A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U MW W W. C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y. O R G

M AY 2 0 0 2

CORE 3.2

CORE 3.2FUNDAMENTALS INCHANGING TIMES

May 2002A publication of the Computer History Museum

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Cover: Photo and exploded-view diagram of the Apollo Guidance Computer Display Keyboard (DSKY)

I N S I D E F R O N T C O V E RFUNDAMENTALS IN CHANGING TIMESJohn C Toole

2THE APOLLO GUIDANCE COMPUTER

DESIGNING THE AGCEldon Hall

MISSIONS WITH THE AGCDavid Scott

8HISTORY MATTERSMike Williams

9RECENT DONATIONS

1 0BASIC

BASIC Christopher Garcia

OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTSBill Gates

THOMAS KURTZ ON BASICInterviewed by Dag Spicer

1 6REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESKaren Mathews

2 0ANNUAL DONORS

2 1UPCOMING EVENTSCONTACT INFORMATION

O N T H E B A C K C O V E RMYSTERY ITEMS FROM THE COLLECTION

IN THISISSUE

PA G E 1

2

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10

JOHN C TOOLE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO

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BACK

C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 2

PUBLICATION STAFF

Karyn WolfeE D I T O R

As our fiscal year ends in June, it’snatural to look at the Museum’saccomplishments and future plans. It isalso a time to reflect on how amazingour annual fundraising support hasbeen during a difficult year in the U.S.and around the world. Thank you toeveryone who has contributed to ourexpanding programs and enabled us togrow in stature, capability, andprofessionalism! It is critically importantto operate in the black, and I am happyto report that our audited 2001financial statements show exactly that.With your continued support, we expectto do the same this year and in theupcoming fiscal year that starts on July 1.

The economy, the war on terrorism, andthe corresponding impacts on localclimates have been extraordinarychallenges for all non-profits, but theMuseum has remained strong with yourhelp. This is an important testament toour base of support, which has helpedthis organization through good timesand bad. The mission of preserving thestories and artifacts of the informationage strikes a fundamental note in manypeople’s minds, which makes ourorganization solid even in challengingtimes. If you have not already donatedto our annual campaign, pleaseconsider this mission and what we aretrying to accomplish, and become acontributor—we have included an insert in this issue to make it as easy as possible.

Look carefully at all the activitiesreported in this issue, and you will seehow our organization is growing. Thefree lecture series has been atremendous success. Our curatorialstaff is doing an outstanding job inorganizing the collections, focusing onfuture exhibits, and working with animpressive list of volunteers who arehelping as docents, greeters, andenthusiastic helpers. We are alsofinding ourselves much more prominentin the press. Tours of our VisibleStorage Exhibit Area (with expandedSaturday hours twice a month) providevisitor access to our collection anddemonstrate our emphasis on contentin the fulfillment of our mission. Finally,the new building architecture team, ledby EHDD, completed their schematicdesign phase, and delivered an amazingset of great ideas for our permanenthome. The schematic design phase ofexhibit design will continue through early fall.

While our public presence has continuedto increase during this economicdownturn, the Trustees and staff havealso considered the challenges,opportunities, and risks at every stage.In fact, we have been constantlyevaluating our long-term plans, and have developed new insights into thefuture. Although it’s too early to publiclyaddress any emerging options, we arecontinually challenging our assumptionsas we search for the best investmentsof our resources. The changing economy

poses some unique opportunities today,but also challenges us to project ournext 10 years very carefully. We alsoare getting much more information onthe costs and timelines for our plan ofrecord with NASA, which becomesimportant to our analysis. The “BetaBuilding” that will provide additionalroom for us to grow is still a majorpriority, but will be delayed severalmonths in this calendar year as werefine our plans. Stay tuned for moreinformation.

Although, over time, plans and detailsmay evolve to meet opportunities and to address challenges, the buildingblocks of our organization—the people,the collection, and the mission—arefundamentally strong and the basis of a great institution. Help us make thisyear the best ever!

In effect, navigating in space is thesame as navigating on Earth. One mighttake a star sighting with a sextant. Thatinformation is put into the computerand from it the state vector, i.e. theposition and velocity of the missile atany point of time, is computed. Thecomputer orients the missile such thatthe change in velocity will cause thestate vector to be updated so themissile will free-fall into the targetedpoint. While it is thrusting, the guidancesystem must control the attitude of thevehicle, the magnitude of the thrust inthe case of the Lunar Excursion Module(LEM), and the direction of the thrust inthe case of the command and servicemodule.

DESIGN CONSTRAINTS

Initially the need for a very reliablecomputer with significant computationalcapacity and speed was clear. Thedesign constraints included very limitedsize, weight, and power consumption. If the designers had known then whatthey learned later, or had a completeset of specifications been available asmight be expected in today’senvironment, they would probably haveconcluded that there was no solutionwith the technology of the early sixties.

Establishing interface requirements wasa monumental task. The astronautinterface was one of these. In 1962,computers were not considered user-friendly. Heated debates arose over thenature of the computer displays. Onefaction, which usually included theastronauts, argued that meters anddials were necessary. Logically, thepressure for digital displays won mostof the arguments because of theirgreater flexibility in the limited areaallowed for a control panel. In late1963, as the requirements for the LEM were being firmed up, NASAdecided to use identical guidancecomputers in both the commandmodule and the LEM.

In the early manned orbital missionsbefore Apollo, NASA learned that thehuman animal, confined in a spacecraftfor a week or so, was not as clean asmight be expected from observationson Earth. This additional constraint had

INTRODUCTION

The following article is drawn from alecture given by Apollo GuidanceComputer (AGC) lead designer EldonHall on June 10, 1982 at The ComputerMuseum in Boston. It was first printedin The Computer Museum Report in Fall,1982 and provides some insight intothe development of a major componentthat allowed “a giant leap for mankind.”

The Computer History Museumcollection contains several items andprototypes comprising the AGC,including logic modules, a DSKY, and rope memory; as well as lecturevideotape; photos of the units in useand under test; and various paperdocuments that provide us with further details.

Eldon Hall led the hardware designeffort throughout the development ofthe AGC and pioneered the use ofintegrated circuits in this design.His group at the MIT InstrumentationLaboratory (MIT/IL) was awarded thecontract in 1961 to begin work on theApollo Guidance Computer aftertheir successful work on the Polarismissile project, in which Hall wasresponsible for encouraging the Navy touse digital guidance computers. Hallreceived his AB in Mathematics atEastern Nazarene College, his AM inPhysics at Boston University, and hadcompleted much of a PhD in Physicsfrom Harvard when he took a position at MIT/IL in 1952.

DESIGNING THE AGC BY ELDON HALL

In the early sixties the so-called mini-computer had not emerged and therewas no commercial computer suitablefor use in the Apollo mission. Most ofthe technologies that were eventuallyused in the Apollo computer were onesjust emerging from research anddevelopment efforts. The “design” wasmainly a task of fitting the componentstogether in order to meet the missionrequirements for computational capacityand miniaturization.

FROM POLARIS TO APOLLO

Previous aerospace computers greatlyinfluenced the development of theApollo Guidance Computer. Thedemands placed on these computersprovided the motivation to miniaturizeand develop semiconductors. The MITInstrumentation Lab, now called CharlesStark Draper Laboratory, hadresponsibility for the design of thecomputers used in the Polaris,Poseidon, and Apollo programs.

The lab’s first significant venture intothe field of digital computing was, forthe Polaris program, a very smallballistic missile launched from asubmarine. A special-purpose digitalcomputer was designed to solve thespecific equations required for theguidance and control system based onanalog techniques originally developedby the Navy. With a need for increasedaccuracy, the Navy decided to use

digital techniques for the Polarisprogram, resulting in the construction ofa wired-program, special-purposecomputer to solve the guidance andcontrol equations. In 1959 the firstversion of this system, called the Mark1, flew in a Polaris missile. It was thefirst ballistic missile flown with an on-board digital computer providing theguidance and control computations. Thecomputer occupied about four-tenths ofa cubic foot, weighed 26 pounds, andconsumed 80 watts. Even before thisfirst guided flight succeeded, designswere already being explored that wouldreduce the size and improve themaintainability of the system. The newdesign, eventually designated Mark 2,repeated the architecture and logicdesign with improvements in circuitsand packaging.

In August 1961, when NASA contractedthe laboratory to develop the Apolloguidance, navigation, and controlsystem, the mission and its hardwarewere defined in only very broad terms. A general-purpose digital computerwould be required to handle the dataand computational needs of thespacecraft. Therefore a specialarrangement of display and controlswould be necessary for in-flightoperation. The boost phase of themission, which was the Saturn system,had its own internal guidance system toput the command and service module intranslunar trajectory. Then the Apollosystem took over to guide the missionto the moon.

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THE

APOLLOGUIDANCE COMPUTER

BY ELDON HALL AND DAVID SCOTT

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Inside the Apollo capsule

Assemblers at Raytheon testing and building AGC modules

Lead designer Eldon Hall testing the Apollo Guidance Computer

The Apollo Guidance Computer was responsible for the guidance, navigation, and control computations in theApollo space capsule. The AGC was the first computer to use integrated circuit logic and occupied less thanone cubic foot of the spacecraft. It stored data in 15-bit words plus a parity bit and had a memory cycle timeof 11.7 microseconds, utilizing 2,000 words of erasable core memory and 36,000 words of read-onlymemory. The frame is made of magnesium for lightness and designed to hermetically seal the components.

The read-only memory of the computer consisted of six rope memory modules, each containing 6,000 wordsof memory. This unique type of core memory treated each core as a transformer within a matrix of discrete“rope-like” wires and depended on the patterns set at the time of manufacture. Wires running through thecore stored a “1,” and those bypassing the core represented a “0.” It had five times the density and was farmore reliable than the coincident current core memory used for erasable storage in the computer. Beingunalterable, it also provided a greater incentive for error-free software development.

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The module in the collection has been used only on Earth. The Museum’s prototype computer ran at DraperLabs and was used to test the routines for in-flight machines. However, in space, all of the components hadto be completely “potted” to insure that all the parts would stay firmly in place and remain uncontaminated.

The read-only memory of the computerconsisted of six rope memory modules,each containing 6,000 words ofmemory. This special type of corememory depended on the patterns setat the time of manufacture. Its sensingwires were woven into a set pattern. Ithad five times the density and was farmore reliable than the coincidentcurrent core memory used for erasablestorage in the computer. Beingunalterable, it also provided a greaterincentive for error-free softwaredevelopment.

The Apollo 11 lunar landing had ananomaly that attracted public attention.The computer in the LEM signaled arestart alarm condition several timesduring a very critical period prior totouchdown. This fact was broadcast tothe public and those who knew itssignificance were close to a state ofpanic.

After analysis, it was determined thatthe alarms were an indication to theastronauts that the computer wasoverloaded and was eliminating lowpriority tasks from the waitlist. Theoverload resulted from the rendezvousradar being set in the wrong modeduring the lunar landing phase, wastingcomputer memory cycles. The computersoftware was responding to overloadsas designed.

This incident triggered a news brief inDatamation in October, 1969, faultingthe computer design for being too slow.It rightfully claimed that there were anumber of minicomputers, including thePDP-11, that were at least an order ofmagnitude faster. In the eight yearssince the initiation of the Apolloprogram, commercial technology had farsurpassed that of the Apollo design andcapacity. However, no commercialcomputer could claim to match thepower consumption and spacecharacteristics of the AGC.

The interface with the astronauts was the DSKY(for display keyboard). It used digital displaysand communicated with the astronauts usingverb and noun patterns and two-digit operationand operand codes. A set of status and cautionlights is shown in the top left corner.

a rather interesting and far-reachingimpact on the mechanical design of thecomputers and other hardware. Allelectrical connections and metallicsurfaces had to be corrosion resistantand even though the computer wasdesigned to have pluggable modules,everything had to be hermeticallysealed.

THE SUPPLIERS

By the end of 1962, NASA selectedcontractors: General Motors’ ACSparkplug Division for the inertialsystems and system integration;Raytheon, Sudbury Division, for thecomputer and computer testingequipment; Kollsman Instrument for theoptical systems; North AmericanAviation for the command and servicemodule; and Grumman Aircraft for theLunar Excursion Module.

In late 1959 and 1960 the lab beganevaluating semiconductors, purchasedat $1,000 each from Texas

Instruments. Reliability, powerconsumption, noise generation, andnoise susceptibility were the primesubjects of concern in the use ofintegrated circuits in the AGC. Theperformance of these units underevaluation was sufficient to justify theirexclusive use in place of the coretransistor logic proposed initially for theApollo project design. The micrologicversion of the Apollo computer wasconstructed and tested in mid-1962 todiscover the problems that the circuitsmight exhibit when used in largenumbers. Finally, in 1964, Philco-Fordwas chosen to supply the integratedcircuits used in the prototype computerthat operated in February 1965. Thesecost approximately $25 each.

SPECIFICATIONS

Approximately one cubic foot had beenallocated in the command module forthe computer. The first prototype wasoperating in the spring of 1964 andutilized the wire wrap and modularwelded cordwood construction that hadbeen produced for the Polaris program.It was designed to have pluggable trayswith room for spare trays.

Since the clock in the computer was theprime source of time, it had to beaccurate to within a few parts permillion. The data and instruction wordsin the memory were 15 bits plus parity.Data was represented as 14-bit binarywords plus the sign bit. Double-precision operations were provided tosupply 28-bit computations. Theinstruction word contained the addressand operation codes for the computeroperation. The memory address fieldwas extended by organizing the memoryin banks.

The AGC had 2,000 15-bit words oferasable core memory and started with12,000 words of read-only memory,called rope memory. It was quicklyupgraded to 24,000 words. Then bymid-1964, when the first missionprogram requirements had beenconceived and documented, there wasincreasing concern about the possibleinsufficiency of the memory. Thisprompted a further expansion to36,000 words.

DESIGN AND USE OF THE CONSOLE

A display and keyboard was developedfor the astronauts and had thedesignation DSKY (pronounced“Diskey”). Functionally, the DSKY wasan integral part of the computer, andtwo were mounted remotely andoperated through the discrete interfacecircuits. One was for a sitting positionand another one near the entry to theLEM, convenient for a reclining position.

The principle part of the DSKY displaywas a set of three numeric lightregisters. Each register contained fivedecimal digits consisting of segmentedelectro-luminescent lights. Five decimaldigits were used so that a computerword of 15 bits could be displayed ineither decimal or octal. In addition,three two-digit numeric displaysindicated the major program inprogress, the verb code, and the nouncode. The verb/noun format permittedcommunication in a language whosesyntax was similar to that of spokenlanguage. Examples of verbs weredisplay, monitor, load, and proceed.Examples of nouns were time, gimbalangles, error indications, and staridentifications. Commands and requestswere made in a form of sentences,each with a noun and a verb, such as“display velocity” or “load desiredangle.” To command the computer, theoperator pressed the Verb key followedby a two-digit code. This entered thedesired verb into the computer. Theoperator then pressed the Noun key anda corresponding code. When the enterkey was pressed, the computer carriedout the operation that had beencommanded. The computer requestedaction from the operator by displaying averb and noun in flashing lights toattract the astronauts’ attention.

IN-FLIGHT USE

Shortly after the lift-off of Apollo 12, twolightning bolts struck the spacecraft.The current passed through thecommand module and inducedtemporary power failure in the fuel cellssupplying power to the AGC. During theincident, the voltage fail circuits in thecomputer detected a series of powertrenches and triggered several restarts.The computer withstood these withoutinterruption of the mission programs orloss of data.

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MISSIONS WITH THE AGCBY DAVID SCOTT

In 1963, when NASA was conductingthe selection of the third group ofastronauts for the U.S. space program, I had just received a graduate degree atMIT and finished test pilots school. Myinterests and the program’s need for auser to interact with the design of theguidance computer at the MITInstrumentation Lab were a good fit. I was part of the discussions whether touse analog or digital controls.

THE MIT INTERFACE

When I was studying at MIT, the abilityto rendezvous in space was an issue fordebate. It wasn’t clear whether it waspossible to develop the mathematicsand speed of computation necessary tobring two vehicles together at a precisepoint in space and time—a critical issuefor the Apollo mission’s successfullanding on the moon and return toEarth. Between 1963 and 1969, withthe flight of Apollo 9, this wasaccomplished. I stayed in the spacecraftwhile Rusty Schweickart and JimMcDivitt got in the lunar module andwent out about 60 miles away. Thecomputer behaved flawlessly during ourfirst successful rendezvous in space.

Another assignment for Apollo 9 was totake the first infrared photographs ofthe Earth from space. To do this, alarge rack of four cameras was mounted

on the spacecraft. Since they were fixedto the spacecraft, the vehicle itself hadto track a perfect orbit such that thecameras were precisely vertical withrespect to the surface that they werephotographing. During simulations itwas determined that manual orbitprocedures would be inaccurate. Wewere at a loss.

About two weeks before the flight, Icalled up MIT and asked if they couldprogram the computer to give thevehicle a satisfactory orbit rate. Theyanswered, “Of course. Which way doyou want to go and how fast?” In amatter of a couple of days we had aprogram and a simulator thatautomatically drove a spacecraft atperfect orbit rate. We got into flight withvery little chance to practice or verify,but we put on the cameras and theresults were perfect.

POTENTIAL COMPUTER FAILURE

During the development process we ranmany simulations of in-flight computeroperations with particular concern for in-flight failure. But in the 10 years thatI spent in the program there was nevera real computer failure. Yet people oftenwonder what a computer failure wouldhave meant on a mission. It would havedepended on the situation and themanner in which the computer failed.

We probably would not have expired, butthere were some parts of the mission inwhich a computer failure would havebeen especially compromising.Navigation was not necessarily timecritical but the lunar landing was verytime critical. You could have a situationduring a lunar landing in which, if thecomputer failed, the engine would bedriven into the ground. Unless theastronaut could react quickly enough tostop it, the Lunar Module could havebeen flung on its side. Chances are thatthe astronaut could prevent such anevent by switching to manual control ofthe vehicle. It must be remembered thatthe computer had been designed to beas reliable as possible and theastronauts had a great amount ofconfidence in the machine.

PROBLEMS OF SUCCESS

We had a backup called the entrymonitor system, which had a graphicdisplay based on the accelerometers inthe spacecraft. With this display thevehicle could be flown manually usingpre-drawn curves to be followed forattitude, g-loading, and velocity. It wasreassuring to know that we were stillable to return to Earth even if the ApolloGuidance Computer failed. During re-entry there was a scroll in the entrymonitor system and we could see thecomputer tracking the predeterminedcurves all the way to the landing site.As our skills and the computerprograms improved over the years of theApollo program, we came down closerand closer to the carrier waiting to meetus. Finally, by the last Apollo mission,they didn’t park the carrier directly onthe landing point.

Excerpted by Ben Goldberg fromremarks made by David Scott on June10, 1982 at The Computer Museum inBoston. Reprinted from The ComputerMuseum Report, Fall 1982.

USAF Colonel David Scott flew on theGemini 8, Apollo 9, and was spacecraftcommander on Apollo 15. On theGemini 8 mission in 1966, Scottand Command Pilot Neil Armstrongperformed the first successful dockingof two vehicles in space. As CommandModule Pilot for Apollo 9 in 1969, Scott helped complete the first

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comprehensive Earth orbitalqualification and verification test of afully configured Apollo spacecraft. In1971 Scott commanded Apollo 15, thefirst extended scientific exploration ofthe Moon, doubling the lunar stay timeof previous flights and using the firstLunar Roving Vehicle to explore theHadley Rille and the ApennineMountains. Scott received an MS andan Engineer's Degree in Aeronauticsand Astronautics from MIT in 1962.

AGC SPECIFICATIONS

Instruction Set Approximately 20 instructions; 100 noun-verb pairs, data up to triple-precision

Word Length 16 bits (14 bits + sign + parity)

Memory ROM (rope core) 36K words; RAM (core) 2K words

DiskNone

I/ODSKY (two per spacecraft)

PerformanceApprox. Add time: 20µs

Basic machine cycle2.048 MHz

TechnologyRTL bipolar logic (flat pack)

Size AGC: 24" x 12.5" x 6" (HWD) DSKY: 8" x 8" x 7" (HWD)

Weight AGC: 70 lbs; DSKY: 17.5 lbs

Number produced AGC: 75; DSKY: 138

Cost Unknown

Power consumption Operating: 70W @ 28VDC Standby 15.0 watts

IN THE COLLECTION

Burroughs Corporation Apollo GuidanceComputer read only rope memory(1963), XD115.76, Gift of Charles StarkDraper Laboratory

Draper Laboratories Apollo GuidanceComputer block 1 components: 3 logicprototypes, 1 finished logic module(1962), X1067.91, Gift of Eldon Hall

Draper Laboratories Apollo GuidanceComputer block 2 prototypecomponents: 1 sense amplifier, 2 logicmodules (year unknown), X1068.91, Gift of Eldon Hall

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory Apollomemory stack module (1962), X186.83,Gift of Boguslaw Frankiewicz

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory,Raytheon Company, Charles StarkDraper Laboratory Apollo GuidanceComputer Prototype Processor-Logic-Interface-Memory modules (1962),X37.81B, Gift of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory,Raytheon Company, Charles StarkDraper Laboratory Apollo GuidanceComputer Prototype Universal DSKYInput/Output array (1962), X37.81A,Gift of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

FURTHER READING

Apollo Operations Handbook, GUIDANCEAND NAVIGATION SYSTEM (G&N), BasicDate: 12 November 1966,http://users.primary.net/~pebecker/apollogc.htm

For a summary of NASA flight computersand software reliability, see:http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/History/Publications/f8ctf/chap3.html

Hall, Eldon. Journey to the Moon: TheHistory of the Apollo GuidanceComputer, Washington: AmericanInstitute of Aeronautics, 1996.

For an Apollo 8 mission journal, see:http://history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/index.htm

An online version of Chariots for Apollo:A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft,by Courtney G Brooks, James MGrimwood, Loyd S Swenson, publishedas NASA Special Publication-4205 in theNASA History Series, 1979 can befound at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/contents.html

A thorough history of the ApolloGuidance Computer is located at:http://hrst.mit.edu/hrs/apollo/public/

The Apollo 9 prime crew from left to right: Commander James A McDivitt, Command Module PilotDavid R Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Russell L Schweickart. The Apollo 9 mission was designed totest the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit to verify thatthe CSM could successfully dock with the LM, and to test the LM systems in a “free flying” attitudeto ensure that it performed as per specifications.

Even as the Apollo 11 crew—Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins—were sitting on the launch pad, the only“documentation” on the AGC program was the listing itself, part of which is shown here.

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The challenges encountered in creatinga computer history collection are oftendifferent from those found in creating,say, a collection of rare historicalscience books. For the latter, wideagreement exists as to what constitutesan historic breakthrough and whichauthors are the fundamental authorities.Computers are, of course, a moderninvention and we often do not have theinsight to say, with any real confidence,what are the real advances and whatare simply derivative embellishments.Additionally, many of the people whoworked in the early days of computingare still alive, which makes documentinghistory both easier and harder. It is onlyhuman nature to consider one's ownaccomplishments to be fundamentallyimportant, which may or may not be the case.

When it comes to creating a collectionof relatively modern artifacts, amuseum has two basic choices, both ofwhich have advantages. The first is tosimply collect everything possible(within certain parameters) and hopethat another 15 or 20 years will bringsome perspective, allowing curators toweed out unimportant items over time.However, unless the subject issomething the size of a postage stamp,storage space simply runs out too soon.The second methodology is to use thebest knowledge and intuition in decidingwhat is or will be important in the futureand from the start to limit the itemsbrought into the collection. In this case,some important items will undoubtedlybe rejected and impossible to obtain ata later date.

At the Computer History Museum, wehave striven over the past twenty years to collect items according to a process

of curatorial review centered around theMuseum’s Collections Committee. Wehave been fortunate to have generousstorage space during this time.However, since the institution’s moveWest, the collection has doubled in size,thanks to an aggressive policy ofrescuing important artifacts. Coupledwith the storage requirementsdemanded by the Museum’spreservation mission, space isbecoming an increasing challenge andwill continue to be so, even with a new facility.

When we accept a donation andproperly “accession” it throughdocuments that transfer ownershiprights to us, we are legally obligated tokeep it for a specified period of time.Legislation in this regard was enactedto prevent various unethical groups fromaccepting potentially valuable donationsand selling them on the open market.Here at the CHM we have an additionalpolicy that requires us to keep eachitem in our collection until the Board ofTrustees specifically authorizes theMuseum to “de-accession” it,preventing staff members from simplycleaning house on a whim.

Many other considerations arise whenevaluating a potential donation. Thequestion of whether an item looks goodand would make an interesting exhibitmust be balanced against itsusefulness in illustrating a particulartechnology or its status as something ofsuch importance that it must beobtained regardless of its exhibitingpotential. One such item would be theApollo spacecraft guidance computer(see page two), which may not much tolook at. But, who wouldn't agree that adevice that helped humans get to themoon deserves a place in the Museum?

Another approach can be tocompromise—perhaps “hedge our bet”is a better term—by acceptingillustrative pieces of something big. Forexample, we recently decided that wecould not accept an entire Fujitsu/Amdahl 5995A (a system 390 class ofcomputer). Instead, we arranged for thedonation of sample boards from theCPU and memory sections as well asthe fundamental design documentation.This gives us visually and technicallyinteresting items to exhibit as well asinformation that future historians mightwant. Additionally, the donor is nowinvestigating the possibility of producinga family tree of all 390 systems—something historians will certainly findinteresting.

What the Museum has attempted to dois to develop a philosophy to guide ourdecision on any particular donation. Inessence it states, “we want to have asmany of the home runs as possible, and a representative sample of thedoubles, base hits, and strike-outs.” Toaccomplish this, the collectionsdepartment meets once a week todiscuss items offered for donation. Ifthe decision is obvious, we make itthere and then; for further advice, weconsult the Collections Committee,which is composed of members of ourBoard of Trustees and other experts inthe field.

Everyone has a favorite machine andsometimes we must be very diplomaticin declining an offer. However, if anyoneknows of an IBM 650 or one of their700 series of machines we will behappy to consider it at our next weeklycollections meeting!

To find out how to donate an item, please visit ourweb page at http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/donateArtifact/ or call Chris Garcia at+1 650 604 2572 for more information.

HISTORY MATTERSBY MICHAEL R WILLIAMS

BUILDING A COLLECTIONIN A COMPUTER MUSEUM

Michael R Williamsis Head Curator atthe ComputerHistory Museum.

RECENT DONATIONSTO THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM COLLECTION

1940s-era slide rule documentation collection(various dates) X2389.2002, Gift of Herbert F. Spirer

A Computer Perspective (1973), The PersonalComputer Lilith (1981), X2386.2002, Gift of Ron Mak

APL documentation and ephemera collection (1963-1995), X2393.2002, Gift of Curtis Jones

Apple Macintosh PowerBook 165c and ColorStyleWriter 2200 (1993), X2384.2002, Gift of Lynne Engelbert

Atanasoff-Berry Add-Shift Module replica (c. 1995),X2446.2002, Gift of John Gustafson

Bound firing tables for a 155mm M1/M1A1 gun(1942), X2395.2002, Gift of the United StatesDepartment of the Army, Aberdeen Proving Ground

Commodore SX-64 Executive portable computer(1985), X2367.2002, Gift of Lee and Mary Long

“Compu-mug” coffee mug (c. 1980), X2364.2002,Gift of Jim Gross

Computer Logic (1964) and Charting Courses(1931), X2392.2002, Gift of Steven Golson

Computer Simulation Applications (1971),X2397.2002, Gift of Julian Reitman

Digital Equipment Corporation document collection,including many Pocket Service Guide handbooks(1964-1983), X2394.2002, Gift of Petar Sredojevic

Early computing manuals collection (c. 1960-1980),X2381.2002, Gift of Charles Jortberg

Epson PX-8 laptop computer (1983), X2451.2002,Gift of Chris Illes

Guide to the IBM pavilion, 1964 World's Fair,X2382.2002, Gift of Dag Spicer

Hewlett-Packard Integral Personal Computer (1985),X2369.2002, Gift of Peter Gulotta

IBM 1403 printer music audio tape (1970),X2386.2002, Gift of Ron Mak

IBM advertisements (c. 1950), X2450.2002, Gift of Robert Garner

IBM manual collection (c. 1964-1969),X2398.2002, Gift of Donald Keegan

IBM Models 3494 and 3590 Tape LibrarySubsystems and Drives (c. 1998), X2399.2002,Gift of University of California, Berkeley, Computer Science Division

IBM software and documentation (various dates),X2391.2002, Gift of Richardson Data Services

Illiac I drum image (CD-ROM) (1952), X2447.2002,Gift of Al Kossow

Inside NETBIOS (1986), X2383.2002, Gift of NASAAmes Library

Laser Computer Inc. pc3 portable computer,software, and manuals (1989), X2390.2002, Gift of Bobby Greenberg

“Laws of Computer Programming” coffee mug(1982), X2365.2002, Gift of Jim Gross

MACTEP (MASTER) personal computer,documentation, and software (c. 1993),X2452.2002, Gift of Serguei Nikolaev

Manual and documentation collection (variousdates), X2388.2002, Anonymous Donor

Palm Pilot VII (c. 1998), X2385.2002, Gift of Andrea Butter

Promotional button collection (1970s-1980s),X2451.2002, Gift of Chris Illes

Ricochet Model 21062 wireless modem (1992),X2448.2002, Gift of Karen Mathews

Tano AVT2 Personal/Business Computer, manuals,and software (c. 1985), X2396.2002, Gift of Mark Possof

The Portable Companion collection and relatedOsborne documentation (1982-1984), X2445.2002,Gift of Leslie Blackwell

Two TRS-80 computer cassettes (c. 1982),X2366.2002, Gift of Jim Gross

Tutorial Description of the Hewlett-Packard InterfaceBus (1980), X2387.2002, Gift of T J Forsyth

Various computer science manuals andsupercomputer documentation collection (variousdates), X2449.2002, Gift of Eugene Miya

Xerox 860 Information Processing System printerwheels and ribbons, documentation, and softwarelibrary (c. 1980), X2453.20002, Gift of Kenneth G Lehmann

GIFTS OF DAVID BELKNAP

Apple Newton Message Pad (1993), X2357.2002

Apple Newton Message Pad 110 with GPS dockingport (1994), X2358.2002

Casio Z-7000 personal digital assistant (1993),X2355.2002

GRiD System Corporation 2260 "Convertible"personal digital assistant (c. 1992), X2359.2002

GRiD System Corporation 2260 "Convertible"personal digital assistant (c. 1992), X2360.2002

GRiD System Corporation Model 2352 PalmPad(1992), X2361.2002

GRiD System Corporation Model 2352 PalmPad(1992), X2362.2002

MicroSlate Datellite 300L personal digital assistant(1991), X2356.2002

NCR Safari 3115 CommStation docking port (c. 1992), X2363.2002

NCR Safari 3115 portable computer (c. 1992),X2363.2002

GIFTS OF MICHAEL PLITKINS

Apple GLM computer system (c. 1984),X2435.2002

Apple IIc Plus computer system (1988),X2433.2002

Apple III computer system (1980), X2437.2002

Apple LISA I prototype computer system (1983),X2436.2002

Apple LISA II personal computer (c. 1984),X2442.2002

Apple Lisa NOS cathode ray tube (c. 1983),X2438.2002

Apple/Franklin floppy disk drive (c. 1978),X2441.2002

Atari 520 ST personal computer system (c. 1985),X2439.2002

Atari 520 ST personal computer system (c. 1985),X2440.2002

Atari 520 STFM personal computer (c. 1985),X2443.2002

IBM 320 POWERserver (c. 1996), X2444.2002

Pixar Image computer in Symbolics SCOPE cabinet(c. 1987), X2434.2002

Sony HB-75AS Hit Bit Home Computer (c. 1985),X2432.2002

(Dates represent dates of introduction and notnecessarily dates of manufacture.)

If you would like to update the Museum regardingyour artifact donation, please contact RegistrarJeremy Clark at +1 650 604 1524 orclark@computerhistory.org.

Students using a PDP-8 based timesharing system

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C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 2

Batch processing dominated the earliestdays of computing. A programmer wouldtake a deck of cards he or she hadpunched off-line, give them to a systemoperator, and wait, sometimes days, forthe results. Obviously, this meant largedelays in analyzing and adjusting code,since iterations could not be testedimmediately.

The need for systems where multipleusers could function as individualoperators helped bring about the BASIClanguage. BASIC, the “Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code,”was invented in the early 1960s by twoDartmouth mathematics professors,Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny, andvarious Dartmouth students. Theywanted to create an easy-to-learnlanguage that could be used on theGE225 timesharing system thatDartmouth was about to launch. Thistime-sharing system would allow manyusers to log in at the same time,running programs remotely via terminalsin the mathematics and sciencedepartments.

Kurtz and Kemeny thought that themost popular languages of the day,including Fortran and ALGOL, were toocomplex for non-technical users. Usingelements from several languages, andadding features such as line numberingthat made troubleshooting easier, thetwo developed BASIC. With just 14commands in the beginning—includingthe famous “GOTO”—BASIC could belearned in as little as two learningsessions, creating a tremendousadvantage over other languages thatcould take months to learn. BASIC may have been the firstprogramming language written for useby non-computer professionals. Manyearly timesharing systems used BASIC,including those powered by GEmachines and DEC PDP-11 systems.BASIC began to show up in manyelementary schools around the country,particularly in cities where schooldistricts could use teletypes to get atuniversity mainframe timesharingsystems. Children as young as sevenyears old learned BASIC as part of their curriculum. This early introductionmade sure that BASIC would continue to evolve.

When the microprocessor wasintroduced in the early 1970s, some ofthe young people introduced to BASIC inelementary schools started buildingcomputers from kits and went on tostart companies. It should be nosurprise that many early microcomputingsystems chose BASIC, especially sinceKemeny and Kurtz never patented orcopyrighted the language. The firstBASIC considered to be a full languageimplemented on a microprocessor wasLi Chen Wang’s Tiny Basic, whichappeared in Dr Dobbs magazine in early 1975.

Bill Gates, then a student at Harvard,wrote a BASIC interpreter for the Altairin March, 1975. Microsoft (then Micro-Soft) released their own version onpaper tape later in the year, oncedelivery of Altairs had started. A papertape was easy to pirate, because itcould be run into the computer and acopy could then be punched out.

After this had been occurring for awhile,Bill Gates wrote an open letter tohobbyists (see page 12) claiming thatsoftware copying was theft. He statedthat this theft had resulted in an income

of two US dollars per hour for all thework he and his team had put intoBASIC for the Altair. The letter waspublished in many computer hobbymagazines and was the first timepeople began to contemplate the ideathat software sharing was piracy. Somehobbyists believed passionately in freesharing of software, and Gates’ letterbegan to turn some of them againstGates and Microsoft—an attitude thatpersists even today.

In 1983, BASIC designers Kemeny andKurtz released their own polishedversion of BASIC called True BASIC. Thetwo originators claimed that the variantsof BASIC released by multiplecompanies were altering the premisesof BASIC, and the “true” BASIC was tobe the definitive version. However, it didnot sell as well as the other versions onthe market, especially those made byMicrosoft.

Many new systems used BASIC tointroduce people to computing. In the1980s, the British BroadcastingCorporation (BBC) used a version ofBASIC called BBCBASIC (occasionallycalled BBasiC by the few Americans who

knew anything about it) to be used onthe BBCMicro, later the Archimedes,and many other British micros. The BBCMicro had been designed as part of aBBC plan to introduce computers to thegeneral population (since to a degreeBritain had been lagging behind the US in the percentage of homes andclassrooms with computers). Themachine and the variant of BASIC arealmost unknown in America, thoughsome believe that it could have caughton in the US with a proper introduction.There continues to be a strong group of users who proclaim BBCBASIC to be “the best, most powerful BASIC ever written.”

BASIC began to fade from the limelightwhen languages like C and Pascal wereimplemented for small machines. Thebeginning of object-orientedprogramming and languages like C++brought a close to BASIC’s glory days.The language still exists today inMicrosoft’s QBASIC and a few otherproducts, and also as Visual BASIC, anobject-oriented language developed byMicrosoft, though it is less popular thanmany of the other object-orientatedprogramming languages.

Some people point to BASIC as the“gateway” programming language: itwas the first real language to enable thecommon person to program computersand it ultimately helped to makecomputer science a discipline of itsown. Kemeny passed away in the early1990s, but Kurtz continues to speakand write about the early days of BASIC.Recently, Kurtz denied the claim thatBASIC was the single-most importantadvancement in the history ofprogramming, commenting, “I’m sorry tosay, but I don’t think we had mucheffect…”

Christopher Garcia is Historical CollectionsCoordinator at the Computer History Museum.

FURTHER READING

Wexelblat, Richard L. History ofProgramming Languages, AcademicPress, New York, 1981.

BASICBY CHRISTOPHER GARCIA

BASIC paper tape. Written by Bill Gates for the Altair 8800, BASIC quickly became the language of choice amonghobbyists, and was the first piece of software to be heavily pirated.

Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny, co-inventors of BASIC

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THOMAS KURTZ ON BASIC

INTRODUCTION

In an email exchange with ComputerHistory Museum Curator of Exhibits Dag Spicer, Thomas Kurtz graciouslyresponded to several questionsregarding his experiences with BASIC.Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny, alongwith many students at Dartmouth,invented BASIC in the 1960s. Kurtz andKemeny later wrote a version calledTrue BASIC.

Dag Spicer: In your opinion, what wasrequired to transition from a single-userparadigm to a timeshared paradigm incomputing? How did you observe thishappen and what, in retrospect, isstriking about how it occurred?

Thomas Kurtz: Timesharing was a wayto provide many persons with a smallamount of computing resources from asingle, expensive main frame, each userhaving the impression that he/she“owned” the whole computer.Remember, 1964 was long beforepersonal computers or microcomputers,and there were only mainframes.Timesharing was a fantasticimprovement over punched cards! Inother words, there was no paradigm; itwas a matter of economics, pluswanting to allow thousands of studentsat the computer.

DS: Before the arrival of theGE225/235 BASIC timesharing systemin 1964, Dartmouth students hadaccess to the school’s LGP-30 machine.In your Wexelblat paper you observethat by using this machine, “a goodundergraduate could achieve what atthat time was a professional-levelaccomplishment, namely, the designand writing of a compiler.” What wasDartmouth’s policy regarding gettingmachine time on the LGP-30? Did thesehigh-level accomplishments surpriseyou? Why?

TK: Remember that what arrived in1964 were two machines, the GE-225(later the 235) and the Datanet-30.Dartmouth undergraduate students builtthe entire timesharing system with their

bare hands! Regarding the LGP-30, atthe time we acquired the machine in1959, there was a crude interpretercalled “24.1.” What our students didover the next few years was: build agenuine algebraic language processor(in one summer); build a compiler forAlgol-60 (actually, a subset of Algol-60);build a load-and-go Algol-like processorfor student use (we called it SCALP forSelf Contained ALgol Processor); provea number theory result about the tenthFermat number; construct aconcordance of the works of WallaceStevens; and on and on. All this wasdone by undergraduate students in theirspare time. I observed that the workdone by our students was superior insophistication and quality to the workdone by the industrial users of thesame LGP-30.

DS: You once said that, “Lecturingabout computing doesn’t make anysense, any more than lecturing on howto drive a car makes sense.” Howimportant was the timesharingmetaphor (in contradistinction to batchpunch card processing) to your goals for BASIC as a language “for the rest of us?”

TK: Punched cards could not do the job.They were okay for professionalsworking full time on huge projects, butstudents (with few exceptions) wouldn’tstand for the messing around withkeypunches, waiting in line for their jobto run, and grappling with thecompletely unintelligible error messagesthat came back. They just wouldn’t doit. And recall, we were trying to educateALL Dartmouth students, especiallythose having major interests in thehumanities and social sciences.

Therefore, at the time, timesharing wasthe only way. BASIC was a part of thesolution, being far simpler tounderstand and use than Fortran orAlgol.

DS: Can you explain the relationshipbetween BASIC and GE’s Mark Itimesharing system and how therelationship helped promulgate BASICas a standard?

TK: In the fall of 1964 or thereabouts,the GE Service Bureau decided to addDartmouth timesharing to their existingofferings, which were restricted topunched-card type services. So theyhired the two students who wrote the

Professor Thomas Kurtz lectures to his class.

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PA G E 1 3

William Henry Gates III

February 3, 1976

An Open Letter to Hobbyists

To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack ofgood software courses, books and software itself. Without good software andan owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Willquality software be written for the hobby market?

Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market toexpand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initialwork took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last yeardocumenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K,EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have usedexceeds $40,000.

The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they areusing BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent,however, 1) Most of these “users” never bought BASIC (less than 10% of allAltair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we havereceived from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worthless than $2 an hour.

Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you stealyour software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something toshare. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?

Is this fair? One thing you don’t do by stealing software is get back atMITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn’t make money sellingsoftware. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead makeit a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software frombeing written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? Whathobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documentinghis product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us hasinvested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, andare writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive tomake this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you dois theft.

What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren’t they making money onhobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in theend. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kickedout of any club meeting they show up at.

I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has asuggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114,Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being ableto hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.

Bill Gates

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For example, C was invented as ahigher-level improvement for assemblylanguage on Unix machines.

DS: How did RAND’s JOSS (JohnniacOpen Shop System) influence you?

TK: John Kemeny had used JOSS at theRand Corporation, and so hadexperience with timesharing systems.But we did not adopt JOSS as therewere details that we preferred not touse. For example, each JOSS statementended with a period. Well, periods arethe way most folks represent decimalnumbers. Also, we wanted to make allinternal calculations in double-precisionfloating point to (a) provide enoughaccuracy for serious computations, and(b) isolate our users from having tolearn about the internal numberformats. Other than that, I cannot recallour discussions about JOSS.

DS: You are part of a project toreconstruct the Dartmouth timesharingsystem. Can you say more about that?

TK: Oddly enough, I didn’t write any ofthe code. John Kemeny had written aBASIC compiler for the GE-225 usingpunched cards during the summer of1963, but didn’t do any coding once thehardware arrived in 1964. (I had writtenmuch code for the LGP-30, as he did aswell.) It was clear that our studentswere better at coding than we were. Allwe did was to supervise the project.Kemeny was 1/12 time as thesupervisor of the programming group,but interfered little in their work, exceptto maintain the main goals, such assimplicity. I was the director of the“center.” We collaborated on the originaldesign of BASIC, and on the additionsand improvements that weresubsequently made.

DS: You and Dr. Kemeny are heroes tomany for your invention of BASIC. Doyou have any heroes?

TK: Anyone who makes significantprogress toward world peace.

DS: Is there anything you’d like to sayabout the role of BASIC in the history ofcomputing?

TK: Dartmouth BASIC will be celebratingits fortieth birthday in 2004. It is stillaround; its current incarnation is TrueBASIC, which is used in schools andsome colleges. While we have usedTrue BASIC to build many seriousapplications, its chief appeal is that it issimple and easy to use. Plus, therehave been no major language changesin the last decades; teachers muchprefer continuity, as they don’t want tohave to change their teaching materialsevery year.

We are hot on this project of recreatingthe Dartmouth timesharing system,circa 1965. One of the then studentprogrammers, Steve Hobbs (formerly ofDEC and Compaq, now of Intel), haslocated assembly language listings ofthe BASIC compiler and runtime, theAlgol compiler and runtime, the 235exec, and the D-30 exec. We are now inthe process of hand transcribing theselistings into a machine-readable form.(We tried scanning but that didn’t work.Plus, we have to proofread very carefullyanyhow.) As of the moment, the D-30exec has been transcribed andproofread. The Algol compiler andruntime has been transcribed, but not

proofread. Once the code is thusfinished, someone will write emulatorsfor the 235 and D-30. When completed,we will actually have a working model of the original (well, one year later)system.

Others who are directly involved in theproject are: John McGeachie, who wrotethe original GE-235 exec to DTSS andRon Martin, who took over the code forthe D-30 exec (which had been originallywritten by Mike Busch.) As we progress, I am sure more people will becomeinvolved. A start of a website for thisproject can be found at:http://www.dtss.org.

For more information about True BASIC,visit the company website at www.truebasic.com.

Early users of the Dartmouth timesharing system on the GE-225A student goes over his program in the mid-1970s One of millions of young students who learnedBASIC at an early age

timesharing executive to go to Phoenixto install the Dartmouth timesharingsystem on similar hardware at theservice bureau. Of course, theyrenamed it the GE timesharing system,Mark I. It was with our blessing, as (1) they had provided a slight bit morethan their usual educational discountplus several other non-monetarybenefits, and (2) we had no interest inmarketing what we had built through acommercial operation. The timesharingsystem, also called the GE-265, was thebasis of the GE service bureauoperation for the next ten or so years,and eventually provided them with$100,000,000 in annual revenue. I seem to recall that the GE-265 wasreplicated in over 50 locations, some ofthem in the GE Service Bureau, theothers in various corporations and in afew school districts.

Thus, BASIC became the most widelyused language in the timesharing world,as other vendors “copied” the GEapproach on different computers. At onetime, there were over 100 companies inthe world offering timesharing services,and the vast majority offered some formof BASIC. Thus, when (finally)

microcomputers began to appear, thevendors adopted BASIC as being (a) simple, (b) easy to learn, and (c) able to fit in the teeny memories atthe time. This then motivated an effortto standardize BASIC in 1974. (It failed,as coming too little, too late.) Gates andAllen wrote one of the first (not the first)BASIC interpreters in 1975. In short,the GE connection was the vehicle thatpopularized BASIC, which was thenpicked up by the emerging personalcomputer industry.

DS: What principles of BASIC do youbelieve still remain fundamentallyimportant or true? What ideas are soubiquitous today they no longer feel likeBASIC, but nevertheless are/were?

TK: Since most of the users would becasual and occasional users, thelanguage had to be simple and easy toremember. Error messages should be inEnglish and also be suggestive.Beginners should not have to learnfancy stuff of use mainly to experts.These aspects are not present today inmost computer applications. Themajority of applications are so huge thata casual user must take a course to

figure out how to use them. Theirdesktops are cluttered with so muchjunk that it is almost impossible tofigure things out without studying themanual. And most manuals areatrocious. The computer industry is outfor the quick buck, and puts little effortinto creating reliable and safe productswith readable and useful manuals. Thewhole strategy is to bring out upgradeson a regular basis in order to establisha revenue stream, each upgrade makingthe product ever more complicated. Thewhole virtue of simplicity has been lost!

DS: Why do you think there has beensuch a proliferation of programminglanguages since the invention of thestored-program computer some 50 years ago?

TK: My opinion is that all (well, almostall) programming languages are thesame, differing only in the spelling ofthe words, and the clientele for whichthey are intended. Each new systemsprogrammer that comes along feels hecan improve things by inventing a newlanguage. In some cases, a newlanguage was needed because it wasintended for a different environment.

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C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 2

It is clear—when we think about it—thatcomputer history is created every day.The challenge of preserving andpresenting important artifacts andstories of that history is our abidingpassion at the Computer HistoryMuseum. Much of what we do on a dailybasis relates to education and servingthe public; researching and planning forthe future building and the physical andCyberMuseum exhibits; processingartifact donations; cataloguing andcaring for the existing collection;planning and holding programs andevents; and of course, raising the fundsto continue and advance this importantwork. In my opinion, it is our greatprivilege to both facilitate and observethe process of preservation in action.

CHARLIE SPORCK

PUTTING THE SILICON IN

SILICON VALLEY

With SEMI (www.semi.org) as our co-host, Charlie Sporck kicked off theMuseum’s Spring 2002 lecture serieson January 16 with his talk, “Putting theSilicon in Silicon Valley: The Birth of theSemiconductor Industry in SiliconValley,” where he relayed fascinatingand sometimes surprising personalobservations and stories about thepeople and personalities who broughtthe semiconductor industry in SiliconValley into being. Recruited by FairchildSemiconductor in Mountain View, Calif.,Sporck began as a production managerand rose to vice president and generalmanager. It was during this period atFairchild that Jean Hoerni developed theplanar process and Bob Noyce, theintegrated circuit. These innovations,together with the manufacturingequipment and organization, became

the foundation of Silicon Valley.

After leaving Fairchild in the late 1960s,Sporck distinguished himself as CEO ofNational Semiconductor, where, underhis leadership, the company became amulti-billion-dollar giant. With Richard L Molay, Sporck recently co-authoredSpinoff: A Personal History of theIndustry that Changed the World, a bookabout the Silicon Valley semiconductorindustry. Lecture attendee MikeCheponis remarked, “I reallyappreciated Charlie Sporck’s talk andbook. I wish more computer old-timerswould do what he’s done! It is very niceto see someone like him ‘giving back’ tothe community of preserved history.”

JEFF HAWKINS, DONNA DUBINSKY,

AND ED COLLIGAN

THE PALMPILOT STORY

The late 1980s and early 1990s buzzedwith corporations and startups trying todevelop portable computers that usedpens as the means of interaction. Bylate 1993, every one of these effortshad failed. Though running out offunding, one of these startups, PalmComputing, introduced the Pilotorganizer and Palm operating system,which, in turn, launched the handheldcomputing industry. Last February 26,to an audience of 250, Jeff Hawkins,Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligandiscussed the roots of handheldcomputing, how Palm learned fromfailure, and the challenges of battlingconventional technology wisdom. AndreaButter, former Palm marketing executive

and co-author of Piloting Palm: TheInside Story of Palm, Handspring, andthe Birth of the Billion Dollar HandheldIndustry, facilitated the discussion.

In 1994, Hawkins invented the originalPalmPilot products and founded PalmComputing. He is often credited as thedesigner who reinvented the handheldmarket. As president and CEO of PalmComputing, Dubinsky helped make thePalmPilot the best-selling handheldcomputer and the most rapidly adoptednew computing product ever produced.

It is incredible how much tenacity anddetermination it took to make thishappen. As the vice president ofmarketing for Palm Computing, Colliganworked with Hawkins and Dubinsky tolead the product marketing andcommunications efforts for Palm. Aftertheir successful run together at PalmComputing, Hawkins and Dubinsky co-founded Handspring in July of 1998 tocreate a new breed of handheldcomputers for consumers. Colliganjoined Handspring to lead thedevelopment and marketing efforts.

Be sure to visit our Visible StorageExhibit Area and view the PalmPilotprototype on display.

DOUG ENGELBART

OUTRACING THE FIRE: 50 YEARS

(AND COUNTING) OF TECHNOLOGY

AND CHANGE

Hosted at Microsoft’s Silicon ValleyCampus on March 26, DougEngelbart—thinker, inventor, andhumanitarian—shared with an audienceof 250 some of the influences andstruggles behind his life of research.Pierluigi Zappacosta, founder ofLogitech and chairman of DigitalPersona, facilitated the dialogue.

Although he may be best known for histangible evidence of productivity—thecomputer mouse, display editing, outline processing, multiple remoteonline users of a networked processor,

hyperlinking and in-file objectprocessing, multiple windows,hypermedia, context-sensitive help—Engelbart’s drive has been to maximizehis professional contributions towardhelping humankind cope with complexand urgent problems.

Since 1989, he has become therecipient of an extraordinarily long stringof awards, including the Lemelson-MITPrize of $500,000, and the NationalMedal of Technology in 2000. Still to berecognized is that Engelbart’stechnological accomplishments are butpart of his humanitarian career. Saidlecture attendee Susan Nycum, “Myimpressions are that Doug is, asalways, looking ahead and impatientwith looking behind—even at his ownaccomplishments. [This is] somethinghe shares with all the ‘young for theirage’ senior superstars I know.”

Our host and Microsoft’s generalmanager of cable services, Colin Dixon,said, “I think the most magical momentfor me… was when Doug mentioned,almost offhandedly, an invention hemade during the war. He described howhe held a tube of electro-luminescentgas up against an antenna he wastrying to tune. When he had the powerset just right, the gas in the tubeglowed most intensely. It was afascinating glimpse into the mind of aconsummate inventor.” Engelbartcontinues to propagate his ideasthrough his Bootstrap Institute.Additional background information isavailable at www.bootstrap.org.

CHARLIE BACHMAN

ASSEMBLING THE INTEGRATED DATA

STORE (IDS)

On April 16, Charlie Bachman, winner ofthe ACM Turing Award and DistinguishedFellow of the British Computer Society,described the circumstances underwhich the first database managementsystem (DBMS) came into being. In1960, General Electric was desperate tocomputerize their manufacturingsystems, without each of 100departments inventing their ownsolution. Bachman and others at GE setout to solve the problem. By 1964 theyhad created and put into production ageneric manufacturing system (MIACS),a transaction-oriented operating system,and the first database managementsystem (Integrated Data Store, or IDS),all running on an 8K GE 225 computer.IDS was a unique combination ofexisting software technologies: virtual

REPORT ON MUSEUM ACTIVITIESBY KAREN MATHEWS

Karen Mathews is ExecutiveVice President at theComputer History Museum

Charlie Sporck (left) autographs his book, Spinoff:A Personal History of the Industry that Changed theWorld, after his Museum lecture on January 16.

Pioneers (left to right) Jeff Hawkins, DonnaDubinsky, and Ed Colligan discuss the roots andchallenges of the handheld computing industry.

Handspring Chairman and Chief Product Officer JeffHawkins (right) shows off the Treo.

Doug Engelbart (left) and Pierluigi Zappacostaprepare for Engelbart’s talk in which he reminiscedabout his lifetime of invention and research.

Attendees record their thoughts duringEngelbart’s lecture.

Andrea Butter, former Palm Computing marketingexecutive, facilitated a panel discussion withHawkins, Dubinsky, and Colligan on February 26.

Handspring President and CEO Donna Dubinskyautographs Butter’s book, Piloting Palm, before the panel discussion with colleagues Hawkins and Colligan.

250 people attended the Engelbart event.

memory, blocked records, listprocessing, data descriptions, selfidentifying records, data manipulationlanguage, recovery and restart, etc.,and was the first disk-based databasemanagement system used in everydayproduction. Among other things,Bachman was also responsible fordeveloping data structure diagrams (ERdiagrams), commonly known asBachman diagrams, as graphicalrepresentations of semantic structureswithin the data.

In April 1983, Bachman InformationSystems, Inc. was created tocommercialize Computer Aided SoftwareEngineering (CASE) concepts, which hedeveloped while at Honeywell andCullinet. In 1991 the company wentpublic, and in 1996, merged with CadreTechnology, Inc., to form CayenneSoftware, Inc. Bachman’s IDS and CASEproducts are still alive under the CAbanner. Today, Bachman is a consultantand is currently working on a bookabout the story of the development of IDS.

STEVE RUSSELL AND

NOLAN BUSHNELL

SHALL WE PLAY A GAME? THE EARLY

YEARS OF COMPUTER GAMING

From their humble beginnings in the1960s as demonstrations of computerinteractivity, computer video games havebecome a major part of popular culturein America, Japan, Europe, andelsewhere. On May 7, Stephen “Slug”

Russell, inventor of the early computergame SpaceWar!, and Nolan Bushnell,designer of Computer Space andfounder of Atari, shared their personalstories, starting from the days whencomputer games were played onmainframes. Stewart Brand, publisher of the original Whole Earth Catalogand president of The Long NowFoundation, moderated this fascinatingdiscussion about the advent of themodern gaming age.

Hanging out together at the modelrailroad club and inspired by the writingsof sci-fi author E.E. “Doc” Smith,Russell and his team of programmers at MIT worked to create SpaceWar! in1962. “The space program was peakingat the time and people didn’t havemuch sense of what it might be like tosteer the spacecraft,” said Russell. “Iwas into realism and really trying toteach people what flying in space wasall about.”

SpaceWar! was created on a DigitalEquipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1, anearly “interactive” mini-computer thatused a cathode-ray tube display andkeyboard input. The computer was adonation to MIT from DEC, which hopedMIT’s think tank would be able to dosomething remarkable with its product.A game was possibly the last thing thecompany expected. But Russell’sSpaceWar! showed that fun could be adriving force in the advancement ofcomputer technology. It influencedcompanies like Atari and others increating a powerful new entertainmentmedium.

As a youth in Salt Lake City, Bushnellworked in the games department of anarcade. He first encountered SpaceWar!on an IBM machine in the mid 1960sand describes himself at the time as“truly obsessed with the game.”Bushnell co-founded Atari in 1972 andafter four years of financial struggles,the company was purchased by WarnerCommunications. It had become “partof the Atari culture to get to the bankfirst with your paycheck,” Bushnelladmitted. Having brought PONG to the masses, Bushnell is justifiablyrevered as the “Father of the VideoGame Industry.”

TOURS AT THE MUSEUM BRING PEOPLE

TOGETHER

You never know whom you will run intoat the Museum’s Visible Storage Exhibitarea—nor what you will learn aboutthem. For example, Jamis MacNiven,

owner of the famed Buck’s Restaurantof Woodside, California (where hundredsof businesses have been founded overbreakfast), recently organized a tour forsome of his friends. His guestsincluded: Brian Carlisle, founder of therobotics firm, Adept Technology, wherethe Milano Cookies are assembled;venture capitalist Paul Dali; ReidDennis, founder of Institutional VenturePartners and pilot of a 50-year-oldairplane that he restored and flewaround the world; Kevin Kelly, co-founderof WIRED Magazine and outspokenoptimist for the coming new age ofinterconnectivity; Jacques Littlefield,who has an impressive operation inWoodside to collect and restore army

tanks from around the world; BillPeacock, venture capitalist and formerassistant secretary of the United StatesArmy; networking pioneer andentrepreneur Larry Roberts; DennisTaylor, managing editor of Silicon ValleyBiz Ink; Meihong Xu, venture capitalist

with Möbius and formerly an intelligenceofficer in China; and Steve Zelencik,senior vice president at Advanced MicroDevices and a great finder of computerartifacts himself.

Why not organize a tour for yourfriends? Contact Kelly Geiger at +1 650 604 0345 to makearrangements.

COLLECTION CONTINUES TO GROW

Among the many items recently donatedto the Museum’s collection (see pagenine), the following are particularlynoteworthy. A replica of an add-shiftmodule from the Atanasoff-BerryComputer (ABC) replicates in exactdetail the circuitry and componentsused in the original ABC from 1937.While the machine was not a directprogenitor of the modern storedprogram digital computer, it played a keyrole in a decades-long lawsuit over theofficial “inventor” of the digitalcomputer, a legal battle that Atanasoffeventually won.

Secondly, the U.S. Army’s AberdeenProving Ground donated an originalWorld War II Artillery Firing Table,precisely the type of table theproduction of which was the impetus forthe design and construction of theENIAC, the United States’ firstelectronic computer. Gunners used the1942 booklet of tables to properly guidetheir artillery shells to their targets. Itwas the long process of calculatingthese tables by rooms full of human“computers” that led the Army toconsider an automated method ofproduction. ENIAC, though completedafter the war, was still used to calculatefiring tables but also played a major role in the development of the hydrogen bomb.

Finally, Al Kossow donated an ILLIAC Idrum image: a snapshot of the actualbit patterns stored on the computer’sdrum memory (delivered on paper tape).The ILLIAC I, a vacuum tube machinecompleted in about 1952, was a directdescendant of the famous IAS (Institutefor Advanced Study) machine designedby John von Neumann—the prototype ofthe modern stored-program, binary,parallel, digital computer. This

acquisition helps the Museum fulfill itsmission of preserving not just hardware,but software as well, and is an excitingfind from the “prehistoric” era of themodern computer.

VOLUNTEERS VISIT TANK FARM

About 30 Museum volunteers and staffwent on a field trip on March 30 to PonyTracks Ranch in Portola Valley to seeJacques Littlefield’s tanks and the Military Vehicle TechnologyFoundation organization. Curator Roy Robertson showed us 150 of the nearly200 tanks held on the site. Most of them are operable and many have beenrestored to combat-ready appearance and operating condition. We are alwaysinterested in seeing how other organizations collect, restore, preserveand present their collections. The foundation is doing an impressive job.

PA G E 1 8 PA G E 1 9

C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 2

Charlie Bachman discussed his experiences indeveloping the first database management system,the Integrated Data Store.

Video game fans gathered to celebrate the 40thbirthday of Spacewar! and the 30th birthday ofPONG.

(left to right) Jacques Littlefield, Brian Carlisle,Steve Zelencik, Reid Dennis, Meihong Xu, BillPeacock (behind), Len Shustek (behind), KevinKelly, and Larry Roberts converse in the Museum’sVisible Storage Exhibit Area.

On March 30, Museum volunteers and staff visitedJacques Littlefield’s Tank Farm in Portola Valley.

A paper tape of the ILLIAC I drum memory wasrecently donated to the Museum by Al Kossow.

Bill Peacock, Jacques Littlefield, and JamisMacNiven with Museum Curator of Exhibits DagSpicer at a special tour arranged by Buck’sRestaurant owner MacNiven.

Slug Russell, Bill Pitts, Steve Golson, and NolanBushnell (left to right) enjoyed the rare opportunityto play the Galaxy game, which was developed byPitts and based on Spacewar! Find Spacewar!online at: http://agents.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/

Delighted fans Cassidy Nolen and Nicole Servaiswith Nolan Bushnell’s autograph.

COMPANIES PLAY CRITICAL ROLE IN PRESERVATION

UPCOMING EVENTS

PA G E 2 0 PA G E 2 1THANKS TO OUR ANNUAL DONORS

CONTACT INFORMATION

EXECUTIVE STAFF

JOHN TOOLE

Executive Director & CEO+1 650 604 2581toole@computerhistor y.org

KAREN MATHEWS

Executive Vice President+1 650 604 2568mathews@computerhistor y.org

DAVID A MILLER

Vice President of Development+1 650 604 2575miller@computerhistor y.org

MICHAEL R WILLIAMS

Head Curator+1 650 604 3516williams@computerhistor y.org

FULL-TIME STAFF

JEREMY CLARK

Registrar+1 650 604 1524clark@computerhistor y.org

PAM CLEVELAND

Event Manager +1 650 604 2062cleveland@computerhistor y.org

WENDY-ANN FRANCIS

Of fice Administrator+1 650 604 5205francis@computerhistor y.org

CHRIS GARCIA

Historical Collections Coordinator+1 650 604 2572garcia@computerhistor y.org

DAPHNE LISKA

Development Associate+1 650 604 3470liska@computerhistor y.org

JACKIE McCRIMMON

Executive Assistant+1 650 604 5145mccrimmon@computerhistor y.org

DAG SPICER

Curator of Exhibits+1 650 604 2160spicer@computerhistor y.org

CATRIONA SWEENEY

Development & PR Associate+1 650 604 5133sweeney@computerhistor y.org

KIRSTEN TASHEV

Building & Exhibits Project Manager+1 650 604 2580tashev@computerhistor y.org

MIKE WALTON

Director of Cyber Exhibits+1 650 604 1662walton@computerhistor y.org

KARYN WOLFE

Special Projects Manager+1 650 604 2570wolfe@computerhistor y.org

PART-TIME STAFF

JENNIFER CHENG

Event and PR Intern+1 650 604 2714cheng@computerhistor y.org

LEE COURTNEY

Volunteer Coordinator cour tney@computerhistor y.org

KELLY GEIGER

Administrative and Accounting Intern+1 650 604 2579geiger@computerhistory.org

SOWMYA KRISHNASWAMY

Database Services Intern+1 650 604 2579krishnaswamy@computerhistory.org

TANYA PODCHIYSKA

Web Services Intern+1 650 604 2070podchiyska@omputerhistory.org

KATHY VO JOZEFOWICZ

E-Commerce Intern+1 650 604 2577jozefowicz@computerhistor y.org

BETSY TOOLE

Hospitality & Facilities Suppor t+1 650 604 2567etoole@computerhistor y.org

ROBERT YEH

Administration and Accounting Intern+1 650 604 2067yeh@computerhistor y.org

JOHN J VILAIKEO

Tech Supor t Intern+1 650 604 4962vilaikeo@computerhistor y.org

COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

Building T12-AMof fett Field, CA 94035, USA+1 650 604 2579+1 650 604 2594 (fax)orCOMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

PO Box 367Mof fett Field, CA 94035, USA

WWW.COMPUTERHISTORY.ORG

Current staf f openings can be foundat www.computerhistor y.org/jobs.

Your company has played a critical rolein the computer industry; you spentnights sleeping underneath your deskand an 80-hour work week was average.Now it’s time for you to help preservethe history you created by becoming acorporate member of the ComputerHistory Museum.

Corporate members join the Museum onan annual basis, and enjoy manyadvantages and exclusive privileges forthe critical support they provide.

Through this program, your company willbe associated with the Museum’s mostvisible and significant activities.

Contributions play an essential role inguaranteeing the future success of theComputer History Museum, and helpingus to continue our work collecting theartifacts and human stories ofcomputing history.

The items we seek and the pioneers ofthe industry are disappearing; we needyour help to preserve this piece ofhistory now.

For further information please contactDavid Miller, vice president ofdevelopment, at 650.604.2575 ormiller@computerhistory.org.

MUSEUM SEEKSDIRECTOR OFINDIVIDUAL GIVINGAND MAJOR GIFTS

The Computer History Museum has animmediate opening for a director ofindividual giving and major gifts. As amember of the development team, thedirector is responsible for theMuseum’s annual fund program andgoals and serves as major gifts officerfor the Museum’s capital campaign.

For more information please visitwww.computerhistory.org/jobs.

Please RSVP for all events and activitiesby calling +1 650 604 2714 or visitingwww.computerhistory.org/events.Thank you!

TUE, MAY 21THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OFELECTRONIC PHOTOGRAPHYCarver Mead, Foveon, Inc.MEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

LECTURE: 7:00 PM

AMD, Commons BuildingSunnyvale, California

TUE, JUNE 4EARLY TECHNOLOGY MARKETINGEFFORTS: AN EVENING WITHREGIS MCKENNARegis McKenna, The McKenna GroupMEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

LECTURE: 7:00 PM

Xerox PARC AuditoriumPalo Alto, California

THU, SEPTEMBER 5HALF A CENTURY OF DISK DRIVESAND PHILOSOPHY: FROM IBM TO SEAGATEAl Shugart, Al Shugart InternationalMEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

LECTURE: 7:00 PM

Xerox PARC AuditoriumPalo Alto, California

TUE, OCTOBER 22FELLOW AWARDS BANQUETFairmont Hotel, Imperial BallroomSan Jose, California

TUE, NOVEMBER 12JOHN WARNOCK AND CHUCK GESHKEAdobe Systems, Inc.MEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

Building 126LECTURE: 7:00 PM

Moffett Training and Conference CenterBuilding 3Moffett Field, California

TUE, DECEMBER 10STEVE WOZNIAKMEMBER RECEPTION: 6:00 PM

Building 126LECTURE: 7:00 PM

Moffett Training and Conference CenterBuilding 3Moffett Field, California

TOUR THE MUSEUM

Tours of the Museum’s Visible StorageExhibit Area are normally held onWednesdays and Fridays at 1:00 p.m.and the first and third Saturdays of eachmonth at 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Fortour registration call +1 650 604 2579.

VOLUNTEEROPPORTUNITIESThe Museum tries to match its needswith the skill and interests of itsvolunteers and relies on regularvolunteer support for events andprojects. In addition to special projects,monthly work parties generally occur on the second Saturday of each month,including:

JUNE 8, JULY 13, AUGUST 10,

SEPTEMBER 14, OCTOBER 12

Please RSVP at least 48 hours inadvance to Betsy Toole for work parties,and contact us if you are interested inlending a hand in other ways!

For more information, please visit ourvolunteer web page atwww.computerhistory.org/volunteers

We acknowledge with deepappreciation the individuals andorganizations that have given tothe Annual Fund.

CORE BENEFACTORS64K (65,536)+Gwen & C Gordon BellL John Doerr & Ann DoerrDonna DubinskyElaine & Eric HahnJeff Hawkins & Janet StraussGardner Hendrie &

Karen JohansenDavid & Karla HouseJanice & Bob LisbonneLeonard J Shustek

32K ($32,768)+Eric BrewerBill & Roberta CampbellGrant & Dorrit Saviers John & Sheree Shoch

16K ($16,384)+Steve Blank & Alison ElliottMike & Kristina HomerThe Krause FoundationJohn Mashey & Angela HeyEric Schmidt

CORE INVESTORS8K ($8,192)+Vinton & Sigrid CerfAndrea CunninghamDave CutlerSteve & Michele Kirsch FoundationIke & Ronee NassiBernard L PeutoAllen RudolphSigma Partners

4K ($4,096)+Sally M Abel & Mogens LauritzenPeggy BurkeEric D & Marilyn G CarlsonChristine Hughes &

Abe OstrovskyShawn & Doug MacKenzieGordon E & Betty I MooreJohn & Elizabeth Toole

2K ($2,048)+Allan AlcornBruce G & Leona D BaumgartYogen & Peggy DalalCarol & Chris EspinosaFederico & Elvia FagginRobert B GarnerThe Bill & Melinda Gates

FoundationCharles & Nancy GeschkeRob & Yukari HaitaniDonald & Jill KnuthJim & Stephanie NisbetJames N Porter

The Rockwell International Corporation Trust

Dave & Jan RossettiJean E SammetAlvy Ray & Zu SmithRich & Cindy Tennant

1k ($1,024)Adobe Systems -

Matching Gift ProgramFrances AllenGene & Marian AmdahlDavid & Robin AndersonAustradeThe Avram Miller Family

FoundationJohn & Sheila BanningCraig & Barbara BarrettAllen Baum & Donya WhiteBarry & Sharla BoehmGary BooneJack & Casey CarstenNed ChapinBruce & Gail ChizenCisco FoundationRichard J ClaytonThe Computer Language

Company IncR T CosletLori Kulvin CrawfordDavidow FoundationEleanor & Lloyd DickmanWhitfield Diffie &

Mary Lynn FischerLes & Marian EarnestDavid EmersonJudy Estrin & Bill CarricoIrwin & Concepción FedermanEdward A Feigenbaum &

Penny NiiBruce FramFrank-Ratchye Family FoundationFujitsu Laboratories of

America, IncForrest GunnisonTrip HawkinsJohn & Andrea HennessyMary Henry & Rajpal SandhuChuck & Jenny HouseTim & Nancy HowesIBM International FoundationIEEE - Hot Chips

Symposium 2001Matthew B IvesDr & Mrs Leonard KleinrockTom Kopec & Leah CarneiroRichard & Ellen LowenthalRon & Deb MarianettiJames A MarkevitchFrank & Judith MarshallKaren MathewsJames McElweeMalachy MoynihanJoan & Stanley MyersDonald & Helen NielsonJeffrey Berg & Debra PagetMax Palevsky

Paul PierceSusan Poduska &

John W PoduskaBill & Shelly PrattDennis RitchieToni & Arthur RockPeter & Valerie SamsonRobert ShawVirginia ShulerLee & Robert SproullStephen Squires &

Ann Marmor-SquiresEdward TaftEdward ThelenLarry & Dawn WeberKayton & Steven WeinsteinRaymond & Carol WilliamsPaul WinalskiAnthony J WoodWarren YogiRobert & Carrie ZeidmanCindy & Peter Ziebelman

GENERAL SUPPORTERSAnonymous Donald & Nancy AlpertSaul & Irene AmarelJohn AmosJudith & Curt AndersonMelissa Anderson &

Howard LookPaul & Joan ArmerMary ArtibeeThe Dennis & Janet Austin FundConnie & Charlie BachmanJohn BackusJoseph BarreraSandy & Ann BenettLeslie BerlinPaul BerryDoris & Alfred BertocchiMohan BethurLyle BickleyPhilip BlancharMichael & Sharon BlasgenBlumberg Capital ManagementPhilippe BouissouStuart BowenRichard BrandRon & Margaret BrenderFrederick & Nancy BrooksJohn & Doris BrownWerner BuchholzJack BurnessBruce & Janet BurnsAndrea ButterRuth Carranza & Pamela WaltonJohn ChangPamela ClevelandRichard & Dorene CohenNancy & Thomas ColatostiGordon CollinsGeorge ComstockMichael CoulterDeborah & Michael CussenWilliam DanielsonNaren Dasu

Alistair DavidsonPeter & Dorothy DenningLena M DiethelmMichael diVittorioLee & Daniel DrakeMark DuncanJohn DykstraJohn EhrmanStephen Ellis & Panos AglaiaDavid EllsworthJack EsbinThelma & Gerald EstrinMaria & Bob EvansDouglas G FairbairnAlan Scott FitzRita FoleyShawn FordJim ForsterJohn & Wendy-Ann FrancisBarbara & Joseph FredrickJim FruchtermanChris GarciaGeorge Glaser & Karen DuncanBob & Dee GloriosoGary M GoelkelArlene & Earl GoetzeRobert E GoldbergBert GraeveMark GrahamPhilip GregoryDouglas GreigMatthew HamrickRollin C HardingAnn HardyNorman HardyRoy & Virginia HarringtonAlys HayGlen B HaydonDan HillWinston HindleThea HodgeJames HurdJoseph ImpellizeriJoanne & Irwin JacobsDina & Neil JacobsonLuanne JohnsonCurtis Jones & Lucille BooneChuck KaekelBrewster KahleRobert Kahn & Patrice LyonsMarlene & Jeffrey KalbLaurel & Ray KaledaMark KaminskyChristopher A KantarjievRandy KatzYumi & Tom KelleyTabinda KhanTracy Holloway KingThomas & Mary KorneiDaniel KottkeEd KramerWinston KrigerPhilip KurjanRichard & Joanne KurkowskiThomas KurtzLarry KwicinskiDavid & Grayson Lane

Cecilia A LarsenKenneth LarsenJohn L LarsonKarl LautmanDavid A LawsRoy Kwok Ming LeeJohn V LevyJefferson LillyJoyce Currie LittleCarl & Claudia LowensteinSlava & Hana MachWalt MainMichael MalcolmMilt MalloryJohn Maloney &

Roxanne Guilhamet MaloneyJulius MarcusBill & Sandra MartinConnie MartinezGeorge MaulTerry MayerStanley & Maurine MazorFrank McConnellRussell McHughStuart McHughWilliam D & Dianne Mensch, JrPhilip MenziesDavid MillerCelia & Gary MillerCharlene MiyashitaW E & Sharon MoernerMichael MorgansternEdward MunyakRonald NicholsonMarilee J NiemiLandon NollMike & Betsy NoonenArthur NorbergDavid NovakDave OlsonDonn B ParkerJeff Parker & Barbara WaddyRich PascoDoug & Shirley PearsonJerry Lee PerkinsS Michael PerlmutterMichael PiqueArati Prabhakar &

Patrick WindhamRobert PraetoriusJane & Bob PufferDonald & Sandie PughJames QuinnSandhya RamanathanCarol RandallGlenn RicartDavid RicheyAnnie Roe-ReverHeidi Roizen & David MohlerLynn & George RossmannDick RubinsteinPhillip RuppKathleen L RydarJune & David RynnePaul Saffo IIIJohn & Linda SailorsRita Seplowitz Saltz

Rex SandersJohn & Christine SanguinettiMarisa & Werner SchaerMichael & Wyn SchuhGail SchureMatthew & Melissa ShaferChris Sheedy & Marsha BrewerDick ShoupThomas Siekman &

Pamela KenneyDan & Karon SiewiorekMichael P SimonChris & Jade SimonsonRebecca Elizabeth SkinnerEric SmithSally & Dick SmithJoseph & Sally SmithFrank SnowMatt Chew SpenceDaryl SpitzerDavid & Shirley StackpoleLarry StaleyDavid StearnsSteven StepanekPeter StewartStudio MobiusRichard Swan & Claudia MazzettiDr Bradley S TiceIlene Chester & Frank TobinFritz & Nomi TrapnellJoseph Traub &

Pamela McCorduckStephen TrimbergerRichard & Pamela TuckerUnited Way of King CountyTeruo UtsumiThe Vanguard Group FoundationDaniel WadeDuane & Lorna WadsworthFloy & Willis WareMichael WeaverJohn WeirichCarol WelshMarguerite & James WenglerGio & Voy WiederholdW Roger B WillisDuane WiseJon & Marsha WitkinJim & Sylvia WorkKo YamamotoWai Chee YeeRobert YehBill YundtJohn G ZabolitzkyMartin ZamMaria D ZorskyMaureen & John ZukGeorge D Zuras

This information is current as ofMay 1, 2002. Please notify us ofany changes to your listing(liska@computerhistory.org). Thank you.

C O M P U T E R H I S T O R Y M U S E U M C O R E 3 . 2

Explained from CORE 3.1

APOLLO GUIDANCE COMPUTER LOGIC

MODULE PROTOTYPE

Shown here is a prototype logic modulefrom the Apollo Guidance Computer(AGC) currently on display at theComputer History Museum. The AGCwas a 70 lb. box of integrated circuitry(with attached control panel) thatperformed real-time guidance andcontrol and served as a lifeline toAmerican astronauts descending to thelunar surface in 1969.

Spanning nearly a decade ofdevelopment, the AGC began in about1961 as a research project at the MITInstrumentation Lab in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. It was built by Raytheonand used approximately 4,000 discreteintegrated circuits from FairchildSemiconductor.

The Apollo Guidance Computer programwas a landmark both in terms ofhardware design and softwaremanagement and laid the foundation forSpaceLab and shuttle computersystems development. The speed,power, and size requirements for theAGC pushed along an entire industrythat was just taking its first steps alongthe breathtaking curve of Moore’s Law.

See page two for more informationabout the AGC.

Please send your best guess tomystery@computerhistory.org before07/15/02 along with your name,shipping address, and t-shirt size. Thefirst three correct entries will eachreceive a free t-shirt with the newMuseum logo and name.

PO Box 367, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA

Address Service Requested

NONPROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

PERMIT NO. 50

MYSTERY ITEMSFROM THE COLLECTION OF

THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM

WHAT ISTHIS?THIS ITEM WILL BE EXPLAINED IN THE

NEXT ISSUE OF CORE.

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, RaytheonCompany, Charles Stark Draper LaboratoryApollo Guidance Computer Prototype Processor-Logic-Interface-Memory modules (1962),X37.81B, Gift of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory