Re-Opened Computer History Museum Explored

gosand writes "An article over at OSNews gives a nice overview of the recently re-opened Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. There are some good pictures in the article, and also at the Museum's website. They have a lot of very interesting computers, including an Apple I (signed by Woz), an Enigma machine, and Crays 1, 2, and 3 (yes, there was a 3!) Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?"

Comments

Let's get this out of the way.

[Chess_the_cat]

What the Museum does not look for in a donation: It's difficult for us to turn people away when they have taken the time to contact us about a particular item. Sadly, we must do this when the item in question is something the Museum already has or has decided does not meet our criteria. Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include: IBM PC IBM PC Jr Commodore PET Commodore 64 Commodore VIC-20 Apple II (+/c/e) TI 99/4 Timex Sinclair

Re:Let's get this out of the way.

[tinrobot]

Dang... I was just about to pull the Timex out from under the door it was holding open.

Re:Let's get this out of the way.

[RobertB-DC]

Woo hoo! My TRS-80 isn't listed... my wife will *love* the closet space that will free up.

Oh, shoot, the page goes on to say "nothing mass-produced unless it has a low serial number" -- and they're talking about low as in less-than-or-equal-to 000030 or so. I'll have to take a look...

On the other hand, even if they would take my TRS-80, I don't think I could part with it. Even though my brilliant assembly-language terminal program (for my 300-baud modem with toggle switch for "answer-off-originate") has likely turned into just so much oxide on a decaying cassette tape.

On a side note... I was surfing the site when all of a sudden, it stopped responding. Sure enough, the Slashdot story had gone live.

Slashdot subscription: five bucks
Being able to visit a feature site before it's Slashdotted to death: Priceless

Re:Let's get this out of the way.

[ptbarnett]

Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:

No Compaq in the list.

I have one of the original Compaq "luggable" computers (serial #1555) when they were still limited to two 5-1/4" floppy drives.

I subsequently upgraded it to an XT-clone, with a giant (at the time) 10 megabyte drive. It was one of the first 3-1/2" hard drives, shock-mounted (with big rubber "feet") within a 5-1/4" enclosure.

I still have it, complete with the nylon carrying case. I dig it out once in a while and boot up DOS 3.3, just to boggle the mind of people who have never seen one.

I can now build a complete near-top-of-the-line computer for about 15% of what I paid for that thing, and that's not even accounting for inflation since the early 80's.

I've been wondering if Intel or AMD will release a 4.77 GHz processor, to commemorate how far we have progressed since the original 4.77 MHz 8088 processor in the first IBM PC.

Re:Let's get this out of the way.

[Computer History Mus]

Yep. Site went down. Thanks all for the vote of popularity. Server has been reoptimized for the flood and should be able to handle it.

While we're not running on the Altair, our Apache daemon had all those nice friendly timeouts and keepalives active for the leisurely browser, not for the flood of hits of getting slashdotted.

To dispell the foreseeable endless debate regarding what the museum is about, and whether or not we're an international museum, you just have to visit in person.
http://www.computerhistory.org/about/tour/

We have THE LARGEST collection of computing artifacts in the world. Period. The site doesn't do it justice at the moment, but keep an eye out.. lots to come.

The collection does include international representative machines, including a great deal from the UK. Only about 10% of our collection is actually on display, and even less is currently available on the web. If you want to help us change that, come volunteer.

We have a great volunteer pool and are always looking for people excited about computing to come and help out.

Director of IT and Webmaster
webmaster@computerhistory.org

Who needs electronic parts recycling centers...

[double-oh three]

... when you can send all your old junk/I mean treasured old computers to a museum?

Old

[mindshadow]

I don't want to see anything created after I was born be in something called a "museum" ... it makes me feel old...

Stuff they don't accept...

[calebb]

Hahah, they have a section on their site for donations:

It's difficult for us to turn people away when ... Some of the items the Museum can no longer accept include:

• IBM PC
• Commodore 64

I guess they put this section on their website for a reason, right? Do people really think a C64 is that old? Speaking of Commodores, a nice C64 emulator for Pocket PC's was recently released. (It runs great on an h5555 iPAQ - It's been providing me with hours of entertainment... oh yeah, Archon II: Adept) /nostalgia

There was a useful link in this section on finding local PC recyclers: There's even one in Seattle that recycles, repairs & redistributes old computers to local nonprofit organizations. Very cool! Sites like this need more publicity.

Donation?

[nacturation]

Maybe you have something sitting in your basement that you would like to donate?

I have a really old computer from thousands of years ago. The name brand is "Abacus" and I believe they had many patents on the technology. The computer works by having the operator move beads based upon the calculation being performed. This is known as programming. Once the program has been written, the answer is immediately available. Execution time from programming it to getting the answer is zero, meaning that this Abacus brand computer is infinitely fast.

Uh oh

[Smidge204]

Quick, somebody donate a new webserver!

=Smidge=

Good sign for the tech economy?

[rkz]

When the museum closed it was at the lows of the dot-bomb, now it is finally re-opeining could this mean that tech industry is improving? Maybe.

Repair, Clean, Repeat

[waldoiverson]

this organization seems to count on donations for their displays. does anyone know what sort of process they use for cleaning, repairing and sorting the different devices that arrive at their doorstep? also, what happens to those computers that are donated but not used for display purposes? curiously yours.

Re:Repair, Clean, Repeat

[taped2thedesk]

I am currently working on restoring a piece of the ENIAC at the University of Michigan - I know that when the piece was prepared for display, they literally put the computer in the back of a pickup truck and took it to the local do-it-yourself high-pressure car wash. Can't exactly do that with today's computers, eh?

My evening with Gordon and Gwen Bell at the Museum

[Bruce Perens]

Sometime between 1981 and 1983, a group of us from the NYIT Computer Graphics Lab visited DEC for a day. At that time, DEC had its own helicopter fleet that they used to promote face-to-face meetings of employees across the company. We took the air shuttle to Boston, and then they picked us up in a DEC helicopter.

After an aerial tour of the DEC facilities, we landed and Ken Olsen, then president of DEC, greeted us.

The high point of that day for me was the private dinner with Gordon and Gwen bell on the floor of the Computer Museum, then located at DEC, after hours. That day, Gordon had caught the fish that they served us for dinner.

I wasn't even supposed to be on that trip, being just a junior systems programmer at the time. One of the senior scientists had to cancel, and I got his place. I don't think I ever met Gordon or Gwen again, but I won't ever forget that day.

Bruce

Re:I crave my first computer...

[Xerithane]

I'm curious...how did your first computer affect your life? (assuming you aren't 13 years old and your 1Ghz PC is still affecting you).

My first computer had a tape drive. I used to play some game that had source that came with a magazine, in BASIC. I loved that thing, and didn't know how to do anything with it. I was pretty young. I then got a 286 with a 20MB hard drive and started playing with BASIC myself, doing really horrible adventure games. I also had a TRS-80 to play with, but that was just for some horrible games.

Then came the 486, where I was introduced to C and started working with Borland C 3.1, with Assembly. Damn those were the days.

It changed my life completely, and irreversibly. Watching Wargames (1986, yeah baby) over and over again, and programming. I originally wasn't going to be a programmer, because I didn't have the funds to go all the way through a 4 year degree (or graduate school to get a really good job) so I was planning on doing other things and slowly going to school. After 1995 it seemed very possible to get a job with just a 4 year.

I dropped out of college in my last semester to go work for a biotech company (1998) and have been programming since. Still waiting for a degree, but if I get one it will probably be in law.

Hope that satisfies a bit of your curiosity.

Re:Computers

[fishbowl]

>the world would never need more than three
>computers.

Well, that's liberally paraphrased, but the thing to understand is the person who said that was *right*.

He was making a practical observation about the market, and the market would have been saturated at just a handful of the computers of the day.

A person making a business plan for the next fiscal year doesn't need to worry about a technological revolution that may take place over the next decade or half century.

Whatis History?

[Eberlin]

I'll give the crays and enigma machines as a concession. Other than that, what would computer history be made of? I've got a 486SX somewhere that I call Nessie (I figured it was ancient and half the people I talk to don't believe it could actually exist). Would that be history?

Parallel ports, 300 baud modems, an "Internet In A Box" package with Mosaic, a directory of BBS phone numbers, a "pre-tables" website. Does that count as history too?

"you've had your desktop for over a week?
throw that junk away, man, it's an antique!"

-- Yankovic (It's All About The Pentiums)

The whole internet, on a single piece of 8.5x11

[robindmorris]

The computer history museum used to be housed in an old warehouse on Moffett Field (which also has a huge hangar that was used for airships). I visited there a while ago, and they have a great collection of stuff.

One of the more interesting things was the internet (or arpanet) router. A six-foot high cabinet. And stuck on the side, was a hand-drawn map of the entire internet. On one piece of 8.5x11. With about 15 nodes. I hope it didn't fall off when they moved it to the new museum.

Re:The whole internet, on a single piece of 8.5x11

[Computer History Mus]

The router is still on display.

In order to keep it from getting more fingerprints and dirt, and to remove the gumming up tape that held it up, the diagram was taken off the side of the IMP where it lived in the moffett warehouse.

That diagram was of over 20 nodes and generated by a plotter, not hand drawn.. the cooler diagrams are of the first two and four nodes, and those are handwritten.

A brief internet history on the site covers these and more.

Whoa!

[Rhinobird]

I think we blew the tubes out of the ENIAC that was hosting thier site...
*ahem*

A couple of years ago there was a university project somewhere that implimented an ENIAC on a modern chip. I wonder if the museum has that. Maybe sitting besides the original to demonstrate the rapid pace of development or something.

Re:Whoa!

[Elwood P Dowd]

A couple of years ago there was a university project somewhere that implimented an ENIAC on a modern chip. I wonder if the museum has that. Maybe sitting besides the original to demonstrate the rapid pace of development or something.

That was at the University of Pennsylvania. The Moore School of Electrical Engineering. They've got the schematics of the chip up on the wall next to the little Eniac museum. Their project page is here. While it was obviously a challenging and interesting project, the schematics for the chip make it look pretty simple to eyes used to Pentiums, Athlons, etc.

They also had some of the programmers for the ENIAC on hand for a few celebrations of some 50th anniversary. I really regretted not meeting them.

Don't forget the software!

[Mainframes ROCK!]

Hello, also don't forget that a huge amount of historic software has become lost; a partial list that comes to mind for the IBM 360/370 is Algol-W, PLUTO, the source code for PL/C, York APL, and many many others. Two of the first time shared operating systems, CTSS and JOSS appear to be gone too. These systems could live on through emulation if they could be found again.

If you have old (non-copyrighted) software for the IBM 360/370 please contact the good folks at http://cbttape.org/

If you have any code post 1967 for Dartmouth Basic please check out http://dtss.org/

And if you have any influence with the University of Waterloo, ask them to open source or at least again market their old 370 products!

Thanks!

It's a shame...

[gklinger]

It's great that all these old (and not so old, I guess it's relative) computers are being collected but I was struck by a thought when reading the article and looking at the pictures.

None of these computers are running.

It's nice to have the hardware on display but I think an important part of showing the history is having them operational with their original operating systems. I've been to aviation and automotive museums and a large part of what they do is restore the aircraft and cars to their original working state. They may not fly/drive them often but if it doesn't fly/drive, well, you may as well have a photograph. I feel the same way about these old computers.

I'm reminded of a line I saw in Usenet once:

It isn't a computer if all it does is reactive passively to the Earth's magnetic pull and displace its own weight when submerged in water.

I patiently await the suggestion that all those comptuers be turned into a Beowful cluster...

Re:It's a shame...

[robindmorris]

None of these computers are running.

The Science Museum in London has what they claim is the only vaccum-tube (valve, for the English reading) computer that is still running.

They also have a cool collection of other hardware, including part of Babbage's Difference Engine, the worlds first mechanical computer.

Re:It's a shame...

[Computer History Mus]

Yep. The 1620 was lovingly restored by some of our dedicated volunteers.

While there are some machines that will get this treatment, there are too many that are too costly to run or repair to ever try to plug in again.

Certainly most of the PC era systems would still boot, but in an attempt to preserve them, we aren't going to try.

There are a few places where more contemporary machines can be seen in their fully pixelated splendor (running) that you can visit.. Get it while the getting is good.. it only takes a blown power supply or burned in tube to ruin it forever.

Here is one example where they have a great collection of systems plugged in and warming up the place. Actually a barn, so a little heat isn't so bad.

http://www.digibarn.com/

Re:Computers

[Aldurn]

The world needs no more than one computer, it's just very spread out.

I've visited and it's great!

[Voivod]

I visited this place a few years ago when it was a bit harder to get into and it was fantastic! Back then you had to call ahead and get an escort through the guarded gate onto the base. The museum was a few ancient warehouses in the shadow of this monstrous dirigile hanger which is also an amazing sight.

I forget his name, but the person who ran the museum was very cool and took an hour just guiding me and a friend through the museum chatting about all the computers they had. Back then everything was in a huge dark warehouse on big dusty shelves. It felt like walking into the government warehouse at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Arc. Every time you turned a corner you were facing a lost treasure.

Crazy old LISP OS machines in wooden cabinets. One of the original Internet routers the size of a refrigerator with a hand drawn network map of the Internet from 1979 still taped to the side. An amazing old Cray that looked like an art deco couch from the movie 2001. Computers that look like telephone switches from 1901. The kitchen computer! Oh my GOD they actually built this thing! See it and believe it. :-)

that Engima machine

[chongo]

As one of the people who helped restore the Enigma machine at the History Center, I can attest to the fact that it is genuine. A few years ago, the donated Enigma machine was not in working order. It took a several work sessions to get it operational (cleaning, wire repair, replacement bulbs (of the same type and era), switch repair, etc...) The machine lacked 2 of the 5 rotor types, so another member did a lot of hard leg work to get a loan of some authentic rotors from a TLA.

The Enigma is a bit cranky. The mechanical contact switches in the keyboard need to be cleaned more often and one might guess. The Enigma is not very ergonomic either ... :-)

We used that Enigma machine to encrypt a real message that was known to have been broken by the folks at Bletchley Park. Some 60 years ago, their code cracking machine took ~2h 45m to search about 1/2 the key space (during which several false positives turned up) before the real key was found. Turing's algorithm, ported to a stock Cray 1, took 30 seconds to find the same key.

The Cray 1, designed in the mid 70's, was only 330 times faster than the special purpose Bletchley Park code cracking complex. That 1940's technology used at Bletchley Park was truly amazing for its time.

p.s. Not only does the Computer History museum have a Cray 1, 2 and 3; it has one of every major model that Cray designed going way back to his early CDC days and his special Navy machine.