When I was an ROTC cadet, we got a tour of a NORAD computer building back in the 60's. The building was a cube-shaped concrete blockhouse around 150 ft on each edge. There were actually two computers, one in operation and the other in maintenance; all tube driven. The AC unit to keep the building cool was huge. We were informed that if the AC failed, you had less than two minutes to evacuate the building before the heat generated by the tubes would push the temperature past 200 degrees F.

nearby community: "What was that brown-out in power??" "It's the army starting their Bizmac computer!"

Somehow I never heard of this historic machine. Thanks for filling in this blank!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Hi Douglas, yes, it was a fascinating giant machine. First installed in 1956, and only 5 were made and they stopped making them in 1957. Vastly too expensive to compete with IBM. Most people have probably never heard of it. Even its RCA successors, the RCA 501, and 601 are not widely known about. RCA left the big computer manufacturing business around 1971, selling its interest in its Spectra line to a then rival, UNIVAC (Sperry Rand).

WoW...This is Awesome Series..!

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Hi Felix, thank you. Glad you found our channel!.

RCA CMOS logic about another 10/15 years later is one of their greatest inventions as well their CMOS cpus like cdp1802 1806

👍🌞 wow

Customer: Excuse me. I am looking to buy a Bizmac. Store clerk: Here we sell computers. For a Bigmac, you must go to MacDonalds across the road

Are there any books that cover the history of this computer or other RCA computers of this era ?

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Hi RandoCalrissian, that's a good question. We are not aware of any books on the RCA Bizmac computer or books on RCA computers specifically. You may find books on RCA history, but the computer info is very weak. General internet research is probably the best place to start. Search for RCA Computers and various computer museums in the U.S., that may help provide more information. Hagley Museum, Computer History Museum, etc. Hope this helps.

Wow. Thanks for this. ❤

Great show! Thank you...

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

Super Interesting. I was intrigued by the banks of "always mounted" mag tapes. I assume sufficient disc storage didn't exist at the time, so mag tape was a good way to get to data "quickly." But, I wonder how that tape was indexed so the data could be accessed in a reasonable length of time. Those look like 2400 foot reels of tape, so to get to a piece of data 1800 feet in ... that would take quite a long time. Inquiring minds want to know.

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Hi josephgaviota, I am not completely sure, but perhaps data indexing was part of what Arnold Spielberg, one of the designers, worked on. He was an engineer working on storing real time data.

@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648

Жыл бұрын

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject I wonder if it was an early pre-echo of modern RAID, and there was some redundancy with various round robin offsets and other optimizations like having a rest position in mid-tape. Then whatever tape was actually closest to the copy of data desired would be told to get it.

And to think your toaster probably has more computing power than that room full of equipment.

@stuartajc8141

Жыл бұрын

Yes, but can your toaster predict batting averages?

@MrTommyboy68

Жыл бұрын

@@stuartajc8141 Probably if I get a friend's 4th grade nephew over to hack it.

PLEASE JOIN US in Preserving Computer History with a small contribution to our channel. www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LCNS584PPN28E Your contribution greatly helps us continue to bring you educational, historical, vintage computing topics. Thank you! ~ Computer History Archives Project

You should do one on a Westinghouse P580

Hey CHAP! I'm a documentary filmmaker trying to get in touch with you about the copyrights of the images you're using in your archive. How can we talk? Best, César

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

7 ай бұрын

Hi @cesaroyarzabal5232, thank you for your message. Copyrights of vintage photos depends on the source of the original, as you probably know. The BIZMAC photos in this video were obtained from the U.S. Government archives for a research fee. Under the U.S. FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) many government computer photos can be released without specific copyright issues. It depends on what photos you may be interested in. ~

@cesaroyarzabal5232

7 ай бұрын

Thank you for getting back to me! @@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Your answer is very clear. I'm specifically trying to use 2seconds of the clip at 1min26sec in your video above (in which we see a man pulling out a computer-drawer). Would you happen to know which section of the US Government archive I might be able to find it? ~ Thank you again.

3:12 should be "Army Signal Corps" not "Core".

@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject

Жыл бұрын

Yes, will have to fix that in next draft. Thanks!