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Computer Pioneer Harry Huskey Dies At Age 101 (bbc.co.uk)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the tested-with-Turing dept.

Big Hairy Ian quotes the BBC: Engineer Harry Huskey, who helped build many of the first ever computers, has died aged 101. Dr. Huskey was a key member of the team that built the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) which first ran in February 1946. ENIAC is widely considered to be one of the first electronic, general purpose, programmable computers. Dr. Huskey also helped complete work on the Ace -- the Automatic Computing Engine -- designed by Alan Turing.
U.C. Santa Cruz also remembers Huskey's work on the Bendix G-15 in 1954, "a 950-pound predecessor to today's laptops" which is sometimes hailed as the first personal computer (since it didn't require a separate technician to run) -- though each one cost over $50,000. The idea of an "electronic brain" was still so new, it led Huskey to an appearance on Groucho Marx's radio show You Bet Your Life, where Groucho warned him that "They're pretty tricky those machines! I wouldn't trust 'em... They'll turn on your like a mad dog, doctor!"

46 comments

  1. me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am a windbag.

  2. 101? by Harold+Halloway · · Score: 5, Funny

    He only lived to the age of 5???

    1. Re:101? by niew · · Score: 0

      101?

      He only lived to the age of 5???

      No... Back then we only used 2 digits for the years... Sadly, he was only 1... It's amazing how much he accomplished in such a short time!

    2. Re:101? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0

      At least he died at a binary-valid age.

      And WTF is a "5"?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:101? by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

      Yes. He was very smart!!

  3. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why did people build computers before we went into space? I've been told that we only have computers because of space.

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You've been told wrong. We only have computers because of war.

    2. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The space race provided a major push for miniaturization of computers, but computers existed well before the space race.

    3. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      War s the reason we were able to go into space to begin with. Without the Nazi missile tech, we'd be lost.

      And as long as we have these irrational ideas of countries, tribes and mythical sky beings that know when you are bad or good, we will be at each other's throats for the rest of our pathetic existence.

    4. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong again Miniaturization was the logical progression of technology at the time. As usual, space benefited from technology, it didn't cause it.

    5. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The differences between cultures aren't just 'mythical'. They're very real. Some cultures just aren't compatible at all with other cultures. Europe, for example, is finding this out yet again. They've failed to protect their borders, and now millions of culturally-incompatible foreigners have flooded in. We've seen this cultural incompatibility show itself through severe disruption and violent attacks against Europeans.

    6. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong too. Computers were useful in and of themselves. Read any 1960s textbook or "made simple" book about computers.

    7. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, it's because of cupcakes you wrongful poster.

    8. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong again. The very first integrated circuit was developed by Texas Instruments but funded by NASA as part of the Apollo program. They wanted this technology so that computing power could be available on rockets.

      You can argue that in an alternative timeline it would probably have happened eventually anyway, but in our timeline, the first push for it and the money to develop integrated circuits came from the space program.

    9. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, NASA asked for *a* integrated circuit, doesn't mean they invented it. Autonetics was the first to make a soid-state computer used in a missile in 1955, and they were the first to make an all-IC computer for the Minuteman missile, before NASA.

      Sorry.

      Space was a Johnny-come-lately when it comes to technology, it was a net consumer of technology.

    10. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have computers to wage war in space!

    11. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is true. Warships of WWII vintage had analog computers to help aim the big naval guns. Also, the optical spotting instruments used were designed with help from mechanical computers.

      At the beginning of the U.S. space program computers filled large rooms. Computers were needed that could fit into the capsules and leave room for the Astronaut(s) and other equipment. These computers were very simple (and slow) compared to what we have today.

    12. Re:What? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      It was actually a Fairchild "micrologic" double three-input NOR gate, but, same difference...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    13. Re:What? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      and they were the first to make an all-IC computer for the Minuteman missile, before NASA.

      False; MIT IL ordered the Fairchild chips in 1962 and built a Block I AGC computer in 1963, Minuteman's IC-based D-37C computer was built in 1964. But in 1963, Apollo was consuming 60% of the world's combined IC production.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    14. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, our much more powerful, handheld computers allow us to play angry birds and browse the web.

      Progress......

    15. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NASA drove and paid for the first IC production. It was also the primary early customer.

      Sorry.

    16. Re: What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only in the single cell mind of bigoted RWNJ. Just because they dont believe in your particular imaginary sky fairy is not incompatable, fucktard.

    17. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But that still doesn't mean we have ICs because of space. ICs were the normal progression of technology. Making things smaller was a well-understood goal, that's why they invented the Nuvistor.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Jean Hoerni thought of the planar process because he was smart, not because he thought space was important. Noyce took that idea further to make the silicon IC. No space was involved in this process.

      NASA *BOUGHT* ICs, they DID NOT *invent* them.

      So we agree. That's fantastic. Just another example of how space was a parasite, a *CONSUMER* of technologies.

    18. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      No space was involved.

      "On August 28, 1958, Kilby assembled the first prototype of an IC using discrete components and received approval for implementing it on one chip."

      NASA was picking its nose that day.

      "In October 1961, Texas Instruments built for the Air Force a demonstration "molecular computer" with a 300-bit memory based on the #587 ICs of Kilby."

      Ooops. Not NASA. Not space.

      I know you've been brainwashed by NASA propaganda that only space can motivate people, but history shows quite the opposite. Space is a lame duck, hobbling along and sucking up technology invented by other people for other reasons.

    19. Re:What? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Setting aside the simple fact that Kilby's design was an unmanufacturable joke compared to Hoerni et al.'s, what does that even have to do with the specific falsehood I refuted above anyway?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    20. Re:What? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      And Fairchild, once they started manufacturing the first integrated gates, then actually credited NASA/MIT for teaching their engineers how to do proper QA for larger batches.

      Not to mention the fact that your reasoning renders the Minuteman claims obsolete since Minuteman people didn't invent ICs either. (But they and the Apollo people were the only ones willing to pay for them at the time.)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    21. Re:What? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I also completely forgot to point out how you are a parasite, a *CONSUMER* of technologies, too. :) Given how we've established that now...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  4. RIP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    01010010 01001001 01010000 Harry Huskey

  5. Never heard of the guy... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    A search for Harry Huskey on Amazon brought up "TJ Hooker - The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons" DVD for $7.55. O_o

    1. Re: Never heard of the guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're always goingâ on here about your college experience and your work experience and how well you know the craft and all of that jazz, yet you've never heard of this important computing pioneer?!

    2. Re: Never heard of the guy... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      You're always going on here about your college experience and your work experience [...]

      I got an A.S. degree in computer programming at a community college. The focus was on the practical and not theoretical. Many students were expected to get a job as a Java programmer or web developer. Historical context in most programming textbooks was a few lines at best.

      [...] and how well you know the craft and all of that jazz [...]

      Some people here assumed that I'm a professional programmer/developer/architect when I am not. I'm just a virtual ditch digger in IT Support. Without my dedicated work behind the scenes, the programmer/developer/architect at my job would have no cloud for users to connect.

      [...] yet you've never heard of this important computing pioneer?!

      If Amazon "never heard of this important computing pioneer", his life and achievements didn't a merit a book or he got mentioned in passing in someone else's book. I haven't read too many pre-1950's computer history books. The earliest books I've read was "The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer" by Charles J. Murray and "Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983" by Severo Ornstein.

    3. Re:Never heard of the guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A search on Amazon for Harry Huskey returned books by Harry Huskey as the first results.

      I don't know what you searched for, but I suspect you need more practice doing it.

    4. Re:Never heard of the guy... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      A search on Amazon for Harry Huskey returned books by Harry Huskey as the first results.

      Thanks for pointing that out.

      I don't know what you searched for, but I suspect you need more practice doing it.

      Looks like I searched for "Harry Husky," which was what Amazon offered as an alternative for "Harry Huskey" on the page with his book.

  6. "one of the first" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ENIAC is widely considered to be one of the first electronic, general purpose, programmable computers

    If you ignore all the prior work done in Europe, such as Colossus (years before ENIAC), and the work of Zuse and others, then sure, it was "one of the first".

    Maybe it would be more accurate to say "one of the first in the USA".

    1. Re:"one of the first" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ENIAC is widely considered to be one of the first electronic, general purpose, programmable computers

      If you ignore all the prior work done in Europe, such as Colossus (years before ENIAC), and the work of Zuse and others, then sure, it was "one of the first".

      Maybe it would be more accurate to say "one of the first in the USA".

      Colossus wasn't general-purpose.

    2. Re:"one of the first" by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      I've heard about Colossus. I've also heard about Guardian.

      Never let these two systems talk together otherwise we'll be in a lot of trouble.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re: "one of the first" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you..

    4. Re:"one of the first" by mspohr · · Score: 1

      Colossus was a special purpose calculator built to decode messages. It wasn't a general purpose computer and wasn't Turing complete.
      "- it had no program inside itself. A person used plugs, wires and switches to change the program. This is how it was set it up for a new task.
      Colossus was not a general-purpose machine. It was designed for only one code breaking task. That task was counting and Boolean operations.
      It was not a general Turing-complete computer, even though Alan Turing was at Bletchley Park. This idea had not yet been invented, and most of the other early modern computing machines were not Turing-complete (for example: the Atanasoff–Berry Computer, the Harvard Mark I electro-mechanical relay machine, the Bell Labs relay machines by George Stibitz and others, or the first designs of Konrad Zuse).

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    5. Re: "one of the first" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I decry the timidity.

      ENIAC was one of the first electronic, general purpose, programmable computers.

    6. Re:"one of the first" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Neither was ENIAC, actually. Until they "hacked" it into a limited state machine somewhat later... Still not exactly a competitor to SSEM and EDSAC in terms of design, though.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  7. Bendix G15 by PeterJFraser · · Score: 2

    This was the oldest computer I ever programed on. It was not my first computer. It still being used at the time to process paper tape and write it to magnetic tape. It had no memory only a drum. The only fun thing about is that it had a brass huge bell, that you could ring with an instruction.

    1. Re:Bendix G15 by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      It had no memory only a drum.

      *Ahem*... Drum memory.

    2. Re:Bendix G15 by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Drums, drums in the deep...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  8. His parents had a sense of humor. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    Harry Huskey would be a great porn name. Just say'in.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  9. I liked the G-15 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To have complete control of a computer all by yourself was a thrill. Did a little simple lens design on a G-15 as a summer job for Kodak as a high school student back in '61. Liked its paper tape better than punched cards cause program commands didn't get scrambled when dropped.

  10. A Good Innings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He cracked a ton.

    Well done, old chap!