Volunteer Information Exchange - s3data.computerhistory.org
Transcription
Volunteer Information Exchange - s3data.computerhistory.org
Volunteer Information Exchange Sharing what we know with those we know Volume 3 Number 1 January 5, 2013 CHM's New Blog Contribute To The VIE Happy New Year to all our readers. We look forward to 2013 as another exciting year of growth and change at the CHM. Recent CHM Blog Entries Kirsten Tashev keeps us up-to-date on our new CHM Blog. Recent Entries are: We start the new year with articles by several past and present CHM volunteers. Their personal experiences and knowledge are invaluable to the rest of us. Thank you to all. • • And many thanks to all who have written for the VIE in the past and those many, many folks who plan or have promised articles for 2013. Jim Strickland 12/19 - Dag Spicer on Suffering for Science http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/sufferingfor-science/ 01/02 Doug Fairbairn on Gartner Donation of 25+ Years of Dataquest Market Research http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/25-yearsof-dataquest/ [email protected] In Memoriam Jack Clemens CONTENTS Contribute to the VIE 1 CHM's New Blog 1 In Memoriam: Jack Clemens 1 More on Joe Woodland 2 Stories From the PC Gallery 3 Water Computer 3 Cyclone: an IAS Computer 4 Flexowriter: Early computer I/O 4 NTDS (Continued) 5 Coming Events 6 1933 - 2012 Jack Clemens spent a career working on computer storage. He was part of the IBM team at 99 Notre Dame that developed RAMAC, the grandaddy of today's hard drives. Jack Clemens contributed much to the industry, beginning in 1957 with IBM on Notre Dame Avenue. He went on to work at Memorex, Datapoint, Winchester and Maxtor before becoming an industry consultant. His daughter, Nancy, worked with her father late in his career when he was a consultant to high-tech companies. She appreciated his technical talents but also with his ability to brainstorm, write well and tell a good story. She knew he was a tech star, but the full impact of his work didn't hit her until she toured the Computer History Museum with him during its 2006 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the disk drive. "Going through this whole tour, it was just one thing after another," she says. "He mentioned how he had touched it, what he had done to solve this problem and that problem, and it felt really like a tour of the whole disk drive industry from his perspective of solving problems." The Computer History Museum recorded his oral history in 2007, "The RAMAC was the most animated disk drive ever built," he said. "It was an exciting thing to just watch it." In Silicon Valley style, after being part of that revolutionary team, Jack Clemens worked to make its replacements smaller, faster, cheaper and more functional. Page 1 More on Joe Woodland and the Barcode In the previous issue of the VIE, we noted the passing of Joe Woodland, the man who patented the circular, original, but not final barcode. Former docent and friend of the CHM, Bill Selmeier, was intimately involved with the project that developed the industry standard code, the Universal Product Code. He knew and worked with Joe Woodland. In his book, Spreading the Barcode: http://spreadingthebarcode.com Bill tells the story of his first meeting with Joe Woodland. The story is reprinted with Bill's permission. Meeting Joe Woodland So here I am, a naive store systems person trying to figure out what to do with the first electronic scanning checkstand and register. I wasn’t making a lot of progress. Even though I could converse knowledgeably with chain store executives, I didn’t really understand in my gut about the details of running a checkout register; where you needed to void an item, or do a no-sale. I didn’t know what store reports to get out of the register. I wouldn’t have known why some of the entries on them were significant, etc. So I was mostly futzing along when in walked Joe Woodland and Doug Antonelli (Human Factors engineer). Joe Woodland is the man who in 1949 had filed a patent for putting symbols on grocery products and later created a test for scanning them at the checkstand in the back room of a Colonial Supermarket in Atlanta, GA. This is the man whom I had heard was the chief strategist and definer of how IBM should get into the supermarket checkout business, the guy who is only referred to with great reverence and whose words had been quoted to me by Gordon Vick almost as if it was gospel. Joe was a short middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair that was never completely combed, a little of the mad professor about him. He walked with a little bounce and enjoyed even the hint of an ironic situation. He saw the humor in almost everything. Joe asked if they could use the system for only a minute to check something out. I was only too happy to oblige if I could stay in the room and learn more about what they were interested in. So I stepped around to the side where the customer would usually stand, my hand on the lip of the scanner while Joe and Doug gazed down into scanner pointing out something to each other. Suddenly Joe shouted out, “Oh my eyes! My eyes! You’ve burned my eyes! Oh my eyes,” then covered each eye with one of his fists in pain, whirled around and walked fist first with a loud thud into the door they had just come through to enter the lab. “Oh My God!” I thought. This is horrible! To call this a terrible accident is not strong enough. I’ve just blinded the person most central to this product. I’ve hurt someone badly and de-railed the whole program. And of course I’m through! How could this have happened? And, then I heard Joe laughing, then Doug started laughing, and I timidly asked “are you really OK?” This was Joe’s way of introducing me to the fundamentals of the IBM 3666 Checkout Scanner. He showed me the two horizontal electric eyes before and behind the scanning window that opened and closed the beam. I, by putting my hands on the edge rail while observing them, had unknowingly let the laser come up through the scanning window. Of course checkout scanners use very, very low powered lasers. They take advantage of a laser’s precise frequency to keep the relevant energy very low. Lasers were chosen for its precision characteristics, not for its power. The IBM laser operated at .0004 watts. As designed it wouldn’t cause real physical damage. Now my psyche was another matter. Good thing Joe and I were to become good friends in the next few months. If you had seen us then, Joe was laughing, Doug was laughing, and I was still looking a little shocked. Bill, has promised to write more of his experiences for future issues of the VIE. IBM has documented the creation of the Universal Product Code in a web site devoted to the “100 IBM innovations that helped shape the last century.” The creation of the UPC is one of them. http://www03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/upc/ And you can see our old friend Bill Selmeier in the video on that site. Page 2 Stories from the PC Gallery ERIK KLEIN Part I. In the back corner of the Personal Computing gallery in the Computer History Museum’s R|Evolution exhibit each section is designed to tell a story. From the Homebrew era to the first commercial PCs, to killer apps to sales and marketing the “zones” in the Personal Computing gallery all contribute to the overall story. Two of those sections hold a special place in my heart. Machines in those sit near each other to tell stories of firsts and stories of how seconds should, and shouldn’t, come about. When you look at the Apple I you are peering at a significant first: The first Apple computer. But this inspired design is not nearly the first PC, although many of our visitors seem to think it might be. You need to follow the wall to the right in order to get to that story. In the corner there are several machines in a stack, each representing true firsts in the Personal Computer world. On the bottom shelf sits the Scelbi-8. This impressive machine was introduced in 1974 and represents America’s first microprocessor based PC. The machine was built around the Intel 8008 CPU and was available as a kit (the Scelbi-8H – for Hobbyist) or as a fully assembled machine (the Scelbi-8B – for Business.) The Nat Wadsworth designed Scelbi-8 was likely the worlds’ first computer kit, as well, since that version pre-dated the Mark-8 (late 1974) and the more famous MITS Altair 8800 (January 1975.) Scelbi sold a few machines but the company ultimately turned to developing software and documentation for the nascent Personal Computer industry in lieu of competing in the hardware space. As impressive as it is, the Scelbi wasn’t the first 8008 based machine to market. The Réalisation d'Études Électroniques (R2E – please don’t ask me to pronounce the full name) corporation in France produced the Micral N in 1973 and ultimately sold thousands of Micral machines. These never came as kits and, as far as microprocessor-based PCs go, this was the first by all reliable accounts. For those who only consider PCs to be PCs if they have a microprocessor inside the Micral would be the first of them all. As a side note, probably the most interesting thing to come from R2E was a gentleman by the name of Philippe Kahn who wrote software for the Micral in its early days and who eventually migrated to America and founded Borland along with a number of his sidekicks... What do you do if you want to make a PC but don’t have access to Microprocessors because they haven’t been invented yet? If you’re John Blankenbaker you design a machine that doesn’t need one. John himself has said that “when I was in college in 1949, I read about a computer (Eniac?) which inspired me to try and design a computer. I didn't get far.” Years later he revisited the idea and had an epiphany: “What started me thinking about a "personal" computer was the realization that a computer only needed one flipflop. So it would, in theory, be possible to have a low cost computer.” Armed with this inspiration and a career’s worth of technical experience John went on to design what would be the Kenbak-1. Once complete, in 1971, this $750 system would be advertised for sale in the back pages of Scientific American and, ultimately, other publications as a fully functional Personal Computer. Many of them were used to train future engineers in the basics of computing without the need for expensive mini or mainframe access. The name for the machine was drawn from the middle of his surname and the belief that the computer, and his company, should have a catchy moniker akin to Kodak. Without an available Microprocessor Blankenbaker was forced to create all of the logic inherent in a computer using small-scale microelectronics, mostly TTL (Transistor to Transistor Logic) parts. His product was hardly a success and fewer than 50 were built and sold. This Personal Computer was an idea before its time. After selling Kenbak to a company called CTI John went on to help found Symbolics and later joined Quotron as a manager. 15 years after Kenbak, John was recognized by The Computer History Museum, then the Boston Computer Museum, as the inventor of the world’s first Personal Computer – the first fully functional computer system designed for personal use and sold at a price considered affordable for a personal device. 1936 Water Computer In 1936 Vladimir Lukyanov built a water computer that was the world's first computer for solving (partial) differential equations. The operator solved the equations by "playing around" with a series of interconnected tubes filled with water. http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13518651-in-1936-soviet-water-computer-could-solvedifferential-equations Page 3 Cyclone, an IAS machine LAFARR STUART When Lyle Bickley wrote “Program an IAS Machine” (VIE Vol 2 Issue 16), it reminded former CHM docent, LaFarr Stuart, of his experiences with an IAS type computer, Cyclone at Iowa State University. LaFarr wrote the following. When I got to Iowa State (a graduate student in statistics), the Cyclone had been running for a year. It was a duplicate of the ILLIAC, using 5-level paper tape, and its' memory was Williams Tubes (41 of them for 1024 40-bit words of memory and one as a monitor that could be dialed to display any bit position of the 1024 words). There was no parity or error checking in the hardware. During the summer, (before I arrived) they replaced the memory with 4 banks of 4096 words of core memory; and 8-bit paper tape I/O. This caused a major change in the address decoding in the hardware, (2 instructions per 40 bit word, each instruction was 8-bit op code and 12-bit address.) The older memory only used 10-bit address, and much of the software used the 2 high Flexowriter: Early computer I/O JIM STRICKLAND In his article regarding Cyclone, (above), LaFarr Stuart mentioned that input/output was via paper tape and that the paper tape was created and printed using Friden Flexowriters. What was a Friden Flexowriter? (Long story short) in the late 20's a company was formed to make electric typewriters. Several changes of ownership later, it was called Electromatic Corp. In 1932, a code for the paper tape used to drive Linotype and other typesetting machines was standardized, allowing use of a tape of five to seven holes wide to drive typesetting machines and automatic typewriters, teleprinters and similar equipment. Electromatic built machines capable of reading and punching such tape. In 1933, IBM wanted to get into the electric typewriter business. To do so, they acquired Electromatic Corp. and created the Electric Writing Machine Division of IBM. In 1935 they announced the Model 01 typewriter. Had IBM marketed the paper tape versions of the typewriter, they would have been competing directly with Western Union and AT&T, two of their largest customers–which they did not wish to do. In addition, IBM was very concerned with anti-trust issues. So, in 1938, they sold Flexowriter (and factory) to Commercial Controls Corp. which, in 1957 sold it to Friden, a manufacturer of calculators. Then IBM was “free” to sell electric typewriters aggressively and build its electric typewriter business. Standing alone, Flexowriters were used to produce form letters. (The term “word processor” did not exist at that order bits, which were ignored by the hardware, as flags or whatever. After the changes the "New Cyclone" had zero software, and the instructions were being being upgraded when I arrived. But three new Flexowriters were working, and the 8-bit paper tape reader and punch were being connected. Getting a computer going, without another computer to make a cross-assembler, run a simulator, and develop software on, was an interesting experience few have had; and nobody will have in the future. Our input/output was Friden Flexowriters that had no electrical link to the Cyclone whose only input/output was paper tape. We did not use Octal on the Cyclone. We used a form of hexadecimal, that did not use letters of the alphabet for digits greater than 9. It used characters like: , . ; for them. Our Flexowriters were slightly customized to have on one key we called "subten" it was a little "10" lower than most letters; and its hex value was 15. The intended output use of that key was to print large decimal values using a power of ten notation. time, but Flexowriter was one.) In the 50's, Friden developed a significant OEM business selling Flexowriters as I/O devices for computers to such companies as Burroughs. In time, Friden developed 5, 6, 7 and 8 channel tape devices. Also, it created a market segment of creating paper tape automatically from the typing of business documents such as orders and invoices. Such tapes could be input directly to computers or, more commonly, converted to punched cards to be processed by IBM punched card machines and later computers. In 1965, Friden was acquired by Singer Corporation, a company with no understanding of data processing. In addition, the Flexowriter's market segments began to disappear. CRTs (Cathode Ray Tubes) became the preferred computer input/output devices and word processing systems from many companies drove the final nail in Flexowriter's coffin. Production ended in the early 70's but Flexowriter's Friden Flexowriter shown stand-alone. place in early The CHM's Librascope LGP-30 has a computer Flexowriter electrically connected as history is its input/output device. assured. Page 4 NTDS on the USS King ROBERT CLINTON I was rummaging through my files today and came across this composite set of photos taken on the USS King in September 1965. Upper Left: One of the two CP642 computers with the doors open, showing the maintenance panels. To the right is the other one with the doors closed. Upper Right: Both of the CP642s, buttoned up. Middle left: at left, the magnetic tape unit. It could read and write tapes at two densities - "high" density was 256 bpi. Keeping the mag tape units cleaned and aligned was one of the main maintenance efforts. To the right of the MTU is the paper tape reader/punch. Patches to the operational program were received on paper tape and sometimes diagnostic information was punched out on paper tape. The cabinet at the right of the photo is the symbol generator for the AN/SYA-1 display system. Middle right: This is the keyset central, which was essentially a multiplexer which interfaced the key entry devices to the computers. Since there were only four keysets, this looks like a considerable overkill and indeed the keyset central could have handled a much larger number of keysets. The lower left bay held analog-digital converters which provided the NTDS system with data on course, speed, pitch and roll. To the extreme right is visible the model 28 teletype which was the only keyboard device included in the shipboard installation. Lower left: The desk in the computer room, looking uncharacteristically tidy. One of the grey Navy flashlights hanging above the desk is probably the one I used in my "programming under fire" exercise. Lower right: A view of the NTDS workshop. The rack of coffee mugs is an essential feature of any Navy workshop. On the bulkhead in the center you can see an outline of the King. This is a sampler worked by my late wife's fair hand, bearing the inscription "God Bless our Happy Ship". Since she was not religious, there was probably a bit of irony intended. But the King was a relatively happy ship and the NTDS maintenance gang was a great bunch of guys. Robert Clinton, a recent museum visitor wrote a three part article on his experiences on the USS King where he supported the NTDS system that is now on display at the CHM. Page 5 Ya Gotta Be From Back East A wife texts her husband on a frosty morning and says, “Windows Frozen.” He texts back, “Pour lukewarm water on it.” Five minutes later, she responds, “Computer is completely messed up now!” On Jan 1, I changed my screen resolution to 1200 X 1600. That's my New Year's resolution. The VIE Cumulative Index is stored at: http://s3data.computerhistory.org.s3.amazonaws.co m/chmedu/VIE-000_Cumulative_Topic_Index.pdf Coming Events Date Day Time Jan 22 Tues. Jan 29 Tues. 12:00 – 1:00 PM Author David Alan Grier on The Company We Keep Feb 19 6:00 PM Member Reception Tues. 7:00 PM Program 8:30 Book Signing Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government Author Gavin Newsom in Conversation with KQED’s Michael Krasny Mar 14 Thur. 12:00:00 PM The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America. Author Ernest Freeberg in conversation with Museum CEO John Hollar Apr 17 Wed. Apr 29 Mon. 12:00 PM Jun 11 Tues. 6:00 PM Member Reception 7:00 PM Program An Evening with IBM Research’s Dr. John Kelly Jul 10 Wed. 6:00 PM Member Reception 7:00 PM Program Intel’s Justin Rattner in Conversation with John Markoff of The New York Times Oct 23 Wed. 6:00 PM Member Reception 7:00 PM Program Game Changers: Trip Hawkins with the New York Times’ John Markoff 6:00 PM Member Reception 7:00 PM Program 6:00 PM Member Reception 7:00 PM Program Event An Evening with Elon Musk Innovating the Future: SRI's Curt Carlson and Bill Mark in Conversation with John Markoff of The New York Times The Martian's Daughter: A Memoir. Author Marina von Neumann Whitman in conversation with John Hollar Please contribute to the Computer History Museum Volunteer Information Exchange. Share your stories, your interesting facts (and factoids) and your knowledge. Send them to Jim Strickland ([email protected]) Page 6