core magazine february 2002

A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U MW W W. C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y. O R G

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 2

CORE 3.1

CORE 3.1

The achievements of tomorrow must berooted in the actions we take today.Many exciting and important eventshave happened since our last COREpublication, and they have beencarefully chosen to strategically shapewhere we will be in five years.

First, let me officially introduce our new name and logo to everyone whohas not seen them before. TheComputer Museum History Center hasbecome the Computer History Museum(CHM). We have adopted the wonderfulnew logo that you see here and will use it everywhere in our institutionalcommunications and designs. Itsymbolizes the strengths we have in an artifact-rich collection, the digital age of the Museum’s present andfuture, and people and communitiesworldwide—those who build ourorganization, the public we serve, andthe lessons of history we pass on tofuture generations. We are very gratefulto Museum Trustee Peggy Burke andher team at 1185 Design who workedso enthusiastically to help us create our new look.

A huge thank you to everyone whocontributed generously and early to ourAnnual Fund campaign. In today’senvironment of public benefitcorporations, annual fundraising isperhaps the most difficult task, yet oneof the most important to sustainedsuccess. Our growth path is steep, andwe need everyone to help make ourorganization successful. If you forgot torenew by calendar year-end, please doso right now as you read this. It makesa big difference.

In early December, we held a pressconference to announce many excitingthings—our growing relationship withNASA, construction of the “BetaBuilding” scheduled to open in early fall,our new name and logo, appointment ofour new Head Curator Mike Williams,and our future plans. In my opinion, it

was an outstanding success, and I hope you caught the impact of theseannouncements that have heightenedawareness of our enterprise in thecommunity. I’m very grateful to HarryMcDonald (director of NASA Ames), LenShustek (chairman of our Board ofTrustees), Donna Dubinsky (MuseumTrustee and CEO of Handspring), andBill Campbell (chairman of Intuit) whoparticipated as panelists. We werefortunate to receive good mediacoverage and were honored with specialguests that included Dan Goldin, formerNASA administrator; Zoe Lofgren, USCongresswoman for the Santa ClaraValley; Don Knuth; Gene Amdahl; RandyKatz; and Jeff Hawkins; among others.

Our announcements, taken together,created much more than just a “typical”press event. It was also the “virtualgroundbreaking” of a new organizationready to meet the challenges of itsfuture. With pride, I looked at about 100people attending from all over SiliconValley; viewed the great artifact displaysymbolic of one of the world’s finestcollections; listened to Mike Williams’passion and excitement while giving histour; smiled at the awe and interest ofpeople who met us for the first time;and saw the work of a dedicated staffwho created a highly professional event.

We are building a community withpassion, enthusiasm, and thecommitment to build something that

simply doesn’t exist anywhere else inthe world. With your sustained help, ouractions have been able to speak muchlouder than words, and it is my goal tosee that we are able to follow throughon our dreams!

This issue of CORE is loaded withtechnical content and information aboutour organization—from a wonderfulperspective on the first mobileexperiments in the SRI van and anassessment of computing inSwitzerland, to our new buildings andour emerging CyberMuseum project. Ourinternational presence is growing withreal content. I hope you see all of theseelements as actions we are taking tomeet the challenges of our future plans.

Because NASA’s gates are moving back, making us accessible by all, asustained public presence will now bepossible for us. You also should haveheard about us at the publicenvironmental impact hearings for theNASA Research Park. They are nowcompleted, and have also raised ourvisibility in the community. Finally, ourprograms continue to grow—we’ve got agreat series of lectures and events forthis year. Enjoy the Museum in everyway you can.

There are still many incrediblechallenges ahead, and it will take lots ofhard work and support. Our new BetaBuilding, being constructed next to ourproposed permanent location, will growto be a Silicon Valley icon, and issymbolic of lots more to come for theentire community. Help us build a greatinstitution and enjoy the steps along theway to celebrate computing history.

OUR ACTIONS TODAYFebruary 2002A publication of the Computer History Museum

MISSIONT O P R E S E R V E A N D P R E S E N T F O R P O S T E R I T Y T H EA R T I F A C T S A N D S T O R I E S O F T H E I N F O R M AT I O N A G E

VISIONT O E X P L O R E T H E C O M P U T I N G R E V O L U T I O N A N D I T SI M PA C T O N T H E H U M A N E X P E R I E N C E

EXECUTIVE STAFF

John C TooleE X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R & C E O

Karen MathewsE X E C U T I V E V I C E P R E S I D E N T

David MillerV I C E P R E S I D E N T O F D E V E L O P M E N T

Mike WilliamsH E A D C U R AT O R

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Gene Amdahl

William AsprayC O M P U T I N G R E S E A R C HA S S O C I AT I O N

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Paul CeruzziN AT I O N A L A I R & S PA C E M U S E U M ,S M I T H S O N I A N I N S T I T U T I O N

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James GrayM I C R O S O F T C O R P O R AT I O N

Burge JamiesonS I G M A PA R T N E R S

Randy KatzU N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I AB E R K E L E Y

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Leonard J Shustek, ChairmanV E N C R A F T L L C

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Bernard L Peuto C O N C O R D C O N S U LT I N G

John William Poduska SrA D VA N C E D V I S U A L S Y S T E M S

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Pierluigi Zappacosta Copyright ©2002, Computer History Museum. All rightsreserved. The Museum is an independent 501(c)(3)organization, FID #77-0507525. PO Box 367, MoffettField, CA 94035, USA.

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Cover: Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Van,X1590.99, Gift of SRI International (see page 2)

I N S I D E F R O N T C O V E ROUR ACTIONS TODAYJohn C Toole

2THE SRI VAN AND COMPUTERINTERNETWORKINGDon Nielson

7THE SRI VAN AND EARLY PACKET SPEECH Don Nielson

8COMPUTERS MADE IN SWITZERLANDDominik Landwehr

1 2RECENT DONATIONS

1 4BEYOND VIRTUALMike Walton

1 6 REAL DESIGN, REAL BUILDINGSKirsten Tashev

1 8REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESKaren Mathews

2 4MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

2 5UPCOMING EVENTSCONTACT INFORMATION

O N T H E B A C K C O V E RMYSTERY ITEMS FROM THE COLLECTION

IN THISISSUE

PA G E 1

2

8

14

JOHN C TOOLE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO

16

BACK

C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 1

PUBLICATION STAFF

Karyn WolfeE D I T O R

It should be pointed out that theintroduction of a radio segment tosupplement the ARPANET came fromsimply following the military context inwhich this and a great deal of researchin the United States is done. If themilitary were to ultimately employ thisnew interactive digital technology, therewould have to be allowances for themilitary’s inherent mobility and possibledeployment to any point on earth. So aradio network, particularly one thatserved a mobile population, wasneeded. It turned out to be intrinsicallydifferent from the existing fixed, wiredone. This clear difference, along withthe need for the two networks to workwell in tandem, led to the notion of acommunication software structure that would effectively bind thesedisparate networks together as thoughthey were one.

One technical insight needs to beinserted here to understand howdisparate packet networks can easilyfunction together. In mostcommunications networks it is only thesource and destination terminals thatare visible to network users. Theresources that lie in between arenormally of little interest to them aslong as they fulfill their role. In circuit

switching, once chosen, the samephysical pathway is maintained for thewhole session. When circuits areleased, the connection may even be“hardwired.”

In packet switching, where sub-units ofa single message may travel entirelydifferent routes from source todestination, the exact role of interveningresources would not even normally beknown. Thus, there arose the concept ofa “virtual circuit,” where the onlydefining network nodes lay at the endsand in which the intervening nodes areneither specified nor known by eithernetwork users or providers. Thisswitching concept had been part of thebasic ARPANET design and was now tobe extended to this amalgam of wireand radio networks and thus to theworld of internets.

It was the clear differences between thewire-based ARPANET and the radio-based packet radio (and eventuallysatellite networks) that led Kahn, thenheading the networking efforts at ARPA,and Cerf at Stanford University, todesign the first end-to-end protocol thatcould span dissimilar packet networks.The essence of such a construct beganto emerge when Kahn addressed the

problem posed by these dissimilarnetworks at a seminar held by Cerf inthe summer of 1973.3 After some airingin the internet community, therudimentary elements of such aprotocol came together for them on anOctober 1973 weekend at the Palo AltoRickey’s Hotel.4 They published thedesign in May 1974,5 and named it theTCP, or Transmission Control Protocol.With some modifications, it is still inuse as the basis for transport in theworldwide Internet.

Following the introduction of TCP, ARPAcontracted for three separateimplementations: Stanford University,BBN, and University College in London.The first, clearly “buggy” specification toappear was in December of 1974 whenStanford produced RFC 675. BBN hadan in-house version working reliablyabout a year later and began exchangingTCP traffic with Stanford on an intranetbasis. Jim Mathis, a student of Cerf’sat Stanford, started to implement theirprotocol in 1975. He came to SRI in thesummer of 1976, where he completed aversion that would run on the muchmore modest hosts of the packet radionetwork (Digital Equipment CorporationLSI-11 microcomputers). In themeantime, Cerf, now a program

Since the days when it was astagecoach stop between San Franciscoand Monterey, Rossotti’s was a well-known San Francisco mid-peninsula“watering hole” nestled in the secondbank of foothills west of San FranciscoBay. In the 1970s, it had a casualatmosphere and some outdoorseating—a good location for the smallceremony about to take place. No onewould mind if we parked SRI’s “breadtruck” van alongside the courtyard andran a few wires to one of the tables. Itwas far enough from SRI (StanfordResearch Institute) to qualify as“remote,” but close enough to havegood radio contact with them through arepeater station atop a hill aboveStanford.

So it was that this venue was chosen tomark the occasion of the first internettransmission on August 27, 1976.1 Thevan was an SRI-outfitted mobile radiolab that contained the equipmentneeded to make it a portable node onthe emerging Packet Radio Network(PRNET). PRNET was sponsored at SRIby ARPA (Advanced Research ProjectsAgency) and started in 1973 or so.Placing a terminal on one of the woodencourtyard tables and connecting it tothe van, a number of SRI people who

had gathered for the celebration filed anormal weekly Packet Radio Programreport—representing the work of all theProgram’s contractors—to ARPA. Whilethe testing of such a connection hadbeen going on for several months, thislong e-mail report was, in a ceremonialsense, the first internet transmission;that is, the first formal use of theinternet protocol known as “TCP.”2

TCP was designed to carry informationover dissimilar networks, in this casethe PRNET, through a gateway at SRI,then across the ARPANET to a set ofhosts distributed around the UnitedStates. This small, virtually unknown,but deliberate episode became amilestone in mobile digital radio and theflexible integration of digitalcommunications networks. But let’sback up a bit and review in more detailthe emergence of internetworking andthe role the SRI van played in it.

In the early 1970s, the ARPANET wasgrowing rapidly. Universities, or theirclose affiliates, were the main playersconnecting to the network. Underinducement from the sponsors at ARPA,and through their own inventions of newand useful network services such aselectronic mail, network traffic began to

grow. In the meantime, the notion of aradio version of the wired ARPANET hadcome to Larry Roberts at ARPA. WhenRoberts left, first Bob Kahn and thenVint Cerf pursued that same idea atARPA. Both Roberts and Kahn had seenthe military need for a mobile, wirelessversion of the embryonic ARPANET. SRIand ARPA had also discussed thepossibility of a transportable, possiblyhandheld, terminal or switching node forsuch a network rather than the massive,seemingly nuclear-hardened early IMPs(see back cover for more on the IMP) ofthe fixed network. Following thatinstinct, ARPA formed a team ofcontractors in what came to be calledthe Packet Radio Program. The team’smission was to create a wirelessadjunct to the evolving ARPANET.Members of the new Packet RadioProgram were Bolt Beranek andNewman (BBN) in Boston, Collins Radioin Dallas, Network Analysis on LongIsland, University of California LosAngeles, and SRI. Because it had agood understanding of radio andsystems integration, SRI was chosen as system engineer and technicaldirector (SETD) of the program as wellas integrator for ARPA’s packet radioeffort, a position it maintained for overa decade.

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THE SRI VAN AND COMPUTER INTERNETWORKING

BY DON NIELSON


(left) Packet Radio van with antennas atop.Deliberately left unmarked over its years of service,the van was often full of expensive equipment andin some cases also full of Army generals. SRI wastrying to not attract attention…and, except for onecurious San Francisco police officer, it didn’t.

(right) The inside of the van with a DEC LSI-11running TCP at the top of the rack and two packetradios lower down. A Datamedia terminal sits tothe right of the rack on the workbench.

Stanford Research Institute (SRI) Van, X1590.99, Gift of SRI International

manager at ARPA, was trying his best toinculcate the Department of Defensewith the virtues of packet switching andTCP for their future data networks.

As a part of this emerging digital radionetwork, SRI foresaw the need for amobile laboratory. A lot of design worklay ahead regarding the notions of nodalpower and reach, the size of packetsand the functions they were to perform,and the routing and reliability strategiesin a network characterized by packetloss rates much higher than that seenon wire-based networks. Then therewere the critical choices of radiofrequencies and the signal processingstrategies for the propagation and noiseenvironments in which such a packet-switched radio network would operate.Since computers are notoriouslyintolerant of errors, how could avulnerable radio environment be madeto transport perfect data?

The SRI van was first used tocharacterize the radio frequency channelon which a packet radio system wouldbe expected to operate. This was to bea fault-tolerant, dynamically-adaptablenetwork. And so, a tough urban setting,with its shielding, reflective buildings,and electrical noise, was chosen. Radiomodulation was designed that wastolerant of multipath distortion andnoise. Packets were encoded for errordetection and re-transmission whenreceived inaccurately. Noise and thepropagation patterns werecharacterized. When it came time totransport information across the packetradio network, a subnet was installed inthe Bay Area and the van became amobile node in that network. The PRNETbecame a self-organizing network, withaddressing and routing, capable ofaccommodating the transmissionchallenges imposed by mobile users. Itwas the first mobile packet network.

Given the difficulty of the radioenvironment, a couple of interestingdemonstrations were often used at thetime to illustrate the robustness of thisnew concept of networking. To illustratethe flow of traffic between a terminal inthe mobile van and some distantnetwork host, a character generatorwould grind out continuous

alphanumeric sequences that formedpatterns on a CRT in which errors wouldbe obvious. While moving at high speedin the SRI van, the signal wouldsometimes be interrupted due toshielding of the radio signal (as whengoing beneath an underpass). The flowwould stop momentarily but no errorswere observed. Error-detecting cyclicredundancy checks, applied at the endof each transmitted packet, were usedto verify reception accuracy. Thesechecks plus the end-to-end ordering andre-transmission properties of TCP wouldnot permit delivery of altered packetseven though packets were frequentlylost! Another similar procedure was towithdraw the synthesizer card from thepacket radio. This would terminate thecharacter flow, but re-inserting it wouldstart it again. Thus, traffic would stop,then resume, but no errors were everobserved. Those demonstrations weresplendid evidence that each packetcould have sanctity, even in a toughenvironment of intermittent propagationand noise. This was an excitingconsequence and certainly foreign tothose circuit-oriented engineers whosaw mobile digital radio systems assome sort of oxymoron.

The first testing of TCP acrossdissimilar networks started in thesummer of 1976. The first trials stayedone radio hop from the Packet Radiostation (the PRNET’s controlling node)where the bidirectional ARPANETgateway software, built by GinnyStrazisar at BBN, was located. DuringJuly and August the SRI team testedand tuned Mathis’ version of TCP forbetter accuracy and speed. It was inAugust of 1976 that a terminal,attached to an LSI-11 “host” runningTCP that was in turn attached to thePRNET, proceeded through a gateway tofirst access an ARPANET host. For thefirst time, at least in a ceremonialsense, dissimilar networks were bridgedby TCP, thus clearly creating a two-network internet connection. Thatspecific network configuration is shownin the figure at the top right, which iscopied from a packet radio progressreport written at that time.6 Theoccasion was the aforementioneddistribution via TCP of the normal, longweekly Packet Radio Program report.

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(Those SRI people present are alsoshown in the pictures on the left page.)Other two-network TCP connectionswould soon follow.7

Within a year, and fulfilling the assumedneed for a network of global reach,ARPA moved to include its third packetnetwork, one that was satellite-based. Itwas then time to demonstrate all threenetworks together. On November 22,1977, what has come to be moregenerally regarded as the first internettransmission occurred between the SRImobile packet radio van and a hostcomputer at USC by way of London! Theroute is shown on the bottom right.8

So internetworking was born ofnecessity, to demonstrate at ARPA thatthe innovations of packet switchingwere indeed relevant to the military’smode of operation. No matter wheredeployed, they could move about asneeded and still be tethered to thepowerful computing hosts kept safelyaway from the fighting. The robustnessof the networks, be they fixed ormobile, was, of course, not just amilitary feature. Packet switching wassensible from the point of view of highnetwork utilization and for offering asoft failure in the presence of moderatenetwork congestion or even limitednode failure. To be sure, the PRNETwas a collective effort of many people,just as were the first workings of theinternet. But the SRI van, purchased bySRI as a piece of capital equipment anddesigned to be used in a wide variety ofexperimental roles, found its major rolein these first internetworkingexperiments.

(top) The site of the first two-network internettransmission on August 27, 1976 (from the left:Don Cone, (unknown), Nicki Geannacopulos, Dave Retz, Ron Kunzelman, Jim McClurg, and Jim Mathis).

(bottom) Nicki Geannacopulos compiles and sendsonline the packet radio weekly report.

(top) Diagram of the first two-network internettransmission on August 27, 1976. (Originalillustration from an SRI technical report "ProgressReport on Packet Radio Experimental Network"published in September 1977.)

(bottom) Diagram of the first three-network internettransmission on November 27, 1977, comprised ofthree physical and four logical networks, theARPANET being used twice. (Original illustrationfrom an SRI technical report "Progress Report onPacket Radio Experimental Network" published inFebruary 1978.)

Phot

o by

Don

Nie

lson

Phot

o by

Don

Nie

lson

(top) SRI’s Speech Packet Project Leader EarlCraighill in the SRI van, which housed the speechencoding and packetizing equipment.

(bottom) SRI’s Jan Edl demonstrating speechtransmission over the Internet. The Mickey Mousephone was deliberately used to illustrate that thespeech equipment hardware and software wasdesigned to accommodate a standard, off-the-shelftelephone.

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AFTERWORD

The possible importance of “the van”began to surface sometime in 1996when an IEEE Spectrum editor calledand mentioned that Vint Cerf had saidin an interview that “SRI was the site ofthe first internet transmission.” I said Iwould look into it and began diggingthrough old PRNET documentation toverify a couple of events that I vaguelyremembered.

After the November 1977 date wasconfirmed and defined accurately andhad been promulgated a bit, the nextcall came from The Computer MuseumHistory Center (now the ComputerHistory Museum) about celebrating the20th anniversary of the Internet at theSupercomputer Conference in San Josein 1997. I offered that the van was stillat SRI but had languished unused forperhaps 10 years on the back lot. Whenit was clear there was interest in puttingit on the convention floor, Don Alves ofSRI and I began the job of getting itrunning, dressing it up as best wecould, trying to replenish the almostnon-existent radio and internetequipment that had been in it, getting itre-licensed, and coaxing it to San Jose.While not beautiful, it did seem to carrysome symbolism for many who saw it.So, rather than returning it to certaindeterioration and scrap, SRI offered itto the Museum, where it lives today.

Don Nielson has been at Stanford ResearchInstitute, now SRI International, for 40 of its 55-year history. During the events associated with theinternet transmissions mentioned above, he wasthe SRI principal investigator for ARPA in the earlystages of the packet radio program. While thatprogram was unfolding, he became director of SRI’sTelecommunication Sciences Center (1975), thecenter at SRI for computer networking. To betteralign its work with the future of computing, thisgroup was permitted by SRI to join the ComputerScience Division, which Don came to head from1983 until his retirement as an SRI vice presidentin 1998. Since then he has been writing a book onSRI’s major innovations, from which this segmentabout the SRI van was drawn.

1 Identifying the first of anything that is created ina collaborative way is somewhat arbitrary. Certainly,experimental trials had been conducted prior to thistime. Then there is the question of how manynetworks it takes to qualify as an “internet.” In thiscase we have chosen first the minimum number—two—and then about a year later—three. In all thiswe are of course referring to just the transportaspects of internetworking. The terminology of“packets” arises from how message traffic ispackaged in modern digital networks. A packet is afixed-length, individually-addressed subunit of amessage. Its fixed length simplifies bufferinghardware at all the intermediate nodes and itsaddressing permits both packet accountability anddiffusion across unused portions of a network.

2 TCP is the acronym for Transmission ControlProtocol, network software that establishes,operates, and closes a reliable virtual circuit acrossdissimilar networks. While still in use today, theoverhead for this type of connection was deemedexcessive for some types of traffic. This soon led toa companion transaction protocol called theInternet Protocol (IP). Together they comprise thetransport system of today’s Internet.

3 Abbate, Janet. Inventing the Internet, MIT Press,1999, page 127.

4 Communication with Vinton Cerf, January 15,2002.

5 Cerf, Vinton G, and Robert E. Kahn. “A Protocolfor Packet Network Interconnection,” IEEETransactions on Communications, Vol. Comm-22,No. 5, May 1974.

6 From “Progress Report on Packet RadioExperimental Network,” by R.C. Kunzelman, M.A.Placko, and R.T. Wolfram. Quarterly TechnicalReport 5, SRI Project 2325, Contract DAHC15-73-C-0187, ARPA Order 2302, September 1977.

7 An expected part of the ARPA work was todemonstrate progress and give evidence of thisnew networking capability. So TCP, spanning thePRNET and the ARPANET, would be demonstrated inMay 1977 between the SRI van and hosts at ISICand SRIKL. On August 11, 1977, a TELNETconnection was demonstrated between the van andthe Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego forAdmiral Stansfield Turner (Dir. CIA) and WilliamPerry (DDR&E). On September 19, 1977, a singleLSI-11 microcomputer, running a multi-connectionTCP, multiplexed four terminals through a packetradio to four different ARPANET hosts, essentiallyall of the ones running TCP servers at the time.

8 From “Progress Report on Packet RadioExperimental Network,” by R.C. Kunzelman, V.D.Cone, K.S. Klemba, J.E. Mathis, J.L. McClurg, andD.L. Nielson. Contract MDA903-78-C-0126, ARPAOrder 2302, February 1978.

THE SRI VAN ANDEARLY PACKETSPEECH

When the ARPANET was perhaps fiveyears old and before the developmentof internet protocols, Bob Kahn at ARPAset a group of contractors exploring howthe new network could handle normaltelephone traffic. Given the initial focuson reliable data transmission, it wasnot clear whether the variability ininterpacket delay would permit thesmooth flow required by a voice call. In1974, Kahn initiated the NetworkSpeech Compression Program becauseof the narrow bandwidth of the initialcircuits comprising the net. Thisprogram resulted in the choice of somecompression algorithms and these werefirst tried over the ARPANET. In 1976,SRI’s Earl Craighill and Tom Magill, bothof whom had been working on thespeech program, convinced ARPA to letthem try speech on the Bay AreaPRNET. By this time the internetprotocol, TCP, was also being testedand so speech experiments began alsoon an internet basis.

Because the SRI van was an easilyoutfitted facility and already had packetradio and internet equipment installed,it became the first mobile node forpacket speech experiments. In additionto the challenges of mobile datatransport, transporting natural-soundingspeech focused on the importance ofdelay variance. Innovations wereneeded in variable rate encoding, newbuffering strategies, and rapid reroutingof packets whenever the route in usefailed. All these were to help smooththe flow of speech. Importantly, theserequirements for packet speechinfluenced the decomposition of theprotocol into reliable or guaranteed(TCP) and non-guaranteed (IP) services.

Thus, internet speech connections werebeing conducted as early as 1977-1978, about the same time as theInternet itself was becoming a reality.


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INTRODUCTION

Over the past 150 years, products suchas instant coffee and soups, precisiontools and machinery, pharmaceuticals,and medicines have elevatedSwitzerland to a leading position amongthe world’s industrialized nations. Onemight therefore expect Switzerland tohave equally made a name for itself inthe development and marketing ofcomputers. Despite some brilliantcomputer pioneers, such is not thecase, however, and Swiss productsdon’t hold as prominent positions in theworld computer market as they do intextile machinery and gas turbines. Butwho knows what will happen in thefuture?

EARLY COMPUTING AND THE

LILITH COMPUTER

The best place to begin our search forinnovative computer products is at theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology inZurich (ETHZ), one of the fewuniversities in Europe that could stand

comparison with the elite universities ofthe United States. Between 1954 and1959, electrical engineer and ProfessorEduard Stiefel and two of his assistants(later professors themselves), HeinzRutishauser and Ambros Speiser,developed a science-oriented computer,the ERMETH. This early computer hasindeed been seen as a significantadvancement, but it was rapidlyovertaken by other computingdevelopments. In particular, as noted byAmbros Speiser: “The real importanceof data processing in the commercialfield was not recognized until theseapplications began to overtake those ofa scientific nature.”

In 1976, Niklaus Wirth, a Zurichcomputer specialist who at the timeregarded himself as an electricalengineer, traveled to the Xerox Palo AltoResearch Center (PARC) in California.There he saw a “workstation” for thefirst time: a machine capable ofdialogue with the user that would make

possible an entirely new approach tocomputing. At the end of a year inCalifornia, Wirth made the returnjourney to Switzerland with a computermouse in his suitcase and an improvedworkstation design in his head.Developed under the name Lilith, theworkstation had a high-resolutiongraphical screen (592 x 768 pixels,compared to the alphanumeric displayof 24 lines of 40 characters of thecontemporary Apple II) and made use ofa mouse as well as rudimentarywindowing technology. This computerwas nevertheless not yet based on amicroprocessor but rather on relativelylow-integration level circuits.

When its commercialization started in1982, the Lilith machine was sold as apure research computer. A first batch of10 was built in the USA at a unit priceof 20,000 Swiss Francs. The first“outsider” to discover this Swissmachine was Heinz Waldburger who, ashead of computer services at Nestlé,

was looking for a high-performancesolution for his corporation. Waldburgerwas already looking ahead to theconcept of a multimedia computercapable of processing not just data butalso images and sounds. Hisspecifications helped provide a namefor the new company that would marketthe Lilith: DISER (Data-Image-Sound-Processor and Emitter-Receiver system).The line included two “ModulaComputers”—an MC 1 and an MC 2.DISER had ambitious objectives and itopened sales offices in Zurich,Lausanne, Orem, Atlanta, Chicago,Dallas, and Paris. But a total of only140 machines were manufactured, ofwhich 120 were sold. The companymisjudged its market and after sixmonths it was already at the end of theroad. Cheap memory chips and highperformance microprocessors hadushered in a new era.

LOGITECH—KING OF THE

COMPUTER MOUSE

When Wirth set out to build his Lilithworkstation in 1978 he found himself inneed of a computer mouse. Hiscolleague, Jean-Daniel Nicoud of theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology inLausanne, managed to get the precisionengineering expert André Guignardinterested in the project. The result wasthe first computer mouse “made inSwitzerland,” which was built by theDépraz company and used for the Lilithworkstation.

Roughly at the same time anotherSwiss, Daniel Borel, a physicist andgraduate student at Stanford,discovered the Alto workstation, the newinterface technologies—mice, menus,and windows—as well as America’sentrepreneurial spirit. That provided himwith inspiration to found his owncompany. He began thinking hard aboutexciting products on which to base anew company. In 1981, Daniel Borel,Pierluigi Zappacosta, and GiacomoMarini founded Logitech.

Logitech eventually took over the mouseconcepts and products from Nicoud andDépraz, developed prototypes suitablefor mass production and showed theseto potential clients in the computerindustry. “Various companies includingHewlett-Packard immediately showed aninterest. But they told us our productswere too costly,” remembers Borel. Thenext step was decisive for the ultimatesurvival of the company: they managedto create a subsidiary in Taiwan and totransfer production there. Becausedozens of Taiwanese competitors soonarose, Logitech had to react quickly andalways work hard to undercut them. Thiswas only made possible because thesubsidiary was managed locally fromTaiwan, whereas business could nothave been conducted out of Switzerlandor California. Today Logitech is a leadernot only in the computer mouse fieldbut more generally in computer-humaninterfaces (touchpads, keyboards,trackballs, joysticks, webcams, etc.).

COMPUTERS

MADE IN SWITZERLANDBY DOMINIK LANDWEHR

4 5 61 2 3

1 The Swiss Federal Insitute of Technology (ETHZ) in Zurich opened the first Swiss computing department(called the Institute for Applied Mathematics) in January, 1948, where the earliest Swiss computer, theERMETH, was developed under the direction of Eduard Stiefel.

2 After an extensive survey of (primarily U.S.) computers existing at the time, Stiefel and his teamdeveloped the ERMETH—Elektronische Rechenmaschine der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule(ETH)—which was of simple design, built to perform reliable scientific calculations, and which ran for thefirst time in July 1956.

3 In the late 1970s, Zurich computer specialist Niklaus Wirth was inspired by the "workstation" concept hediscovered at Xerox PARC. He returned to Switzerland to build the Lilith machine, which had a screen ofhigher resolution than the contemporary Apple II, and made use of a mouse.

4 Wirth built the Lilith computer between 1977 and 1980. The powerful workstation was one of the first tohave a mouse, a high-resolution monitor, and a graphical user interface—well configured for graphicscreation. By comparison, at this time, the Apple II was equipped with just a keyboard for input.

5 The Dépraz mouse, the first computer mouse “made in Switzerland," was manufactured by precisionengineering expert André Guignard for Wirth's Lilith workstation.

6 A bottom view of the Dépraz mouse.

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While the Logitech head office remainsin Switzerland, the company’soperational headquarters are inFremont, not far from StanfordUniversity. It is no coincidence that thesame building also houses anorganization by the name of Bootstrap,the consulting firm of the inventor of themouse, Doug Engelbart. Engelbartpioneered the mouse and a number ofother developments at the StanfordResearch Institute (SRI) in the 1960s.Engelbart did not become rich from hisinventions, and indeed the recognitionof his achievements was late in coming.But as a guest of Logitech, Bootstrappays no rent. It is Borel’s way of sayingthank you to the researcher who madeit all possible.

BYE-BYE SUPERCOMPUTER

It was not that long ago that the nameof Anton Gunzinger, a Zurich computerspecialist, was very popular. In a 1994Time magazine special issue, Gunzingerwas named one of 100 people who will

inluence events in the 21st century.Gunzinger had succeeded in developinga very promising new computer that notonly improved performance significantlywhile consuming less energy, but moreimportantly, cost a mere fraction of the“supercomputers” then on the market.Gunzinger and his team created adesign based on 170 processors, allworking in parallel, which in practiceachieved a speed of 10 gigaflops, i.e.,10,000 million floating-point operationsper second, with the maximum possiblespeed at that time being between 100-200 gigaflops. Encouraged by hisachievements, Gunzinger founded thecompany Supercomputing Systems(SCS) in 1993. The new start-up wasbuilt on a dream: “We shall makesupercomputers in Switzerland and earna living at it.” The company’spresentation included the trendy tagline: “because it’s fun.”

Switzerland’s first commercialsupercomputer hit the market in 1995

with the combative name “GigaBooster.”But just 10 units were sold. TodayGunzinger coolly analyzes the flop in thefollowing terms: “At a time when PCswere becoming more powerful with eachpassing year, we were competing in thewrong market and research funds fromthe state and other sources simplydried up.” There was another problemtoo: the software had to be frequentlyupdated and the costs soon exceededthe capabilities of such a small firm,which brought production to a halt.

Gunzinger’s SCS did, however,overcome this hardship and is still going strong today, employing some 60 people. As Gunzinger says, “Wehave learned from our mistakes and wenow stick to what we are good at,namely developing computer systems.”SCS is now active in a wide variety offields, and has developed, for instance,a digital sound mixer based on up to126 processors, making use ofGigabooster technology, as well as a

7

8 9 10 11 12

new encryption system that is able toencode and decode at a rate of 155megabits per second.

CONCLUSION

One out of these three ventures becamea worldwide and widely-respected playerin the computer business. Not a badpercentage overall, although one couldhave dreamed of a more prominent rolefor Switzerland in the hardware field. Onthe other hand, in niches like knowledgemanagement, secure bankingtransactions, cryptography, etc., manySwiss pioneers and companies are keyplayers, and venues like biocomputingare just beginning to be explored.

The discovery of this mostly unknownrole in computer history has also pavedthe way for various conservationinitiatives. The Museum ofCommunication in Bern displays themost important milestones of the PC’shistory worldwide in its temporaryexhibition, “Control-Alt-Collect:

Computers in Retirement,” which willlast until Spring 2003. Various privatecollections have been made accessibleto the public. A private initiative led bythe Association of Friends of the SwissComputer Museum, which aims atbetter understanding the increasinginfluence of information andcommunication technologies on society,plans to create a museum which willgather large Swiss collections ofcalculating and typing machines as wellas computers. Finally, in October 2001,the enthusiastic donation of more than3.5 tons of computers from Switzerlandto the Computer History Museum is yetanother sign of the increased interest inthis global technology revolution.

Dominik Landwehr is the head of the Science andFuture Department at the Migros CulturePercentage, a private Swiss benefactor that isdesigned to give the general public access tocultural and social events. Landwehr is running anumber of educational and artistic programs in thefield of technology. He regularly contributes articlesto a number of publications, including the renownedNeue Zürcher Zeitung, which covers a wide array oftopics about technology and society. At present heis doing research into the use of the German ciphermachine Enigma, which was widely used inSwitzerland during World War II. Landwehrgraduated from Zurich University and has worked forvarious Swiss newspaper, radio, and televisionagencies. A number of missions for theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)brought him to Thailand, Romania, and the Afghanborder in Pakistan.

7 Daniel Borel was inspired by "new" interface technologies—mice, menus, and windows—andultimately co-founded Logitech in 1981. He is now president of this successful company.

8 Doug Engelbart pioneered the mouse in the 1960s at SRI.

9 In 1994, Supercomputing Systems (SCS) founder Anton Gunzinger was highlighted in a Timemagazine special issue as one of 100 figures who will influence events in the 21st century. SCS then delivered the promising, but commercially unsuccessful, GigaBooster supercomputer tothe market.

10 SupercomputingSystems' GigaBooster hit the market in 1995 as a promising supercomputer that greatlyincreased performance for a fraction of the cost. Yet only 10 units were sold.

11 Jean-Daniel Nicoud facilitated the donation of a significant portion of the items listed on page 13. A foremost developer of microprocessor-based computers in Switzerland, Nicoud spent hoursdocumenting the donation for the Museum.

12 This logic module from the ERMETH computer now resides in the collection of the Computer HistoryMuseum. The first computer ever built in Switzerland, the ERMETH is currently on display at theTechnorama in Winterthur, Switzerland.

COMPUTING IN SWITZERLAND ITEMS

Bobst Graphic Lausanne Scrib portable computer(1977), X2310.2002, Gift of Bobst Group SA

Convex Computer Corporation, C3820 GalliumArsenide Supercomputer System (1994),X2301.2002, Gift of the Swiss Center for Scientific Computing

Convex Computer Corporation, C3820 manualcollection (c. 1991), X2327.2002, Gift of the SwissCenter for Scientific Computing

Crocus manual collection (c. 1976), X2328.2002,Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Epsilon-System, SA, Crocus microcomputer systemkit (1977), X2313.2002, Gift of André Thalmann

Epsitec Smaky manual collection (1986-1994),X2325.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Epsitec Systems Belmont/Lausanne Smaky 324single board computer (1987), X2302.2002, Gift of Epsitec SA

Epsitec Systems Smaky 100 personal computer(1984), X2307.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Epsitec Systems Smaky 130 personal computersystem (1990), X2308.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Epsitec Systems Smaky 300 personal computer(1990), X2311.2002, Gift of Epsitec Systems SA

Epsitec Systems Smaky 400 single board computer(1996), X2312.2002, Gift of Epsitec Systems SA

Epsitec Systems Smaky 6 Microcomputer andStoppani Electronic SA MICROLERU Smaky 6microcomputer paper tape reader (1978),X2309.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

ETH Zurich Ceres-1 (1987), X2321.2002, Gift of Hans Eberle

ETH Zurich Ceres-3 personal computer system(1990), X2318.2002, Gift of Nicklaus Wirth andETH Zurich

ETH Zurich ERMETH logic module (c. 1956),X2314.2002, Gift of Ambros Speiser

LCD-EPFL Novasim Virtual Data General NOVAperipheral (1972), X2306.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

LCD-EPFL Stoppani, Ltd. Travers Dolphin (Dauphin)System “Club” development system (1977-1980),X2304.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

LCD-EPFL Stoppani, Ltd. Travers Dolphin (Dauphin)System “Industry” development system (1977-1980), X2305.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

LCD-LAMI-EPFL OMS Data Aquisition System(1972), X2303.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Microscope journal collection (1975-1980),X2326.2002, Gift of Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Supercomputing Systems GigaBooster (1992),X2316.2002, Gift of Supercomputing Systems

Supercomputing Systems MUSIC (MultiprocessorSystem with Intelligent Communication) (1994),X2317.2002, Gift of Supercomputing Systems

Supercomputing Systems Swiss TNet crossbarswitch and connectors (1999), X2315.2002, Gift of Supercomputing Systems

Swisscom AG Swiss public telephone boothcontaining a working Teleguide electronic telephonedirectory (c. 1997), X2319.2002, Gift of Swisscom AG

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RECENT DONATIONSTO THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM COLLECTION

EXPANDING THE COLLECTION

ARTIFACTS AND SOFTWARE

Computer Displays, Inc., Mechanical Mouse (c. 1970), X2322.2002, Gift of Richard Fryer

Data General/One Notebook computer, printer,software, documentation, and carrying case (c. 1983), X2297.2002, Gift of William Geiger

DEC VLSI VAX microcode and documentation CD-ROM archive, X2350.2002, Gift of Bob Supnik

ETH Zurich Switcherland (1993-98), X2323.2002,Gift of Hans Eberle

Fairchild Semiconductor 1/2-inch wafer of planar transistors (1958), X2351.2002, Gift of Art Zafiropoulo

Fairchild Semiconductor first working planartransistor (1957), X2352.2002, Gift of Art Zafiropoulo

Hewlett-Packard HP110 portable computer (1984),X2338.2002, Gift of Allen Chalmers

IBM 026 keypunch print wheel (c. 1960),X2243.2002, Gift of Lee Schur

IBM 10SR MODII 14-inch hard drive assembly(HDA), X2344.2002, Gift of Will Galloway

IBM Model 604 Electronic Calculating Punch(1948), X2294.2002, Gift of Robert Garner

Marchant Calculating Machine Company“Figuremaster” calculator (1948), X2320.2002, Gift of George William Bolton

Non-Linear Systems Kaypro 4 portable computer,documentation, and software collection (1984),X2333.2002, Gift of Ronnie Sue Helzner

Punch card equipment and book collection (c. 1958), X2281.2002, Gift of Alfred C Hexter

DOCUMENTATION

Applied Computer Techniques Apricot Softwarecollection (1985), X2332.2002, Gift of Michael Kimball

Automatic Digital Calculators (1965), X2324.2002,Gift of Allen Baum

Basic Programming Concepts and the IBM 1620 Computer (1962), X2282.2002, Gift of Derek Peschel

Computer book collection (various dates),X2299.2002, Gift of Harry Stewart

Early computing texts collection (various dates),X2354.2002, Gift of L Peter Deutsch

Operating Principle of the Belgrade Hand ProsthesisMechanism, X2293.2002, Gift of Tom Callahan

Preliminary description of the UNIVAC (1950),X2292.2002 A, Gift of Robert Garner

RCA 301 documentation collection (c. 1965),X2339.2002, Gift of Allen Chalmers

RCA 301 salesmen’s model (c. 1960s),X2337.2002, Gift of Allen Chalmers

Texas Instruments Advanced Scientific Computerinternal memo collection and machine descriptions(c. 1968), X2347.2002, Gift of William Kastner

Two early programming texts by Kristen Nygaard (c. 1965), X2336.2002, Gift of Kristen Nygaard

UNIVAC Maintenance Manual (1958), X2292.2002 B, Gift of Robert Garner

UNIVAC Solid-State 90 bound manual set (1959),X2292.2002 C, Gift of Robert Garner

Xerox PARC technical report collection (70 publications) (1970s-1980s), X2353.2002, Gift of James Mitchell

Xerox PARC technical report collection (c. 1970s-1980s), X2295.2002, Gift of Mike Rutenberg

GIFTS OF MICHAEL PLITKINS

Apple Computer, Inc., Apple II GS Woz Editionpersonal computer system (c. 1989), X2415.2002

Apple Computer, Inc., Lisa II System including fourprofile external hard drives, an AppleWriter printer,an ImageWriter II printer, an Apple Modem 1200,and assorted PCBs (c. 1990), X2431.2002

Apple Computer, Inc., Lisa/Mac XL personalcomputer system (1984), X2410.2002

Apple Computer, Inc., Newton Message Pad 100(1993), X2405.2002

Atari Computer Corporation Atari 400 homecomputer (c. 1980), X2422.2002




Atari Computer Corporation Atari 810 homecomputer disk drive (c. 1982), X2425.2002

Atari Computer Corporation Atari 810 homecomputer disk drive (c. 1982), X2426.2002

Atari Computer Corporation Portfolio 16-bit personalcomputer (1989), X2407.2002

Canon Cat V777 Work Processor (1987),X2402.2002

Commodore Business Machines Amiga 1060personal computer (c. 1985), X2419.2002

Commodore Business Machines Commodore 16 (c. 1983), X2417.2002

Commodore Business Machines Commodore 64 (c. 1978), X2418.2002

Commodore Business Machines PET 2001 PersonalComputer (1977), X2400.2002

Commodore Business Machines plus/4 PersonalComputer (c. 1983), X2416.2002

Convergent Technologies, Inc., Workslate (1983),X2406.2002

Convergent Technologies, Inc., Workslatemicroprinter (c. 1985), X2428.2002

Hewlett-Packard Integral Personal Computer (1985),X2412.2002

IBM Vacuum Tube Logic Trainer (c. 1955),X2411.2002

Mindset Corporation MINDSET personal computersystem (1983), X2408.2002

Mindset Corporation MINDSET personal computersystem (1983), X2409.2002

Motorola, Inc., Envoy Personal WirelessCommunicator (c. 1994), X2405.2002

Osborne Computer Corporation Executive PortableComputer (1982), X2401.2002

Osborne Computer Corporation Vixen portablecomputer (1987), X2403.2002

Radio Shack TRS-80 64K Color Computer 2 (c. 1985), X2414.2002

Radio Shack TRS-80 Micro Color Computer (c. 1984), X2413.2002

Sinclair Research Ltd. QL microcomputer (c. 1984),X2429.2002

Sony Corporation Hit Bit HB-75AS home computer(c. 1983), X2428.2002

Sun Microsystems Sun-3/80 workstation system(1990), X2420.2002

Symbolics, Inc., 3620 LISP workstation system (c. 1990), X2430.2002

Texas Instruments Homecomputer 99/4A (c. 1979),X2421.2002

If you would like to update the Museum regardingyour artifact donation, please contact RegistrarJeremy Clark at +1 650 604 1524 [email protected].

The Computer History Museum often receives support from friends of computinghistory who work with our collections team to expand the collection in importantways. Individual donors may contribute their own collections, as with the items listedon the opposite page that were donated by Michael Plitkins, a senior staff engineerin advanced telephony at TellMe. A quick scan through the list reveals Plitkins to bea collector of both popular and obscure computing artifacts—including rareprototypes—with a real nose for the important details of computing history as well. Itis an honor that he chose the Museum to be the recipient of his devoted andpersonal collecting efforts.

The items listed on this page reflect another such effort, when several people andorganizations made a group donation this past fall of artifacts related to computingin Switzerland. Over the course of many months, the Swiss Science and TechnologyOffice at the Swiss Consulate in San Francisco helped pull together a donation ofcomputers, peripherals, documentation, and stories by several key players. Theitems were then shipped (courtesy of PRS Presence Switzerland) to the Museum(most were shipped from Switzerland), and were exhibited at a reception prior to theFellow Awards Banquet on October 23, 2001. This exhibit of a truly “international”flavor was much appreciated by donors and friends of the Museum, since many ofthem had never had the opportunity to see Swiss-made computing innovations,except Logitech mice, of course!

One of the “key players” in this particular donation was Jean-Daniel Nicoud, a leaderin Swiss microprocessor-based computing and micro-robotics and professor emeritusat the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Not just a prolific inventor,Nicoud was also a favorite with students because of his interactive and creativeteaching style, as well as the variety of robot-building contests he set up over time.In 1974, he organized the first International Conference on Microprocessors andcoordinated 10 other conferences over the years. Nicoud indicates thatminiaturization and human interaction have always held an attraction for him, and hecontinues to develop small mobile robots, with particular interest in defusinglandmines and in the development of autonomous flying robots. As a co-developer ofthe first Swiss mouse and of several subsequent Logitech mice, Nicoud alsodeveloped the Scrib, the first portable computer for journalists, and built the line ofSmaky personal computers, which were the only Swiss-made computers that sold insignificant numbers. In the course of this “Swiss” donation, Nicoud spent hoursreligiously documenting the machines and their development processes so that theMuseum could have appropriate materials through which to understand and exhibitthe items.

As an institution, the Museum is grateful for the time and dedication of people likePlitkins and Nicoud who truly value preserving the stories and artifacts of theinformation age. Indeed, it is only because of people like these that the Museumexists and will continue to grow.

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HOW BIG A BOX DO YOU NEED?

What would you do if you wanted topresent the entire history of computingand had limited square footage in whichto put it? This is the challenge that theComputer History Museum faces, andfor us the answer is clear: We need topresent online the wealth of knowledgecontained in our Museum.

You have probably heard of the greatprogress toward our permanent home in2005, but another important innovationhas been developing in our back rooms.As part of our critical mission, we aregoing to preserve much of computinghistory using today’s computers andpresent it across the networks oftomorrow. While the physical Museum isbeing carefully crafted and planned toinhabit 120,000 square feet in thefuture, the Museum online is free toexpand beyond the space restrictions ofthe “real” world.

We are calling this project theCyberMuseum. The name is derivedfrom the term “Cyberspace,” firstcoined by science-fiction author William Gibson in 1984 in his bookNeuromancer:

Cyberspace. A consensualhallucination experienced daily bybillions of legitimate operators inevery nation, by children being taughtmathematical concepts....A graphicalrepresentation of data abstractedfrom the banks of every computer inthe human system. Unthinkablecomplexity. Lines of light ranged inthe non-space of the mind, clustersand constellations of data. Like citylights, receding...

Cyberspace was thus defined as a placewhere the world’s information could bevisualized. In the CyberMuseum, ourgoal over time is to visualize and accessthe entirety of computing history,making the institution an exciting place

for the novice and serious researcheralike, enabling the gathering ofauthentic information at all levels ofinterest. This vision becomes powerfuland challenging when coupled with themagnitude and quality of artifacts in ourcollection.

“GOING” ONLINE

An enterprising company today wouldprobably never consider whether or notto have a website. The Internet hasarrived, and if you’re not there, it’s likebeing cut out of the phone book. Inmany cases, “going” online usuallymeans representing the physicalinstitution with a phone number,address or driving directions—information that ties the website to thephysical.

Our CyberMuseum will most certainly dothis, but this “virtual” facsimile of thereal world will inhabit only a portion ofthe overall CyberMuseum. Both thephysical Museum and the CyberMuseumwill benefit from shared research,overlapping exhibit design, and ever-increasing data about the collection.CyberMuseum projects can build toolsto help manage our Museum datainternally. Such tools can help theMuseum develop, use, modify, andexpand data in a centralized manner.

The CyberMuseum can go beyond thenormal “virtual” museum, allowing ourcollection, media library, and otherresources to be accessed through oneeasy-to-navigate portal. Exhibits onlinecan provide multiple levels ofexperience, allowing any depth ofresearch. The challenges of this vision,of course, are also great—to rapidlyadapt and present consistent data indifferent views to a world-wide audiencewhile keeping it simple enough tonavigate by novice users, all on a small budget!

PRESERVING BITS AND PIECES

Experiments currently underway areexploring the possibilities outside the“virtual museum” box. The initialapproach is to systematically convertthe wealth of knowledge in our library,collections, and media stores intodigital format while indexing what wehave to increase depth andcompleteness of our data. By digitizingour collection, we are fulfilling multiplepurposes: we preserve the information,and at the same time we make itusable for the web and other projectssuch as physical exhibit design.

Meanwhile, we are trying various waysto display, exhibit, and update thisinformation. We are investigating waysto enrich video with other content, suchas running transcripts or closedcaptioning. It is possible to createhyperlinks within the media to accessmaterial outside of the videopresentation and thus enrich theexperience.

To get through just a portion of thelarge collection we have acquired at theComputer History Museum would takeyears. So to begin, we identified someof the most significant subjects andobjects, and are working with them inlimited digital conversion exhibitexperiments. Together with the exhibitdesign teams for the physical building,we are streamlining the process. Bygetting the “recipe” right for the manytypes of materials, we can begin thetask of automating the lengthy processof working through the rest of thecollection.

Some of the issues that arise as theseexperiments are carried out are: Whatformats will have longevity? How canthe complex hyperlinks of interrelatedinformation be managed? How detaileddo these records actually need to be?How do you reconcile conflicting andmissing information in such a complex

environment? How do you best instill the “human factor” into digital reporting?

CYBERMUSEUM CHAMPIONS

The CyberMuseum project is not justabout web objects, but is also aboutpeople and communities. Gordon Bell,an original founder and current Trusteeof the Museum and a senior researcherat Microsoft, is a major champion of theCyberMuseum. He has dedicated a lotof personal time and resources to helpbring the Computer History Museum’smission and vision to Cyberspace.

Bell has been performing a number ofinteresting personal explorations overthe last few years in a project he callsMyMainBrain. Partly experiment in datarepresentation, partly personal librarian,and right now, all about Gordon,MyMainBrain contains digitizeddocumentation, images, media, andminutiae from his long career. He hopesto make the process available as asoftware tool for others to organize andcatalog their own lifetime achievementsor as a memory assistant andproductivity aid.

The experiments and experience fromMyMainBrain have already helped theCyberMuseum project by laying some ofthe groundwork for storage methodsand data acquisition.

Bell also was a pioneer earlier in hiscareer, among other places, as vicepresident of research and developmentat Digital Equipment Corporation. Digitalled the revolution that empowered endusers to interact directly withcomputers, forever abolishing the idea

of computers as untouchable byinexperienced hands. Cyberspace isadvancing in this same spirit, and a CyberMuseum goal is to put the historyof computing directly into the hands ofthe public.

CAPTURING ORAL HISTORIES

A picture and list of specifications mightbe an adequate display for a specificcomputer, but presenting personalhistories with stories and media is amuch more complex endeavor. TheCyberMuseum is conductingexperiments in capturing stories onvideo in a number of oral historyprojects. One of the fortunate factsabout computing history today is thatmany of the early pioneers are alive totell their stories. Some of the bestinformation comes from the individualswho were on the front lines ofcomputing history. Recording a story“straight from the horse’s mouth” cancapture not just basic statistics of theera but also a sense of the participant’sworld view, interpretation of events, andthe emotions of actually being there.

Oral histories are often done byinterviewers who are experts in the fieldand with highest production valueswherever possible. The ComputerHistory Museum is treating oralhistories with the great care expected ofa historical collecting museum, yet isalso experimenting with new methods.We are also moving forward in our “pro-casual” video collection. By creating aportable recording studio, we can be onthe spot for impromptu interviews.

The CyberMuseum plans to organize theoral histories online, posting past and

present interviews along with statistics,artifact information, and materials fromother sources to create an information-rich environment. Our monthly lecturesare also videotaped and can be addedto our permanent display on the web.Soon you might be able to watch ourlectures streamed live from location.

At this stage, the role of theCyberMuseum project is to experiment,evaluate the technologies, providerecipes, and ensure the preservation ofmaterials in formats that can be usedonline.

FOSTERING AN INTERNATIONAL

COMMUNITY

Perhaps the greatest potential for theCyberMuseum project lies in reaching amuch larger audience than the physicalMuseum could expect to reach. Peoplewho may never see us in person will beable to get much of the experience andinformation online. While nothing canreplace the visceral experience ofseeing the collection first-hand, theCyberMuseum will bring as much of it to life as possible.

We hope our efforts will bring togethermany outside sources of research in amultilateral preservation effort. Afortune in data and research is alreadyat risk of disappearing for lack offunding or interest. The CyberMuseumcan link researchers, user communities,universities, and collectors, whileenrolling them whenever possible toparticipate in the common mission ofpresenting and preserving the stories of computing history.

If you would like to get involved with the project or contribute your stories or insights to the Museum, pleasecontact us and become a part of our community.

Mike Walton is the Director of Cyber Exhibits at theComputer History Museum.

BEYOND VIRTUALBY MIKE WALTON

Chair of the CyberMuseum Committee Gordon Bell(right) and Director of Cyber Exhibits Mike Waltondiscuss the next set of project goals. TheCyberMuseum will not only communicate thephysical Museum to web visitors but will alsopresent computing history in a dynamic andinventive way.

BENCHMARKS

During the programming phase,Museum representatives and the designteam conducted various information-gathering tours of local museums,including the San Francisco Museum ofModern Art, the San Jose Museum ofArt, the Tech Museum of Innovation inSan Jose, and the Children’s DiscoveryMuseum of San Jose. In the fall, theteam was also fortunate to visit someoutstanding international museums thatdisplay computer history exhibits,including the Science Museum inLondon, England; the DeutschesMuseum in Munich, Germany; and theHeinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum inPaderborn, Germany. These arefantastic institutions and we arehonored to be building strongrelationships with them. Their hospitalitywas wonderful and greatly contributedto making the trip an overwhelmingsuccess.

BETA BUILDING UNDERWAY

Other exciting news currently in theworks is our plan to construct atemporary building to be located lessthan 500 feet south of Moffett Field’slandmark Hangar One, and adjacent toour future permanent building site.Scheduled to open in the fall of 2002,the temporary space is being dubbedthe “Beta Building,” both a nod to thecomputer industry’s term for a productin testing phase and an indication thatmore is on the way with the Museum’spermanent home opening in 2005.When the temporary space iscompleted, it will contain 41,000 sf ofusable space, including 22,500 sf forartifacts storage; 9,000 sf for exhibitsand event space for more than 200people; and 9,500 sf for office spaceand a catering prep kitchen. It will beused for Museum functions, additionalartifact storage, and will bring togetherstaff now housed in three separatebuildings at Moffett Field. The Beta

Building will provide the Museum withthe necessary space to grow, holdevents, and stage and organize ourartifact collection, and will allow us toexplore new ideas as we plan ourpermanent facility.

The Beta Building is being designed byDaniel, Mann, Johnson and MendenhallHolmes & Narver (DMJMH+N), anarchitecture, engineering, andconstruction services firm with officesin San Francisco and around the world.DMJMH+N’s other recent public projectsinclude the United States BotanicGarden Conservatory in Washington,DC; the School of Social and

Behavioral Sciences at California StateUniversity in San Bernardino, California;and the Performing Arts Center atCalifornia State Polytechnic University inSan Louis Obispo, California.

As you can see, we are moving forwardrapidly to create critically importantfacilities necessary for us to achieveour goals and become the greatinstitution we are striving to be. Ourbuilding plans—coupled with ourCyberMuseum (see article on page 14),our active programs, and thecommunities of people who are helpingus—will allow us to evolve and servethe public for many years to come.

Kirsten Tashev is the Building and Exhibits ProjectManager at the Computer History Museum.

NEW BUILDING—AMENITY BREAKDOWN/PHASING PLANS (NET SF)

AMENITY PHASE I PHASE I I TOTALS(2005) (2010)

EXHIB ITS ( INCLUDES C IRC. ) 32,500 sf 20,000 sf 52,500 sfV IS ITORS SERVICES 7,230 0 7,230CAFÉ ( IN LOBBY AREA) 0 1,700 1,700RETAIL 1 ,600 0 1,600MULTIPURPOSE 1,600 9,000 10,600ADMINISTRAT ION 6,560 5,000 11,560LIBRARY 1,500 3,000 4,500LOADING/SERVICES 4,200 0 4,200BUILDING SERVICES 1,750 0 1,750

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SELECTING OUR TEAM

The Museum’s building plans havepassed some key milestones in the lastseveral months, including our plans forboth the permanent building and anexciting temporary facility. Last spring,after completing a five-month “ideascompetition” with three outstandingarchitectural firms, the Museumselected Esherick Homsey Dodge &Davis (EHDD) of San Francisco,California, to design the new building.Museum Trustee and BuildingCommittee Chairman Grant Saviersexplained, “the purpose of thecompetition was not to choose a designfor the new building, but to select thebest architect for the project goingforward.” (Excerpts of the competitioncan be seen on our website). With thecompetition behind us, we are verypleased to be collaborating with theEHDD team on the design of theMuseum’s permanent facility.

“We are thrilled to work with theComputer History Museum board andstaff to design one of the first SiliconValley landmarks of the 21st Century,”said Chuck Davis, senior designprincipal, EHDD. “Our goal is to capturethe unique character of the ComputerHistory Museum and to create aninspiring environment where people canlearn and study computing history andinnovation.” Founded in 1946 bylegendary architect Joseph Esherick,EHDD has become a leader in thearchitecture field, with a wide breadth ofcultural institution experience includingaquariums, museums, zoos, andlibraries. EHDD has designed recognizedfacilities such as the Monterey BayAquarium in Monterey, California; theNational Museum of MarineBiology/Aquarium near Kaohsiung,Taiwan; the Exploris interactive museumin Raleigh, North Carolina; and the eastwing of the New England Aquarium inBoston, Massachusetts.

The Museum selected another first-class firm to develop the exhibitions forthe new building. After an intensiveinterview process with eight qualifiedfirms from across the United States aswell as visits to the finalists’ recentprojects, we selected Van Sickle &Rolleri (VSR) of Medford, New Jersey.VSR is recognized for its work on theExperience Music Project in Seattle,Washington; the Gerald R. Ford Museumin Grand Rapids, Michigan; and theIntrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NewYork, New York. VSR has also receivedseveral awards including theSoutheastern Museum ConferenceCurator’s Committee ExhibitionCompetition Award and The AmericanAssociation for State and Local HistoryAward of Merit in 2000. Dennis VanSickle, VSR principal, said, “We lookforward to working on this mostprestigious project and believe the timehas come to create a museum thatcaptures the rich stories of an industrythat has truly changed the world.”

CREATING COLLABORATION

From the beginning, the ComputerHistory Museum purposefully set out tocreate a collaborative team relationshipbetween architecture and exhibits inorder to foster a process by which eachdiscipline would inform the other. Thegoal is to create a building thatseamlessly integrates the architectureand exhibits, so that they support andenhance each other. Towards this end,over the past summer, EHDD and VSRworked very closely with Museumrepresentatives in the “programming”phase of the new building.

The purpose of the programming phasehas been to clearly identify the scope ofthe building and to systematically refinethe needs of the new facility in order tomeet the Museum’s mission, budget,and programs. Discussions have

focused on the overall visitor experienceas well as defining specificrequirements including size, function,character, adjacency, and quality of eachspace (see chart on opposite page),while allowing enough flexibility in thedesign to accommodate future growthand change. As you read this article,the team is well into the next phase—“schematic design”—that will result in amore refined building program in termsof architectural amenities and exhibitspaces, as well as a signature buildingdesign.

PHASING THE APPROACH

In the “programming” phase, the teamdeveloped a strategy to build the newfacility in two phases: Phase I,scheduled to open in late 2005, willinitially include 32,000 sf (square feet)of gallery space with 23,000 sf ofexhibits fully installed. Phase I alsoincludes administrative offices, a retailstore, a small café cart, a researchreference library, a multi-purpose roomfor events, and other spaces for a totalof 72,000 sf. The remaining 9,000 sf ofexhibits within Phase I are scheduled toopen in 2007.

In Phase II, an auditorium will be addedas well as a larger restaurant. Theexhibits will be expanded, as will theadministration, library, and multi-purpose events spaces. Phase II willadd approximately 48,000 sf and isslated to open in 2010. This strategygives us flexibility with our program andbudget and brings us remarkably closeto our first estimates and goals madebefore the programming phase began.Together, Phases I and II equalapproximately 120,000 sf.

REAL DESIGN, REAL BUILDINGSBY KIRSTEN TASHEV

The Beta Building will be located at Moffett Field, just south of the historic Hangar One and will provide theMuseum with much-needed space for operations and exhibits during the process of building the new Museumbuilding, scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2005.

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Each new issue of CORE serves as amarker of our steady progress inbuilding a solid institution “to preserveand present for posterity the artifactsand stories of the information age.” I am always amazed and gratified to see how much there is to relay to you.Among many other topics throughoutthis issue, we can tell you about oursuccessful year-end solicitation effort,seven recent lectures, furthercollections activities including a largedonation and exhibit of computingartifacts from Switzerland, the 2001Fellow Awards event, Museumparticipation in the CRN Industry Hall of Fame event, and a major pressannouncement with NASA.

YEAR-END CONTRIBUTORS ENABLE

MUSEUM GROWTH

Thanks to the generosity of so many ofyou who responded to our year-end fund-raising appeal, we are well on our wayto meeting the ambitious financial goalsset forth at the beginning of the fiscalyear. We are grateful for the manypeople who, in spite of recent financialand political challenges in our countryand world, have demonstrated theircommitment to our mission. Heartfeltthanks to all of you.

We still have $359,000 to raise by theend of our fiscal year on June 30, andwe hope that those of you who have notyet given will make a pledge or a gift as soon as possible before we closethe year. Your support will make a real difference!

PUBLIC PROGRAMS AT THE MUSEUM

We were proud to offer a rich set oflectures and events last fall. Theaverage attendance for Museumlectures was 250 people, which speaksvolumes about the intellectual curiosityand vigor of our community. I encourageyou to attend these wonderful eventsand to get the word out to others whowould enjoy hearing the inside storiesfrom the innovators of the informationtechnology revolution. Feel free to makesuggestions for speakers and topics youwould like us to include. And please talkto us about sponsorship of the lectureprogram—a terrific opportunity to showyour support of our growing publicpresence. Among other things, thiswould accelerate our ability to offervideos of these lectures to our public.Stay tuned for Charlie Sporck onsemiconductor industry history; JeffHawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and EdColligan on the creation of the handheldcomputer; Charlie Bachman on theorigins of the database; and Al Shugarton early storage developments.

LINUS TORVALDS

THE ORIGINS OF LINUX

To an audience of 350 on September18th at Space Camp, Linus Torvalds,creator of the operating systemphenomenon Linux, provided an insidelook at how he went from writing codeas a graduate student in Helsinki in theearly 1990s to becoming an icon foropen source software by the end of thedecade. At the age of 11, Torvaldsstarted using a Vic-20 computer as a“classic geek with BASIC.” Early on, hebelieved that UNIX was better thaneverything else; however, in Finland itwas difficult to find UNIX for thehobbyist. Why did he write his ownoperating system? He said, “Because,hey, that was what you did.” He added,“When you don’t have anything to startwith, you can’t see the progress you aremaking—it’s just one instruction set ata time.” Twice he had been about togive up, but persevered just the same.Currently, Torvalds is a working memberof the software team developingTransmeta’s Code Morphing™ chipsoftware and Mobile Linux.

DAN INGALLS

FROM SMALLTALK TO SQUEAK

Smalltalk-80, the language from whichthe Squeak programming environment isderived, traces its roots to the famousbeanbag chair culture of Xerox PARC(Palo Alto Research Center) in the1970s. Developed by a team headed by Dan Ingalls, Smalltalk was to be thesupporting software environment forAlan Kay’s visionary portable andnetworked Dynabook computer—aconcept that remains compelling today.Though the original Dynabook nevercame into being, Smalltalk took rootand continued on. Ingalls told the storyat Xerox PARC on October 11th to anaudience of over 200 Museum guestsof how the forward-looking Smalltalkconcepts and capabilities have evolvedinto a modern environment calledSqueak. Ted Kaehler (who worked withDan at Xerox PARC, Apple, Apple again,Disney, and Viewpoints ResearchInstitute) attended the talk and said,“There are many attitudes and stancesin object-oriented software that arecompletely accepted now. Dan remindedus of how hard they were to think of anddefend 30 years ago.”

EARLY COMPUTER MOUSE ENCOUNTERS

The Museum, together with the SanFrancisco Swiss Science & TechnologyOffice, hosted a panel discussion onOctober 17th at Xerox PARC with Daniel

Borel, Stuart Card, Doug Engelbart, BillEnglish, Jean-Daniel Nicoud, and NiklausWirth. These early developers andproponents of the computer mouserelayed insider stories of how theconcepts came about and wereimplemented. This event was madepossible with the support of PRSPresence Switzerland. Zurich Networksponsored the reception and Spotlife isproviding web streaming.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s,Doug Engelbart and his lab at SRIpioneered an elaborate hypermedia-groupware system called NLS (oNLineSystem), most of whose now-commonfeatures were conceived of, fullyintegrated, and in everyday operationaluse by the early 1970s. NLS was firstdemonstrated in public at the 1968 FallJoint Computer Conference in aremarkable 90-minute multimediapresentation, in which Engelbart usedNLS to outline and illustrate his points,while others of his staff linked in fromhis lab at SRI to demonstrate keyfeatures of the system. This was theworld debut of the mouse, hypermedia,and on-screen video teleconferencing.Engelbart said, “It isn’t the human-computer interface I was looking at, it’sthe... human’s interfacing with [an]augmentation system.” He explainedthat “humans have certain basicsensory, perceptual, mental, and motor

capabilities, and we get approachedwith various challenges such aslanguage and social issues. We have toadapt and learn, and things [like themouse] essentially augment us so thatwe can be capable within thatenvironment.”

Stuart Card is a Xerox research fellowand manager of the User InterfaceResearch group at Xerox PARC. Hisstudy of input devices led to the Fitts’sLaw characterization of the mouse andwas a major factor leading to themouse’s commercial introduction byXerox. Daniel Borel co-founded Logitech,whose first commercially-availableproduct was the computer mouse in1982. Bill English was the first personto ever use a mouse. In 1963, while hewas chief engineer for Engelbart’sAugmented Human Intellect ResearchCenter, English built the first mousebased on an idea in Engelbart’s earlynotes. He later developed the “Hawley”mouse that was used with the XeroxPARC Video Terminal System and earlyAlto computers.

ETH Zurich Professor Emeritus NiklausWirth spent two years on sabbatical atXerox PARC, where he became anenthusiastic user of the workstationAlto, which heralded a new era ofcomputing with its high-resolutiondisplay and the mouse. Back in

REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESBY KAREN MATHEWS

Karen Mathews is ExecutiveVice President at theComputer History Museum

Revolutionary Linus Torvalds spoke on September18th about the extraordinary and accidental Linuxphenomenon.

An October panel called “Early Mouse Encounters”featured (left to right) Doug Engelbart, Bill English,Jean-Daniel Nicoud, Stuart Card, Niklaus Wirth, andDaniel Borel (not shown) on the earliestdevelopments of the mouse user interface.

Fred Brooks addressed an audience the day afterhis induction as a Fellow of the Museum (see page 20).

A crowd of 250 people heard Fred Brooks explore“What is the Real Virtue in Virtual Reality?”

In his lecture last fall, Dan Ingalls discussedSmalltalk, the software environment meant tosupport the Dynabook computer, and which evolvedinto the current-day object-oriented Squeak.


Switzerland, he used the mouse for theworkstations Lilith and Ceres, which hedesigned in conjunction with theprogramming languages Modula-2 andOberon. Jean-Daniel Nicoud is professoremeritus of ETH Zurich in Lausanne,Switzerland. Among many otherinventions, he developed the DéprazMouse, initially sold by Logitech.

FRED BROOKS

WHAT IS THE REAL VIRTUE IN

VIRTUAL REALITY?

Hewlett-Packard Company, with the helpof its Chief Science Officer StephenSquires, generously hosted this October24 event, which included a lovelyreception. Fred Brooks addressed anenthusiastic crowd of 250 people aboutwork since 1990 in virtual reality at theUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.In that year, virtual reality was hyped bythe press and by a professionalassociation conference panel,unfortunately designed to “wow” peoplerather than inform them. Brooksreminded us that “a lily needs nogilding—the plain truth is excitingenough.” He posited that the researchchallenge of virtual reality is to make it“look real, sound real, feel real, andinteract realistically.” Even in today’sworld, Brooks said, “virtual reality barelyworks.” Advancement in virtual realitytechnology consists of making strides infour dimensions: fast, pretty, handy, and

real. Brooks said, “We figure out whichone hurts worse, work on it, then moveon to the next loudest problem.”Currently, the greatest inhibitor is“swimming” due to lag (latency). Otherproblems include poor registration withthe real world, ergonomics, cables (andwireless), and the tedium of buildingmodels. Brooks assured us that virtualreality technology will one day fulfill itspromise as a useful tool in areas suchas vehicle simulation, molecularmedicine and structure, and more.“Computer scientists are toolsmiths,”he said. “Is this tool dangerous?” heasked. “Sure! All tools are dangerous.The danger lies not in our tools, but inourselves.”

DONALD KNUTH

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Nearly 300 people gathered at XeroxPARC on November 8th to try to “stumpthe professor,” a rare opportunity to askThe Art of Computer Programmingauthor Don Knuth anything andeverything about computerprogramming. Knuth is professoremeritus of The Art of ComputerProgramming at Stanford Universitywhere, since 1968, he supervised thePh.D. dissertations of 28 students. Theauthor of numerous books, Knuth’ssoftware systems, TeX and MF, areused extensively for book publishingthroughout the world. His numerous

awards include the Turing Award, theNational Medal of Science, the SteelePrize, the Adelsköld Medal, the HarveyPrize, the John von Neumann Medal,and the Kyoto Prize. He holds honorarydoctorates from Oxford University, theUniversity of Paris, the Royal Institute ofTechnology in Stockholm, the Universityof St. Petersburg, the University ofMarne-la-Vallee, Masaryk University, St.Andrews University, Athens University ofEconomics and Business, the Universityof Tübingen, and 16 colleges anduniversities in the USA.

Attendee Bob Zeidman said, “It wasgreat to be able to hear Don Knuth, oneof the many pioneers that the ComputerHistory Museum is able to bring in eachmonth. Professor Knuth is a livinglegend for his developments incomputer science. He is also, I foundout, a quiet guy of towering height witha good sense of humor who is quick topoint out his own shortcomings. Iparticularly agreed with his call forbetter communication skills amongprogrammers, and I’m looking forwardto examining his CWEB language for‘literate programming.’”

2001: HAL’S LEGACY DOCUMENTARY

Museum members and guests enjoyeda pre-broadcast preview on November20th of the 90-minute version of a PBSdocumentary by David Stork comparing

state-of-the-art technology today with thecomputer capabilities depicted in the1968 epic film, “2001: A SpaceOdyssey.” Now that 2001 has come andgone, we can compare the film’scomputer science “visions” with currenttechnological fact—in particular thoserelated to its central character, the HAL9000 computer, which could speak,reason, see, play chess, plan, andexpress emotions. In some domains,reality has surpassed the vision in thefilm. In numerous others, reality hasfallen far short. In the documentary,Stork navigates between scenes fromthe film and interviews with Arthur C.Clarke, Marvin Minsky, Gordon Moore,Rodney Brooks, Larry Smarr, DanielDennett, Raymond Kurzweil, DougLenat, and others. These contributors to“HAL’s Legacy” have given us morethan a scorecard for the film and novel.They have shown the reasons for theway things developed—and maycontinue to develop—to 2001 andbeyond. The film was produced by DavidKennard and InCA and funded by theAlfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Event attendee Ellen Spertus, assistantprofessor of computer science at MillsCollege, Oakland, commented, “Evenpeople who say they don’t likecomputers are fascinated by robots,real or imaginary, making them a greatway to draw people into computer

science. HAL’s Legacy, which I plan toshow my students, uses people’sfascination with HAL, an imaginaryartificial intelligence, to introduce themto the even more fascinating real worldof artificial intelligence.”

ERIC SCHMIDT

UNWINNABLE WARS: PERSONAL

PERSPECTIVES ON TECHNOLOGY

LEADERSHIP

On December 6th at Xerox PARC, EricSchmidt, chairman and CEO of GoogleInc., examined unwinnable battles hewas involved with or witnessed duringhis rich and varied 20-year career in thecomputer industry. He recollected tryingexperiences at Sun Microsystemsattempting to replicate its initialstandardization victory with NFS(Network File System) in the company’slong-standing battle to prevail over otherUNIX companies and later, overMicrosoft itself. He looked at the futileUNIX user-interface wars (such as OpenLook vs. XOpen), the calamitousmerging of Sun’s UNIX (SunOS) andAT&T’s UNIX (System V), and the failureof UNIX to unify behind a single version.

He observed the importance ofunderstanding history, and that, “eachand every generation makes the samemistakes.” An example that surfacedduring the talk was that some of the oldbattles found during the UNIX wars

might be reemerging on today’s Linuxstage. Lively discussion followed in thequestion-and-answer period on topicssuch as competing against a behemoth(such as Microsoft), and whycooperative consortia don’t work.Schmidt made the point that the bestprogress is often made when academiaor egos not interested in monetaryprofit are able to form useful standards(such as the Internet standards createdby Vint Cerf and the IETF).

Prior to his post at Google, Schmidt waschairman and CEO of Novell, chieftechnology officer and corporateexecutive officer at Sun Microsystems,a member of the research staff at XeroxPARC, and held positions at BellLaboratories and Zilog.

COLLECTIONS HIGHLIGHTS

The report of items acquired in recentmonths is on page 12. Here are a fewhighlights: Richard Fryer donated anearly CDI mouse, circa 1970, anexcellent example of an earlycommercial mouse intended for usewith minicomputers and largermainframes. Former Marchant employeeGeorge William Bolton donated a“Figuremaster” mechanical calculatorand allowed the Museum to record histhoughts on his years working withMarchant. And, longtime Museumsupporter and friend, Robert Garner

Museum Fellow Don Knuth calls on an inquirer inhis lecture, “Questions Answered,” that drewalmost 300 attendees.

Audience members pose questions in an “ask theprofessor” style lecture by Don Knuth.

David Stork addressed friends of the Museumbefore previewing “HAL's Legacy,” his documentaryfilm that investigates similarities and differencesbetween the 1968 vision of technology in the year2001, and technology as it actually evolved.

In December, Google, Inc. Chairman and CEO EricSchmidt discussed lessons learned from hisexperience in the technology trenches.

Museum volunteer and donor Robert Garner acquiredand donated a 1948 IBM 604—a punched cardcalculator whose speed performance was due to itsimplementation with electronics (vacuum tubes),rather than IBM’s traditional relay technology.

Museum supporter Ned Chapin examines theSwitcherland and MUSIC artifacts at the“Computing in Switzerland” exhibit reception priorto the Fellow Awards Banquet on October 23rd.

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acquired an IBM 604 ElectronicCalculating Punch for the Museum. The604, a vacuum tube-based machine,was announced by IBM in 1948 andwas probably the company’s firstattempt at a wholly electronic machinetargeted at the emerging commercialcomputing market.

SPECIAL EXHIBIT OF COMPUTING

ARTIFACTS FROM SWITZERLAND

A reception prior to the Fellow Awardsbanquet and ceremony on October 23rdfeatured an impressive exhibit ofartifacts donated to the Museum byvarious Swiss individuals andorganizations. The exhibit displayed aseries of artifacts related to computingin Switzerland, including: a 1956ERMETH pluggable unit, 1972 Novasim,1976 Crocus, 1977 Dauphin, 1978Scrib, 1978 Smacky 6, 1986 Ceres-1,1990 Ceres-3, 1991 MUSICmicrocomputer, 1993 Convex C3820,1994 GigaBooster supercomputer, and the 1999 TNet switch. Additionally,a Swiss public telephone boothequipped with a functioning Teleguideelectronic phone directory (donated bySwisscom AG) demonstrated howintertwined computers have becomewith our daily lives.

Donors Hans Eberle, Jean-DanielNicoud, and Niklaus Wirth were presentand spoke to the audience. Other

donors include Ambros Speiser andAndré Thalmann, The Bobst Group,Epsitec SA, ETH Zürich, SupercomputingSystems AG, Swisscom AG, and theSwiss Center for Scientific Computing.

Swiss chocolatiers Albert Uster Imports,Nestlé Switzerland, Lindt, and othersdonated delicious chocolates for exhibitviewers. The artifact donation wasinitiated and coordinated by ChristianSimm and his staff at the SwissScience and Technology Office in SanFrancisco, and shipped courtesy of PRSPresence Switzerland.

THE 2001 FELLOW AWARDS—A SUCCESS

BY ANY MEASURE

Over 400 Silicon Valley entrepreneurs,computer scientists, business leaders,academics, and other friends ofcomputing history supported theMuseum at this year’s Fellow AwardsBanquet at the San Jose Fairmont Hotelon October 23rd. Master of Ceremoniesand 2000 Museum Fellow Vint Cerf ledthe evening to celebrate theachievements of honorees Frederick P.Brooks, Jean E. Sammet, and MauriceWilkes.

Hewlett-Packard Company was the LeadSponsor for the event. Patron Sponsorswere 1185 Design, Allegro Networks,Citigate Cunningham, eBay, Intel, andMid-Peninsula Bank. Hosts for the

evening were Donna Dubinsky, LenShustek, Suhas Patil, Jayashree Patil,Elaine Hahn, Eric Hahn, Peter Hirshberg,Angela Hey, and John Mashey. Followingare a few highlights from the evening.

Len Shustek cited John Brockman’swork with a group of experts fromvarious fields to identify the mostimportant inventions of the past 2000years. Only three inventions got morethan five votes each. Second on the listwas the invention of the computer (tofind out the other two you can buyBrockman’s book!). Shustek pointed outthat for 5,000 years of recordedcivilization, there were no computers,and suddenly computers appeared. Nowand forevermore, computers will beeverywhere, affecting what we do, howwe live, how we work, how we play. Hesaid, “We need to preserve thestructure of how that happened, so thatlooking back from 500 years from now,it doesn’t look like a point event—thatcomputers suddenly arose, with norecognition of who did it, and why theydid it, and how they did it, and how itcame to be. That’s what the Museum ishere to preserve.”

Maurice Wilkes (via videotape) told usthat it took around three years beforethe first computers were working, andhow, while development was going on, itseemed interminable. “When pressed, I

used to tell people that I hoped to havea machine working in the summer. But Idid not say which summer,” he said,and added, “No doubt as time goes onwe will see many more changes. Andthis is where the Museum comes in. AsI see it, an important function of theMuseum is to record changes as theyoccur, and to collect artifacts that willillustrate those changes for the benefitsof posterity.”

Fred Brooks said, “I remember at age13 reading Time magazine; it had acartoon on the front of the HarvardMark I [computer] looking like a kind ofa beast. The article described thiscomputer. I knew at age 13 that thatwas what I wanted to do.”

Vint Cerf pointed out after hearing our2001 Fellows speak, “It illustrates howtheir insights and their perspectives arestill incredibly valuable to every one ofus today. It is by knowing andunderstanding the past that we canshape and guarantee the future.”

CRN INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME

The Computer History Museumparticipated as a co-host of the CRNIndustry Hall of Fame event onNovember 12 in Las Vegas. Honoreeswere Doug Engelbart, Judy Estrin, MortRosenthal, Phil Zimmerman, the lateRobert Noyce, and the late Grace

Hopper. Thanks to CRN for recognizingthe accomplishments and determinationof such wonderful people in computing.John Toole spoke at the event about theMuseum and its plans. I was pleasedand honored to accept the award forGrace Hopper on behalf of the Museumand to give a short tribute to hermemorable contributions, which includethe time- and error-saving compiler.

JOINT NASA/COMPUTER HISTORY

MUSEUM PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

On Friday, December 7th, the Museumand NASA co-hosted a press tour andspecial announcement for nearly 100people who gathered to hear about theMuseum’s partnership with NASA for apresence in the NASA Research Park,the Beta Building (see page 16), theappointment of Head Curator Michael R.Williams, and the Museum’s new nameand logo. Panelists included NASA AmesResearch Center Director HenryMcDonald; Museum Executive Director& CEO John Toole; Chairman of theMuseum’s Board of Trustees LenShustek; Museum Trustee and CEO ofHandspring Donna Dubinsky; andIntuit’s Chairman of the Board BillCampbell. The press responded withgreat enthusiasm and coverage includedKLIV, KGO, KTVU, KICU, the San JoseMercury News, and the San JoseBusiness Journal.

The “Computing in Switzerland” exhibit showedartifacts related to computing in Switzerland,including much of the line of Smaky personalcomputers.

Banquet attendees enjoy the Fellow Awards program. Museum Trustees Len Shustek and DonnaDubinsky relax after the Fellows banquet.

New Fellow Jean Sammet enjoys a moment at thebanquet table during the award ceremony.

New Fellow Maurice Wilkes, who resides in the UK,delivered an acceptance speech by videotape.

The 2001 Fellow Awards went to: Frederick P.Brooks, for his contributions to computerarchitecture, operating systems, and softwareengineering; Jean E. Sammet, for her contributionsto the field of programming languages and itshistory; and Maurice Wilkes, for his lifelongcontributions to computer technology, includingearly machine design, microprogramming, and theCambridge Ring network.

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WHAT IS NEEDED TO REALIZE THEDREAM IS YOU!

THE ELEMENTS ARE HERE: artifacts,photographs, videos and audiotapes, marketingmaterials, documentation, and gigabytes of historicsoftware.

THE VISION IS HERE: knowledgeable anddedicated Trustees, Advisors, and staff membersare implementing the dream: to build, endow, and operate a landmark facility where theMuseum’s collection can be adequately displayedand researched.

THE OPPORTUNITY IS HERE: the Museum is part of the proposed NASA Research Park atMoffett Field, California, destined to become aworld-class, shared-use education and R&Dcampus, partnering with local communities,academia, industry, nonprofits, and government agencies.

BECOME AN INVESTOR IN THE MUSEUMJoin this eminent community of people—includingcollectors and historians, software and hardwareengineers, computer scientists and theorists,entrepreneurs and investors, visionaries andinventors, and the general public—who share apassion for preserving computing history forgenerations to come.

For pioneers at the forefront of the computingindustry, supporting the Museum preserves thecontributions that you made.

For industry professionals, researchers, andscholars, supporting the Museum ensures accessto unique and valuable resources that shed light onthe evolution and significance of computing history.

For those simply curious, interested, or excited bycomputing history, supporting the Computer HistoryMuseum will allow everyone a better understandingof the impact of the information age.

Please RSVP for all events and activities bycalling +1 650 604 2714 or visitingwww.computerhistory.org/events. Thank you!

TUE, FEBRUARY 26THE PALMPILOT STORYDonna Dubinsky, Jeff Hawkins, and EdColligan of Handspring, Inc. along withAndrea Butter, co-author of Piloting PalmMEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

Bldg 126, Moffett FieldLECTURE: 7:00 PM

Moffett Training & Conference Center, Bldg. 3

TUE, APRIL 16THE INTEGRATED DATA STORE(IDS)—THE PROBLEMS AND THEIRSOLUTIONSCharlie BachmanMEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

Bldg 126, Moffett FieldLECTURE: 7:00 PM

Moffett Training & Conference Center, Bldg. 3

TUE, MAY 21THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OFELECTRONIC PHOTOGRAPHYCarver Mead, Foveon, Inc.Please check our website for location and time

THU, SEPTEMBER 5HALF A CENTURY OF DISK DRIVESAND PHILOSOPHY: FROM IBM TOSEAGATEAl Shugart, Al Shugart InternationalPlease check our website for location and time

THU, SEPTEMBER 26VON NEUMANN: FROM STOREDPROGRAM CONCEPT TO THEORYOF COMPUTINGBill Aspray, Computing Research AssociationPlease check our website for location and time

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

The Museum tries to match its needswith the skills and interests of itsvolunteers and relies on regularvolunteer support for events andprojects. Monthly work parties generallyoccur on the 2nd Saturday of eachmonth, including:

MARCH 9, APRIL 13, MAY 11, JUNE 8,

JULY 13, AUGUST 10

Please RSVP at least 48 hours inadvance to Betsy Toole for work parties,and contact us if you are interested inlending a hand in other ways! For moreinformation, please visit our volunteerweb page atwww.computerhistory.org/volunteers

We acknowledge with deepappreciation the individuals andorganizations that have givengenerously to the Annual Fund.

CORE BENEFACTORS64K ($65,536)+Gwen & C Gordon BellL John Doerr & Ann DoerrDonna DubinskyElaine & Eric HahnJeff Hawkins & Janet StraussGardner Hendrie & Karen JohansenDavid & Karla HouseLeonard J Shustek

32K ($32,768)+Bill & Roberta CampbellGrant & Dorrit SaviersJohn & Sheree Shoch

16K ($16,384)+Steve Blank & Alison ElliottMike & Kristina HomerThe Krause FoundationJohn Mashey & Angela Hey

MAJOR CORE INVESTORS8K ($8,192)+Vinton & Sigrid CerfAndrea CunninghamDave CutlerThe Lynch Family FoundationMicrosoft Matching Gifts ProgramIke & Ronee NassiBernard L PeutoAllen RudolphSigma Partners

4K ($4,096)+Sally M Abel & Mogens LauritzenPeggy BurkeSteve & Michele Kirsch FoundationGordon E & Betty I MooreJohn & Elizabeth TooleJohn & Rosemary Young

2K ($2,048)+Allan AlcornBruce G & Leona D BaumgartYogen & Peggy DalalJames N PorterCarol & Chris EspinosaFederico & Elvia FagginChristine Hughes & Abe OstrovskyRon & Deb Marianetti

The Rockwell International Corporation Trust

Dave & Jan RossettiAlvy Ray & Zu SmithRich & Cindy Tennant

1K ($1,024)+Frances AllenGene & Marian AmdahlDavid & Robin AndersonAustradeThe Avram Miller Family FoundationJohn & Sheila BanningCraig & Barbara BarrettAllen Baum & Donya WhiteBarry & Sharla BoehmGary BooneJack & Casey CarstenNed ChapinBruce & Gail ChizenCitigate CunninghamRichard J ClaytonThe Computer Language Company IncR T CosletLori Kulvin CrawfordEleanor & Lloyd DickmanLes EarnestJudy Estrin & Bill CarricoIrwin & Concepción FedermanEdward A Feigenbaum & Penny NiiTracey Stewart & Barry James FolsomEd Frank & Sarah Ratchye Fujitsu MicroelectronicsThe Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationForrest GunnisonTrip HawkinsJohn & Andrea HennessyMary Henry & Rajpal SandhuTim & Nancy HowesMatthew B IvesCraig JensenDr & Mrs Leonard KleinrockDonald & Jill KnuthTom Kopec & Leah CarneiroLucio LanzaRichard & Ellen LowenthalJames A MarkevitchFrank & Judith MarshallKaren H MathewsFrank McConnellJames McElweeMalachy MoynihanJoan & Stanley MyersDonald & Helen NielsonMax PalevskyPaul Pierce

Susan Poduska & John W PoduskaBill & Shelly PrattDennis RitchieToni & Arthur RockTom Stepien & Carolyn RogersPeter & Valerie SamsonRobert ShawVirginia ShulerLee & Robert SproullStephen Squires &

Ann Marmor-SquiresEdward TaftLarry & Dawn WeberRaymond & Carol WilliamsPaul WinalskiAnthony J WoodRobert & Carrie ZeidmanCindy & Peter Ziebelman

GENERAL SUPPORTERSAnonymousGeorge B Adams IIIDonald & Nancy AlpertSaul & Irene AmarelJohn AmosMelissa Anderson & Howard LookPaul & Joan ArmerMary ArtibeeCharles BachmanJohn BackusDavid H BaileyJoseph BarreraRoss BassettSandy & Ann BenettDoris & Alfred BertocchiMichael & Sharon BlasgenBruce BlinnBlumberg Capital ManagementStuart BowenRichard BrandRon & Margaret BrenderFrederick & Nancy BrooksJohn & Doris BrownWerner BuchholzJack BurnessBruce & Janet BurnsStephen & Karen CasnerJohn ChangMihir Kumar ChoudharyPamela ClevelandRichard & Dorene CohenPaul L ComeyJefferson ConnellMichael CoulterNaren DasuPeter & Dorothy Denning

Lena M DiethelmMichael diVittorioMark DuncanJohn DykstraDavid EllsworthJack EsbinThelma & Gerald EstrinMaria & Bob EvansDouglas G FairbairnJim ForsterJohn & Wendy-Ann FrancisBarbara & Joseph FredrickChris GarciaGeorge Glaser & Karen DuncanBob & Dee GloriosoEli GoldbergRobert E GoldbergBert GraeveGeorgia R Grant & Paul V AtkinsE Michael GreenawaltPhilip GregoryDouglas GreigJoe GrossAnn HardyRoy & Virginia HarringtonAlys HayDan HillThea HodgeJames HurdIBM International FoundationJoanne & Irwin JacobsLuanne JohnsonChuck KaekelBrewster KahleRobert Kahn & Patrice LyonsMarlene & Jeffrey KalbMark KaminskyChristopher A KantarjievRichard KashdanRandy KatzTabinda KhanTracy Holloway KingSteven KloosterEd KramerWinston KrigerPhilip KurjanRichard & Joanne KurkowskiThomas KurtzLarry KwicinskiMichael A LambertDavid & Grayson LaneCecilia A LarsenKenneth LarsenJohn L LarsonKarl LautmanDavid A Laws

Roy Kwok Ming LeeJohn V LevyJefferson LillyJoyce Currie LittleThomas P LojaconoCarl & Claudia LowensteinJim Lyons & Virginia LyonsSlava & Hana MachWalt MainMichael MalcolmMilt MalloryJohn Maloney &

Roxanne Guilhamet MaloneyJulius MarcusConnie MartinezGeorge MaulTerry MayerStanley & Maurine MazorRussell McHughStuart McHughWilliam D & Dianne Mensch, JrPaul MeolaDavid MillerCharlene MiyashitaKenrick Mock & Khristy ParkerJeff MoffattMichael MorgansternRonald NicholsonJakob NielsenMarilee J NiemiLandon NollMike & Betsy NoonenArthur NorbergDavid NovakDave OlsonDonn B ParkerJeff Parker & Barbara WaddyJames L PaulosShirley & Douglas PearsonS Michael PerlmutterMichael PiqueMichael PittoroMonroe H PostmanArati Prabhakar & Patrick WindhamRobert PraetoriusJane & Bob PufferDonald & Sandie PughSandhya RamanathanCarol RandallGlenn RicartDavid RicheyAnnie Roe-ReverHeidi Roizen & David MohlerLynn & George RossmannDick RubinsteinPhillip Rupp

Kathleen L RydarJune & David RynnePaul Saffo IIIJohn & Linda SailorsGordon Saint ClairRita Seplowitz SaltzRex SandersJohn & Christine SanguinettiStephen SavitzkyEric SchmidtMichael & Wyn SchuhMarge SentousChris Sheedy & Marsha BrewerPrashanth ShitikondDick ShoupThomas Siekman & Pamela KenneyMichael P SimonChris & Jade SimonsonRebecca Elizabeth SkinnerJoseph & Sally SmithMatt Chew SpenceDag SpicerDavid & Shirley StackpoleLarry StaleyDavid StearnsSteven StepanekPeter StewartRichard Swan & Claudia MazzettiDr Bradley S TiceFritz & Nomi TrapnellJoseph Traub & Pamela McCorduckRichard & Pamela TuckerUnited Way of King CountyTeruo UtsumiDuane & Lorna WadsworthFloy & Willis WareMichael WeaverJohn WeirichGio & Voy WiederholdDuane WiseJon & Marsha WitkinJim & Sylvia WorkKo YamamotoRobert YehJohn G ZabolitzkyMaria D ZorskyJohn & Maureen ZukGeorge D Zuras

This information is current as of January 11, 2002. Please notify us of any changes to your listing([email protected]). Thank you.


MUSEUM ARTIFACTS ON LOAN AT THE FOLLOWING EXHIBITS

FEB 8—MAY 27, 2002BRAINS TO BYTES—THEEVOLUTION OF INFORMATIONSTORAGEThe Museum of American Heritage (MOAH)Palo Alto, Californiawww.moah.org

APRIL—SEPT 2002WORLD'S FAIRSSan Francisco International Airport Terminal C3San Francisco, Californiawww.sfoarts.org

MAY—SEPT 2002GAME ON! (THE WORLDWIDE CULTURE ANDHISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES)Barbican Gallery, London, United Kingdomwww.barbican.org.uk

SEPT 2002THE COMPUTING REVOLUTIONMuseum of Science Boston, Massachusettswww.mos.org

Explained from CORE 2.3

The Interface Message Processor (IMP)was the packet switching node of theARPANET, which connected computersystems, beginning in the early 1970s,into a nationwide research network forcomputer resource sharing. ThisARPANET originally consisted of onlyfour nodes (UCLA, SRI, UCSB, and theUniversity of Utah) and eventually grewto over 100 nodes. It was connected via"gateways" (now called routers) to twoother networks (packet radio andSATNET) that were also supported byDARPA (Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency). These threeinterconnected networks ultimatelyevolved into today's Internet with itstens of millions of nodes.

During an early ARPANET planningsession, engineer Wesley Clarksuggested developing a standardminicomputer interface in order to avoidcreating separate hardware andsoftware for every different time-sharingsystem that would be connected. TheIMP was thus a communications"switch" accepting packets and relayingthem to other IMPs or locally-connectedhost computers. In December 1968,

DARPA selected Bolt Beranek andNewman (BBN) to develop the IMP.Frank Heart led the team, with SeveroOrnstein as lead hardware developerand Bill Crowther as lead programmer.MIT professor Bob Kahn, who had takena leave of absence in 1966 to join BBN,was responsible for the system design.

Shortly before the planned delivery dateof September 1, 1969, the first IMParrived at the laboratory of ProfessorLen Kleinrock at UCLA. A month later,the second IMP arrived at SRI and, soonthereafter, the first characters weretransmitted between SRI and UCLA. In November and December, IMPsnumber three and four were installed atUniversity of California Santa Barbaraand the University of Utah. The networkquietly expanded to 13 sites by January 1971 and 23 by April 1972.

Please send your best guess [email protected] before04/15/02 along with your name,shipping address, and t-shirt size. Thefirst three correct entries will eachreceive a free t-shirt with the newMuseum logo and name.

PO Box 367, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA

Address Service Requested

NONPROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

PERMIT NO. 50

MYSTERY ITEMSFROM THE COLLECTION OF

THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

WHAT ISTHIS?THIS ITEM WILL BE EXPLAINED IN THE

NEXT ISSUE OF CORE.

The IMP (Interface Message Processor), X105.82,Gift of Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc.

core magazine february 2002

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