Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")
Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")
We create and provide Educational and Historical video presentations on COMPUTER HISTORY and vintage technology, including restored footage with commentary, for educational purposes, user comment and discussion. Our channel is an independent educational research activity and our goal is to help make computer history data accessible to everyone.
Comments and discussion are welcome and encouraged. Share your stories and experiences with others as we explore computing history. Thank you! ~ Victor Kaminsky
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A fellow badger Aiken was a very brilliant man. Grace Hopper was gracious and seriously a byte ahead of her time.
Back in the late 70s and through the 80s, I was a computer tech. While most of my work was on Data General gear, I also supported a PDP-8/i, several PDP-11s and seven VAX 11/780s. My first exposure to Ethernet was the DECNet connecting the VAXs. When I took a FORTRAN course at night school, I did my homework on a VAX at work. I was working with VAX/VMS before I ever saw a PC with MS-DOS. What a let down that was, after working with VAX/VMS.
Superb documentary! Minor nitpick, Loral Corp. was pronounced Lor-AL, not like "Laurel". Bona fides? I'm so old I had a job interview there. \_(ツ)_/
Hi @Salmagundiii, thank you for the great feedback, and thanks for the pronunciation correction too. Hope your interview went well. : ) VK, CHAP
Worked at the other Sperry Univac in Clearwater Florida 1980 - 1990. 13133 34th St N, Clearwater, FL 33762
What did they specialize in the Clearwater plant?
What kind of thinking resulted in enabling some stored-program execution, but routing all the branch instructions through a plugboard?
Greetings 😃
Great video! Love the historic footage and reporting! The DC Metro has begun making efforts to gradually bring back automation and computer control to the rail system! As of recent, doors on Red Line trains are now automatic (and much faster), with efforts being made to bring this back to the other lines of the network as well. Raising operating speeds back up to what the system was designed for (up to 75 mph) and bringing back automatic train operation are also supposed to occur in the future. I’m very much looking forward to decreased trip times and smoother rides!
Thank you for your great feedback! Glad you enjoyed the historical video footage. Wow, 75 MPH! That would be quite a ride. Hope to get back to DC and check out the new upgrades in the future. ~ Thanks! ~ VK, CHAP
"Ordnance problems" would include modeling "explosive compression" for the team at Los Alamos. Too bad John Atanasoff didn't have Aiken's connections. Atanasoff went to work for Bu Ord during the War but not building computers, doing acoustics research. A math prof at school was a coder for the Mark I when he was a grad student. Made it sound like he had the time of his life.
9:00 The original desktop is now my desktop background.
The later machines were contemporaries of the work done by Bletchley Park alumni that led to Ace and Leo 1. They provided cover for developments whose real source has to be obscured to preserve the secrecy of Ultra.
Hi @parrotraiser6541, very fascinating re: Ultra. Can you expand on your statement any further?
I have to wonder what became of these machines as time went on, and newer and better technology came along. these huge behemoths served their purpose for the time, and sadly I presume most of them were disassembled and relegated to scrapheaps somewhere. 😢
Hi @GothGuy885, yes, great question! I know the Mark 1 resides at Harvard still, pieces of the others are in Smithsonian and other computer history museums, but much of the massive system components were probably re-cycled in various ways. Wish I was around in those days to pick up some pieces to preserve, study and display. Harvard Archives has records of what happened to much of it. I actually contacted Harvard Archives for this documentary. They have numerous requests for data of all kinds, and their response time can be weeks or months. Still, it is worth a try. ~ Thanks! VK, CHAP
Grace Hopper retired as a rear admiral. She did lectures in uniform.
She also had an excellent way to demonstrate what a nanosecond was. She handed out pieces of wire a foot long and said that's how far light would travel in a nanosecond.
@@James_Knott I saw that, 11.8 inches.
Aquí en España todavía trabajamos con estas computadoras IBM. Iguales a estas. Saludos desde España !! ❤💛❤️
Of course, and as most would know, Grace Hopper's FLOW-MATIC was the basis for another language - COBOL
11:15 Ten people working for almost an hour for what the 'Calculator' can do in less than one second. They never said how long it took to program the machine to get the calculation in there. LOL. (Just my bit of fun.)
that might be my father pulling a memory module at 1:26 on the time line
That sounds pretty fascinating! Was he an IBM'er?
Looks like an electronics skunkworks incubator :-))) It is where the tech from the ALIENS was grown! 😁
Don't believe any self- respecting alien would be messing with electro-mechanical technology. Maybe to sidetrack those worrisome homo sapiens.
Thank you very much. I knew about the Harvard Mark I, but had never heard about the next 3.
Interesting, yes, probably most people don't know much about the other machines. They were not well publicized after early 1950's. UNIVAC and IBM got most of the news stories. Aiken's machines were all surpassed by the vacuum tube electronics and later transistor systems. I never knew the Mark 2 was so much bigger than the Mark I. (!) That was enlightening. Thanks very much for your feedback! ~ VK, CHAP
Cool. It's always enjoyable to look back at the history of computers. Six year lifespan 😮. That's an expensive upgrade.😂
Yes, quite expensive. All four of the machines were expensive to build, run, relocate, and dismantle. According to the research done, it seems that Harvard did not pay anything other than provide the buildings and some staff. IBM paid for all of the first machine, Navy paid for machines 2 and 3, and the Air Force paid for machine #4. Navy paid much of the salaries of the computer operators as well. Apparently, Harvard still has the Mark 1.
The IBM ASCC, a.k.a. the Harvard Mark I was very much a collaboration between IBM and Harvard. Howard Aiken was the machine's architect, specifying its operation and general plan. The detailed work of designing the hardware and logic was carried out by Clair Lake, Frank Hamilton, and Benjamin Durfee of IBM. Lake was IBM's premier hardware designer, responsible for designing much of IBM's commercial product line. Hamilton was a talented electronic designer who would later play a pivotal role in IBM's post-war transition from mechanical to electronic data processing. Lake, Aiken, Hamilton, and Durfee are listed as co-inventors of the ASCC by US patent #2616626 "Calculator". Lake, Hamilton, and Durfee deserve credit where credit is due for their vital work on the ASCC.
Yes, very true. They certainly deserve credit. Aiken was absent for much of 1942 and 1943 while the machine was being built physically. IBM engineers did a great deal of the work. Lots of other engineers and technicians were involved in the daily build as well. IBM probably has lots more data in its archives about this history. Watson was unhappy with Aiken and so he kind of left the ASCC history alone, and went off to build the faster SSEC as IBM's showcase. Thanks very much for your feedback!
Why too many beautiful girls beside the computers in these videos?? Now I know: They though they could understand the women using such systems. They're were wrong.
A lot less standardization back then, vendors were creating their own products from top to bottom. Later on, as systems from multiple different vendors needed to communicate, they started to standardize various systems, and that created the basis for the technology we use today.
I need this level of clear headed explanation on the rest of life problems, please xD
My dad ran a link trainer when he was in bomber command during the war, there is one at the Bull creek RAF museum in Perth West Australia. Think it is in working order.
Hi @colinsouthall2411, that sounds very interesting about your dad running a link trainer. Very cool. Interesting that there is one in Perth too. There aren't many left now. Thanks for your feedback! VK
I know my smart phone is far more powerful, but this still seems so interesting and clever to me.
4:24 Fallout time!
Wow, I can't believe it was until this video that I found out about this platform. I wonder what killed the MiniComputer concept. Replaced by servers?
Hi @mRahman92, that is a very good question! In terms of IBM, I would say that the IBM System/3, & System/36 minicomputers were under-powered, low memory. The System/38 mini was limited in scope, but good for some small businesses. The AS/400 line of minicomputers was very successful, they came in various sizes and price ranges. IBM's mainframes were where the big money was. These were available in different sizes and price ranges too. When high powered servers and distributed processing became more powerful, they seemed to become more attractive to business users. I don't know about DEC minicomputers (Vax, etc). Maybe someone else can help answer that for other mini computers.... Prime, etc. Good question! VK, CHAP
I expanded my EX to 640K RAM.. What a leap my GATEWAY 486 had with 33-mb of RAM and a 100 MHz. CPU AMD I got rid of the INTEL 33 Mhz. CPU... I had a 1.5 GIGABITE HD! LOL.. I liked my TANDY 1000-EX.. It was a great first computer... I swear I had mine in 1985..
Thank you for sharing that info! It was fun constantly upgrading the hardware and memory back in the 80's. I'd like to double my CPU power now...!
I started working at 16 years old in 1977 in Wellington NZ as a trainee computer operator on 370 125/135 (NZ Dairy Board). My mate type in commands on the console starting with 'A' (alter power/vs command) then 'b', 'c' and so on. When he got to one letter (maybe 'Z' but can't remember now) the command dumped all the accounting records and he got the sack! Fun times! I finished up as an SNA Systems Programmer in AirNZ, Auckland and when I left got to take the front panel of a 3705 Communication Controller with me which I installed in my kids tree house. Oh yeah baby.
A 3705 front panel in a tree house! Wow, that is one idea I never heard of before. Very cool! Thanks.
Ampexって既に、ソニーよりも前にハードディスクレコーダーを作っていたんですね🤩
{Google translate says: "So, they were already making hard disk recorders before Sony." (Japanese) interesting...
I wrote Assembler for the 360 Models 20, 30, 40, 65 and 195 between 1967 and 2009. I still think in Assembler after 15 years of retirement.
Hi @garyadair2164, fascinating! Happy SRDA, BAL, SVC, to you! : )
One point not mentioned is unless the satellite passes directly overhead, there are two possible locations. Which one is correct depends on some other reference. If you plotted the reception points over time, you'd have a pair of hyperbolic curves. In some cases the other reference is obvious, for example if one of the locations is on land and you're on a ship, you can discard that location. LORAN resolved this by receiving 3 transmitters, which would provide 2 sets of fixes. You were at the point where the 2 crossed. In the part about the ship born system, it mentioned "hyperboloid", without going into details about this issue.
Hi @James_Knott, fascinating! Thank you! ~
Interesting the son of the family became a brilliant novelist.
Exelent history in the coments
I wanna run KZread in a IBM system/360
As a keyboard specialist, my typewriting skill enabled me to learn keypunch at my first job in 1972. I acquired it in 1970. When I began to work on the Entrex Data Scope [terminal] in 1973, it seemed like the way to go, until I was laid off in 1974. My first lay off was the thing I hated most about the job. Since then, I worked in various places until 1997. In 1980 while at the service bureau, I learned that the Entrex data system was a lighter computer system that stored data onto disk packs, the tape drive units had "scanners" inside that worked like random access memory inside the microcomputer, because many key data terminals were connected to the tape drive unit. The terminals had keypunch-style keyboards made for quicker keying of numeric data. When the microcomputer included a 104-key keyboard that is mostly used today, keypunch keyboarding was ended. I would not want to have it any other way because I have my own [Dell] microcomputer which I call my Keyboard, because it is my powerful typewriter. From this testimonial comment, data entry has been right up my niche. I watch Computer History Archives Project and other computer shows because I love to see other people use the computer beside me and myself.💙
Hi @captainkeyboard1007, loved the Entrex Data Scope look! Very futuristic! Wish that look was available today. Thanks for the memories! VK
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject You are welcome. In September 1980, I began to work in a job that seemed better than all the other workplaces in which I worked, which was a service bureau (Andover Data) in Manhattan, New York. I took my first test on the Entrex Data Terminal, which model was advanced from the Entrex Data Scope. Unbelievably, I keyboarded on that terminal with no errors on the alphanumeric test with nil punctuation marks and symbols. This fact seems as though my typewriting skill spoke for me. Finally, Nixdorf bought Entrex and the terminals looked sleeker than the older models. Also, the desks were nicely designed with gray and chromium exterior. Incidentally, I forgot to mention in my first comment that Jerry Lewis taught keypunch onto cassette tape. That was the way I learned it in a training course from my first job at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Keypunch seemed to be a big thing, because the older church members thought that since I worked doing keypunch keyboarding and that it pertained to data processing, they dubbed me as a "computer whiz." I accepted that statement as a compliment. A co-worker with whom I worked at my first job said this as a secret to all things, "If you can type fast and accurately, you can learn anything that has a typewriter-like keyboard." That is how I ended up using my microcomputer. Thank you for typing to me. Happy Keyboarding!🖥💻🖨⌨
Jerry Lewis the actor? wow. You sound like a "computer wiz" to me, to. Love your icons: 🖥💻🖨⌨ !!
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Jerry Lewis, who was the television host, taught me key punch. The only thing I did not learn in the course was to find the symbols, except the hyphen, the ampersand, and the punctuation marks. Keypunch was a big deal for me because when I told some older [church] people that I was a keypunch operator, they dubbed me as a "computer whiz," even though I did not see a computer at my first job. I took that declarative as a compliment, and it felt nice. By the way, I learned typewriting on an antique Underwood typewriter when I was 12 years old. Thank you for your response to my comment and for typing your message to me. Happy Keyboarding!
My mom has one that still works to this day
This was early computer control of the masses.
I worked for the Japanese for 22+ years! Your advertiser who offers Japanese training may mean well but there is no reason to learn it now unless you have people you care about who speak it. They once were a paragon of business and technology but like the U.S., they have collapsed and are (at least for the time being) - second rate at best! By the way, the worst food I ever tasted was from Japan!
I actually bought a 15 disk pack drive - with the disk pack for $25 back in the 90's. Got it running too! Supplied my own 208V transformer and hooked to both legs of my home breaker box. Now I own several obsolete memory cards that way out strip that thing! I love old computers too! I once owned a PDP-11 with core memory. Now, my free upgrade smart phone kicks the ass of ALL these wonderful technologies. It's almost disappointing!
From across The Pond ... worked at UK computer systems firm, ICL, in the '80's. Even though this is IBM kit, brought back many happy memories of unpacking, installing, and configuring a myriad of ICL kit from VME 2966 mainframes, CLAN 4/5/6s, DRS300s, DRS 20-80s, and my favourite, DRS6000s. IPLing was fun ranging from entering Hex codes, running SCL batch, or mnemonic codes/commands on the ol' TTYs. Loved every minute of it ... really appreciated this vid being uploaded.
Random fun facts from Gemini: 1) Today's supercomputers can perform calculations in a fraction of a second which would've taken the SSEC billions of years. 2) A typical modern smartphone is 2 billion times faster than the first IBM PC. 😄
06:18 “No visual reference of the field” might not be true even with the modern instrument landing rules, but still interesting to watch the earliest innovation
FWIW, the description of the 1100/60 given in this video's description leaves something to be desired. It is basically a copy of the description of the 1100/60 given in DataPro. Here are a few clarifications to both: The 1100/60 was *NOT* Univac's "first Multiprocessing [meaning multiple CPU] Mainframe Computer". Every 1100 Series computer system from at least the 1108 and beyond could, and often times did, have multiple CPUs and so they were all "multiprocessing mainframe computers". What the 1100/60 did differently was to use off-the-shelf Motorola 10800 series bit slice parts to make each 1100/60 CPU. The bit slice parts dealt with 4-bits at a time and were intended to be put together with other bit slice parts to form a CPU of any word length that was a multiple of 4-bits. Toss in a little micro-programming and you could build just about any sort of CPU you might want. In the case of the 1100/60, by using 9 sets of 4-bit bit slice parts in parallel, one could (with a bit of micro-programming) make 36-bit (4-bits x 9 slices) CPU that understood the 1100 Series instruction set. That is what was done. The Motorola 10800 series bit slices were implemented using ECL logic and so combining the ECL bit slices "with [other] high-speed emitter-coupled logic circuitry" really isn't saying anything other than Univac like to use ECL logic in its CPUs which is sort of hardly worth mentioning. (The other well known bit slice family was the slower AMD 2900 series bipolar bit slices parts and if they were used, the other accompanying logic would almost certainly be bipolar as well to make interfacing simpler.) The 1100/60 was indeed designed to compete with other mainframes made by other manufacturer. So was the 1100/80 (and 1100/80A) that came before the 1100/60 and the 1100/90 that came after the 1100/60. This is just kind of a nothing observation/statement. If you want to say something like, "yes, but the 1100/60 used bit slices", that's nice also somewhat irrelevant as the Company continued to use ECL gate arrays before the 1100/60 and after the 1100/60. As for being "Billed by Sperry as their most important Announcement of all time", this is a marketing video, what did you expect them to say? Serious. Give me a break and learn that marketing materials tend to exaggerate.
Hi @lewiscole5193, thank you very much for the clarifying information and commentary. Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience in this area. Your point on the tone of "marketing materials" is well taken. Very true. Every announcement is their most important.. : ) ~ VK, CHAP
@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject > Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience in this area. I joined the Company around the time the 1100/60 was heading out the door and so I don't have much direct experience with the 1100/60 at all. It was a nice machine that sold incredibly well, including a huge sale to the Air Force where it (the 1100/60) and other related hardware replaced all sorts of old Univac/Sperry Univac/Sperry (USUS) equipment on Air Force bases around the world. That sale (referred to as Project Libra IIRC) netted me my first trip outside of Roseville where I got to sit in a telephone connections closet for a week along with another co-worker from the SSP group waiting to do a quick exam of any dumps that came in before they were shipped overnight to Roseville. If you want some more historical background on the 1100/60, I suggest you take a look at this paper and look for the phrase "1100/60": < vipclubmn.org/Articles/univac2unisys.pdf > This paper describes the shadow box displays that used to be hung on the walls of USUS's Roseville Building 3 plant and lists various achievements during the fiscal years around the time of the of the 1100/60. (There might have been some shadow boxes in the other buildings as well, but I don't recall seeing them when I wandered outside of Building 3.)
Hi @lewiscole5193, excellent reference! Thanks very much! ~ VK
Like the horn on the 1000 Series! But got placed in the middle after the June 2009 crash! Then retired in 2017.
I still have an IBM Selectric Mag Card typewriter and card reader machine.
Remember the days of unlimited manuals? And those binders with the steel strips you could cut yourself on?
The same place that built HAL
Now our lives are ruled by computers. We feed the insatiable beasts with our very soles now.
I wonder if the Watson super computer was named after the Thomas Watson in this video.
Of Course it was! He was the founder of IBM. Heinz Ketchup is called "Heinz" for the same reason. LOL.