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Slideshow: Looking back at early computers
Kristin Lewotsky
11/20/2012 1:08 AM EST
While running the computer lab at the University of Wisconsin as a graduate student, Paul Pierce discovered a 1961 Packard Bell minicomputer taking up in an already crowded facility. He took it home, figuring it would be fun to fool around with. Little did he know it was the start of what would become a passion, after he graduated and went to work for Intel. "For a while I thought I would just collect a few minicomputers for the fun of playing with them and keeping them working,” he says. “I got on the DOD and GSA sales lists. I saw larger machines and noticed they always went to scrap. Eventually I realized that very few of the great old machines were being saved.”
That was when he got serious about acquisitions. Today, he has amassed an extensive collection of early electronic equipment ranging from the oscilloscopes and analog computers to classic mainframes. Part of his criterion for collecting is to only purchase pieces that are either operable or can be fixed. As a result, he also acquires user manuals, software, cabling, and maintenance documentation.
He’s graciously allowed us to present some of those images here in a slideshow. To further explore his collection, stop by his site. Be warned, though, the time will fly by.
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Thomas.Kite
11/20/2012 3:50 PM EST
Um, what exactly does the third sentence of this caption mean?
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tb1
11/20/2012 9:39 PM EST
Do you mean this?
"remind us just how amazing smart phones are"
Smart phones, which cost a few hundred $ and fit in your pocket, are about 1000 times faster than even the fastest machine in the article, with 100 to 1000 times the amount of memory and storage, for a tiny fraction of the cost and size. It is pretty mind boggling when you think about it.
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tb1
11/20/2012 9:41 PM EST
(and I didn't even mention the communications capabilities).
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Battar
11/22/2012 2:12 AM EST
We had 2 PDP-11 computers at a facility I worked at. When the time came to replace them, in the later 80'2, we had a DEC technician, who happened to be an ex-employee of ours, come to dismantle them. I saw him pick up a screwdriver and remove the front panel (switched and blinking lights) from one them. Whatcha doin', I asked, souvenier to keep, he said. So I picked up screwdriver. I still have the panel from the second PDP at home. Anyone remember Varian computers? We had one of those too.
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John_Galt
11/23/2012 11:55 AM EST
I have about 50 PDP-8s in my lab...well, they're Intersil IM6100s - a 40 pin DIP CMOS version of the PDP-8 from the late '70s. I designed an industrial digital pyrometer called "Digicon" with them back in the day. I kept a couple of tubes of the chips and from time-to-time have made some demonstration projects for the younger set. A 12 bit word with a 4096 word memory page, 8 basic instructions, 2 registers (really one, the accumulator) no stack (stores return address in the first word of the subroutine)- can you get any more "RISC" than that? TAD, ISZ, DCA, JMS - it's all good.
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cr0sh
3/7/2013 9:59 PM EST
Would you be willing to sell one of those chips - to a fellow old computer collector?
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SylvieBarak
11/26/2012 8:49 AM EST
I still remember how blown away I was when I got my first Pentium.... the Pentium 75.... oh man. Those were the days!
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Anatole Besplemennov
11/29/2012 12:51 AM EST
Our PDP-11 had from 56 KBytes to 248 KBytes of memory. RT-11, RSX-11 where the best Op systems I ever met. Three engineers simultaneously worked with graphic terminals in the CAD system. Macro-11, Fortran, K-52 text editor where Great!
Java and "smart" phones - the're colorful and are for child games, not for science.
Don't believe? Read the link: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html
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Kristin Lewotsky
11/29/2012 2:53 AM EST
If you got a kick out of this slideshow, I just posted one on the Memory Designline on the history of memory.
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Karen Watkins
12/1/2012 2:21 PM EST
As author mentions above, if u liked this 13-slide HISTORY OF COMPUTERS, her 7 slides with captions on HISTORY OF MEMORY are also great fun. MEMORY segment easy to find if cut and paste link below. Very good stuff - NOT the usual industry dusty ole pix or stale captions: fresh time capsules. Enjoy!
http://www.eetimes.com/design/memory-design/4402296/Slideshow--A-brief-history-of-memory?pageNumber=1&Ecosystem=memory-design
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David Ashton
12/4/2012 2:26 PM EST
GREAT article Kristin, thanks. As a techie, I worked in a university Engineering faculty once and learned FORTRAN there, which involved punching cards on something identical to or very similar to slide 11. Makes me feel old...
The Memory one's also good, thanks again.
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