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

N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 2

CORE 3.3

CORE 3.3WE HAVE PURCHASEDA GREAT BUILDING!

November 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

Michael FalarskiV I C E P R E S I D E N T O F O P E R AT I O N S &F A C I L I T I E S

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

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

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

Sally M AbelF E N W I C K & W E S T L L P

David L AndersonS E N D M A I L

C Gordon Bell M I C R O S O F T C O R P O R AT I O N

Peggy Burke1 1 8 5 D E S I G N

Lori CrawfordI N F I N I T Y C A P I TA L L L C

Andrea Cunningham C I T I G AT E C U N N I N G H A M

Donna Dubinsky H A N D S P R I N G

David EmersonC L A R E N T C O R P O R AT I O N

Eric HahnI N V E N T U R E S G R O U P

Gardner C HendrieS I G M A PA R T N E R S

Peter HirshbergG L O S S . C O M

BOARD OF ADVISORS

Gene Amdahl

William AsprayI N D I A N A U N I V E R S I T Y

Robert BrodersonU 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

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

Federico FagginS Y N A P T I C S

Samuel Fuller A N A L O G D E V I C E S

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

PUBLICATION STAFF

Karyn WolfeE D I T O R

David A 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

Michael R WilliamsH E A D C U R AT O R

Charles H (Chuck) HouseI N T E L C O N V E R G E DC O M M U N I C AT I O N S G R O U PD I A L O G I C D I V I S I O N

Dave HouseA L L E G R O N E T W O R K S

Christine HughesA C H I E V E M E N T P L U S

John Mashey S E N S E I PA R T N E R S L L C

Ike R NassiA L L E G I S C A P I TA L

Suhas PatilT U F A N

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

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Steve KirschP R O P E L S O F T WA R E C O R P O R AT I O N

David PattersonU 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

James N PorterD I S K / T R E N D

Eric SchmidtG O O G L E

Copyright ©2002, Computer History Museum. All rights reserved. The Museum is an independent501(c)(3) organization, FID #77-0507525. PO Box 367,Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA. Printed in the USA.

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Submission guidelines: www.computerhistory.org/coreor write core@computerhistory.org.

Cover: Humans have relied on calculation for over 2,000 years.Foreground: an early method known since Roman times of storing numberson the fingers—first described by The Venerable Bede—and here shown ina woodcut from Jacob Leopold’s 1727 Theatrum Arithmetico-Geometricum.Background: typical Integrated Circuit Dynamic Random Access Memor y(DRAM) circuit board used in modern-day digital computers. Photo: Dag Spicer.

I N S I D E F R O N T C O V E RWE HAVE PURCHASED A GREAT BUILDING!John C Toole

2EXHIBITING COMPUTING HISTORYKirsten Tashev

6BRINGING COMPUTING HISTORY TO THE PUBLICEd Rodley

1 1HISTORY MATTERSMike Williams

1 4UNIVAC: THE FIRST AMERICAN COMMERCIAL COMPUTERChris Garcia

1 8RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION

1 9REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESKaren Mathews

2 4ANNUAL DONORS

2 5UPCOMING EVENTSCONTACT INFORMATION

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

IN THISISSUE

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6

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JOHN C TOOLE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO

19

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 . 3

The year 2002 will forever be veryspecial for the Computer HistoryMuseum. I am proud to announce thatwe have acquired a spectacular119,000 square-foot building on 7.5 acres of land at 1401 N. ShorelineBlvd. in Mountain View, California. Withthis purchase, we are taking a majorstep toward realizing our dreams ofhaving a permanent home, owning ourown land, directing our future, focusingon programs, and building newrelationships with the communities weserve.

The transformation won’t happenovernight because we will open this newspace in several phases. We plan tomove our staff into the building by theend of the year and unveil the firstphase of our public presence onShoreline Blvd. in May 2003 after a fewrenovations are completed. Read moreabout our exhibit planning process inKirsten Tashev’s article on page two.

It is awesome to see how we havegrown, wrestled with major decisions,and emerged even stronger incommitment, passion, and action—all inthe past year or so. In that time, ourstrategies have definitely changed, butthe goal remains the same: to build amajor institution that preserves andpresents the artifacts and stories of theinformation age. I’m convinced morethan ever that we are setting the coursefor an innovative future—our mission isunique and focused, and we have oneof the best collections of computingartifacts in the world.

We owe much to the people at NASA fortheir support and help in our own recenthistory. We will continue to usebuildings 126 and 45 at Moffett Fieldfor critical storage for as long aspossible. We intend to foster greatrelationships with partners in the NASAResearch Park over time; after all, ourbuilding on Shoreline is just one freeway

exit north of our current offices! We areneighbors in Mountain View now, withfederal and local governmentsconnected to a community of “can-do”people.

We are watchful in this economicclimate and mindful of our duty tofaithfully fulfill our responsibilities to our supporters. For the important causewe represent, I’m proud to ask you toplease consider an increased or newcontribution to our annual fund, adonation to our capital campaign, and to help spread the news about theMuseum to others. Look carefully at this issue of CORE to see what we have accomplished, and remember that you are always a welcome part ofour institution.

With the excitement of the new building,don’t overlook the simultaneousextensive growth in our public programs,which include world-class lectures thatcontribute to our historical archive, oralhistories, participation in special eventsto collect computing histories (such asan IBM Stretch reunion, DECWORLD2001, and upcoming Appleretrospective and database panelevents), and numerous exhibitions thatbring artifacts and history alive.

It is motivating to meet peopleeverywhere who share our dreams,including early supporters of theComputer History Museum. Althoughsome of you are geographically distantfrom California, people everywhere want to be part of the Museum. With

this encouragement, we are increasinglyoffering special events and programstargeted to the needs of our “remote”community. It was a pleasure, forexample, to be at the Museum ofScience in Boston this fall to celebratethe opening of the “ComputingRevolution” exhibit, which features many of our artifacts. I hope those onthe East Coast will visit that exhibit and experience something of theComputer History Museum 3,000 milesaway from California.

Lastly, I want to thank everyone involvedfor their personal sacrifices, the longhours, and the spectacular executionthis summer and fall in acquiring thenew building. The passion, persistence,and generosity of our Trustees, staff,volunteers, and supporters has enabledour bold move—I could tell story afterstory of how each person really made a difference.

It’s a wonderful but awesomeresponsibility to preserve a heritage. I’m proud to report that we have beentaking some giant steps forward. Helpus continue to grow—the best is yet to come!

INTRODUCTION

Currently the Museum is working on theSchematic Designs—the rough layoutand look of the exhibitions—for ourpermanent home. This process is nowunderway for our Timeline exhibit, whichwill cover approximately 15,000 squarefeet (s.f.) and focus on the milestonesof computing history. We are findingthat while it is easy to select artifactsfor the Timeline, it is very hard todetermine what to leave out, a problemcommonly faced by museums. Westruggle to tell the story of computerhistory even in 15,000 s.f. Fortunately,we are also exploring ways tocomplement the exhibits with onlineexhibitions so that the World Wide Webbecomes one of our “natural resources”as we build our permanent home.

Another challenge we face is that thestory we are trying to tell is unique.There are relatively few computerhistory museums—let alone computerexhibits—in the world. On the one hand,this gives us a lot of freedom; on theother hand, we have few opportunitiesto learn from the successes andfailures of others. We also face theexpectations of our future visitors whohave their own views on what acomputer history museum should be. AsEd Rodley (see page 6) discovered inhis audience research for the MOSexhibit, ironically, many visitors expect acomputer history exhibit to be aboutnew stuff. The word “computer,” beingsynonymous in our modern culture with“cutting-edge,” seems to neutralize theother word in the sentence, namely“history.” Even in working with museumdesigners and other outsideconsultants, we’ve found that peopleimagine a “tech” museum featuringexhibits full of the latest gadgets. Inmany ways, our Museum is “the historyof the latest gadget,” beginning,

however, with the abacus! Our challengeis to harness this fascination for the“next new thing” and to find ways tomotivate our visitors to appreciate theachievements of the past as thegadgets of their day.

MUSEUM STEPS

We are developing the curatorial outlinefor the Museum’s future Timelineexhibit. The Timeline will be divided into four eras, starting with pre-computing and ending with the Internet.For each era, we have developed keymessages that we want to convey andcorresponding lists of potentialartifacts, images, diagrams, audio-visuals, and computer “interactives”that can help to communicate the keymessages. One of the challenges thatwe found in developing the Timeline isan inherent tension between showingadvances chronologically versusgrouping them according to genre ortype. For example, a chronologicallayout allows visitors to seedevelopments occurring around thesame time in various fields ofcomputing and their impact on eachother, while a thematic-based layoutallows the visitor to see developmentsin a specific area, such as memory or software, in a linear and comparative way.

In developing the exhibit in ourprescribed 15,000 s.f., we constantlyhave to ask ourselves whether anartifact or story is a “headline” andthus deserving of a place on theTimeline. In other words, is anachievement revolutionary orevolutionary? Fortunately, the newMuseum will have five Theme Rooms(1,000 to 1,500 s.f. each), which willallow us to explore specific topics inmore detail and show developments insub-fields of computing side by side.

Schematic Design is not just aboutcontent, but also about design; webegin to think about how the exhibitswill look. The Museum is working withexhibit designers Van Sickle & Rolleri,Ltd. (VSR) to develop conceptual exhibitfloorplans and elevations. From ourcuratorial outlines, VSR begins creating“elevations,” or wall views, of eachexhibit area. (See elevations on nextpage.) They also create conceptual floorplans to determine adjacencies ofexhibit areas and potential traffic flow.When we saw VSR’s visual inter-pretation of our curatorial outlines forthe first time, we were surprised by thesheer scale required to accommodatetext, photos, and audio-visuals increating an exhibition rich in content. Itlooked nothing like our current VisibleStorage Exhibit Area, with one machinelined up next to another. Thetransformative power of context on anartifact is truly amazing.

Our next steps are to developSchematic Designs for the rest of ourexhibits, including the Theme Rooms.Then we will begin the DesignDevelopment phase, in which eachdiscrete exhibit component is selectedand when draft text, photo research,and audio-visual design begin. In thisphase, we will more fully flesh out howwe will capture different points of viewand incorporate multiple layers ofcontent for our diverse audiences.

We still have a lot of work to do to openthe new Museum, and many issues toresolve. Some of the challenges that weface in developing the exhibits rangefrom the practical—such as whether theCray-1 is too heavy for a second floor—to the conceptual, including who ouraudience is and finding the rightbalance between technical content,people stories, and societal impacts. I would like to share with you some ofour thoughts about these issues.

MEMORY VS. HISTORY

Museums that seek to displaycontemporary history have a uniquechallenge: they are about both historyand living memory. History is adiscipline in which we try to take adistant and critical view of the past,while memory is personal and involves

individual connections with the past.The Computer History Museum, whichcenters around a relativelycontemporary topic, is faced with thechallenge of balancing memory andhistory. While exhibits indeed serve afunction of commemoration, theMuseum must be careful to considerthe bias of its sources and obtaininformation from a variety of places.Exhibits must balance the need forcritical distance and objectivity with theevocative power of personal stories. For example, telling the story of the firstpersonal computer inevitably bringstogether people who reminisce aboutthe Altair 8800 (1975), while thehistorical record shows that severalothers preceded it, such as the Kenbak-1 (1971), the Micral (1973),and even the lesser known 008AMicrocomputer Kit by RGS Electronics(1974). As English historian Eric

Hobsbawm wrote, “Historians are theprofessional remembrancers of whattheir fellow citizens wish to forget.”

Our curatorial team is conductingresearch by speaking to both thepioneers of computing history and tothe many professionals who contributedto the development of the industry.First-hand knowledge is balanced withinformation from primary sourcematerials, the input of our historianadvisors, and the views of subject-matter experts. We are exploring waysto create exhibits that will capturemultiple points of view and we also wantvisitors to share their stories on theexhibit floor through both low- and high-tech tools.

CONTENT VS. ENTERTAINMENT

Museums have undergone a majortransformation over the last 50 years.

The days of the “cabinets of curiosities”or the phylogenetic displays of thetraditional natural history museums area thing of the past. In the 1960s and1970s, museums underwent arenaissance, primarily influenced bydevelopments in the fields ofcommunication, education, sociology,and psychology that had fundamentallyre-shaped our understanding of howpeople learn. These findings forcedmuseums to rethink how they exhibiteditems. Concurrently, museums facedreduced government funding andtherefore had to attract more visitorsand increase gate receipts in order tosupplement their income. This newfocus on attendance pushed museumsto be more visitor-focused and toprovide more intellectually-accessibleexhibits. In order to attract visitors,exhibits had to be not only academicallycorrect but also interesting and even

EXHIBITINGCOMPUTING HISTORY BY KIRSTEN TASHEV

The Museum is working with exhibit designers to determine how our exhibits willlook and how best to use photographs and other supporting materials tocommunicate key messages. Shown here are several “elevations” from our futureTimeline exhibit.

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entertaining. A new type of museumemerged, namely the science center,which took a hands-on approach tolearning. Many world-class sciencecenters were developed, including thegroundbreaking Exploratorium in SanFrancisco, California.

As government funding decreased againin the 1980s, the need to maximizegate receipts increased and the era ofthe blockbuster exhibit emerged, with aclear emphasis on entertainment overcontent—or “edutainment,” as it wascalled. More recently, however, thependulum has swung somewhat in areaction to “dumbed-down” exhibits.Museums now realize that they can nothope to compete with theme parks andthat they shouldn’t try. Instead, theirunique products are content and accessto the real thing. Furthermore, asmuseums build endowments and usespecial events to help cover operatingcosts, they are able to enjoy morefreedom and can develop unique,content-rich programs.

The Computer History Museum willmost certainly focus on content, andour goal is to make our exhibitsintellectually accessible to both peoplewho have significant knowledge ofcomputers as well as those who do not.The primary target audience of theMuseum is adults and the content willbe geared for high school age andabove. In order to address this diverseaudience, we are working on exhibitsthat tell stories about technologicalachievement as well as people. Forexample, in telling the story of Konrad

Zuse, you can focus on the fact that in1941 he began building a machinecalled the Z3 in 1941, widelyconsidered the first fully functional,program-controlled electromechanicaldigital computer in the world. You canalso mention the fact that it wascontrolled by punched paper tape andthat it could calculate with floating pointnumbers years before any othermachine. On the other hand, there is agreat personal story to be told. KonradZuse, born in Berlin in 1910, was ayoung man uncertain about whether tobe an engineer or an artist. Choosingengineering, he soon grew tired of thetedious manual calculations required todo his work at Henschel AviationCompany. Zuse quit his job and beganexperimenting with some earlyprototypes in his parents’ living room.His work was cut short during the warsince Berlin was under constant Alliedbombardment. Zuse and his pregnantwife, Gisela, fled the city and his Z4was transported to the countrysideunder cover of night. Desperate toresume work on the Z4, he survived thedifficult years after the war by makingwoodcuts and selling them. Eventually,Zuse went on to found the firstcomputer company in Germany, ZuseKG, and built 250 computers. Hecontinued to paint throughout his life.

Given that we are working withcontemporary history, we are fortunateto have a rich collection of film footageof pioneers telling their stories as wellas the opportunity to collect oral histories from the innovators of therecent past and today. Exhibits can

provide visitors with the uniqueopportunity to view this rich archivalfootage in the context of the artifactsand other supporting documentation. Ofcourse, this is not to say that we won’thave the specifications of everymachine. We know that our “other”audience—the most astute, detail-oriented, skilled, and knowledgeable“geeks”—will be very disappointed if wedon’t tell them what the Z4 could do.We are exploring ways to communicatemultiple perspectives, includingtechnical data. We have talked abouteverything from flip panels that reveal amachine’s specs to handheld devicesthat allow the visitor to get the hardwareperspective, the software view, and soon. We also recognize that it will beimpossible to appreciate the importanceof an artifact or story without someunderstanding of the technologicalbreakthroughs it represents, and forthat reason we will provide clearexplanations on the fundamentals ofhow something works for our non-technical visitors where necessary.

HANDS-ON VS. MINDS-ON

“I hear and I forget. I see and Iremember. I do and I understand.”

– Confucius

While most people associate hands-onexhibits with science centers andchildren’s museums, interactivity alsohas its place in the history museum.The process of developing exhibitionshas been influenced greatly by the work of Dr. Howard Gardner at the HarvardSchool of Education over the past 30years. Prior to Gardner’s groundbreaking

findings, educators had focused ondevelopmental learning stages, wherechildren share similar abilities accordingto their age group. What Gardner foundwas that while children did go throughdevelopmental stages, they also haddifferent learning styles. Theseindividual learning styles continue intoadulthood, making his discoveriesapplicable to exhibit planning. Gardneroutlined several fundamentally differentlearning styles, including:

1) Narrational: people who learn best byhearing a story or a narrative whenpresented with a concept;2) Logical-Quantitative: people whoapproach a concept by using numericalor deductive reasoning processes;3) Foundational: people who examine aconcept from a philosophical point ofview;4) Esthetic: people who respond tosensory stimuli, and learn throughimages, sounds, etc.; and5) Experiential: people who learn bestwith a hands-on approach, dealingdirectly with the materials that conveythe concept.

Fortunately, museums are ideal settingsfor people to acquire new informationusing various learning styles. Exhibitscan be rich with text, data, sensorystimuli, and hands-on experiences.Although our audience is primarily adultswho tend to be “minds-on,” many ofthem will be attracted to experientialhands-on activities as well. I can’t counthow many times I have been asked bymembers and visitors, “will themachines be operational and will

visitors be able to play with them?” Ofcourse, for reasons of preservation, it isnot possible to allow visitors to “play”with the machines, and it is veryexpensive to keep them operational.However, we are thinking about softwaresimulation, hands-on models ofmachines, and, not to fear, selectmachines restored and operational forvisitors to enjoy with the help of atrained docent. For example, therecently-restored IBM 1620 might befired up once a week. Exhibit cabinetrymight have special discovery drawersthat hold demonstration pieces fordocents to use to explain a concept orto simply allow visitors to feel how lighta silicon wafer is.

CYBER VS. ACTUAL REALITY

“Cannot find REALITY.SYS...UniverseHalted.” –Anonymous

In developing the Museum’s physicalexhibits, we are exploring how they willinteract and complement theCyberMuseum. Many museums haveWeb sites, some have cyber exhibits,and even fewer have cyber archives thatallow direct access to collectioninformation over the Web. We arestriving to develop our physical andCyberMuseum concurrently so that eachcan inform the other. We see theCyberMuseum as the digital hub of theMuseum’s exhibit halls, where many ofthe learning experiences will take placeeither on the exhibit floor at theMuseum or in the homes of our virtualvisitors. The CyberMuseum will alsoallow us to exhibit much more contentthan we could display in the context of aphysical exhibition. We are also thinkingabout creating study areas within thegalleries so that visitors can delve moredeeply or, more likely, settle a dispute!

Ask your friends what they expect to see in a computer history museum; youmight be surprised by what they say.And next time you are in the VisibleStorage Exhibit Area, picture theartifacts in content-rich exhibitions and, if you can, try to see if you candecide what artifact to leave out. It’snot easy!

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

SUMMARY OF EXHIBIT TECHNIQUES

1. Artifact displays with some“touchability” through a “studycollection” (artifacts with multiplecopies in the collection) and hands-on explanatory models

2. Docent-led tours that are enhanced by live demonstrations of runningmachines or hands-on viewing of the“study collection” materials

3. Graphic and text enrichment of displays using diagrams, specs,photos, vintage advertisements,excerpts from technical documents,and visual/numerical metrics forcomparisons

4. Recreated environments that achieve a sense of “being there,” e.g. an1890s punch-card office or a 1950smainframe installation

5. Audio-video stations or mini-theaters that highlight people stories orpromotional films from the period

6. Computer interactives that explain concepts, simulate software, or offeraccess to the Museum’s rich cyberarchive

7. Hand-held devices that allow visitors to drill down into information withincreasing granularity

SUMMARY OF ORGANIZATIONAL

EXHIBIT LAYOUT

1. Timeline Exhibit: major headlines incomputing history, multi-layered witha rich variety of both people storiesand technological achievements

2. Theme areas: chronological focus on developments within key areas ofcomputing history: networking, I/O,software, storage, and processors

3. Topical exhibits: changing exhibits on special topics such as privacy andcomputers, AI, robotics, computeradvertising, computers andmedicine, games, etc.

4. Visible storage: access to sections of the Museum’s rich collection ofartifacts in a densely-displayed areawith minimal interpretation (includingartifact labels, hand-held audioguides, or docent led tours)

Konrad Zuse in his workshop (1986).To understand how much space will be required for an exhibition and determine the best adjacencies ofexhibit areas, exhibit designers create space study models such as the one shown here.

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Editor’s Note: As the Computer HistoryMuseum plans and designs its futureexhibits, we will share many “insidelooks” into our progress, including theupdate on page two by Building andExhibits Program Manager KirstenTashev. Meanwhile, we have manyimportant collaborations with peerinstitutions that both educate andhighlight the artifacts and stories of the information age. See page 25 for alist of current exhibits that featureMuseum artifacts.

One important collaboration is with theMuseum of Science (MOS) in Boston,Massachusetts. Over the past year,Museum staff have worked closely withEd Rodley, an exhibit planner at MOS, increating an exhibit called “TheComputing Revolution,” which openedthis fall. We have provided artifacts,video footage, and research to supportthe design process (see sidebar onpage ten). This collaboration highlightsthe shared history between the Museumand MOS and is a mutual opportunity toexhibit important computing historyinformation. Read the details on theMuseum’s history in CORE 1.2 atwww.computerhistory.org/core.

In his article, Rodley describes the“behind the scenes” process of exhibitcreation, particularly where computinghistory is being presented at a hands-onscience museum. Two machines will bediscussed in detail: the MIT Whirlwind,which belongs and will return to theMuseum’s collection, and a model ofSchickard’s Rechenmaschine, createdby master fabricators at MOS.

INTRODUCTION

The opening of “The ComputingRevolution,” a new exhibit at MOS oncomputing history, highlights the 1999merger of The Computer Museum inBoston and the Museum of Science.This exhibition, developed inconsultation with the Computer HistoryMuseum, will be the first of manyanticipated collaborations.

What does a computing history exhibitat a science museum look like?“The Computing Revolution” is not thetypical kind of exhibition done at MOS.For the past decade, the museum hasfocused on developing interactiveexhibitions that help visitors developscience thinking skills. Creating a small,artifact-based historical exhibition hasbeen a real change of pace and quite achallenge.

When The Computer Museum in Bostonoriginally opened its “People andComputers” exhibit, it used almost6,000 square feet (s.f.) to tell the storyof computing history. Our gallery for thisexhibit is a bit over 1,200 s.f., soclearly it would be impossible to do anencyclopedic exhibition. We choseinstead to display even fewer objectsthan possible but to interpret thoseobjects in greater depth.

Our exhibit follows a chronological order,starting with the development ofmechanical calculators and followingcomputing up to the present. The exhibitwill have six theme areas, correspond-ing not to decades, but to eras, basedon society’s perceptions of computers.The eras are: Computer Pre-History,World War II, Big Machines, PersonalComputers, The Internet, and the 21stCentury.

Rather than create a typical museumdisplay of objects with small descriptivelabels of 50 words each, we selected adozen “highlight” objects to stand in forentire generations of computers. Theseitems provide focus for conveying layersof historical, social, and technologicalinformation. The circumstances thatgave birth to the machines will beexplored and the items compared to apersonal computer of about the year2000, in terms of power consumption,physical size, memory, processingspeed, etc. Since the machines are non-functional, we will bring them to lifeusing media-rich experiences. Visitorswill be able to explore how they worked;listen to inventors and users; and takein the sights and sounds of the era,from newsreels to TV ads. Thisinevitably excludes a tremendousamount of information, but it allows usto do justice to a few objects, and totell some good stories.

EVALUATION (OR PLANNING FOR

SURPRISES)

The longest part of the exhibitdevelopment process here at MOS isthe formative evaluation phase. Sinceexhibitions, especially interactive ones,are so expensive to design, we spendas much time as possible testingconcepts in prototype, creating a roughapproximation that does what we want it to do. Once we’ve determined that the basic concept works, we’ll build aslightly more polished version and testthat. This process continues until weare confident that the exhibit will besuccessful.

For this project, I wanted to know whatattitudes visitors would have about acomputer history exhibit at themuseum. We administered a very brief

BRINGING COMPUTING HISTORYTO THE PUBLICBY ED RODLEY MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

survey that probed their level ofknowledge and interest in computers. It became clear that the artifact exhibit I had envisioned would need somerethinking. When we asked visitors,“What would you expect to see in anexhibit called ‘The ComputingRevolution?’” over half indicatedhistorical objects. In second place,however, came “new stuff.” When weasked the similar question, “What wouldyou like to see in such an exhibit?” theresults were enlightening. Almost halfthe visitors said they’d like to see “newstuff” and another quarter wanted toknow how computers worked. History,even though the visitors knew it was ahistory exhibit, came in a distant third.

Based on this feedback, we tried toidentify ways to make the exhibit moreappealing to the museum’s traditionalvisitors who are accustomed tointeractive exhibits. I decided to add anumber of exhibits that had nothing todo with the chronology of computing.These would address some basic

aspects of computing—like how a harddrive works, what’s inside a mouse, and what “hacking” means—and wouldbe placed throughout the gallery, sothat each section would appeal to many people.

We brainstormed a number of possibleinteractive ideas and went back outonto the exhibit halls to talk to visitorswith our top dozen ideas. We askedthem to rate their interest in each ideaon a simple four-point scale and to tellus their age and gender. We collected 101 surveys and sat down to the much longer process of interpreting the results.

There were some interesting differencesbetween groups. Women tended to likecomponents that explained howcomputers worked. Hacking seemed tointerest adults in the 19–34 age range.Overall, the most popular exhibit ideaswere on WWII code machines, whencomputers go wrong, and hacking. Weliked all these components ourselves,

so it was good to get confirmation thatthe ideas were appealing. The leastpopular ideas were mechanicalcalculators and the binary numbersystem. Both of these were importantto us, so we knew we had our work cutout for us.

Most troubling was finding that the leastpopular ideas were all slated for thevery beginning of the exhibit. So, wedropped a couple of these ideas andaltered the layout to make the initialexperience more dynamic and hopefullytempt visitors into the gallery. Wemoved the 21st Century into the entryopposite Prehistory and moved TheWhirlwind so it could be seen as soonas one walked through the door.

WHIRLWIND

A good example of our approach toartifact interpretation is the Whirlwindcomputer. It is difficult to imagine amore exciting piece of computinghistory. The first electronic digital

Whirlwind control room, 1954, from the film Making Electrons Count. Courtesy of MIT Museum.

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technology in which it was possible todetect what was going on without the aid of complicated sensors. Our testarray of eight cores has compassessitting next to each core. When a coreis magnetized, you can see thecompass needle move and read thearray to determine the value (a “0” or a “1”) of each core.

The prototype had several shortcomingsthat became apparent during testing.Hard ferrite cores aren’t easy to comeby anymore, so we made do with dirtysteel, which required quite a bit ofcurrent. When a core was magnetized,

the compass needle would gyrate wildly for several seconds before settlingdown. The cores would stay magnetizedfor some time, so if the visitor didn’tclear the array before writing a numberto it, he or she might get an unexpectedanswer. This “non-volatility” was themajor selling feature of core memory,but it proved to be a problem for us.Some of the Whirlwind programmers weinterviewed mentioned having had thesame problem when core memory wasfirst installed in Whirlwind. The finalversion of the exhibit will have a betterferrite material for the cores andcompasses that are a bit more stable.

SCHICKARD’S RECHENMASCHINE

OF 1623

To provide a sense of the deep historyof computing and to counter the notionthat the only kind of computer is whatwe see on our desks, we have built areconstruction of the world’s first mechanical calculator, invented in 1623by a German scientist named WilhelmSchickard (1592-1635). HisRechenmaschine (calculating or“reckoning” machine) combined aversion of Napier’s bones with twodiscrete gear mechanisms that allowedthe user to perform basic arithmeticoperations on numbers up to six digitslong. Only two examples of Schickard’smachine were ever built during hislifetime, and after his death allknowledge of it was seemingly lost.Records of the machine resurfaced inthe 1930s among the papers of theastronomer Johannes Kepler, a friend ofSchickard’s. These notes were againlost during World War II, only toreappear again in the 1950s.

They came to the attention of BaronBruno von Freytag Löringhoff, anhistorian from Schickard’s hometown ofTübingen, Germany. Using Schickard’snotes and sketches, the Baron spentyears piecing together how the machineworked and eventually built a workingmodel. From the 1970s on, hecommissioned numerous copies thatcan now be found throughout Germany. I had been looking for a mechanicalcalculator to include in the exhibition, sopursuing the Rechenmaschine seemedlike an easy decision. There must beplans with modern measurements,albeit in German, and it should just be a matter of getting a copy of the plansand building our own. Or so it seemed.

After a year of e-mails and phone calls, I had learned a great deal aboutSchickard and the circle of scholarsstudying him, but had nothing concreteon the Rechenmaschine. The Baron haddied some years ago and there were noplans among his papers. I finally locatedthe company that had built the Baron’sreconstructions in the 1970s, only tofind that they had destroyed all theirplans after his death. But then anotherhope appeared. A high school inBautzen, Germany had built a

computer built at MIT, Whirlwind was apioneer first-generation computer. It wasalso the prototype for the United States’first air defense system, known asSAGE. The Whirlwind team, led by JayForrester and Bob Everett, inventedmagnetic core memory to replace thenotoriously unreliable electrostaticmemory systems then in use. By doingso, they created the dominant form ofcomputer memory for the next 25 years.Throughout the 1950s, Whirlwind wasthe machine on which a generation ofMIT scientists and engineers learnedcomputing and developed a style ofhuman-computer interaction verydifferent from that being promoted bycommercial computer manufacturerssuch as IBM, Remington Rand, andothers. Computer hacking (in the non-pejorative sense still used at MIT)started with Whirlwind.

Whirlwind originally occupied an entirefloor of the Barta Building (N42) at MIT.The Computer History Museum ownsthe bulk of the surviving pieces ofWhirlwind. For this exhibit, MOS isdisplaying six racks from the Whirlwindcontrol room, along with one of its corememory stacks and a “Flexowriter,” atypewriter-like device used tocommunicate with the great machine.Thus, we have a non-functional fragmentof a machine that doesn’t evenresemble a computer to a largepercentage of our visitors. Our challengefrom the outset was, therefore, how toconvey that importance and excitement

to a lay audience. The moststraightforward way to do that was tohave Whirlwind users tell their stories.We interviewed a number of Whirlwindalumni, many of whom are still active incomputing. Their first-hand accounts ofusing Whirlwind provided not onlytechnical insights, but also personalviews of the project and its people. Wewill supply the larger context throughthe use of contemporary film andtelevision footage.

We also decided to add a simpleinteractive display of the basic conceptbehind magnetic core memory. Early on,we discussed the merit of spendingtime (and money) developing interactivematerial on an obsolete technology. Inthe end, though, we agreed to make asimple core memory array that visitorscould operate. The reasons were two-fold: first, I felt it would be very difficultto interpret the artifact unless visitorscould see what it did; and second, corememory was also the last storage

Whirlwind alumnus and ACM Turing Award winnerFernando Corbató went on to pioneer timesharingat MIT with CTSS and later Multics.

The internal workings of Whirlwind. Here, the machine’s size dwarfs three technicians (John A.O’Brien, Charles L. Corderman, and Norman H. Daggert) working on the Electrostatic StorageRack. At left, Jay Forrester and Norman H. Taylor inspect the Arithmetic Element Rack, 1952.

Whirlwind was the first real-time, parallel-processing computer with core memory. At left are the marginalchecking and toggle-switch test control panels. From left to right: Stephen H. Dodd, Jay W. Forrester, RobertR. Everett, and Ramona Ferenz, 1951.

Magnetic core memory, first exhibit prototype at the Museum of Science.

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Rechenmaschine, based on one of theBaron’s copies. After several e-mailsand more weeks, a reply. They had builta machine and had plans they would letus use. They would even machine thegears if we wanted!

More months passed until we receivedblueprints for the cabinet of themachine. We looked for the plans forthe gear mechanisms, but to no avail.More months, and more e-mails passedas we tried to ascertain whether plansfor the gears existed. In the meantime,we built a cabinet and rotating drumassembly so that we could at least testthat much of the machine with thepublic.

Once you learn how to use the machine,you can do multiplications on it fasterthan you can on paper, but we weren’tat all confident that we could get

visitors to successfully use themachine. However, after only three daysof user testing, it became clear that themachine was very popular. This mayhave something to do with itsappearance. It is the only wooden objectin a room full of metal and plastic. Or itmay have been labeling the item as “acalculator from 1623.” What was clearwas that adults and children wouldspend several minutes calculating withthe machine. Completing the machinetook on a new urgency.

Finally, out of the blue, an extremelyheavy package arrived from Germany. It was full of gears… and nothing else—no plans, no assembly instructions. Oneof our technical designers sat down withthe pile and some photographs of themechanism and managed to put all thepieces together.

AN EXHIBIT READY FOR VISITORS

Over the summer, we entered the mainproduction phase of the exhibition. Bythe opening in September, we hadprepared the gallery, finalized designsfor components, evaluated ourremaining prototypes, and installed theartifacts. If you happen to be in Bostonthis fall, I encourage you to see how itall turned out.

Ed Rodley is an Exhibit Planner at the Museum ofScience, Boston. In his 15 years there, he hasdeveloped exhibitions on topics ranging from theSoviet space program to Leonardo da Vinci. Hiscurrent research interests involve using handheldcomputers in a museum setting.

Anderson-Jacobson acoustically-coupled modem

Apollo Guidance Computer logic module

Apollo memory stack module

Apple II, Drive II

Apple Macintosh CPU, keyboard, and mouse

Assorted punch cards (077 plugboard, 96 col S/3)

Bell Telephone Labs transistor

Control Data Corporation memory disk

Data General core planes (2)

Digital Equipment Corporation core plane PCB

Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-8e from the Massachusetts General brain surgery station

Early IBM brochure

First black-and-white TV used with an Apple on the East Coast

Friden Flexowriter

Hollerith Census Machine model

Hollerith Electric Tabulation System Pantograph (reproduction)

Hollerith punch card

IBM “THINK” sign

IBM Model 016 keypunch

IBM PC CPU, keyboard, and monitor

Internet Worm Source Code

Marchant adding machine

MITS Altair 8800

MITS Altair BASIC source tape

MS-6502 BASIC, data cassettes (22)

Paper tapes

Remington-Rand 1958 UNIVAC brochure

SpaceWar! source tape

SWAC Williams tube

UNIVAC I supervisory control console

UNIVAC instructional manual

UNIVAC products St. Paul (1959)

UNIVAC system routines (1958)

UNIVAC Uniservo

UNIVAC Unityper

US Army firing tables gun, 155-MM, M1 and M1A1 firing shell, H.E., M101

USAF SAGE background material, photos, press kit, and red book

USAF SAGE exhibit background references

USAF SAGE lightgun

Visicalc for Apple V1.0 (1979)

Whirlwind core memory stack A 69

Whirlwind filament transformer panel including table

Whirlwind indicator panel (s/n 18)

Whirlwind indicator panel (s/n 78)

Whirlwind operations matrix driver mating panel #1

Whirlwind operations matrix driver mating panel #3

Xerox PARC Ethernet transceiver

ITEMS ON LOAN TO MOS BY FOR “THE COMPUTING REVOLUTION” EXHIBIT

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I am privileged to have met many of thegreat pioneers in computing. Some ofthem were aloof, some unpleasant,some remarkably friendly, but all wereinteresting. Of course, many of theearliest pioneers (Schickard, Pascal,Leibniz, etc.) didn’t live during mylifespan, and I couldn’t meet otherssuch as Russian pioneer SergeyLebedev due to political considerations.It is possible to research these people’slives, but still, nothing matches thechance to meet someone in person.

Artifacts tell the story of thedevelopment of computing, but it is thepeople behind these devices that I findmost fascinating, and among them, Ihave a great fondness for Konrad Zuse.I first met Konrad in the late 1970s andwas immediately struck by his friendly,open ways. We had supper together onenight and I spent additional time withhim over a one-week period.

He is best known for his early creationof automatic mechanical and relay-based calculating machines: the Z1through the Z4 and several special-purpose machines that were used onthe assembly line of the HenschelAircraft factory where he worked. Hewas also instrumental in devising thefirst high-level language, the Plankalkül,for describing the actions of a computerprogram. These technical achievementsare noteworthy, but he also had otheraccomplishments that shaped his life.

Zuse was a painter of note. He gave upearly ambitions of becoming an architectto pursue aircraft engineering. Hisinterest in cityscapes is clearly evidentin his paintings, many of which haveabstract futuristic city themes (seephoto on this page and on page five).

While at the university, he and a groupof friends put on a weekly cabaret. Likemany such performances in pre-war(WWII) Berlin, they were satirical and

drew large crowds. One in particularaimed directly at political figures of theday; Hitler’s police raided the theaterand shut them down, while more severesanctions were taken against severalJewish performers. This impacted Zusedeeply and although, like manyGermans, he worked in the war effortand was intensely proud of his Germanroots, he remained distrustful ofpolitical parties and their leaders for therest of his life. I well remember thatwhen asked publicly how his machineshad contributed to the Holocaust, hewas particularly incensed. He quietlyexplained that such an inquiry onlyshowed a lack of knowledge about hislife and views; and, he remained visiblyupset for the rest of the day.

In the last days of the war, with Russiantroops on the outskirts of Berlin, Zuseand Werner von Braun, the famousrocket scientist, spirited the unfinishedZ4 into a farmhouse basement forsafekeeping. Later, proud of theiraccomplishments and hoping tocontinue their work, the men willinglysurrendered to American troops andexplained what they had been doingduring the war. Of course, the rocketexpert was immediately shown off tothe press, while Zuse was almostcompletely ignored. A man fromHollerith, the British tabulating machinecompany, interrogated him. Although therepresentative didn’t seem to eitherappreciate or understand the conceptsbehind Zuse’s automatic computing

machines, probably only a handful ofpeople in the world at the time couldhave. He was released to go back to his family.

The next time you tune into adocumentary about the end of the war,watch von Braun’s surrender closely.Emerging from a DC3, he appears to beraising his arm in a Nazi-style salute. Inactuality, he was wearing a body castfrom neck to waist, his arm in a raisedposition. In the effort to squirrel awaythe Z4, the massive machine had tippedover on von Braun, badly injuring him.

Post-war Germany was not an easyplace to start a computer firm. Initially,in genuine hardship, Zuse found himselflooking through farmers’ fields for theoccasional forgotten turnip in order tofeed his family. Even when basic foodand shelter became more available, itwas still surprising to find someonerefurbishing a computer—the Z4—andgathering engineers together to createcomputing machines.

Konrad Zuse was a visionary whoalways managed to find a way throughdifficult situations and rightly deservesa place in our memories as both afascinating person and a pioneer ofcomputing history.

Michael R Williams is Head Curator at theComputer History Museum.

HISTORY MATTERSBY MICHAEL R WILLIAMS

A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVEON KONRAD ZUSE

Konrad Zuse’s workshop was filled with paintingsmade by the pioneer himself.

Overleaf: A typical IBM System 360 installation.Introduced in April of 1964, the System 360 was afamily of software-compatible mainframe computersspanning a 40:1 performance range. The Model40, one of the smaller models, is shown here. WithIBM’s legendary sales and customer support, aswell as a complete line of new peripherals, theannouncement allowed IBM to consolidate itsdivergent product lines into one unifiedarchitecture. The result was near total dominanceof the computing market by IBM for the nextdecade, with half a dozen other companies fightingover only 20% of the market.

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When you think of 1950s computers,does the “UNIVAC” come to mind?Besides being the first commercialcomputer in the United States, theUNIVAC became synonymous with“computer,” due in part to the power ofa single event: the CBS televisioncoverage of the 1952 election. Now,during the 2002 election season, itseems appropriate to remember thatevent 50 years ago.

FOUNDATIONS IN THE CITY OF

BROTHERLY LOVE

The UNIVAC was the secondcommercially sold electronic computerin the world, beaten by one month bythe Ferranti’s Mark I in Manchester,England. A 30,000-pound, room-sizedcomputer with 5,400 vacuum tubes thatconsumed 125,000 watts of power, theUNIVAC had origins in the “ENIAC,” builtby Presper Eckert and John Mauchly forthe U.S. Army at the University ofPennsylvania’s Moore School ofElectrical Engineering. The ENIAC was

completed by 1946, and design of thefollow-on “EDVAC” machine had begunby the time the pair left the school overpatent issues in March of that year.Eckert and Mauchly stayed inPhiladelphia and founded a partnership,the Electronic Control Company (ECC),to produce computers for both scientificand business use. The companyreceived a National Bureau of Standardsgrant of $75,000 to study mercurydelay line memory systems and tapeI/O (“input/output”) devices. ECC hiredemployees and took out space onWalnut Street in Philadelphia. The twosoon came to realize that the studycould be turned into a completecomputer system and changed thename of the company to Eckert-MauchlyComputer Corporation (EMCC). TheEDVAC was never formally completedbut formed a test bed for the pair’s nextmachine, the “UNIVAC.”

Originally referred to as an “EDVAC-typemachine,” and renamed UNIVAC (for

“Universal Automatic Computer”) in1947, the research project led to adesign contract for $169,000 in June1948. These amounts did not coveractual costs, but Eckert and Mauchlyhoped to recover the difference insales. They applied for additionalgovernment grants and pursued privateinvestors but met with little success. Inthe climate of the Cold War in theUnited States, “security issues” wereraised about Mauchly and several otheremployees and the company lost salesto the Navy as well as a nuclear projectat the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

THE BINAC

In the interim, Eckert and Mauchlyagreed to build a machine for NorthropAircraft called the BINAC (“BINaryAutomatic Computer”). EMCC acceptedthe contract in October of 1947, withthe ambitious—some would sayunattainable—goal of completing themachine by the next May. The BINACwas a dual-CPU system, which used

mercury delay lines and a magnetictape unit for I/O. In August of 1949,EMCC delivered the BINAC to Northropafter several months of operation inPhiladelphia. The BINAC cost almostthree times as much to build as Eckertand Mauchly had estimated and was ofmarginal reliability, leading some keymembers of EMCC staff to leave forfirmer ground with companies such asBurroughs and GE that were justentering the business.

BECOMING UNIVAC

After the completion of the BINAC,EMCC contracted with the U.S.government to build three computers,one for the Census Bureau, and oneeach for the Air Force and the Army MapService, with contracts of $150,000 forthe first machine and $250,000 for theother two. EMCC had also signed dealswith the Prudential Insurance Companyand A.C. Nielsen—contracts that madeIBM stand up and take notice that anew business might be forming. By the

time these contracts were signed,EMCC was running out of money, puttingthe future of the company in jeopardy.Fortunately, a new investor, theAmerican Totalisator Company (ATC), the makers of Tote® boards for postingracetrack odds, saw promise in theUNIVAC for racetrack use, and gaveEMCC $500,000 to keep the companyafloat. Even with the infusion of cash,EMCC could not cover the developmentcosts of the UNIVAC, and so, onFebruary 1, 1950, Remington RandCorporation purchased the company,paying stockholders $100,000 plus49% of profits over the first eight years.

The UNIVAC had one thousand words ofmercury delay line memory and a basicclock rate of 2.25 MHz. The machinecame with eight “UNISERVO” tapedrives, using 1,500-foot reels of metaltape. No punched card equipment wasavailable at first, so the UNITYPER wasdeveloped to enter information directlyfrom keyboard to tape. The inability to

use punched card equipment with theUNIVAC led many companies to go toIBM for computers that could be usedwith the IBM accounting machines theyalready owned. Eckert and Mauchlyrecognized this weakness and offered a100-card-per-minute card-to-tape option.Originally designed for 80-column IBMcards, the system was redesigned afterthe buyout to use Remington Rand’s 90-column cards, a system that employedround holes instead of rectangular onesas IBM’s did.

THE ELECTION OF 1952

In August of 1952, CBS’ director ofNews and Public Affairs, Sig Mickleson,met with a Remington Rand publicrelations representative who indicatedthat they could provide a machine thatwould help predict the election returnsof that year. While Mickleson knewenough about computers to see thefault in this proposition, he thought thatthe machine could speed up theprocessing and analysis of the returns,

UNIVAC THE FIRST AMERICAN COMMERCIAL COMPUTERBY CHRIS CARCIA

Operator (front) at the UNIVAC console while colleague mounts a new data tape on a UNISERVO tape drive. While an operator looks on, Presper Eckert (standing, left) and a young Walter Cronkite (right) examine UNIVAC’s1952 election prediction results.

giving CBS an edge over the othernetworks. Mickelson arranged forseveral CBS staff members, includinganchor Walter Cronkite and reporterCharles Collingwood, to visit the UNIVACthat would be used in Philadelphia.Collingwood arrived late for the meeting,which allowed a mischievous coder toprogram a Teletype to print,“Collingwood, you’re late. Where haveyou been?” This simple eventcompletely astonished Collingwood,making him the perfect person to sellthe UNIVAC to television viewers.

With only three months until the debut,the UNIVAC team went about designinga way to interpret the results. MaxWoodbury, a mathematician at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, wrote aprogram that would make a predictionbased on returns from precincts CBShad decided were most significant. Hedevised an “if X, then Y” program thatwould bring the results into focus. Itturned out to be a bigger task thanexpected, and the team had to beexpanded to six people in order tocomplete it in time for election night.

The program completed, the electioncoverage was set, with Woodbury,Mauchly, and stationed at thePhiladelphia site with the UNIVAC serialnumber 5, and Collingwood and Cronkiteat the CBS studio in New York. ATeletype allowed communicationsbetween the various teams and aconsole with blinking lights was set upin New York, with the teletype relayingthe output from the UNIVAC inPhiladelphia. The election nightcoverage began at 8 p.m. EST and thefirst round of results was run at aboutthat time, before the polls had closed inthe western states.

NOT THE ANSWER WE’RE LOOKING FOR

The first run of all the returns from theCBS “key precincts” returned anunexpected result: odds of 100–1 infavor of an Eisenhower victory. Pre-election poll results had indicated avery close election with Adlai Stevensonas the front-runner. The word of theprediction sent the crew into hurrieddebates over whether or not toannounce the numbers. Micklesoneventually made the call not to go on air

\

with them and to have the numbersrerun. Woodbury ran another set ofinformation, with the UNIVAC coming upwith odds of 8–7 in favor of Eisenhower, which Collingwood announced about 9 p.m. While reviewing the results,Woodbury detected an error in the data:he had added a zero to Stevenson’stotals from New York State. He reranthe correct set of numbers, andEisenhower’s odds were back up to100–1. At that point, there was nointerpreting the results in any other wayand CBS became the first network tocall the election. As it turned out, theUNIVAC’s calculations were remarkablyaccurate, with predicted totals forEisenhower being 32,915,000 votes,while the actual total was33,936,252—a difference of less than 3%.

ELECTIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN

THE SAME

The effects of CBS’s use of the UNIVACbecame clear during the next electionwhen every major network began usinga computer to predict the results. Ascomputer speeds increased, so did theability of news organizations to callelections quickly. As early as 1972,elections were thought to be over assoon as a computer gave an earlyprediction based on as little as 3% of

the total vote. Many have said that theavailability of such early computerpredictions, often before the polls are closed on the West Coast, havechanged the course of elections, givingearly front-runners a large advantagewith the weight of these computerpredictions and discouraging voters inwestern states from going to the polls.

Significant parts of the UNIVAC I formpart of the Computer History Museum’spermanent collection and may be seen,on temporary exhibit, at the Museum of Science in Boston, until 2005. A UNIVAC I mercury delay line is ondisplay at the Museum’s Visible Storage Exhibit Area in Mountain View, California.

Christopher Garcia is Historical CollectionsCoordinator at the Computer History Museum.

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UNIVAC I SPECIFICATIONS

Architecture: serial, decimal, stored program

Word length: 11 digits + sign

Memory size: 1,000 words (Mercuryacoustic delay line) + 100,000-wordmagnetic tape (metal substrate)

Speed: Mercury delay line: 400µs; 12, 800 characters per second

Clock rate: 2.25 MHz

Arithmetic element: fixed-point (softwarefloating point)

Instruction format: 2 instructions perword; 45 instructions

I/O: magnetic tape (“UNISERVO”), 80-or 90-column punch cards, printer(“UNIPRINTER”), paper tape

Technology: vacuum tube (5,800) +diode (18,000)

Power consumption: 124.5 KVA + 35-ton air conditioning unit

Size: 1,000 square feet

Purchase price: $950,000 [1953dollars] for CPU + 10 UNIVSERVOs

Rental cost: $16,200 per month for a 1 shift, 5 days per week

Weight: 29,853 lbs

First shipment: March 1951, U.S. Bureau of the Census

Number built: 46

Typical customers: U.S. Census, USAF,GE, Metropolitan Life, U.S. Steel, AEC,Westinghouse, Consolidated Edison,Dupont, Chesapeake, and Ohio Railway

FURTHER READING

Bell, C. G., and Newell, A. ComputerStructures: Readings and Examples,New York: McGraw-Hill (c) 1971.

Lundstrom, D. E., A Few Good Men fromUNIVAC, Cambridge: MIT Press, (c) 1987.

McCartney, S., ENIAC: The Triumphsand Tragedies of the World’s FirstComputer, New York: Walker andCompany, (c) 1999. [Note: this is apopular account; ENIAC was not the“world’s first computer.” –Ed.]

Ralston, A., Reilly, E.D., Hemmendinger,D., Encyclopedia of Computer Science,4th Edition, London: Nature PublishingGroup, 2000.

Stern, N.B., From ENIAC to UNIVAC: AnAppraisal of the Eckert-MauchlyComputers, Bedford (Mass.): DigitalEquipment Corporation, 1981.

Weik, M.H., A Survey of DomesticElectronic Digital Computing Systems,Report # 971 (December 1955),Ballistic Research Laboratories,Aberdeen Proving Ground, U.S. Department of the Army, Maryland, U.S.A.

Wilkes, M., Automatic DigitalComputers, New York: John Wiley andSons, 1956.

(above and right) With its “UNISERVO” tape drives, the UNIVAC was probably the first commercial machineto use magnetic tape as a storage medium. Customers initially resisted this technology since they couldno longer “see” their data as they could with punch cards. IBM salesmen played up this fear, “hinting”that the UNIVAC, if it went out of control, could project shards of metal tape, potentially injuring or evenkilling customers.

John Mauchly (left) and Presper Eckert with a piece of the ENIAC machine at a 1966 conference in San Francisco.

A wise person once said, “If you want topredict the future, go to history foradvice.” In the world of informationtechnology, we seek to provide accessto the wisdom of history, every day.Here are some highlights of ouractivities since the last COREpublication.

CARVER MEAD ON ELECTRONIC

PHOTOGRAPHY—HISTORY IN

THE MAKING

On May 21, AMD graciously hosted 300attendees for a reception and lecture byCarver Mead, Foveon chairman andCaltech Gordon and Betty Mooreprofessor emeritus. Mead pointed outthat the pioneers of photography, likethose of computing, have repeatedlystumbled through an array of stepsbefore they were able to arrive at newsolutions.

Although the first photographic imageswere obtained in 1727, it was not until1837 that a repeatable and useablephotographic process was developed.Various schemes were tried over theensuing century for enabling

monochrome silver-halide technology toproduce color images, culminating in theintroduction of Kodachrome in 1935.

The first electronic images werecaptured by vacuum tubes, and morerecently by solid-state sensors. Onceagain, the underlying photosensitiveprocess was basically monochrome, andthe efforts to convert it to a colortechnology showed striking parallelswith the earlier silver-halide approaches.In 2002, Foveon introduced X3, the firstelectronic full-color technology, therebycompleting the evolution of color-image-sensing and, in fact, challenging thedefinition of “pixel” to include red, greenand blue in one complete pictureelement.

Attendee Baldwin Cheng, of McCannErickson, said, “Carver Mead is afascinating innovator and a truecharacter. His talk was not only aneducational review of the history ofphotographic technology but also anexciting look at its future. Now my 1.3 ‘megapixel’ Olympus seems asadvanced as a Kodak Brownie.”

REGIS MCKENNA ON EARLY

TECHNOLOGY MARKETING IN

SILICON VALLEY

Together with the Silicon ValleyAmerican Marketing Association, theMuseum hosted a lecture by RegisMcKenna on June 4 to an audience of250 at PARC in Palo Alto. McKenna,who has worked with some of the most recognizable companies inSilicon Valley and helped launch manyimportant technological innovations,discussed his personal experiences and observations from 30 years in themarketing trenches. He recalled that, in the 1970s, only science writers were covering technology and prior to1983, the Wall Street Journal would not publish an article about anycompany not already on the New YorkStock Exchange.

One of McKenna’s main messages wasthat Silicon Valley is missing a dialoguewith the past. He said, “It’s not just re-investing money, it’s re-investingknowledge.” In this regard, he advised

today’s entrepreneurs and businesspeople to concentrate on buildinginfrastructure and standards rather thanbrands. “Marketing is going to followquality,” he said, “and if you aresuccessful it almost doesn’t matterwhat you call the effort.”

Museum volunteer and lecture attendeeTim Boyd remarked, “I most enjoyed hisstory of his grandkids. His grand-daughter’s [remark] that, ‘we don’t needsoftware—we just go on the Internetand get what we want’ was very on-point, and fun to hear the telling of it.Like other nerds…I’ve been caught inthe middle of the religious argumentabout whether my friends or familyshould buy Macs or PCs. Like Regis, I’dconcluded that for most people thelarger number of software titles givesthe PC the nod. About three years backI had the epiphany...that for manypeople browsing was the thing, alongwith e-mail, and it mattered not whichhardware you choose.”

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RECENT ADDITIONSTO THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM COLLECTION

Assorted documentation, including several earlyTexas Instruments calculator manuals(1972–1980), X2466.2002, Gift of David G. Pitts

Carterphone, Inc., original Carterfone (c. 1959),X2468.2002, Gift of Scott Brear

COBOL document collection (1965–1986),X2461.2002, Gift of Jitze Couperus

Collection of Don Hoeffler’s Micro Electronic News(1979-1984), X2464.2002, Gift of Thomas S Knight

Collection of historic computing printed circuitboards, documents, books, and magnetic media (various dates), X2487.2002, Gift ofShushan Teager

Collection of 19 antique vacuum tubes (c. 1940–1960), X2455.2002, Gift of Martin B Cowan

Collection of UNIVAC manuals and documentation(c. 1955), X2480.2002, Gift of Robert Garner

The Community Computerist’s Directory, two issues(1981), X2470.2002, Gift of Stephen Pizzo

CompuPro, microcomputer system and softwarecollection (c. 1978), X2472.2002, Gift of NASAAmes Research Center

Digital Convergence Corporation, CueCat barcodescanner (c. 1998), X2460.2002, Gift of John Levy

E.S.R., Inc., DIGI-COMP I (1963), X2463.2002, Gift of Peter Schwarz

Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Inc., 5990 document and photograph collection (c. 1988–1992), X2458.2002, Gift of Fujitsu TechnologySolutions, Inc.

IBM, commemorative reproductions of the FORTRANlanguage manual and programming guide for the704 (1982), X2477.2002, Gift of Don Ewart

IBM, complete English language documentation forthe first office software suite for the IBM PC(1984), X2478.2002, Gift of Paul F May

IBM, FORTRAN 25th Anniversary videotape (1983),X2477.2002, Gift of Don Ewart

IBM, mainframe subroutines from a Russian library(1984), X2475.2002, Gift of Michael Lehner

IBM, PC Technical Reference Manual (1981),X2456.2002, Gift of Laurel V Kaleda

IBM, ThinkPad Trans Note (1999), X2465.2002, Gift of Steve Wildstrom

IBM, two Japanese language software anddocumentation packages applications for the IBM PC (1984), X2478.2002, Gift of Paul F May

Lotus, Lotus 1-2-3 documentation (1983),X2456.2002, Gift of Laurel V Kaleda

Marchant, ACRM adding machine (c. 1932),X2482.2002, Gift of Mike Smolin

Maxis, SimCity V1.0 for Windows (1989),X2486.2002, Gift of Lisa Pegg

Metaphor, 1200 ML5 workstation (1988),X2479.2002, Gift of Charles Irby

NEC, SX-4 promotional video collection (c. 1996),X2457.2002, Gift of Philip Tannenbaum

NLS chord set keyboard (c. 1972), X2481.2002,Gift of Douglas Gage

Persci, dual-floppy 8” disk drive (c. 1977),X2483.2002, Gift of Ira D Baxter

Quantum Corporation, hard disk drives collection(1985–1995), X2460.2002, Gift of John Levy

Russian “Felix” arithmometer (c. 1932),X2480.2002, Gift of Robert Garner

Scientific Data Systems, Sigma-5 computer system(1965), X2473.2002, Gift of Carnegie MellonUniversity’s NMR Center for Biomedical Studies

SCOPUS, disk pack (c. 1975), X2461.2002, Gift ofJitze Couperus

Softbook Press, Softbook Model SB-200 e-book(1998), X2484.2002, Gift of Gordon Bell

Sony, Magic Link Personal Intelligent Communicatorand keyboard (c. 1994), X2465.2002, Gift of Steve Wildstrom

Summagraphics, MM1201 tablet with light pen (c. 1985), X2474.2002, Gift of NASA AmesResearch Center

Synertek, KTM-3 user’s manual (1979),X2482.2002, Gift of Mike Smolin

Synertek, MOS data catalog (1979), X2482.2002,Gift of Mike Smolin

System Integrators, Inc., Coyote workstation (c. 1985), X2467.2002, Gift of Paul Saffo

Teletype Corporation, ASR-33 Teletype (1971),X2485.2002, Gift of Tom Kochenderfer

Texas Instruments, Inc., PASS (Portable AnalysisSynthesis System) device and microphone (1985),X2472.2002, Gift of NASA Ames Research Center

Texas Instruments, Inc., TM 990/189microprocessor trainer (1979), X2471.2002, Gift of Christopher Garcia

U.S. Census Bureau, UNIVAC I serial number plate(S/N 1) replica (1963), X2459.2002, Gift of F Grant Saviers

University of Texas at Austin, computer-generatedbronze casting of an earless monitor lizard,X2488.2002, Gift of Tim Rowe

WaveMate, Jupiter Processor and associatedmanuals (c. 1975), X2483.2002, Gift of Ira D Baxter

6 books (various dates), X2474.2002, Gift of Gary Bronstein

10 linear feet of early computing documents and manuals, including an IBM 701 Manual ofOperations (1951), X2454.2002, Gift of Gloria M Bauer

GIFTS OF THE MUSEUM OF AMERICANHERITAGE, PALO ALTO

Abacus (c. 1980), X2469.2002

Assorted flexible disk drives and media,X2469.2002

Assorted optical media and drives (1990–1999),X2469.2002

Dataplay disks (c. 2000), X2469.2002

IBM, Foxtail diskette (c. 1983), X2469.2002

SmartMedia and Compact Flash card assortment(c. 1998), X2469.2002

(Dates represent dates of introduction and notnecessarily dates of manufacture.)

REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESBY KAREN MATHEWS

Karen Mathews is ExecutiveVice President at theComputer History Museum

Carver Mead explains in a lecture on May 21 how theelectronic full-color imaging technology developed byFoveon, a company he co-founded, addresses a long-standing vision for color-image sensing.

Regis McKenna reminisced about technologymarketing in the Silicon Valley over the past 30years, and made a few recommendations tocurrent entrepreneurs.

John Wharton and a crowd of 250 peopleassembled on June 4 at PARC to hear a lecture bySilicon Valley marketing legend Regis McKenna.

PA G E 2 0 PA G E 2 1

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 . 3

AL SHUGART: HALF A CENTURY OF

DISK DRIVES AND PHILOSOPHY: FROM

IBM TO SEAGATE

Al Shugart spoke on September 5 to anaudience of 250 at Xerox PARC aboutfive decades of rich experience in thedisk drive industry. Shugart joined IBMas a customer engineer in 1951 andlater participated in the development ofIBM’s 305 RAMAC, the precursor totoday’s hard drives. He pioneered thefloppy disk at Shugart Associates, andlater co-founded Seagate in 1979 (withan eight-page business plan and$500,000 in funding on a handshake)to develop small hard drives forpersonal computers.

Said Shugart, “One of my earlierrecollections of [the] IBM lab at 99Notre Dame Street in San Jose waswatching Don Johnson, one of thepioneers of this development, pouringiron oxide paint onto a rotating 24-inchdisk from a Dixie cup. No cleaner, noequipment. The equipment was socrude the Dixie cup didn’t look out ofplace. And I certainly had no idea I waswalking into the beginning of atechnology and a product developmentprogram that would have such aprofound impact upon the entirecomputer industry.”

Attendee Pete Delisi said, “It’s alwaysawe-inspiring to hear first person fromthe people who created theseindustries. I remember very well thedisk drive products that Al wasdescribing and remember them assignificant shifts every time a newproduct came out. Now we’re dwarfedby progress in every segment of thecomputer industry and it’s easy to losesight of the tremendous contributions

that guys like Shugart made. We ‘old-timers’ will never forget where we havebeen.”

MITCH WALDROP: THE REVOLUTION

THAT MADE COMPUTING PERSONAL

In a lecture on September 19 co-hostedby Hewlett-Packard, author MitchWaldrop brought us the fascinating storyof JCR Licklider and the personalcomputing revolution. Licklider may wellhave been one of the most influential—and east known—people in the historyof computer science. As a divisiondirector in the Pentagon’s AdvancedResearch Projects Agency (ARPA) in theearly 1960s, Licklider put in place thefunding priorities which led to theInternet and the inventions of the“mouse,” “windows,” and “hypertext.”

Attendee Todd Anderson remarked,“Another great piece of the puzzle…Waldrop showed how quickly a goodpiece of history and perspective[almost!] slipped past us withoutanybody capturing it. At least we knowwe are missing parts.”

PIONEERS OF VENTURE CAPITAL

Legendary venture capitalists BillDraper, Pitch Johnson, Burt McMurtry,Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, and DonValentine gathered at Moffett Field onSeptember 30 to participate in a panelmoderated by Fenwick & West’s GordyDavidson. To a standing-room-onlyaudience of over 300 people, thesefounders and pioneers of the field toldfascinating tales of how they got theirstart, their “aha” moments, theirbiggest hits, what they learned, and theones that got away.

The panel was arranged by MuseumTrustee Donna Dubinsky, who remarked,“I was most struck by the notion ofthese pioneers as ‘company builders’rather than ‘promoters.’ I think thatconcept got lost a bit in the bubble, soit was nice to hear it reiterated.”

Museum Trustee Ike Nassi noted, “Atthe Computer History Museum we oftenhave the opportunity to interact withpioneers, to hear their thoughts. At theVC panel, we had an opportunity to notonly see some of the unquestionedpioneers of this revolution comment onwhat it was like…but to hear theminteracting with each other, tradingstories…”

Generous funding for the presentationwas provided by Allegis Capital and ananonymous donor. Sponsorships likethese allow the Museum to fulfill itsmission and to produce high-qualityprogramming.

A videotape of this presentation may beobtained through the Museum’s websiteat www.computerhistory.org/store.

DONOR APPRECIATION PARTY

The Museum held a special donorappreciation party on June 8 tocelebrate and thank our valuedsupporters. More than 100 currentmembers—including pioneers,engineers, industry fans, executives,computer users, and VCs—assembledat the home of Alexia Gilmore and ColinHunter in Atherton, California. Sometraveled from as far away asMassachusetts for great food,entertainment, and conversation.

The performance group Teatro Zinzannidelivered a Computer History Museumrendition of The 12 Days of Christmasand a fortuneteller provided readings.Some of the lucky attendees receivedautographed lecture posters andMuseum logo merchandise. Thanks toour hosts, Alexia, Colin, Sheila and JohnBanning, and everyone who came andmade the event such fun.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HELPS LAUNCH

LLNL MUSEUM

On July 11, 2002, Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory opened the LLNLComputer History Museum exhibit inconjunction with its 50th anniversary.After a brief talk by LLNL DirectorEmeritus Edward Teller, our ownExecutive Director and CEO John Tooleparticipated in the event with a

presentation, “Preserving ComputingHistory: From Teller to Teraflops.” Thevisit by Teller was a surprise to many,including Toole, who had named his talkafter Teller. Toole was privileged to enjoya photo shoot and conversationafterwards with the pioneer. “Even the‘youngsters’ in the audience couldappreciate our computer history, thoughthey didn’t live through it like some ofthe rest of the audience,” said LLNLAssociate Director of Computation,Dona Crawford. The LLNL exhibitfeatures dozens of artifacts it hasdonated to CHM over the years, andwhich the Museum lent back to LLNL forthe exhibit.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

An original Carterfone CommunicationsCorporation “Carterphone” was recentlydonated by Scott Brear. Manufacturedby Carter Electronics in 1959, thetelephone allowed mobile radio users

More than 100 Museum members gathered at thehome of Alexia Gilmore and Colin Hunter for adonor appreciation party on June 8.

Members of the performing group Teatro Zinzanikicked off the donor appreciation party with alighthearted song and dance about the Museum.

This year’s party recognizing annual donors washosted by John and Sheila Banning, Colin Hunter,and Alexia Gilmore (left to right).

Museum Executive Director and CEO John Toolewith LLNL Director Emeritus Edward Teller and LLNLAssociate Director for Computation Dona Crawford(left to right).

Disk drive legend Al Shugart spoke on September5 at PARC’s Pake Auditorium about 50 years ofexperience in the industry.

Mitch Waldrop spoke at Hewlett-Packard Labs onSeptember 19 about the life and accomplishmentsof JCR Licklider, further detailed in his book TheDream Machine.

A reception in the Museum’s Visible StorageExhibit Area before the “Pioneers of VentureCapital” lecture enabled many local VIPs to see theMuseum’s collection for the first time.

Bill Draper (Draper Richards) and Pitch Johnson(Asset Management Company)

Burt McMurtry (Technology Venture Investors) andmoderator Gordon Davidson (Fenwick & West LLP)

Arthur Rock (Arthur Rock & Co.)

Tom Perkins (Iolon, News Corporation, and theHewlett-Packard Company) and Don Valentine(Network Appliance)

An original Carterfone, which sparked a debatethat eventually led to the FCC’s landmark“Carterphone decision,” allowing third-partycompanies to manufacture and connect equipmentto the public-switched telephone network (PSTN).

to connect with the public telephonenetwork. In 1966, telephone companies challenged its legality, and a lengthy struggle began. Eventually, the Federal CommunicationsCommission handed down the landmark“Carterphone Decision,” which allowedan open, competitive market to exist for communications equipment andfacilities. This Carterphone is one of afew remaining such devices inexistence.

Thomas S. Knight donated a collection(1979-1984) of Don Hoeffler’s MicroElectronic News. Hoeffler was a SiliconValley icon who reported on thesemiconductor industry for many years.He is widely accepted as the personwho, in 1972, first put into print theterm “Silicon Valley.”

DOCENT TRAINING

The Museum has a small cadre ofdedicated volunteers who have provideddocent services at the Visible StorageExhibit Area over the past few years.Now, our exposure is increasing and wehave a need for more trained docents tolead visitors through the collection.Head Curator Mike Williams has createda new docent training program andclasses are available. If you areinterested in becoming a docent, pleasecontact Betsy Toole for information onupcoming training sessions.

VOLUNTEERS IN MOTION

Over the past months, our volunteershave contributed a tremendous amountof help to the Museum. This help is vital

to our operation and growth. Thank youfor everything you do.

Once every month, volunteers gather ona Saturday to assist Museum staff witha variety of tasks. In June, volunteershelped build pallet racks in one of ourwarehouses. It took about 12 hours tomove artifacts out of the warehouse,build the racks, then reorganize theitems in a much more accessiblearrangement. What a difference to thecollections and warehouse staff!

Another group of volunteers helpedreceive and organize a delivery ofalmost 200 boxes from the DigitalEquipment Corporation archive recentlydonated by HP/Compaq.

Volunteers also participated as part ofour annual Fellow Awards event team,many and varied fundraising efforts,volunteer planning, and various officeduties. Others provided graphic design,web design, and scanning services.

If you are interested in helping theMuseum in any of its tasks to preserveand present computing history, pleasecontact Betsy Toole for moreinformation.

ANNUAL FELLOW AWARDS BANQUET

This year, the Museum once againcelebrated the inventors and visionariesof the information technology revolutionat our Fellow Awards Banquet. About400 people gathered to honor four newFellows: John Cocke, Charles Geschke,Carver Mead, and John Warnock. 2000Museum Fellow Fran Allen delivered anacceptance speech on behalf of JohnCocke, who passed away earlier thisyear.

The theme of the evening was“Architects of Change” and attendeeswere treated to a reception exhibitfeaturing the stories and artifacts of all24 past and present Museum Fellows. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflecton the stunning intellect, creativity, andvision that these innovators havebrought to our world.

Alloy Ventures general partner andMuseum Trustee John Shochentertained the audience and led theevening as Master of Ceremonies.Board of Trustees Chairman LenShustek addressed the group about theimportance of preserving the artifactsand stories from this incredible time weare experiencing—an informationrevolution that is creating tools toamplify the human mind. John Toole,Executive Director and CEO, announcedthe purchase of our new building at1401 N Shoreline and presented aretrospective multi-media presentation

on the Museum’s history, from some ofthe earliest lectures andadvertisements, to the move west,through current visions for the buildingand exhibits.

For those of you who missed this galaevent, here are highlights of thecontributions for which our new Fellowswere honored.

At IBM, John Cocke developed theconcept of reduced instruction setcomputer (RISC) technology, acornerstone of high-speed computerdesign, relying on a minimal instructionset and highly efficient compiler design.He was a multifaceted talent at IBM,working in compilers and inventing theconcept of “lookahead” for the IBMSTRETCH computer. He inspiredgenerations of engineers and won theNational Medal of Technology (1991),the National Medal of Science (1994),and the ACM Turing Award (1985) for

his lifelong achievements in computerscience. Cocke graduated in 1956 fromDuke University with a Ph.D. inmathematics. He passed away on July 16 of this year.

Visionary and inventor Carver Mead hasspearheaded major innovations acrossmany disciplines and made manycontributions to the field ofmicroelectronics. He created what isnow called HEMT, the standardamplifying device used incommunications. He pioneered thedesign concept for VLSI (very-large-scaleintegrated) circuits, which is nowubiquitous in the semiconductorindustry. Mead has also experimentedwith neuromorphic electronic systems,which imitate functions of living nervoussystems.

A professor for over 40 years atCaltech, Mead also contributed to anexplosion of new chips on the marketthrough his mentoring of students. Heholds over 50 US patents, has writtenand contributed to more than 100scientific publications, and has receivednumerous awards.

Like many pioneers, Charles Geschkeand John Warnock left the structure ofa large corporation to move the industryforward on their own as entrepreneurs.In the early 1980s, Geschke andWarnock were working at Xerox’s PaloAlto Research Center to develop a page-description language (PDL) calledInterpress. When Xerox did notintroduce it, Geschke and Warnockstarted Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1982and began to work on solving some ofthe long-standing problems that plaguedthe relationship between PCs andprinters.

Together, John Warnock and CharlesGeschke created PostScript, the PDLthat revolutionized the creation andprinting of documents and introduced anew computer-based industry—desktoppublishing. Over the years, the two menhave worked closely together and greatlyinfluenced the development of theindustry over time. PostScript wasselected by the International StandardsOrganization (ISO) as the standard PDL.

Said attendee Alex Osadzinski, “I foundthe Fellows banquet very moving. Themontage playing on thescreens…reminded me of how thisindustry is built on the achievements ofjust a few talented and visionarypeople. The humility exhibited by thenewly-elected Fellows was veryinspiring.…These folks are suchtremendous role models; we can alllearn something from them.”

Sincere thanks go to the many peoplewho supported the banquet. Hewlett-Packard Company was our LeadSponsor, and 1185 Design and Adobe Systems were Patron Sponsors. TheWizard circle of tables included Warburg Pincus, WIRED magazine, GarnerHendrie and Karen Johansen, and LenShustek and Donna Dubinsky. The Gurucircle of tables included Alloy Ventures, Gwen Bell, Paul Borrill, Goldman Sachs,John Mashey, and Bernard Peuto. Ourgratitude also to the evening's hosts:Robin and David Anderson, DonnaDubinsky and Len Shustek, Elaine andEric Hahn, and Karla and Dave House.

1401 N SHORELINE BLVD., MOUNTAIN

VIEW, CALIFORNIA—THE MUSEUM’S

NEW HOME

We hope you are as excited as we areabout our new building. Staff,volunteers, and Trustees have beenworking hard behind the scenes toprepare for operations in the newspace. Be sure to check out JohnToole’s letter on the inside front coverof this issue of CORE to learn moreabout our plans. Stay tuned for detailsas they develop! And please feel free tocontact us if you would like to havemore information.

PA G E 2 2 PA G E 2 3

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 . 3

Head Curator Mike Williams leads a group ofdocents in training through the items in the VisibleStorage Exhibit Area.

Master of Ceremonies and Trustee John Shoch,new Fellow Carver Mead, and Executive Directorand CEO John Toole (left to right) after theceremonies at the Fellow Awards Banquet inOctober

Museum Trustee Eric Hahn and volunteerAngela Hey

A reception prior to the Fellow Awards Banquetfeatured a walk through the accomplishments of all24 Museum Fellows

Barbara Warnock, Peggy Asprey, andMarva Warnock

Trustee Peggy Burke and the 1185 Design table

(left to right): 2002 Museum Fellows John Warnock,Charles Geschke, Carver Mead, and Fran Allen(who accepted the award on behalf of John Cocke)

Slava Mach assists with the installation of artifactshelving during a volunteer work party.

UPCOMING EVENTSPlease RSVP for all events. Register by phone: +1 650 810 1027. Register online: www.computerhistory.org

PA G E 24 PA G E 2 5THANKS TO OUR ANNUAL DONORS

CONTACT INFORMATIONEXECUTIVE STAFF

JOHN TOOLE

Executive Director & CEO+1 650 810 1000toole@computerhistor y.org

MICHAEL FALARSKI

Vice President of Operations & Facilities+1 650 810 1001falarski@computerhistor y.org

KAREN MATHEWS

Executive Vice President+1 650 810 1011mathews@computerhistor y.org

DAVID A MILLER

Vice President of Development+1 650 810 1002miller@computerhistor y.org

MICHAEL R WILLIAMS

Head Curator+1 650 810 1024williams@computerhistor y.org

OTHER FULL-TIME STAFF

SHARON BRUNZEL

Archivist+1 650 810 1016brunzel@computerhistor y.org

MARLEN CANTRELL

Executive Assistant+1 650 810 1018cantrell@computerhistor y.org

JENNIFER CHENG

Events Coordinator+1 650 810 1019cheng@computerhistor y.org

JEREMY CLARK

Registrar+1 650 810 1020clark@computerhistor y.org

PAM CLEVELAND

Events Manager +1 650 810 1021cleveland@computerhistor y.org

WENDY-ANN FRANCIS

Of fice Administrator+1 650 810 1023francis@computerhistor y.org

CHRIS GARCIA

Historical Collections Coordinator+1 650 810 1041garcia@computerhistor y.org

JENNIFER HAAS

Data Coordinator+1 650 810 1026haas@computerhistor y.org

DAPHNE LISKA

Development Associate+1 650 810 1029liska@computerhistor y.org

JACKIE McCRIMMON

Graphics & Cyber Design Coordinator+1 650 810 1031mccrimmon@computerhistor y.org

DAG SPICER

Curator of Exhibits+1 650 810 1035spicer@computerhistor y.org

CATRIONA SWEENEY

Development & PR Associate+1 650 810 1036sweeney@computerhistor y.org

KIRSTEN TASHEV

Building & Exhibits Project Manager+1 650 810 1037tashev@computerhistor y.org

MIKE WALTON

Director of Cyber Exhibits+1 650 810 1040walton@computerhistor y.org

KARYN WOLFE

Special Projects Manager+1 650 810 1042wolfe@computerhistor y.org

PART-TIME STAFF

LEE COURTNEY

Volunteer Coordinator cour tney@computerhistor y.org

DAVID CANTRELL

Oral Histories Intern+1 650 810 1017dcantrell@computerhistory.org

KELLY GEIGER

Accounting Intern+1 650 810 1025geiger@computerhistory.org

MANPREET KAUR

Events & PR Intern+1 650 810 1027kaur@computerhistory.org

SOWMYA KRISHNASWAMY

Database Services Intern+1 650 810 1028krishnaswamy@computerhistory.org

KAI MEI

E-Commerce Intern+1 650 810 1032mei@computerhistor y.org

TANYA PODCHIYSKA

Web Services Intern+1 650 810 1034podchiyska@computerhistory.org

BETSY TOOLE

Hospitality & Facilities Suppor t+1 650 810 1038etoole@computerhistor y.org

JOHN J VILAIKEO

Technical Suppor t Intern+1 650 810 1039vilaikeo@computerhistor y.org

Ef fective December 15, 2002:COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

1401 N Shoreline BlvdMountain View, CA 94043-1311, USA+1 650 810 1010+1 650 810 1055 (fax)

Until December 15, 2002:COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

Building T12-AMof fett Field, CA 94033, USA+1 650 604 2579+1 650 604 2594 (fax)

WWW.COMPUTERHISTORY.ORG

Current staf f openings can be foundat www.computerhistor y.org/jobs.

TUE, NOVEMBER 12ADOBE SYSTEMS—THE FOUNDERS’ PERSPECTIVEJohn Warnock and Chuck Geschke

Member and VIP Reception—6:00 pmComputer History Museum, Bldg 126Lecture—7:00 pmMoffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg 3Moffett Field, California

TUE, DECEMBER 10AN EVENING WITH STEVE WOZNIAKSteve Wozniak

Member and VIP Reception—6:00 pmComputer History Museum, Bldg 126Lecture—7:00 pmMoffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg 3Moffett Field, California

MON, FEBRUARY 10DATABASE PANEL DISCUSSIONChris Date, Herb Edelstein, Bob Epstein, Ken Jacobs, Pat Selinger, Roger Sippl, and Michael Stonebraker with George Schussel

Lecture—7:00 pmMoffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg 3Moffett Field, California

TOUR THE MUSEUMTours of the Museum’s Visible StorageExhibit Area are held on Wednesdaysand Fridays at 1:00 p.m. and on the 1stand 3rd Saturdays of each month at1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Please make areservation at +1 650 810 1010.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIESThe Museum tries to match its needswith the skills and interests of itsvolunteers and relies on regularvolunteer support for events andprojects. In addition to special projects,monthly work parties generally occur onthe 2nd Saturday of each month,including:

NOVEMBER 9, DECEMBER 14 JANUARY 11, FEBRUARY 8

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, visit our web page atwww.computerhistory.org/volunteers.

JULY 30–AUG 2, 2002“TRANSFORMING FANTASY”

DARPATech 2002Anaheim, Californiawww.darpa.mil/DARPATech2002/

APRIL–SEPTEMBER 2002“WORLD’S FAIRS”

San Francisco International AirportTerminal C3San Francisco, Californiawww.sfoarts.org

OCTOBER 19, 2002–FEBRUARY 2, 2003“GAME ON! THE WORLDWIDE CULTUREAND HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES”

National Museums of ScotlandEdinburgh, Scotlandwww.nms.ac.uk

MARCH 6, 2002–MARCH 6, 2003“CENSUS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION”

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the CensusOn-line exhibitwww.census.gov/mso/www/centennial/

JULY 11–OCTOBER 15, 2002“50 YEARS OF COMPUTING ATLAWRENCE L IVERMORE NATIONALLABORATORY”

Livermore, CaliforniaTours must be reserved in advance. Call +1 925 424 6575 or visit www.llnl.gov/PAO

SEPT 2002 (ONGOING)“THE COMPUTING REVOLUTION”

Museum of ScienceBoston, Massachusettswww.mos.org

COOLSTUFF AT THEMUSEUMSTORE!POSTERS, POSTCARDS, VIDEOS, CLOTHING,AND MORE!

WWW.COMPUTERHISTORY.ORG/STORE

APPARELClothing in many colors and styles withthe Museum logo shows your supportfor computing history

VIDEOSHundreds of computing history videos,including:

“Pioneers of Venture Capital” featuring Bill Draper, Pitch Johnson,Burt McMurtry, Tom Perkins, Arthur Rock, and Don Valentine.

“The PalmPilot Story” with Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, andEd Colligan

2003 CALENDARThis beautiful calendar features“Computing Pioneers and TheirInventions” on simulated blue bartractor-feed printer paper.

THE CORE CIRCLECORE BENEFACTOR64K ($65,536+)Gwen & C Gordon BellL John Doerr & Ann DoerrDonna DubinskyElaine & Eric HahnJeff Hawkins & Janet StraussGardner Hendrie & Karen JohansenDavid & Karla HouseJanice & Bob LisbonneLeonard J Shustek

CORE PATRON32K ($32,768+)Eric BrewerBill & Roberta CampbellCounty of Santa ClaraMike & Kristina HomerGrant & Dorrit Saviers FoundationJohn & Sheree Shoch

CORE SPONSOR16K ($16,384)Steve Blank & Alison ElliottDavid Bohnett FoundationEric Schmidt

CORE PARTNER8K ($8,192)Andrea CunninghamSteve & Michele Kirsch FoundationSheldon Laube & Dr Nancy EngelIke & Ronee NassiBernard L PeutoSigma Partners

THE CORE CLUB CORE INVESTOR4K ($4,096)Peggy BurkeEric D & Marilyn G CarlsonMr & Mrs Reid W DennisCarol & Chris EspinosaRobert Garner & Robin BeresfordPeter HirshbergShawn & Doug MacKenzieDeborah Meredith & Curtis ColeGordon E & Betty I MooreJohn & Elizabeth Toole

CORE CONTRIBUTOR2K ($2,048)Sally M Abel & Mogens LauritzenAllan AlcornAsset Management CompanyCharles & Nancy GeschkeRob & Yukari HaitaniChristine Hughes & Abe OstrovskyLaura & Gary LauderJim & Stephanie NisbetToni & Arthur RockDave & Jan RossettiJean SammetAlvy Ray & Zu SmithStephen Squires &

Ann Marmor-SquiresRich & Cindy Tennant

CORE FRIEND1K ($1,024)AnonymousAdobe Systems—

Matching Gift ProgramFrances AllenDavid & Robin AndersonSheila & John BanningCraig & Barbara BarrettAllen Baum & Donya WhiteBarry & Sharla BoehmGary BooneJerry Brenholz

Violet & Evan BrooksJack & Casey CarstenNed ChapinBruce & Gail ChizenCisco FoundationRichard J ClaytonThe Computer Language Company IncR T CosletLori Kulvin CrawfordYogen & Peggy DalalDavidow FoundationEleanor & Lloyd DickmanFriend in Honor of Computing History

at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Whitfield Diffie & Mary Lynn FischerLes & Marian EarnestDavid EmersonJudy Estrin & Bill CarricoEdward A Feigenbaum & Penny NiiThe Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationTrip HawkinsJohn & Andrea HennessyMary Henry & Rajpal SandhuChuck & Jenny HouseIBM International FoundationIEEE—Hot Chips Symposium 2002Matthew B IvesJerry & Judy KleinDr & Mrs Leonard KleinrockDonald & Jill KnuthTom Kopec & Leah CarneiroRon & Deb MarianettiJames MarkevitchFrank & Judith MarshallKaren MathewsJames McElweeTom & Sharon MelcherGeorge A MichaelElizabeth & Paul MockapetrisTashia & John MorgridgeMalachy & Jane MoynihanJoan Myers & Stanley MyersDonald & Helen NielsonJeffrey Berg & Debra PagetMax PalevskyPaul PierceJames N PorterBill & Shelly PrattDennis RitchiePeter & Valerie SamsonRobert ShawBob & Verna SpinradRobert & Lee SproullSRI InternationalEdward TaftEdward ThelenKayton & Steve WeinsteinRay & Carol WilliamsPaul WinalskiAnthony J WoodWm A Wulf & Anita K JonesWarren YogiRobert & Carrie ZeidmanCindy & Peter Ziebelman

GENERAL SUPPORTERSCHAMPION MEMBERS ($500)The Dennis & Janet Austin FundCheck Point Software Technologies IncStephen CrockerTracey Stewart & Barry James FolsomRobert Kahn & Patrice LyonsLaurel & Ray KaledaLarry KwicinskiDavid & Grayson LaneFrank McConnellDavid MillerArati Prabhakar & Patrick WindhamVirginia ShulerFloy & Willis WarePhilip & Susan Yost

SUPPORTING MEMBERS ($100)AnonymousDonald & Nancy AlpertSaul & Irene AmarelCarl & Debi AmdahlMelissa Anderson & Howard LookPaul & Joan ArmerMary ArtibeeConnie & Charlie BachmanJohn BackusSandy & Ann BenettDoris & Alfred BertocchiFrederick & Nancy BrooksAndrea ButterPeggy & Dick CanningRuth Carranza & Pamela WaltonAlison Chaiken & Wolfgang RupprechtPamela ClevelandNancy & Thomas ColatostiCompaq Computer CorpGeorge ComstockMichael CoulterCharles CrabbClive B DawsonSharon Brunzel & Stephen DeeringPeter & Dorothy DenningLena M DiethelmLee & Daniel DrakeLillian & Alfred DubinskyJohn EhrmanDavid EllsworthThelma & Gerald EstrinMaria & Bob EvansGloria A EverettDouglas G FairbairnRita FoleyShawn FordBarbara & Joseph FredrickGordon GarbGeorge Glaser & Karen DuncanBob & Dee GloriosoGary M GoelkelSteve GolsonJohn C Green JrEarl HaightNorman HardyLorraine Hariton & Stephen WeylAlys HayDan HendersonWinston HindleJames HurdHyperionJoanne & Irwin JacobsOle JacobsenCurtis Jones & Lucille BooneMarlene & Jeffrey KalbChristopher A KantarjievRandy KatzThomas & Mary KorneiEd KramerThomas KurtzKenneth LarsenRobert A LercheCarl & Claudia LowensteinJimmy & Dora LuWalt MainMilt MalloryJohn Maloney &

Roxanne Guilhamet MaloneyJulius MarcusMichael MaulickTerry MayerWilliam D & Dianne Mensch, JrDavid MillerJohn & Frances MorseNicholas J NaclerioRonald NicholsonMarilee J NiemiLandon NollMike & Betsy NoonenArthur NorbergTed Panofsky

Donn B ParkerJeff Parker & Barbara WaddyDoug & Shirley PearsonPerforceMarc E PhillipsChristopher Poda & Nancy MasonHudi & Joe PodolskyPolytechnic Alumni Association of

Northern CaliforniaJane & Bob PufferDonald & Sandie PughHeidi Roizen & David MohlerLynn & George RossmannKathleen L RydarJune Rynne & David RynneJohn & Linda SailorsRita Seplowitz SaltzJohn & Christine SanguinettiGail SchureMatthew & Melissa ShaferThomas Siekman & Pamela SiekmanDan & Karon SiewiorekSilicon Valley Forth Interest GroupRebecca Elizabeth SkinnerSally & Dick SmithSmithKline Beecham FoundationSharon & Mark SmothermanDavid & Shirley StackpoleSteven StepanekStudio MobiusChristopher Swenson & Misty AzaraIlene Chester & Frank TobinThe Vanguard Group FoundationDaniel WadeDuane & Lorna WadsworthGreg & Susan WagemanRob & Susan WalkerGreg WatsonMichael WeaverCarol WelshGio & Voy WiederholdKevin Wilke & Valerie ShawW Roger B WillisDuane WiseJon & Marsha WitkinJim & Sylvia WorkKo YamamotoMark Showalter & Frank YellinBill YundtJohn G ZabolitzkyGeorge D Zuras

GENERAL MEMBERSAnonymousJudith & Curt AndersonJoseph BarreraRoss BassettOwen BatesLeslie Berlin & Rick DoddPhilip BernoskyPaul BerryMohan BethurLyle BickleyLutz BirkhahnPhilip BlancharMichael & Sharon BlasgenPhilippe BouissouStuart BowenTimothy BoydRon & Margaret BrenderDoris & John BrownDorothy & W H BurkhartSally & Amos CareyBrian CarlisleEverett CarterM Trace CarterChristopher CharlaKarl ChesterSanford ClarkAlexander ColeGordon CollinsGeorge Crabb

Deborah & Michael CussenWilliam DanielsonNaren DasuAlistair DavidsonPete DeLisiMichael diVittorioWilliam DonnellyKathleen Down-LoganMark DuncanJohn DykstraMarlene & John EastmanGlenn EdensStephen Ellis & Aglaia PanosWalter EnosDaniel EvansJudy & Mike FalarskiNicholas L FeakinsMarilyn FedeleGuy FedorkowElizabeth FeinlerAlan Scott FitzJeanne FriedmanSteffen FrostJim FruchtermanNancy GabrielMax Gebhardt & John GebhardtH M GladneyDr Bob GlassArlene & Earl GoetzeSteve GoldammerRobert E GoldbergBert GraeveMark GrahamMartin & Selma GrahamGary L GrayKaren J Gregory RNDouglas GreigKathleen & Philip GustGeri HadleyMartin HaeberliMatthew HamrickRollin C HardingAnn HardyAndrew HargadonRichard HarringtonGlen B HaydonDonald HeadKevin & Shelby HoganCynthia HolladayJudy HorstJoseph ImpellizeriLuanne JohnsonLily JowMark KaminskyChester KarlYumi Kelley & Tom KelleyMartin KenneyTracy Holloway KingSteven KloosterRebecca Burwell & Leigh Klotz JrDaniel KottkeRaymond KoverzinFelix Kramer, Kramer CommunicationsWinston KrigerRichard & Joanne KurkowskiAndre LamotheRichard LamparterJohn L LarsonRobert H LashleySofia & Jan LaskowskiKarl LautmanJohn V LevySlava & Hana MachWilliam MaddoxDaniel MallBob MarinelliBill & Sandra MartinRobert MatthewsRussell McHughMadeline McMenamin, Watson WyattCarolyn & Mike McPhersonPhilip Menzies

David MeyersAnthony MezzapelleJeremy MikaMike MikaCelia & Gary MillerPeter & Mary MillsChris MinneiliCharlene MiyashitaP J ModeW E & Sharon MoernerCarol MollerMichael MorgansternRobert MorrisetteEdward MunyakStephen NagyDennis NicholsonRich PascoJerry Lee PerkinsSteve Perlman & Sandi DobrowolskyS Michael PerlmutterLakshmi PraturyJames QuinnSandhya RamanathanCarol RandallAnne & Thomas RarichEarnest J RayVicki & Marc RozyckiDick RubinsteinRex SandersFred SaviersWolf SchaechterMarisa & Werner SchaerConrad SchneikerMichael & Wyn SchuhDavid SchwadererGavin ScottCatherine Povejsil & William ScullChris Sheedy & Marsha BrewerDavid ShelleyMichael P SimonChris & Jade SimonsonRafael SkodlarRandel A SloanEric SmithRichard A SmithFrank SnowJohn L SokolLinda SpeerPhil SpiegelDaryl SpitzerTom StallDonald StewartHarry B StewartJeff StuesseElaine SweeneyBrad TempletonDr Bradley S TicePhilippe ToblerStephen TrimbergerRichard & Pamela TuckerAlex VaraneseThomas VelisVicki VisoWilliam A VorbauLisa Apfelberg & W Michael WaltonMichael C WardJohn WeirichMarguerite & James WenglerWyleczuk-SternWai Chee YeeRobert YehSteve YenchoMartin ZamFred ZeiseDouglas & Barbara ZodyMaria D ZorskyMaureen & John Zuk

Current as of October 15, 2002. To correct your listing, please contactliska@computerhistory.org.

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 . 3

MUSEUM ARTIFACTS ON LOAN

Explained from CORE 3.2

ATANASOFF-BERRY COMPUTER (ABC)

This modern-day recreation of a criticalmodule in the ABC machine consists ofseven vacuum tubes mounted on asheet-metal chassis wired identically tothe original 1942 prototype, and hand-assembled by engineers at Iowa StateUniversity’s Ames Laboratory in the mid-1990s using authentic antique compo-nents. Approximate size: 8” x 5” x 4.”

John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995)and graduate student Clifford Berry(1918-1963) started on the ABC designin 1937 (completing it in 1942) as ameans of solving the thornymathematical problems they faced on adaily basis. The machine was built intoa desk-sized cart and cost about$5,000 (1940 dollars) to develop andbuild. Using a form of capacitor memoryof Atanasoffís own design, the ABCcould solve up to 29 simultaneouslinear equations in 29 unknowns. Whilethe machine was somewhat unreliable(some question it ever having worked atall), it was involved in one of the mostprotracted patent disputes in U.S.

history (Honeywell vs. Sperry-Rand),centering on the “invention” of thedigital computer. Though Atanasoff waslegally credited with this invention at thetrial’s conclusion in 1973, mosthistorians feel this strict legalinterpretation to be inaccurate and thatcredit properly goes the team atManchester University in Britain for their“Baby” machine (1948).

Whatever one’s position on this issue,the recreation is an impressiveaccomplishment in itself. Costing$350,000 (1997 dollars) to complete, ateam of devoted faculty, students, andinterested individuals investedthousands of person-hours intoresearch, fabrication, and testing tobring back to life a machine from theprehistoric era of computing. Thismodule is a spare from thatreconstruction effort. For moreinformation, see: http://www.cs.iastate.edu/jva/jva-articles.shtml.

Please send your best guess tomystery@computerhistory.org before12/31/02 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.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), Add-shiftmodule replica (c. 1995), X2446.2002, Gift ofJohn Gustafson.