The Evolution to the Computer History Museum

The Evolution to the
Computer History Museum
… Out of the Closet
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/tcmwebpage/outoftheclosetv2.3.pdf
Gordon Bell
Vanguard, San Jose
22 February 2012
Outline
• Background: History of the museum
• On collecting artifacts and stories…
15 pioneers and pioneer computer
• Myth busting … “firsts” determined by litigation
• Tour: Alcoves, Docents, and Mona Lisa's
Computer Structures Book
• Bell and Newell, 1971
• Taxonomy of computers
• PMS for Processor-Memory-Switch:
A “Linnaean” notation and structure for
naming various information processing
functions including computers
Six Phases: Serendipity
“On building a Museum, time is your friend. Just wait.” gbell
“Chance Favors the Prepared Mind” – Pasteur
1. Concept and seed: Collectors and Preservers (xxx -1975)
Founded on collecting: Smithsonian was inadequate. Science & Deutsches Museums.
Belief that we could build the world’s best Computer Museum.
2. Alpha: The Museum in a Closet Project, Digital (1975)
3. Beta: The Digital Computer Museum, Digital (1979-1984)
Maurice Wilkes Opening Lecture, followed by 15 Pioneers
4. Going Public I: The Computer Museum, Boston (1984-1999)
Bob Noyce pre-opening lecture; J. Prespert Eckert Opened
5. Acquisition and Spinout: Boston Museum of Science July 1999;
and
The Computer Museum History Center, Moffett Field, CA (19952000)… Plan a building.
Sell High! (pre-.com, get commitments for $55M)
6. Going Public II: The Computer History Museum,
Mountain View, CA (2000- present) 2002: get SGI building.
Buy Low! (Get 3 x the building at 1/3rd the cost)
January 10, 2011 R|Evolution Timeline Opens
The Digital Computer Museum, Marlboro MA
6,000 sq. ft. of exhibits
The Digital Computer Museum
Five founding principles from 1983 Report
1. Historical preservation. “To that end, the P,M,S notation forms
the basis of the taxonomy determining the extent of the kingdom
of computing and providing guidelines for exhibits.”
2. A lecture series for the computing pioneers and contributors to
record their stories. “Thus, we are giving the podium to people
who can give first-hand biographies of machines, programs and
languages they have known.”
3. “The focal point of the Museum is the machines themselves.”
Frank Oppenheimer stated: "Well-engineered machines speak
eloquently …. Museum designers can't equal them"
4. A main “audience of computer scientists, programmers, history
buffs, and those with a curiosity about computer evolution”
5. “Broad-based involvement by maintaining a working relationship
between the enthusiastic volunteers, donors of artifacts, patrons,
students, scholars and a staff that can keep stirring the soup”.
Web
Youtube
KQED/NPR
Education
outreach
The Computer
Museum Report,
Summer 1983
First 15 of the 45 Marlboro lectures
Italics denote artifact acquisition
VIDEO CAPTURE Was ESSENTIAL… We did too few….
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15.
Maurice Wilkes: The Design and Use of EDSAC, Sept. 24th, 1979
George Stibitz The Development, Design and Use of the Bells Labs Relay
Calculators, May 8th, 1980 …
Jay Forrester: The Design Environment and Innovations of Project Whirlwind
June 2nd, 1980
John Vincent Atanasoff: The Forces the Led to the Design of ABC,
the Atanasoff-Berry Electronic Computer November 11th, 1980
Konrad Zuse: Designing and Developing the Z1-Z4 March 4th, 1981
James Wilkinson: The Design and Use of the Pilot Ace April 14th, 1981
John Brainerd: Development of the ENIAC Project June 25th, 1981
David Edwards: The Evolution of the Early Manchester Machines Sept. 9th, 1981
Tommy H. Flowers: Design and Use of Colossus October 15th, 1981
Arthur Burks: The Origin of the Stored Program February 18th, 1982
Harry Huskey: From Pilot Ace to G-15 November 18th, 1982
Grace Hopper, The Harvard Mark I. April 14th, 1983
Donald Davies: Early History of Cipher Machines April 24th, 1983
Robert V.D. Campbell on the Harvard Mark I-IV October 23rd, 1983
J. Presper Eckert: ENIAC’s 40th Birthday February 13th, 1986 (at Boston)
Artifacts in the Marlboro Exhibit
Data-operation components e.g. arithmetic units, logic circuitry, a valve
from Manchester Mark I;
Data-operations aka calculators e.g. abaci, slide rules, printed tables,
sectors and other Navigational instruments, the Lehmer Number Sieves, a
Hollerith system replica, a Napier’s Bones, a Pascaline replica, Hillis’s Tinker
Toy Computer;
Transducers e.g. telegraphy equipment, typewriters (subsequently
discontinued), light pen, plotters;
Memories e.g. Atanasoff capacitor store drum, core memories, delay lines,
drums, handbooks, player piano disk, tapes, Williams tube.
Computers e.g. Brigham Young U. Stretch. Bendix G-15, Burroughs ILLIAC IV,
CDC 160 and 6600, Data General Nova, DEC PDP-1,5,7, 8, 11 (3 models), 12,
Fairchild Symbol pioneered dual in-line IC, Honeywell ARPA IMP, IBM 1130,
1620, 7030 (Stretch), and 360/195 console, LGP-30, Lincoln Laboratory LINC
and TX-0, MITS Altair, MIT Whirlwind, NASA Apollo Guidance Computer,
Philco 212, Raytheon Polaris Guidance Computer, RR Solid State 80,
Siemens 2002, Sperry Univac NTDS (Seymour Cray design),
TI Advanced Scientific Computer, Viatron System 21, and Xerox Alto.
Working: restored TX-0, PDP-1, and Marlboro’s VAX computer installation.
The Digital Computer Museum Board
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18 member board. Six from DEC including Olsen and Bell
Charlie Bachman, inventor of the Integrated Data Store
Harvey Cragon, designed TI Advanced Scientific Computer
Bob Everett, CEO of MITRE Corp.
Les Hogan, CEO, Fairchild
John Lacey, CDC
Pat McGovern, founder, ComputerWorld
George Michael, Livermore Computer Scientist
Bob Noyce, the inventor of the IC and Intel founder
Brian Randell of the University of Newcastle
Mike Spock, Founder and Director of the Boston Children’s
Museum
• Erwin Tomash of the Babbage Institute
• Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas
The Computer Museum, Boston 1984
Annual Attendance: 135,000
Collection of over 500 of
“first and early PCs”
Pioneer lectures serie >
Industry breakfast series
Dozen major exhibits e.g.
Walk Through Computer
Computer Clubhouse w/MIT
It didn’t die
The Computer Museum
Boston, 13 Nov. 1984
12,000 sq. ft. Exhibit
Walk-through Computer
Robot Gallery, Timeline
Games, Networks,
Children’s Software
Virtual Fish tank
The Computer Museum History Center
1996-2002 Moffett Field, CA
Computer History Museum, 2002
119,000 sq. ft.
Yosemite Warehouse, 2007
25,000 sq. ft. warehouse
Purchased for the purpose of
storing the Museum’s Collection.
Located in Milpitas, CA
Story of the ABC
Atanasoff-Berry Computer
The “first” electronic digital computer…
What Does It Mean to be the
First Computer?
An Historian’s View
Michael R. Williams
Served as curator at Computer History Museum
July 22, 2009
COMPSAC 2009 Seattle
Professor Michael R. Williams
21
Historians seldom use the word “first”
• Project xxxxx was the first
mechanical, analog, automatic, nonprogrammable, fully operational,
calculating machine available in
Northwest Washington.
• Use enough adjectives and you can usually be
sure that whatever you create can be a “first”
July 22, 2009
COMPSAC 2009 Seattle
Professor Michael R. Williams
22
First electronic machines
• ENIAC (1944)
“First large scale, general purpose, digital,
electronic, calculating machine”
•Military project
•17,000 vacuum tubes
•Built at the Moore School of
Electrical Engineering at the
University of Pennsylvania
July 22, 2009
COMPSAC 2009 Seattle
Professor Michael R. Williams
29
First electronic machines
• The ABC is known as
“The First Electronic Digital Computer”
• Designation given in 1973 by a US judge
in a patent lawsuit
(overturned ENIAC patent)
• Needs and views of patent lawyers are
different from those of historians
July 22, 2009
COMPSAC 2009 Seattle
Professor Michael R. Williams
30
Who gets credit?
The main thing that historians
will do is:
Document the situation but
NOT ANSWER THE
QUESTION!
July 22, 2009
COMPSAC 2009 Seattle
Professor Michael R. Williams
35
But who owns the computer?
ENIAC
Rand Kardex
1927
1950
1952
1966
IBM
1955
ENIAC patent filed 1957, issued 1964
Uh-oh: Another Unknown Pioneer
Atanasoff - Berry
Computer
(1939-1942)
The ABC was the “disinvention” of the computer”
– Gordon Bell
ABC Reconstruction: It worked!
The first Microprocessor
…make that the “first commercially available”
i.e. sold as a component, microprocessor
• 1971 Intel establishes the market
• 1995 TI asserts its patents for the invention of
the microprocessor, cross licensed to Intel
• Lee Boysel prepares to demo the Four Phase
single processor chip c1969. TI folds.
The first Microprocessor:
The key microprocesor disinvention
1.
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3.
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5.
6.
“One demo trumps a thousand lawyers”--Bell
1969 Four Phase Systems ships a byte sliced microprocessor!
Board member Bob Noyce acts to interest Intel in approach.
1971 Intel 4004 establishes the market for component micros
1995 TI asserts its patents for the invention of the
microprocessor, cross licensed to Intel
Lee Boysel prepares to demo the Four Phase single processor
c1969 running as a one chip micro at TI versus Everybody trial
TI folds Friday before the trial, at “demo threat”
Four Phase story and its “first” dis-invention
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/digitallogic/12/282/2291 Lee Boysel story as told by Bell
Intel usually claims “the 4004 is the first commercially
available microprocessor sold as a component”
From The Dump: Johnniac
Ike Nassi
Federico Faggin
Dally, Smarr
Len Shustek, Chairman
Feigenbaum, Lenat
Negroponte, Hawley
Alan Kay
Chuck Thacker
Dubinsky, Culler
Kleinrock, Lucky
John Hollar, CEO
Babbage DE2 Working Exhibit
Tim Robinson
The Computer History Museum
R|Evolution Exhibit, 25,000 sq. ft.
10 January 2011
Dave Patterson
Dave Reed
Peter Cochrane
Gordon
Bell
The Mona Lisa’s
Industrial seminals (18)
One of a kind (12)
• ENIAC, JOHNNIAC, UNIVAC • Napier’s Bones
• LINC … first PC
• Jacquard Loom model
• PDP-1 “Spacewar”, PDP-8
• Pascaline replica
• IBM System/360
• Babbage DE2 Reconstruction
• ARPA IMP
• Hollerith replica
• PC Collection: Apple 1..MAC, • ABC Reconstruction
IBM PC… another 500+
• Core Memory #1
• Cray’s (RR, LC, 6600, Cray 1,2)• IBM RAMAC #1, 5 MB Disk
• Cal Tech Cosmic Cube Cluster • Sqee; SRI Shakey robot
• Google Search Engine
• Four Phase “The 1st micro”
• Xerox PARC Alto,…Ethernet
• IBM DeepBlue Chess
Alcove
By Time: Pre-Computing and
Pre-Computer Industry
A Calculators … (D’s)
C Analog Computers D’s no storage
B Punched Cards (M’s & Processing)
D Birth of the Computer
(integrating M, D, and K to P)
E Early Computer Companies
By Information Processing (P,M,S)
Functions
H Memory and Storage (M-memory)
I Software Theater (K-control)
L Digital Logic (Processing,
Computers)
N Input and Output (T) Transducers
0 Computer Graphics, Music and Art
… these are also I/O (T and K)
S Networking and the Web
Object “Mona Lisa” in the exhibit
Lots of early artifacts, especially
Babbage DE2; HP35 or Bowmar
Norden Bombsight
Hollerith repro
ABC Reconstruction; ENIAC, Johnniac
UNIVAC or Leo (the first)
Core, RAMAC, Relational Database
1st Monolithic IC; 1st Micro; MOS
memory
SAGE and Light Pen, Mouse, WIMP
Teapot
BBN IMP; Ethernet; Internet; web &
By Computer Class (Size x
function)
F Real Time Computers i.e.
embedded
(The invisible computer – function:
K/Control)
R Mobile Computing
(These includes Links aka wireless)
PDP-8; and Intel 4004 Every
computer you never see! Pacemaker,
clock, process control, automotive,
etc.
P Computer Games…
Spacewar; PONG; Odyessy
Q Personal Computers
LINC; MAC; CTSS; UNIX; NT
K Minicomputers
8
G Mainframe Computers
360 or UNIVAC I
J Supercomputers
FORTRAN, Cray-1 (Goliath)
Cosmic Cube (“Killer Micros” are
David to undo Cray),
M Artificial intelligence (algorithms) Unimate, Shaky, Squee; a different
and Robotics (things)
kind of machine
T What's Next?
Napier’s Bones c1700
Jacquard Loom Model
&
Weaving of Inventor
Pascaline Replica
Arithomometer
It works!
Difference Engine No. 2
Photo:
Doron Swade
Hollerith Solves the Census problem
(Robeto Guatelli, Replica_
An Enigma
“collected”
for TCM
opening
Edmund C. Berkeley’s Squee Robot
Manchester Mark I, Williams Tube
Whirlwind Exhibit from TCM, c1990
Whirlwind filled a very large room
Whirlwind uses core memory
32 x 32 Core Plane from Whirlwind c1952
DIY computers: the WISC
Gene Amdahl
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1951-1954
IBM 305: First Disk (5 Megabytes) c1957
SAGE filled a big room
SAGE’s UI
Lincoln Laboratory, LINC, c1962 (turned 50)
1st Computer with all the PC attributes
CDC 6600
Cray-1
$Heuristics for building a museum$
1. Right people… 2-3. Gwen Bell and Len Shustek … with a little help
2. Hang in … just don’t let it die!!!
Worst case—an artifact or story is lost.
3. Wait for opportunities.
Luck favors prepared mind. Sell high, buy low.
4. Boards are $critical$.
a. 3 G’s: Glory, Give-Back, and Greed; Or: Give, get, or get off.
b. Support varies with the proximity to the object creation
c. Best supporters are the creators-- founding creators, engineers,
marketing, sales, etc.
d. Venture Capitalists bankers, PR, Marcom, accounting, legal, etc.
e. Researchers and academicians including historians
f. Major users
g. Communities
h. Museum goers.
References for The Computer Museum (TCM)
Paper from Brian Randell’s Festschrift: http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/tcmwebpage/outoftheclosetv2.3.pdf
Web site for TCM: http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/TCMwebpage/index.html
TCM Annual Report Compilation 1975-1988: http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/TCMwebpage/reports/ReportCompilation.pdf
Some CyberMuseum Content from Gbell Collection:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/CyberMuseumPubs.htm
• Computer Pioneers – Pioneer Computers (Part 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qundvme1Tik
• Computer Pioneers – Pioneer Computers (Part 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsirYCAocZk
• Report of the 15 pioneer talks (from Atanasoff to Zuse) at the museum:
http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/CyberMuseum_contents/TCMR1983_Winter_A_Companion_to_the_Computer_Pioneer_Timeline.pdf
• Hollerith Patent: http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/Hollerith%20patent%201889.pdf
• The Ethernet Announcement, Feb 1982. “the network becomes the system”
http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/gbell/Ethernet_Seminar_Announcement_NYC_820210a.PDF
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