traversed. As the pointer is moved
the rollers that measure distance on the conical shaft
calculate the product of the vertical distance times
the horizontal distance. As a curve is traversed in a
clockwise direction, the top area is integrated in a
positive direction. On the return trip the
integration is negative and the net value is provided.
- "Directions for Making a Machine to Solve Equations",
Rowning, J., 1768, 22x18x2 cm, (B48.79).
This work describes the first analog computer
designed to solve algebraic equations of the n'th
degree expressed in the form y = a+ bx + cx2 + dx3 + .
. . + qxn . It was completed in 1768 by Rowning based
upon the graphical method invented by A. deSegner in
1751. In 1770 an actual machine mechanized to the
second degree was presented to the Royal Society, but
apparently no longer exists. Rowning's instrument
consists of a number of adjustable straight bars, or
"rulers," centered and combined together in such away
as to occupy progressively the various positions in
accordance with deSegner's graphical construction.
Movement in two directions at right angles to one
another is secured by means of two pairs of racks and
pinions. The curve is drawn by a pencil on the
underside of a piece of pasteboard supported by two
adjustable bars.
- Use. Segner's method consisted in finding, by
graphical construction, the values of y for various
assumed values of x, plotting the curve, and reading
off the values of x at the points where the curve
intersected the axis of x, thus obtaining the real
roots of the equation. The impossible or imaginary
roots were indicated by the points where the curve
approached and reached from the axis of x, without
reaching it.
- Planimeter, The A. Leitz Co., ca 1900, 2x4x28 cm, German
Silver and Steel, (B49.79).
This instrument for measuring the area of any plane
figure was invented by Professor Jacob Amsler in 1856.
It is a proportional instrument in that the unit can
be changed by altering the radius of the tracing arm.
Use. The weighted point is fixed and the tracing
pointer guided exactly once round the outline of the
figure whose area is to be measured. The difference
of the readings on the graduated roller before and
after this operation gives the area of the figure in
units dependent on the setting of the tracing arm.
- "Lowry-bowyer Telemeter", Lowry Mfg. Co., ca 1900,
15x78x7 cm. Aluminum and Wood, (B53.80).
- A version of the classical trigonometer signed and
dated "THE LOWRY MFG. CO./BOSTON, U.S.A./PAT. 1887,
'92, '96". It has two four and a half inch compass
bearing dials, one fixed at the end of the twenty-six
inch long graduate slotted base plate, the other
sliding, and each with graduated pivoted arms of 18
3/8" radius. It was intended for the analog solution
of the plane triangle knowing two angles and included
side, two sides and the included angle, or three
sides. Thus it was useful for problems both of
navigation and gunnery.
DRAWING INSTRUMENTS
- Pantograph, ca 1850, 85x15x8 cm Case, Brass and Wood
Engraved, J. Davis Cheltenham, (B134.80).
- Pantograph, A & W Smith, ca 1820, 59x7x5.5 mahogany
case. Brass, (B153.81).
"A rare type of brass pantograph", P. Delehar.
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DIGITAL CALCULA
The Digital Order, Class Calcula has five families: single
register, two register, three-four register, complex and
programmable. The use of the abacus, a single register, manually
built, portable calculator, has not been challenged until the
development of equally portable and inexpensive electronic pocket
calculators. Abacus-type machines have been unique because with a
skilled, accurate operator, they could carry out diverse and
complex functions, including long multiplication and division.
They had the characteristic of all single-register machines, i.e.,
the only record of the operator's input was the current result on
the single register. The dual calculator Sharp-Elsi Mate with
both a soroban and a four-function electronic calculator was
manufactured to preserve a culture, i.e., to teach children to use
a soroban and not to use the calculator. If abacus-like machines
are so extraordinary, why in fact were mechanical calculators ever
invented? Probably, because of the likelihood of human error, and
desire for simple aids with some kind of memory to check the human
operator.
The Pascaline (1645) is the first of the mechanical, single
register calculators. All machines stemming from this, to the
Comptometer, utilized one's complement arithmetic for subtracting.
two register calculators, developed in the late nineteenth
"century, were characterized by using the keyboard as one register
and using bi-directional wheels for direct subtraction.
Three and four register calculators were derived from
Leibniz's concept of a stepped-wheel mechanism allowing an
automatic carry, thus multiplication and division. Otto Steiger's
millionaire, a heavy brass machine, based on purely mechanical
principles, also had the first fully automatic multiply.
Millionaire production came to a halt in the thirties, these
machines were kludged with key punches and motors to meet the
growing competition of electric motor-driven machines.
In the 1870s, both Frank Baldwin and Wilhelm Odhner developed
a compressed version of the stepped wheel device with one large
wheel and all operations based on its rotation. This type machine
was widely distributed in Europe under the names Odhner and
Brunsviga. its concept was most refined as the Curta, produced
through the sixties.
In 1911 when Baldwin was old enough to retire he met Frank
Monroe and they started the Monroe Calculator Company (Chase,
1980). The Monroematics, electric calculators, were among the
first electrified automatic machines.
Four-function electronic calculators are with us, and school
children and everyone needing to balance a check book have become
about attached to them as they are to their watches. The
inexpensive, the four-function electronic pocket calculator has
replaced almost all other forms of analog and digital calculators.
Complex digital calculators stem from Babbage's difference
engine, built by Scheutz as a project.
SINGLE REGISTER
Three kinds of mechanisms divide this family into three
genuses: Pascal wheel; Pascal strip;
and Keyed wheel. The
original machine was based on a toothed wheel driven by a stylus.
Pascal's bulky machine with its long teeth was replaced by many
streamlined variants. As teeth on the wheels became more
compressed the volume of the machine was taken up by the diameter
of the circles themselves, giving rise to the Pascal strip
simply an elongated circle. Thus, the Pascal strip family
provided a portable, cheap and, from 1930s-1950s, a relatively
widespread use alternative. However, from the human factors
standpoint working at a office desk, key punch equipment is faster
and more accurate. Dorr E. Felt was the first person to patent
and manufacture a key-punch variant of the wheel, the Comptometer,
marketed mainly for the growing bureaucracy of the
turn-of-the-century industrialization.
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PASCAL WHEEL
- Pascal Adder, Roberto Guatelli, 1645, Bronze, (B150.81).
A replica of the first mechanical adding machine.
Use. The dials show the French monetary unit, the
livre, which was divided into 12 deniers, each
subdivided into 20 sols. The essential part of the
machine was its decimal carry; each toothed wheel
moved forward one unit (one-tenth of a revolution on
each wheel except those of deniers and sols) when the
previous wheel had completed one revolution.
Subtraction is based on complementary numbers revealed
by moving the strip at the top of the calculator.
- "SEE CALCULATOR" Selective Educational Equipment Corp.,
1968, 18x4x1 cm, (B31.79).
- A small replica of the Pascal-type adder made to
illustrate the mechanism.
- "Quixsum Adding Machine Model C", Precision Adding
Machine Co. Inc., ca 1930, 7x18x48 cm, (B38.79).
The Quixsum is a good example of how the stepped
wheel principle of Pascal can be used to operate any
special measures, not necessarily base ten. In this
case it adds English units of feet and inches.
- Use. To add a number to the register, the
appropriate digit is dialed. The result is displayed
in a notch at the top of each wheel.
- "Addometer" Reliable Typewriter & Adding Machine Corp.,
1x5x30 cm. Black, Metal, (B85.78).
- "Addometer" Reliable Typewriter and Adding Machine
Corp., 3x5x30 cm, Dark Gray, Metal and Fiber,
(B96.80).
- "BRI-CAL POCKET ADDING MACHINE", BRI-CAL, 1900, 12.5 cm
diameter. Black, Metal, Loaned by Dick Rubinstein
(X13.80).
PASCAL STRIP
- "BABY CALCULATOR", ca 1950, 1x8x6 cm. Tin, (B76.80).
- "BABY CALCULATOR", 14.5x7.5x7 cm. Black, Gold and Red,
Metal, (B149.81).
- "B.U.G. Calculator", ADDI-COSMOS, 4.5x20.5x4 cm. Brass,
Steel, Wood, fabric, (B131.80).
- " EXACTUS ", ca 1950, 7xllx.5 cm, (B36.79).
A linear form of the simple Pascal two function
calculating device that uses complement arithmetic.
- Use. Addition or subtraction is carried out by
dialing the numbers starting with the least
significant. A carry is performed by moving the final
digit around the corner to the next linear register.
KEYED WHEEL
All machines in this category are derived from the invention
of Dorr E. Felt who holds an 1887 patent (#371,496) for the
machine. In 1884, at age 22, Felt, a machinist, conceived his
idea while watching the ratchet feed motion of the planer that he
ran. He says; "Watching the planer-feed set me to scheming on
ideas for a machine to simplify the hard grind of the bookkeeper
in his day's calculation of accounts. I realized that for a
machine to hold any value to an accountant, it must have greater
capacity than the average expert accountant. Now I know that many
accountants could mentally add four columns of figures at a time,
so l decided that I must beat that in designing my machine.
Therefore, I worked on the principle of duplicate demonominational
orders that could be stretched to any capacity within reason. The
plan I finally settled on is displayed in what is generally known
as the "Macaroni Box" model. This crude model was made under
rather adverse circumstances. The construction of such a
complicated machine from metal, as I schemed up was not within my
reach from a monetary standpoint, so I decided to put my ideas
into wood. It was near Thanksgiving Day of 1884, and I decided to
use the holiday in the construction of the wooden model. I went
to the grocer's and selected a box which seemed to me to be about
the right size for the casing. It was a macaroni box, so I have
always called it the macaroni box model. For keys I procured some
meat skewers from the butcher around the corner and some staples
from a hardware store for the key guides and an assortment of
elastic bands to be used for springs. When thanksgiving day came
I got up early and went to work with a few tools, principally a
jack knife. I soon discovered that there were some parts which
would soon require better tools than I had at hand for the
purpose, and when night came I found that the model I had expected
to construct in a day was a long way from being complete or in
working order. I finally had some of the parts made out of metal,
and finished the model soon after New Year's day, 1885." (Felt in
Turck, 1921) He produced eight finished machines before
September, 1887, and two were immediately put into service for
training operators.
One of the first trained operators, George W. Martin wrote
Felt on November 6, 1887, "...in accordance with your request I
have called on as many businessmen as I will have time to call on
owing to the fact that the Gas Co. has written for me to come to
work next Monday morning. The names and addresses are as follows:
Sprague Warner and Co., Michigan Avenue and Randolph Pelkin and
Brooks, Lake and State Streets, Melville E. Stone, Editor, of the
Daily News, and the Freight Auditor of the C.B.&Q RR. These
Gentlemen are very much please with the machine and say they will
give it a trial as soon as you put it on the market." (Turck,
1921, p. 71)
According to Turck, "significant proof of Felt's claim as the
first inventor of the modern calculating machine is justified by
the fact that no other multiple-order key-driven calculating
machine was placed on the market prior to 1902." (Turck, 1921,
P. 75)
Use. For each digit a push button from I to 9 is selected
which rotates a Pascal-type wheel with the corresponding number of
increments. Numbers are subtracted by adding the complement
(shown in smaller numbers). The carrying of tens is accomplished
by power generated by the action of the keys and stored in a
helical spring, which is automatically released at the proper
instant to perform the carry. Through effective marketing and
training of skilled operators versed in complement arithmetic at
Comptometer Schools, these machines became the workhorse of the
accounting profession in the first part of the century. They
never successfully advanced into the electro-mechanical era, but
remained purely mechanical, two-function adding and subtracting
- ca 1910, Black, Metal with beveled glass. Adapted for
motorized operation, (B157.81).
- "Wales Visible Adding Machine", Wales the Adder Machine
Co., 20x24x38 cm. Metal and Plexi Replacements for
Glass. (B88.80).
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3-4 REGISTER
STEPPED WHEEL
In 1820, Chevalier Charles X Thomas of Colmar designed
and introduced the first multiplication machine made
commercially available for general sale. Although it was not
patented until 1851, the main features of the 1820 design
remained unaltered. The mechanism has three parts, concerned
with setting, counting, and recording respectively. Any
number up to 999,999 may be set by moving the pointers to the
numbers 0 to 9 engraved next to the six slots on the fixed
cover plate. The movement of any of these pointers slides a
small pinion with ten teeth along a square axle, underneath
and to the left of which is a Leibniz stepped wheel. The
Leibnix wheel, a cylinder having nine teeth of increasing
length, is driven from the main shaft by means of a bevel
wheel, and the small pinion is thus rotated by as many teeth
as the cylinder bears in the plane corresponding to the digit
set. This amount of rotation is transferred through one of a
pair of bevel wheels, carried on a sleeve on the same axis,
to the 'results' figure wheel on the back row on the hinged
plate. This plate also carried the figure wheel recording
the number of turns of the driving crank for each position of
the hinged plate. The pair of bevel wheels is placed in
proper gear by setting a lever at the top left-hand cover to
either "Addition and Multiplication" or "Subtraction and
Division". The "results" figure wheel is thereby rotated
anti-clockwise or clockwise respectively.
Use. Multiplying 2432 by 598 may be performed as
follows: Lift the hinged plate, turn and release the two
milled knobs to bring all the figure wheels to show zero;
lower the hinged plate in its position to the extreme left;
set the number 2432 on the four slots on the fixed plate; set
the lever on the left to "multiplication" and turn the handle
eight times; lift the hinged plate, slide it one step to the
right, and lower it into position; turn the handle nine times;
step the plate one point to the right again and turn the
handle five times. The product 1,454,336 will then appear on
the top row, and the multiplier 598 on the next row of
figures.
- "Arithmometer", Chevalier Charles Savier Thomas, ca
1850, 10x18x58 cm. Brass, (B3.76).
- "Tates Arithmometer", C & E Layton, 10x17x58 cm, Brass
and Wood, (B82.80).
This machine, which is of the Thomas type, embodies
the modifications patented in 1884 and 1903 by S.
Tate, who in 1883 was the first in England to
manufacture this type of calculating machine. His
patents were later taken over by C. and E. Layton.
- "BUNZEL", Thomas-type arithmometer, Bunzel Mfg, Vienna,
ca 1910, Wood, Metal, (B143.81).
AUTOMATIC STEPPED WHEEL
The Millionaire was invented in 1893 by Otto
Steiger and was the first direct multiplying
calculator to be commercially successful. Between
1894 and 1935, 4,655 millionaires were sold.
Use. One turn of the crank automatically
multiplies the accumulator by a single digit specified
by a pointer in the upper left hand corner of the
machine. The pointer is reset for each digit in the
multiplier until the computation is complete.
- "Millionaire", EGLI & CO., 1903, 17x52x28 cm. Brass, 6
Digit, (B1.75).
- "Millionaire", EGLI & CO., ca 1910, 18x29x76 cm, Brass
10 Digit, (B17.78).
- "Millionaire", Hans W. Egli, 18x29x76 cm. Brass, 8
Digit, (B91.76).
- "Millionaire", Hans W. Egli, ca 1920, Brass, Electrified
8 Digit Model, (B136.81).
ROTARY
The German patent of W. T. Odhner, 1891, was acquired by
Messrs. Grimme, Natalis & Co., and was embodied in a machine
known as the "Brunsviga".
Use. Although the machine performs multiplication by
repeated addition as in the Thomas type, the use of the
Odhner wheel instead of the Leibniz toothed wheel led to a
more compact design. The Odhner wheels fit very close
together on the axle on the back. A setting lever, the end
of which projects through a slot in the cylindrical portion
of the cover plate, forms part of each wheel. If a lever is
set against any figure (I to 9) of its slot, a corresponding
number of pins are made to project from its wheel. When the
operating handle is turned, these pins gear with small
toothed wheels of the product register, which in turn gear
with the number wheels in front. The product register is
mounted on a longitudinally movable carriage arranged in
front of the machine, which carries a second counter for
registering the multiplier or the quotient. The handle is
turned in a clockwise direction for addition and
multiplication, and counter-clockwise for subtraction and
division.
- "Trinks-brunsviga" Trinks-brunsviga, ca 1940, 15x12x36
cm, (B80.80).
This example is a further adaptation of the
Brunsviga and sits on a wood board that was part of a
disappearing desk top.
- "DE TE WE" Harmann Manus, Gift of Declan and Margrit
Kennedy (D190.80).
- "Original Odhner", Odhner, ca 1920, Grey, Metal,
(B135.80).
- "Curta" Contina Ag Mauren, 30d x 12 cm. Black, Metal,
(B87.79).
- The Curta is the ultimate example of the rotary
mechanical calculator. Its small size requires better
manufacturing technology than any other mechanical
calculator. Model I had an 8 digit input setting, 6
digit counter, and II digit accumulator. Model II had
an II digit setting, 8 digit counter, and 15 digit
accumulator. Prior to the electronic calculator, the
Curta was the only four-function portable calculator
and as such was especially popular for use at car
rallies.
|
CONTROL
CARD-CONTROLLED - LOOM
|
The Origin of Punched card program control can be traced to
18th century developments in the French silk weaving industry.
In 1725 Basile Bouchon, the son of an organ manufacturer,
devised a perforated tape control for weaving ornamental patterns.
Before then, draw looms were operated by two people, one to
control the shuttle, and the other to control warp threads by
means of cords. A row of perforations across a tape automatically
selected the warp threads in Bouchon' s loom, reducing the
assistant's task to that of pressing the mechanism against a set
of needles that sensed which holes had been punched.
In 1728 Falcon, a master silk weaver in Lyons, constructed a
loom replacing the perforated tape with a row of connected punched
cards. His loom used several rows of needles so that four hundred
or more cords could be controlled. At Falcon's death in 1765,
about forty of his looms were in operation.
In 1746, Jacques de Vaucanson, the celebrated inventor of
automata, designed the first draw loom to function completely
automatically. While this innovation was significant, the use of
a perforated cylinder rather than a row of cards was
retrogressive.
In 1804 Jacquard commercialized and improved de Vaucanson's
fully automatic loom utilizing the punched cards of Falcon. Each
card carried an individual pattern line. Mounted on a belt, the
cards wound over a prism shaped like squared cylinder which
revolved with a ratchet system. To extend a pattern, more cards
were added, so that complex non-repetitive patterns could be
created on the loom.
By the 1830s, thousands of examples of Jacquard looms were
operating in France. It is then understandable that Charles
Babbage in 1836 chose to use Jacquard mechanisms as
program-control devices to direct the wheels and gears in his
Analytical Engine.
- "Jacquard Loom Mechanism", ca 1805, 16x36x40 cm. Wood,
Brass, and Steel, Paper Cards Added by Peter Delehar,
(B117.80).
- A rare and important contemporary model of the
first true device invented by J. M. Jacquard
(1752-1834) for use in the French silk weaving
industry. The loom was automatic. Patterns in fabric
were generated by programmed punched cards.
|
TRANSDUCTION
COPIER
- "The Edison Mimeograph No. I", A.B. Dick, ca 1900,
13x33x43 cm. Wood Case and Frames, (B78.80).
|
TYPEWRITER
- "Bennett", 27x12x4 cm. Black with Yellow Letters, Metal,
(B142.81).
Very compact with three positions for the keys and
a wheel device. Small sized ribbon and removable
carriage.
- "Bing No. 2" Binq, ca 1930, 15x28x38 cm, 1926 patent
pending, (B43.80).
- "Corona No. 3", Corona, ca 1920, 23x25x12 cm. Black,
Metal, Carriage folds up over Keyboard, (B63.80).
- "CORONA FOUR", Corona Typewriter Co., Inc. Groton, NY,
ca 1920, 26x31x11 cm. Black, (B154.81).
- "Dial Typewriter", MARX, ca 1950, 15x15x30 cm, (B75.80).
"Favor it 2" Adler, ca 1940, 36x28x11 cm. Black, German
Keyboard, (B67.80).
- "Featherweight Blickensderfer", Blickensderfer, ca 1900,
25x30x13 cm. Aluminum, 501 Special Stamped on Base,
(B116.80).
- The "Blick" was the first typewriter intended to be
readily portable. It was designed by Georges
Blickensderfer and patented in 1890 and first sold in
1893.
- Use. Each key had three positions, upper and lower
case and a figure that positioned three levels of the
printing wheel.
- "Junior Typewriter", MARX 28x13x18 cm. Gray and Blue,
Tin, Bent & Rusty, (B101.80).
- "Molle No. 3", Molle Typewriter Co., 25x28x33 cm, Black,
Metal, (B65.80).
- "NOISELESS TYPEWRITER", The Noiseless Typewriter Co.,
1915?, 30x30x30 cm. Black, Metal, Text typed on the
machine. Loaned by Ed Luwish (X5.80).
- "Underwood Typewriter No. 5", Underwood, 22x30x30 cm,
(B15.76).
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ELECTRO-MECHANICAL GENERATION
The inventions that were critical for the electro-mechanical
generation were fundamentally in place by 1900. These include the use
of electro-magetics, electric-driven motors, battery-driven circuitry,
and relays. Links and switches with telegraphy and telephony were
developed throughout the mid-nineteenth century. Power for the early
telegraphs was generated in conjunction with the railway system. Most
early systems were point to point, along lines minus the technology for
development as a network. The Hollerith tabulator and sorter developed
for the 1890 census provides a truly significant project leading to a
new generation. Its first commercial application was not until 1895,
when a version was installed for accounting at the offices of the New
York Central Railroad. (Randall 1973, p. 126) The 1900 census saw
improvements in the system with the addition of automatic card handling
mechanisms. In 1901 the first patent application for a motor-driven
calculator was made. (No. 726,803 "The Universal Accountant" issued to
Frank C. Rinche, April 28, 1903) The electric motor driven calculator
was not produced in quantity until the 1920s. (Chase 1980)
Although the pieces of the technology were known prior to 1900, the
infrastructure of the electricity grid had not been installed. This
was essential to transform the to useful tools. On September 4, 1882,
the first American power company, the New York Edison Illuminating
Company, started generating electricity at the Pearl Street Station.
(Stein, 1976, p. 244) Edison and others had difficulty raising money
for these capital intensive projects and electrification had to be
established as the infrastructure to support the use of
electric-mechanical devices.
DIGITAL CALCULA
TWO REGISTER
KEYED WHEEL
- "Olivetti" Olivetti, 15x15x30 cm, Plexi-glass, Metal, Paper
Tape, (B86.79).
|
3-4 REGISTER
MOTOR-DRIVEN WHEEL
- "Friden Calculator Model D-8", Friden, 38x26x20 cm, (B12.76)
- Marchant Electric Calculator, Marchant, Gift of Professor
Robert Floyd (D235.81).
- "Marchant", Marchant, 1950 c, 40x25x31 cm. Metal, (B62.80).
- "Monroe Electric Calculator No. I", Monroe Calculating
Machine Co., 38x31x24 cm, (E10.76).
- "Monroe" Calculator, Monroe Calculating Machine Co., 15x30x26
cm. Gray, 8 Digit, (B40.79).
- "Monroe No. 1", Monroe Calculating Machine Co., 20x25x30 cm,
Metal, (890.79)
|
COMPLEX
ACCOUNTING TABULATOR
Working as a statistician at the United States Census Bureau,
German-American Hermann Hollerith first conceived of using
punched cards as data carriers for the 1890 census. The 1880
census had taken over seven years to complete, the population
then numbering over 50 million and increasing rapidly.
Hollerith's solution was to introduce a rectangular card
divided into 240 squares, in each of which a hole could be
punched according to a code. Each square corresponded to a
question; a punched square represented the answer "yes", an
unpunched square a "no". In that way one card could contain
information about a person's age, sex, ethnic background and so
on.
Hollerith developed his methods further and started a company
which, in the following decades, was to provide the business
world with a whole family of punched card machines for
bookkeeping and statistics. Hollerith's company flourished and
became one of the cornerstones of IBM, founded in 1912.
- The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System, Reproduction by
Roberti Guatelli, 1890 (1981), tabulator 75x120x90 and
sorter 90x35x75 cm. Brass, Oak, Glass, (D231.81).
Cards were read by the machine. The card was placed on
small containers holding mercury, one container for each
row of holes, and then the die with electrically conducting
pins was brought down upon the card. The holes permitted
contact between the pins and the mercury containers, and
the coded information was registered by the comptometer -
the dials on the front of the machine. The upper left dial
counted the U.S. total, and the others corresponded to the
state total in which the particular "card" lived. The
corresponding slot in the sorter would then open, and the
operator would drop the card in.
- Keyboard Punch (Hollerith), Reproduction by Roberto Guatelli,
1890, 10x40x50 cm, (D242.81).
Blank cards were punched by using a enlarged pantograph
of the layout that could be easily read. Locating the
correct whole on the template and punching it then
transferred a punch onto the card.
|
MEMORY
WRITABLE OR READABLE
MECHANICALLY STABLE
RANDOM
- Paper Tape for Facom, Fujitsu, 72 hole unit paper tape,
Gift of F. Kurosaki (D76.79).
TRANSDUCTION
- Ediphone, Utility Shaver, Voice Recorder, Edison, 1900,
30x30x90 cm. Black, Metal, Gift of Dan Leblanc (D121.80).
- Dictaphone, Shaver, Transcriber, Columbia Graphophone Co,
1910, Black, Metal, (D123.79).
- "IBM" IBM, 26x44x40 cm. Gray, Justowriter Corp On Motor
Housing, (D16.76).
- Clary Printer, (adding machine adapted for computer output),
Martin Marietta Corp, 1960, 45x35x45 cm. Gray, Metal,
Keyboard covered. Gift of Clyde Still (D208.80).
|
LINKS AND SWITCHES
TELEGRAPHY
NEEDLE TELEGRAPH
In October of 1847, a week after Werner Siemens founded
what was to become Siemens Company, he received a patent for the
needle telegraph. He wrote his brother on II October 1847, "I
have already spend 8 days in the new building. Above me there
is already a lot of filing and rasping going on. Halske lives
two floors up. We still badly need machine tools." A year
later the company received an order to set up with minimum
delay a communications link between Berlin and Frankfort so
the high level political decisions of the First German National
Assembly in Frankfort could be discussed as soon as possible in
Berlin. On 28 March 1849, the election of King Frederick
William IV of Prussia was transmitted electrically over 500 km
in the same hour as its announcement. (Weiher and Goetzeler
1977)
- Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt von Siemens & Halske, Needle
Telegraph, 1847
- Use. The piano key-type letters activate the impulse
with the aid of a Wagner-Neef hammer to automatically
maintain an electrically controlled synchronism between
transmitter and receiver. Loaned by the Siemens Company.
(XI 9.81)
- Telegraph Sender & Receiver, Bunnell?, 1870'S, 45x30 cm. Brown
Rodney Banford (D229.80).
- Telegraph Key Electric Specialty Mfg Co., Cedar Rapids, la.
ca 1900, 7x8x18.5 cm, black, metal, (B151.81).
- Western Union Teleprinter, Teletype Corp, ca 1930, 35x30x30
cm. Green, Metal, Model 2-B, Loaned by Ed Luwish (X8.80).
|
DMCAT 1.5
PIONEER COMPUTERS
The mid-thirties brought needs for increasingly complex
engineering calculations. George Stibitz recalled:
|
In 1937, Bell Labs began to need greater calculating
power for development in mathematical form as a theory of
communications engineering. The basic principles were
expressed in terms of complex numbers because they nicely
represent the characteristics of alternating currents used by
the power and communications industries. Twelve girls (if
you don't mind the expression) did nothing but calculate
complex numbers with 8 place precision using desk
calculators. The arithmetic of complex numbers when it has
been converted to multiple operations with real numbers and
carried out on desk calculators is even more tedious and
subject to errors than bookkeeping. Furthermore, the
computing load was increasing rapidly. (Stibitz, 1980)
|
By the forties, the concern was defense, and the first true
working computers were funded by various parts of the national war
efforts on cryptology in Great Britain (Randell, 1980) and to
compute firing tables in the U.S. To give an idea of the order
of magnitude of the need, Goldstine estimated,
|
The human cum desk calculator (10 seconds per
multiplication) would then spend about 2 hours on the
multiplying; and with our estimate of a factor 6, about II
hours doing an individual trajectory. This was a little
right, perhaps a little low. The Harvard-IBM machine (3
seconds) required about 2 hours; the Bell machine (I second,
about 2/3 hour; and the Mark II (0.4 seconds) about 1/4
hour. The differential analyzer took, as we have said, about
10-20 minutes. ... None of these was sufficient for
Aberdeen's needs since a typical firing table require perhaps
2,000-4,000 trajectories assume 3,000. Thus, for example,
the differential analyzer required perhaps 750 hours --30
days-- to do the trajectory calculations for a table.
(Goldstine, 1972, p.138)
|
Thus, the war effort clearly provided a significant need for
computing on a power never clearly articulated before and with new
electronic technologies that appeared to be suitable for use.
Goldstine funded Prosper Eckert and John Mauchly to put together a
team and build a computing machine to fulfill this need, but the
academic, engineering, and scientific communities were skeptical
that an order magnitude change was possible. (Stern forthcoming)
The EDVAC report, written by Von Neumann, and based on the
work of Eckert, Mauchly, Burks, and others involved with the ENIAC
project, puts down the realistic specifications for the general
purpose, stored program computer. (Von Neumann, 1945) It excited
the academic community, and led to the origin of a number of
computer projects. (Bigelow 1980) Similarly, a report by Alan
Turing in England spawned interest there. A number of projects in
laboratories and universities that developed between 1945 and 1950
then convinced the scientific, government and business communities
of the reality of potential of the stored program, general purpose
digital computer.
Although a driving meta-need was the war effort. World War II
was over by the time Von Neumann was specifying the IAS project at
Princeton. He identified a second meta-need, that of good weather
prediction. The equations for greater accuracy in prediction were
known in 1911-12 but time consuming to compute. Von Neumann's
first experiments were so successful that as a result the U.S. set
up a statistical weather prediction service. No conceptual
breakthroughs had been made: it was only a case of carrying out
the computations more carefully and with greater speed. With the
advanced fourth generation computers, the one week theoretical
limit of weather prediction as understood as a subset of celestial
mechanics has not been reached. (Leith 1981)
DIGITAL CALCULA
COMPLEX
RELAY CALCULATOR
- BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES CALCULATOR I
- Relay Breadboard of Bell Telephone Laboratories
Calculator, 1939, Reproduction and gift of George
Stibitz, (D127.80).
- "Communications Milestone: Invention of the Electrical
Digital Computer", Bell Laboratories, ca 1980, Color,
3/4" videotape, 8 min. running time (V4.81).
- George Stibitz recalls early computer development
in this Bell Labs publicity piece. Stibitz, whose
electromechanical calculator was a forerunner of the
modern computer, demonstrates his first binary adder
and documents the first long-distance data link.
- George Stibitz Lecture, Digital Computer Museum, 1980,
b&w, 3/4" videotape, 58 min. running time (V12.81).
George Stibitz's Pioneer Computer Lecture, May 8,
1980
EQUATION-SOLVER
ATANASOFF-BERRY COMPUTER
- - ABC Memory Drum, Atanasoff, 1935-1940, Loaned by Dr
Clair Maple, Iowa State University (XII.80).
- - ABC Breadboard, Atanasoff, 1935-1940, Loaned by Dr.
John Vincent Atanasoff (X12.80).
- J. V. Atanasoff lecture. Digital Computer Museum, 1980,
b&w, 3/4" videotape, (vl0.81).
J. V. Atanasoff's Pioneer Computer Lecture,
November II, 1980.
|
PROGRAMMABLE
RELAY CALCULATOR
- Z 3, Z 4
- Konrad Zuse Lecture, Digital Computer Museum, 1981, B&W,
3/4" videotape, (VIS.81)
Konrad Zuse's Pioneer Computer lecture, March 4,
1981
COMPUTER
The EDSAC
-
"The EDSAC Film", Cambridge University Mathematics
Laboratory, 1951; narration added 1976, Colour, 3/4"
videotape, 10 min. running time (V3.81).
- The EDSAC, the first full-scale stored-program
computer, is the subject of this 1951 documentary.
Cambridge University Mathematics Laboratory staff act
out the story of a computer program from problem
formulation through run, with memory contents
displayed on EDSAC's CRT, to final results. Maurice
Wilkes added an introduction in 1976.
- "The EDSAC", Maurice Wilkes Lecture, Digital Computer
Museum, 1979, Color, 3/4" videotape , 2 tapes, 82 min
running time (V13.81).
The ENIAC
- "The ENIAC", John Brainerd lecture. Digital Computer
Museum, 1981, B&W, 3/4" videotape, (18.81).
John Brainerd's Pioneer Computer Lecture, June 25,
1981.
The Pilot Ace
- "The Pilot Ace," J. H. Wilkinson Lecture, Digital
Computer Museum, 1981, B&W, 3/4" videotape, 2 tapes
(V14.81).
- J. H. Wilkinson's Pioneer Computer Lecture, on the
Pilot Ace, April 14, 1981.
Whirlwind
Word length: 16 bits;
Memory size: 2048 words;
Speed: Approximately 42,000 single address instructions
per second;
Clock rate: I Mhz; 2 Mhz (for arithmetic element);
Arithmetic element: Accumulator, A and B registers.
Instruction format: Single address 5 bit op code and II
bit address;
Power consumption: Approximately 150,000 kw;
Size: Occupied Barta Building, Cambridge.
Component count: 5000 vacuum tubes and 11,000 crystal
diodes;
Availability: >95%;
Maintainability: Used marginal checking of grid and
screen bias voltage;
Project leaders: Jay W. Forrester and Robert Everett.
Project start: 1945;
Operated: November, 1950 with 256 words; and August
1953 with core memory.
Decommissioned: at MIT in May 1959; operated at Wolf
R&D from 1963-1973; Moved to Digital, 1974.
Use: Prototype for Air Defense Computer, precursor to
IBM built AN/FSQ7 computer. Used to develop Linvill's
sampled-data system theory.
Achievements: First core memory. First high speed,
parallel computer for real time. Control organized in
an array permitting diodes to be used for specifying
register transfer operations needed for designing each
instruction in what Maurice Wilkes later described to
be micro programmed. First use of marginal checking to
detect weak components. Self checking procedure for
faulty components. First use of cathode ray tubes for
light pen input. Data transmission via phone lines;
vacuum tube process improvements.
Whirlwind Register/Logic Module MIT
1950, (D104.76); Whirlwind Core Plane MIT 1953
(D29.73); Whirlwind Core Memory Stack, MIT,
1953, (D30.73).
Jay Forrester Lecture, Digital Computer Museum, B&W,
3/4" videotape, 2 tapes, 84 min. total running time
(VI 1.31).
Jay Forester's lecture on the design and
engineering of the Whirlwind; Third Pioneer Computer
Lecture, June 2, 1980.
"See It Now" (excerpt on Whirlwind), CBS, 1952, B&W,
3/4" videotape, 6 min. running time (VIS.81).
Edward R. Marrow features the Whirlwind computer,
the new "electronic marvel," in this 1952 excerpt from
the CBS "See It Now" news program. Jay Forrester,
Whirlwind project leader and director of the MIT
Digital Computer Laboratory, demonstrates the
capabilities of the computer using perpetrate input,
display scope, and teletypewriter output.
"The Whirlwind Film", ca 1953, Color, 3/4" videotape,
Running time: 13 min. (V8.81).
The Whirlwind's structure is shown in detail as a
scientific application program is written, debugged at
3 a.m., and run. This film on computer operations and
applications was made after Jay Forrester invented
core memory for the Whirlwind.
|
ELECTRONIC GENERATION
In 1950, the computer era had been established: at least
seven corporations had announced their intent to build computers
Zuse AG, Ferranti, Elliott Brothers, Ltd., J. Lyons and Co
Ltd., UNIVAC, and IBM and the ERA 1101 was on the marketplace.
(Science Museum, 1975)
Industry itself and its leaders had been changed by the
technological advances of the war period. Goldstine states:
In my opinion, it was Thomas Watson, Jr. who played the
key role in moving IBM into the electronic computer field.
When he came out of the Air Force in 1945 his experience as a
pilot had apparently convinced him of the fundamental
importance of electronics as a new and prime technology for
our society. He therefore exerted considerable pressure on
IBM..." (Goldstine, 1972, p. 329)
COMPUTER
- LGP-30 - Librascope General Precison Computer (X14.81)
Word Length: 31 bits, including a sign bit, but
excluding a blank spacer bit
Memory Size: 4096 words
Speed: .260 milliseconds access time between two
adjacent physical words; access times between two
adjacent addresses 2.340 milliseconds.
Clock Rate: 120 Khz
Power; 1500 Watts
Arithmetic element: Three working registers: C the
counter register, R the instruction register and A the
accumulator register.
Instruction format: Sixteen instructions using half-word
format.
Technology: 113 vacuum tubes and 1350 diodes.
Number Produced: 320-490
First Delivery: September, 1956
Price: $47,000
Software: ACT I (Fortran type compiler)
Successor: LGP-21
Achievements: With the Bendix G-15 the first of the
desk-sized computers offering small scale scientific
computing. Revolutionizing the computer industry with
the potential for low-cost distributed processing.
- The Maniac
"The Maniac", Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1957,
Color, 3/4" videotape, 29 min. running time (V5.81).
- This 1957 production describes the MANIAC
computer's architecture and operating principles for a
general audience. The Los Alamos designed machine
features cathode ray tube memory and
binary-coded-decimal input by punched paper tape.
COMPONENTS
LOGIC MODULE
- Deuce Arithmetic Logic Element, English Electric Co, 1955,
Gift of Professor Murray Allen, University of New South
Wales (D4.75).
- IBM 650 Logic Module, IBM, 1955, Gift of Professor Murray
Allen, University of New south Wales (D12.75).
- G15 Logic Module, Bendix Computer Corp, 1955, (D109.80).
|
READABLE & WRITABLE MEMORY
WAVE STORAGE
CYCLIC
Mercury delay line.
Mercury was used to propagate an acoustic wave and hold
information. A two meter tube held about 1000 bits, with a
delay time of approximately one millisecond with a bit
separation of about one microsecond or two millimeters.
Early computers such as the Pilot ACE, EDSAC, and Bureau of
Standards computers used both long and short delay lines.
- Deuce Mercury Delay-line, English Electric Co, 1955,
Short register, 64 bit, 64 microsecond delay line. Gift of
Murray Allen, University of New South Wales (D3.75).
|
ELECTRIC CHARGE
RANDOM
- Maniac Electrostatic Memory & Williams Tube, Atomic Energy
Commission, 1949, Gift of Dale Sparks, Los Alamos
Laboratory (D214.80).
|
MAGNETIC FLUX
RANDOM
- Illiac 54x128 bit Core Memory, Gift of Clifford Carter,
University of Illinois (D19.75).
- RCA Selectron Tube from JOHNNIAC, RCA, 1950, Gift of John
Postley (D215.80).
- One of forty RCA Selectron tubes installed on the
Rand Corp JOHNNIAC Computer in 1950. The tubes constituted
the 256 word 40-bit memory that operated the machine. In
1954 a 4000 word magnetic core memory replaced the tubes.
- Mark IV 64 bit Magnetic Shift Register, Aiken-Harvard, 1944,
Gift of Bob Trocchi (D6.75).
|
TRANSISTOR GENERATION
"What is a Transistor?
Transistors are made from silicon by the introduction of minute
quantities of impurities that determine the electrical properties
of the host material. By precisely controlling both the location
and the concentration of impurities (called dopants), engineers
can build up the transistor structure.
Doping impurities come in two types. The first adds free
electrons to the silicon, converting it from a near insulator to a
conductor of electricity (although the conductivity is much less
than that of a metal). The second type removes electrons from the
bonds keeping the silicon atoms in the solid, leaving behind
electron vacancies or 'holes'. The holes behave like positively
charged carriers of electricity and thus the second type of dopant
also raises silicon's electrical conductivity. Silicon that
conducts electricity by way of free electrons is called n-type,
whereas material that conducts by the way of holes is called
p-type.
Transistors consist of three segments of doped silicon back
to back, as it were. The sequence of segments is important; the
allowed orders are n-type-p-type-n-type and p-type-n-type-p-type.
There are two general classes of transistors, but both can have
either the n-p-n or p-n-p sequence of doped silicon segments. The
historic first transistor built at Bell Laboratories in 1948 is
called a bipolar transistor because electrical current flowing
through the device from one end to the other passes through both
n- and p-type silicon and both electrons and holes contribute to
the current. Bipolar transistors are also called current
controlled because a small electrical current entering the device
through the center segment controls whether the device as a whole
conducts electricity. A voltage applied only to the two end
segments will not cause the transistor to conduct electricity.
Viewing the transistor as a switch, one says that the current into
the center segment turns the switch on or off.
The second class of transistor is the insulated gate field
effect transistor. In this type of device, a thin insulating
layer (usually silicon dioxide) is placed between the central
segment and its electrode. A voltage applied to the electrode
creates an electric field which converts the region of the central
segment just under the electrode from one conductivity type to the
other (n- to p-type of vice versa). Thus, field effect
transistors differ from bipolar devices in two ways: they are
actuated by a voltage applied to the central segment rather than
by a current, and all the current is carried by one type of
carrier in three segments of the same conductivity type.
With the invention of the integrated circuit in the late
1950s, it became clear that the field effect transistor offered
distinct advantages because fewer processing steps were needed to
make this type of device and because it took up less space in the
silicon. The type of field effect transistor called
metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) has become the dominant form of
commercial integrated circuit. The biggest advantage of the
bipolar device is switching speed. Thus, for those applications
requiring this capability, such as high-speed logic circuits in
computers, bipolar is widely used. Moreover, new forms of bipolar
circuits that are more amenable to miniaturization than the older
types are being investigated and may well turn out to be important
as MOS microcircuits in the next generation of microelectronics,
the VLSI era," (Robinson, 1980)
By 1960 transistors had replaced tubes as the technological base
for computers. Their properties, lending themselves to automated
design and manufacture no longer meant that the innovative machines
would come from handcrafted projects in laboratories and universities,
but from industrial research and development. The end of the fifties
saw the last spurt of laboratory built machines: Lincoln Lab's TX-0
(Transistor Experimental project), MANIAC 2, Bell Labs Leprachaun and
ILLIAC II. in 1959, a Siemens 2002 was delivered to the Technical
University of Aachen. The same year IBM introduced their
fully-transistorized 7030, the 7090, and the 1401. in 1960, the CDC
1604 and 160, and Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-1, the IBM 1620,
and the UNIVAC 1105 were announced. The full range of computers were
then available for purchase: ranging from business to scientific, and
from small to super, i.e., from $100,000 to $10,000,000.
The early sixties brought the space race creating new computing
needs in science and education. This generated new demands for
computing power that, once available, led the first generation of
"hackers" to enhance the machines into super toys. The Gemini flight
inspired a group in Cambridge to use the computer scope to simulate
space flight and space wars. Active communication between users from
coast to coast rapidly developed into a computer game culture. The
children of the first hackers started to college in the eighties and
are as distinctive as the so-called TV generation since they grew up
with computers as playmates.
Simultaneously, business was beginning to define a need based on
computing versus tabulating and sorting. Champine (80) has listed the
phases that characterize the development of commercial applications.
As early as 1955, the full range of business uses were envisioned that
are continuing to create a need for larger and faster business
computers. But he notes that only the leading edge users were
implementing the intermediate level functions in the late fifties.
Thus, business data processing only began to drive the development of
computers with second generation machines.
ANALOG CALCULA
LEVEL REFERENCE
- Hawk Missile-auto-pilot, Raytheon, 1960, Gift of Joe
Kuprevich (D144.80).
DIGITAL CALCULA
3-4 REGISTER
- Anita Electronic Calculator, ANITA, Gift of Leonard Woodall
(D209.80).
COMPUTER
Atlas Computer
- Atlas I PCB, Ferranti Corp., 1959-63, Gift of Professor
Sumner (D1.75).
- Atlas Digits, Ferranti Corp., 1959-1963, Gift of Professor
Sumner (D2.74).
- Atlas I Computer PCB, Ferranti, 1962, Gift of Robert
Hopgood, Rutherford Laboratories (D128.80).
- Atlas I Fixed Memory, Ferranti, 1962, Gift of Robert
Hopgood, Rutherford Laboratories (D129.80).
- Atlas I Memory "THE SUPERVISOR", Ferranti, 1962, Gift of
Robert Hopgood, Rutherford Laboratories (D130.80).
- Atlas I Computer Form Flash Plates, General Dynamics 1972,
Gift of Robert Hopgood, Rutherford Laboratories (D131.80).
IBM 7030 "THE STRETCH" IBM, 1961, Gift of Computer
Service, Brigham Young University (D250.81).
Word Length: 64 bits plus 8 bits for parity and error
checking
Memory Size: I to 8 16k core memory stacks, self-contained
each with its own clock, addressing circuits, data
registers and checking circuits, addressing of up to 256k
word locations.
Data Transfer Rate: Addressing of memories and transfer of
information from and to memories by a memory bus permits
new addresses, information, or both to pass through the bus
every 220 musec.
Central Processor: The processor consists of the instruction
unit, the look-ahead unit, a parallel arithmetic unit and
a serial arithmetic unit. Multi-programming through
program interruption and address monitoring, and overlapped
or parallel execution of instructions is possible.
Instruction Format: Halfword formats accommodate indexing
and floating-point instructions. Fullword formats are used
by variable-field-length instructions. Five instruction
sets and 765 different types of instructions are used.
Technology: Standard Modular System Transistor Cards. Used
150,000 high speed drift transistors, and provided
interleaved magnetic core memory with 2.18 usec access
cycle.
Number Produced: 9
Price: $6-8 Million
Project Start: 1954
Project Leaders: S.W. Dunwell; Gene Amdahl, John Backus,
Werner Buchholz, B. O. Evans, Jerrier Haddad, Lloyd Hunter,
Ralph Palmer, and John Sheldon
First Delivery; April 1961 to the Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory
Software: Algebraic and Fortran compiler
Use: Large scale scientific research, for example: nuclear
reactor design, hydrodynamic problems, problems in nuclear
physics.
Achievements: Techniques for parallel processing and
multi-programming were interleaved memories, instruction
look-up units, overlapping fetch and execute instructions,
interrupt handling and address monitoring. The 7030 also
introduced an 8-bit byte for character representation, up
to 256 characters could be represented. The magnetic
core memory developed for the STRETCH was also used on the
IBM 7090.
Innovations (adapted by Hurd, 1981)
- A fast, diffused-base, alloyed-emitter transistor,
known as the drift transistor, offering improvements in
quality, consistency, and speed.
- A logic circuit design called transistor current
switching or emitter-coupled logic that permitted faster
operation than prior logic circuit design.
- A memory having an access time of about 2
microseconds (compared to the fastest memories available in
1960 about 6 microseconds).
- A method of memory interleaving of up to four
2-microsecond memories, which permitted an average memory
access time of about one-half microsecond.
- A "lookahead" feature that increased the speed at
which an application could be performed by the system. The
lookahead feature read instructions that were three levels
ahead of the one being performed and determined the
appropriate memory references and memory allocations for
these instructions.
- The most sophisticated interrupt system to that
date.
- The incorporation of multiprogramming with a system
of memory protection.
- A disk drive which had a set of parallel read/write
arms contained in a single mechanism for high-speed
operations. With capabilities of attaching to the Stretch
more than one two million word disks with a data rate of
several million bits per second per channel, this exceeded
the performance specifically of competitive storage products.
- A mass storage device, called TRACTOR, used large
tape cartridges and a mechanical means for storing and
retrieving. The use of proportional sensing within a
vacuum-tube tape drive enabled the tapes to accelerate,
reach high speeds, decelerate quickly, and stop without
breaking the tape.
- Error-correcting codes were used involving memory.
- Computer-aided design was developed for the
Stretch.
- Methods were developed for automated assembly and
testing of printed circuit boards.
- The distinction between character and decimal and
binary machines, fixed-word-length and variable-word-length
machines, and fixed-record and variable-record machines was
eliminated. Werner Bucholz coined the word "byte" to deal
with the issues of variable-sized parts of words.
- "Stretch: The Technological Link Between Yesterday
And Tomorrow", Brigham Young University, 1981, Color, 3/4"
videotape, 15 min. running time (VIS.81).
- The "Stretch", IBM's 7030, was the supercomputer of
1961. The system's innovations, including lookahead, array
processing, and error correction codes, are highlighted in
interviews with former users and footage of the machine in
operation.
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LINC Computer, Lincoln Lab, 1961, (D118.79)
Word Length: 12 bits
Memory Size: 2048 words
Speed: Approximately 125,000 single address instructions per
second
Clock Rate: 500 khz using dec 4000 series modules
Arithmetic Element: Six 12-bit registers
Instruction Format: single and double operand, multi-mode
Technology: Discrete transistor using dec 4000 series
modules
Power Consumption: 1000 watts
Size: 69"x32"x32", plus separate tape, keyboard, console,
and interconnection boxes.
Price: $43,600
Project Leaders; Wesley Clark and Charles Molnar
Project Start: 1961
First Shipment: March, 1962
Withdrawn: December, 1969
Number Built: 50 total, 21 by DEC
Successors: DEC LINC, LINC-8, PDP-12
Achievements: Laboratory system to accept analog and digital
inputs directly from experiments and to provide signals for
control. First truly personal computer with automatic file
system via two LINC tapes, interactive program editing,
development and control via CRT.
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LINC-8, Digital Equipment Corp, 1965, (D119.80).
Word Length: 12 bits
Speed: Approximately 667,000 memory accesses per second
Clock Rate: I Mhz (same as PDP-8)
Instruction Set Processor: Both LINC and PDP-8
Arithmetic Element: Four PDP-8, six LINC 12-bit registers
Instruction Format: Single and double operand, multi-mode,
12 bit instructions
Technology: DEC "Flip Chip" R-series general purpose
modules. (Discrete components)
Power consumption: 2,000 watts
Size: 69"x32"x33"
Price: $38,500
Project start: 1965
First shipment: August, 1966
Withdrawn: December, 1969
Predecessor: LINC
Successor: PDP-12
Achievements: System where both processors could operate in
parallel. Utilized either LINC or PDP-8 software.
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PDP-1, Digital Equipment Corp, 1960, Gift of Inforonics
Corp (D116.79).
Word length: 18 bits
Speed: 100,000 single address instructions per second
Clock rate; 5 Mhz and 500 Khz for input-output
Arithmetic element: Accumulator and input-output
instruction format: Single address 5 bit op code, I indirect
bit, 12 address bits. Extended field with 15 address bits.
Technology: Early second generation Digital 1000 series 5
Mhz and 4000 series 500 Khz systems modules
Power consumption: 2160 watts
Size: 69"x88"x28"
Price: $120,000
Project leader: Benjamin Gurley
Project Start: Summer 1959
First Shipment: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, November 1960
Number built: 50
Achievements: First commercial computer with graphics
display. Operation as time shared computer, BBN, September
1962. Original space war program by Steve Russell at MIT.
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PDP-7, Digital Equipment Corp, 1964, Gift of Computer
Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic (D143.80).
PDP-8, Digital Equipment Corp,
Word length: 12 bits;
Memory Size: 4096 words (expandable to 32,768 words);
Speed: 333,333 signed address instructions/second; 1.5
microsecond memory cycle time;
Clock rate: I Mhz;
Arithmetic element: accumulator and 8 auto-index registers
in memory;
Instruction format: Single address 3 bit op code, indirect
bit, I page bit and 7 page address; 32,768 word
addressable memory;
Technology: Digital R-series logic;
Power consumption: 780 watts;
Size: 8 cubic feet;
Number produced: approximately 5,000;
Price: $18,000 with 4096 word memory and teletype type
33ASR;
Project start: 1964;
First delivery: April 1965;
Predecessor: PDP-5;
Successors: PDP-8S, LINC-8, 8-1, 8-L, 8-F, 8/M, 8/A, VT78;
Software: PAL-8 assembler. Macro 8 assembler, Fortran II,
DDT (Symbolic debugger), Editor, RT-8 and OS-8 operating
stand-alone operation systems using Dectape and diskpaks;
Use: Real time control and data collection. First "OEM"
computer. Data communication. Small business data
processing. Timeshared computation for very low
cost/terminal;
Achievements: Originated concept of minicomputer; Provided
the lowest cost computation and performance/cost at the
time; Producible in high volume manufactured using
wire-wrap technology; Improved ease of interfacing (first
DEC computer to use I/O bus structure); By packaging,
price and supply established the two tier supplier/OEM
structure; Lowest cost per terminal with TSS/8 (smallest
scale timesharing system).
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PDP-12, Digital Equipment Corp, 1967, (D156.80).
Word length: 12 bits
Speed: Approximately 667,000 memory-processor accesses per
second
Clock rate: I Mhz (same as PDP-8)
Instruction Set Processor: Both LINC and PDP-8
Arithmetic element: Four PDP-8, six LINC 12-bit registers
Instruction Format: Single and double operand, multi-mode
12-bit instructions
Technology; DEC "Flip-Chip" general purpose modules.
Discrete components.
Power Consumption: Less than 2000 watts
Size: 76"x35"x33"
Price: $28,000
Project Start: June, 1967
First Shipment: June, 1969
Withdrawn: June, 1975
Number built: 1,000
Predecessors: LINC, LINC-8
Achievements: Improved price, price per performance and
larger display. Lowered LINC-8 cost by building a single
physical processor to execute either LINC or PDP-8
instruction set.
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TX-0 Computer, Lincoln Lab, 1956, (D154.75).
Word Length: 18 bits
Memory Size: 8192 words
Speed: 80,000 single address instructions per second
Clock Rate; Variable, controlled by delay-line (max rate = 5
Mhz)
Arithmetic Element: Accumulator; In-Out Register for
program-controlled Input-Output; Index Register
Instruction Format: Five bit op code, (2 bits initially
used) + 13 bit address (16 bits for initial 65,536 word
memory)
Technology: Discrete transistor circuits and core memory
Power consumption: Approximately 5,400 watts
Air Conditioning: 15 tons
Size: Built into 9000 square foot room at MIT
Component Count: 3,600 surface-barrier transistors (SBT) of
Philco type 2N240
Total Hours: Approximately 50,000 hours with 12 transistor
failures
Project Staffing: Lincoln Laboratory Division 6, Group 63;
William Papian, head; Wesley Clark, logical design;
Kenneth Olsen, circuit design and construction (followed by
Benjamin Gurley) Richard Best and Jack Mitchell, memory
design. John Clarke supervised construction.
Project start: Late 1955
Use: Research on electro-physiological signal processing;
speech analysis and synthesis; picture processing;
simulation of sensory aids for the blind; bubble chamber
photograph analysis; handwriting analysis; interactive
programming; symbolic program tracing and debugging.
Achievements: Tested transistorized circuitry for use in
computers. Tested a large, 65,536 word (18 bit + parity bit
per word) vacuum tube driven core memory. Improved
real-time interfacing.
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"Tomorrow: The Thinking Machine", CBS, 1961, B&W, 3/4" videotape,
Running time: I hr. (V6.81)
Artificial intelligence is the topic of "The Thinking
Machine," a 1961 episode of the CBS News Tomorrow show,
narrated by Jerome Weisner and David Wayne. Machine
"learning" is compared with human and animal behavior.
Highlights include an interview with Claude Shannon, a
robot-sequence clip from the silent film classic
"Metropolis", and three versions of a TV western written on
MIT's TX-0 computer.
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READ-ONLY MEMORY
MAGNETIC
RANDOM, Rope
- Apollo Guidance Computer, Read Only Rope Memory,
Burroughs, 1963, Gift of Dr. Albert Hopkins, Draper
Laboratories (D115.76).
- Non-destructive Read-out, RCA, 1965, Gift of Cliff Granger
(D162.80).
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WRITABLE AND READABLE MEMORY
WAVE STORAGE, CYCLIC
Magneto-strictive
Delay-line stores hold information as a series of impulses
circulating continuously along a closed path. In a
magnetostrictive delay-line electrical impulses signifying
data are converted into stress waves which travel the
length of the nickel wire. The application of a magnetic
field to the wire causes it to change dimension thus
converting electrical impulses to stress waves, or vice
versa. Coils similar to those found in an electro-magnet
are used for inserting and recovering digital information
from the delay-line. The Elliott Brothers' Computers in
England were the first to use the magnetostrictive
principle for storage of data. (Lavington, 1980)
- Magneto-strictive Delay-line, Ferranti, 1958, Gift of
Oliver Strimple (D23K.80).
ICT Sirius Computer had 10 decimal digits per word,
with 1000-10,000 words stored on delay-lines.
Compile-add time cycle of 250 usec, and storage cycle
time of 4000 usec.
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MAGNETIC FLUX
RANDOM, CORE
Cores are made of ferromagnetic material that is able to
become strongly magnetic when subjected to relatively weak
magnetic forces. A magnetic field is generated in the
vicinity of any conductor that is carrying a current. The
direction of the magnetic field is related to the direction
of the current flow in such a way that reversing the
direction of the current results in a reversal of the
direction of the induced magnetic forces. Each core has
four wires: two which write selecting the proper one in a
co-incident (x-y) axis. A third wire reads and a fourth
wire inhibits a build up of energy. A number of core
planes are then piled into a core stack or cube and in the
transistor and integrated circuit computer generations were
the most prevalent type of primary memory.
- Ferrite Memory Stack - experimental, Digital Equipment
Corp, 1975, Gift of Cliff Granger (D160.80).
- Experimental Ferrite Core Memory, RCA, 1964, Gift of
Cliff Granger (D161.80).
- Ferrite Core Memory Cube, RCA, 1960, Gift of Cliff
Granger (D169.80).
- Ferroxcube Core Memory, Ferroxcube Corp of America,
1968, (D195.80).
- Ferrite Core Memory, Ferroxcube Corp of America,
(D196.80).
- Core Memory Board, RCA, (D197.80).
- Core Memory, Digital Equipment Corp, (D200.80).
- 18 Mil Planar Memory (8k), Digital Equipment Corp,
(D198.80).
DISK
- Minuteman Missile Fixed Disk Memory, Autonetics, 1962,
(D107.80).
- Telex Disk, 3M CORP, 1962, 75 cm diameter. Copper,
Metal, Gift of Don Sordillo (D80.80).
PLATED WIRE
- Plated Wire Memory, Honeywell, (D114.80).
LINKS AND SWITCHES
- Teletype Receiver and Transmitter Module, Digital Equipment
Corp, 1963, System Building Block 4707, (D217.80).
First functional unit package for controlling
telegraph line. Identical forerunner of one-chip
circuits known as UARTs, Universal Asynchronous
Receiver and Transmitter.
TRANSDUCTION
- Friden Paper Tape Reader, Friden, 1964, Model SP-2, Loaned by
Ed Luwish (X9.80).
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??COMPONENTS
LOGIC MODULES
- Analex Logic Module, Analex, 1962, (D21.79).
- System Logic Module, Digital Equipment Corp, 1958, Gift of
Dick Best (D22.79).
- Adder Module-NORC, IBM, Gift of Herbert Lechner, Stanford
Research Institute (D27.80).
- Delay Line Memory/Logic Module, Computer Controls Corp, 1958,
(D108.80).
- SMS Logic Module, IBM, 1960, (D113.80).
- PDP-6 System Logic Module, Digital Equipment Corp, 1964, Gift
of Don Vanada (D212.80) .
- PDP-6 Signed Photo, Digital Equipment Corp., 1967, (B70.67).
- PDP-8 Flip-flop R201, Digital Equipment Corp., 1966, 1x15x7
cm, (B71.74).
- Dec Flip-chip Modules, Digital Equipment Corp, 1965,
(D213.80).
- 22XX Printer Buffer Array, IBM, 1971, (D132.80).
- Bit Slice (Triple Flip-flop), Digital Equipment Corp,
(D201.80).
- Bendix Bit Slice, Bendix Computer, 1968, (D202.80).
- System Building Block, Digital Equipment Corp, (D203.80).
- Ferroxcube FF1, Phillips Mfg., (D204.80).
- Decimal Counting Unit, Berkeley Scientific Corp, (D205.80).
- Bendix Bit Slice, Bendix, (D207.80).
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DMCAT 2.3
IC GENERATION
DIGITAL CALCULA
FIVE OR MORE REGISTER
- Slide Rule Calculator, Texas Instruments, 1973 Gift of Mike
Riggle (D237.81).
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DIGITAL COMPUTER
- Advanced Scientific Computer Exhibit, Gift of Texas
Instruments;
- ASC Emitter Coupled Logic Board, Texas Instruments,
1971. (D238.80).
- ASC ECL Mother Board, Texas Instruments, 1971.
(D239.80).
- ASC ECL Mother Board, Texas Instruments, 1971,
(D240.80).
- ASC Logic & Harness Connector Bulkhead Cabinets, Texas
Instruments, 1974, (D22K.80).
- ASC Disk. Texas Instruments. 1974, (D225.80).
Word length: 32 bits
Memory size: Memory Control Unit (MCU) provides
facilities for controlling access from eight processor
ports to a central memory having a 24-bit address space
(16 million words).
Data transfer rate: 50 million words per second per port;
total transfer capacity of 100M words per second.
Clock rate: 12 MHz
Central Processor: Provides both scalar (single operand)
and vector (array) instructions at the machine level. 48
programmable registers consisting of 16 base address
registers, 16 arithmetic registers, 8 index registers, 8
vector parameter registers.
Instruction format: Multiple pipelined instruction
processing units. Instruction size, 32 bits with 16-,
32-, or 64-bit operands.
Technology: Pipeline architecture.
Power consumption: 500 KW
Size: 4000 square foot floor area (includes main frame,
disks, operating system, etc.).
Number produced: Seven.
Price: $8M-15M
Project start: March 1966
Project leader: Harvey Cragon
First delivery: 1971
Software: Fortran Compiler (NX and FX)
Use: Large scale scientific and technical problems.
Achievements: Pipeline processing capabilities as
architectural attribute. Super computer capabilities
along lines of CRAY-1, Star-100. Modular, highspeed
general purpose data processing system used for large
scale scientific and technical problems.
-
PDP-11/20 , Digital Equipment Corp. (D140.80).
- - PDP-11/20 Logic Modules. Digital Equipment Corp, 1970,
(Dim. 80).
- - PDP-11/20 Module Artwork, Digital Equipment Corp., 1969,
100x94 cm. Mylar in Plexi, (B77.72).
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COMPONENTS
- Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Steps Card, Digital
Equipment Corp, (037.80).
CONSOLE
-
PDP11/45 Console Panel & BOARD. Digital Equipment Corp, 1973.
Plastic, (D199.80).
LOGIC MODULES
- PDP-8/1 Logic Module 220, Digital Equipment Corp, 1970,
Gift of Harry Moyer (D102.80).
- CCC Logic Module, Computer Controls Corp. 1965, Gift of
Gordon Bell (D111.80).
- CCC Logic Module, Computer Controls Corp, 1965, (D194.80).
- STAR Logic Module, Control Data Corp. Gift of Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories (D218.80).
- CDC 6600 Transfer Board, Control Data Corp. Gift of Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories (D223.80).
- Cray I Interface Module. Cray Research, Inc., 1976, Gift of G.
Michaels and W. Becker, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories
(D226.80).
PRIMARY MEMORY
- Thin Film Memory, RCA, 1966-1970. Gift of Gordon Bell
(D 112.80).
- Memory Driver, (D210.80).
- PDP-11 Planar-structured Core Memory. Digital Equipment Corp.
1975, (D241.80).
SECONDARY MEMORY
- Prototype RL01 Disk Drive. Digital Equipment Corp. 1975, Gift
of Hertrich Development, Inc. (D163.80).
- IBM Data Cell Cartridge. IBM, 1969. Gift of Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories (D220.80).
A direct access storage device which stores data on
individual magnetic strips. These strips are contained
in removable, interchangeable data cells. The IBM 2321
Data Cell Drive has 10 data cells with 20 subcells per
cell, each subcell has 10 magnetic strips. Each data
cell can contain 39.2 million bytes or 78.5 packed
decimal digits. A single 2321 data cell drive can have
on-line access to a maximum of 392 million bytes or 784
million packed decimal digits and signs. (See IBM Manual
GA26-3574-2 and GA26-5988-7.)
- IBM 2321 Data Strips, IBM. 1969. Gift of Lawrence Livermore
Laboratories (D219.80).
- IBM 1360 Photo-digital Storage System Module, IBM. 1967-1969,
2.5x2x5 cm. Gray, Plastic, Gift of Lawrence Livermore
Laboratories (D221.80).
A storage module has 32 chips of film, each chip
contains 32 fields and each field has 128k bits(?). The
Storage System Is equivalent to magnetic tape 800 bpi.
There are 10k cartridges in photostore on line. There
is random access to any bit. The reading rate is
2x106 bps.
- CDC 38500 Cartridge, Control Data Corp. Gift of Lawrence
Livermore Laboratories (D222.80).
The original CDC 6600 was built under contract to
Lawrence Livermore. Multiple arithmetic and logical
units and ten peripheral processors, which were small
computers themselves, made the 6600 a very powerful and
fast computer. Peripheral processors direct, monitor
and time-share the central processor.
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DHCAT2. 4
LSI GENERATION
DIGITAL COMPUTER
VAX Computer Exhibit
- VAX SBI Memory Board. Digital Equipment Corp. 1976,
(D164.80).
- VAX Star 64K MOS Memory Array, Digital Equipment Corp.
1976. (D165.80).
- VAX Prototype UBA. Digital Equipment Corp, 1976.
(D166.80).
- VAX Test Tapes, Digital Equipment Corp. 1976, (D167.80)
- VAX Logic Module, Digital Equipment Corp. 1976,
(D 170.80).
- This board was an experiment in fine line routing
(8 mil conductors and spacing). The logic is the 11780
UMD Module. It is significant in that it was the best
routing solution that the top automated p/c vendors in
the country (Algorex Data Corp) could achieve. (The
production version of the module was done in-house,
using 15 mil conductors and spaces.) It contributed
toward influencing DEC to adopt fine line as a standard
and was used extensively in developing the process
which eventually came to be used for the 11750.
- VAX poster signed. Digit
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