@dborch DANKE!
Hier /bei der früheren Post Office Research Station/ habe ich noch einen #ChronoMedia-Spot für Dame Stephanie eingetragen.
https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=51.55679,-0.24119&q=51.55771,-0.23681&z=14&r=-158&t=52&s=1&i=1
@dborch DANKE!
Hier /bei der früheren Post Office Research Station/ habe ich noch einen #ChronoMedia-Spot für Dame Stephanie eingetragen.
https://mprove.de/chrono?ll=51.55679,-0.24119&q=51.55771,-0.23681&z=14&r=-158&t=52&s=1&i=1
I'm finding D. F. Parkhill's 1966 book "The Challenge of the Computer Utility"[0] to be endlessly fascinating. It provides quite a detailed snapshot of the state of computer development. It was written at the tail end of the "Patent wars of 1962–1966"[1], yet there's no mention of integrated circuits, nor "Micrologic" (an early name for ICs).
In the discussion on memory technology, the book contains several tables as two-page spreads, which are awkward to assimilate when reading the book as a PDF on a small screen. I've included the relevant pages here as two-up images for my own benefit as much as yours!
The information summarised in the tables is fascinating. In the table "Classification of Memories by Function", much of the language is familiar to a modern reader (compared to, say 1940s discussions of 'organs'); CPU registers, RAM and persistent storage are recognisable:
Storage register: Usually a one- or two-word memory used for the temporary storage of some quantity before it is transferred to another memory or circuit; i.e., accumulator register, multiplicand register, index register, etc.
Internal working memory: The main working memory of the computer, in which intermediate results and instructions are stored.
Mass data memory: A high-capacity storage system, external to but under the control of the computer, used for the storage of bulk data such as tables, files, and sub-routines.
...yet the "Classification of Memories by Operating Characteristics" reflect mid-1960s (or older) technologies:
Regenerative: A memory whose contents gradually vanish unless they are periodically regenerated, e.g., a Williams tube.
Modern RAM is of this type!
Read only: A memory whose contents can be changed, if at all, only by off-line human intervention, usually involving rewiring, the removal or insertion of plugs or the punching of holes, e.g., a card capacitor store, diode matrix, etc.
"Memory Devices" is fascinating. Here's just one row:
Type: Magnetic core
Physical Principle: remanent magnetization on small cores of square hysteresis-loop
ferrite material
Application: high-speed internal memory, registers, and buffers
Status: standard memory for majority of all computers in all price classes
Remarks: in addition to the normal coincident-current destructive readout single-core/bit systems embodiments there are also multiaperture core systems such as Biax and the transfluxor systems, and multiple-core/bit systems also wired-core read-only systems
Biax? Transfluxor systems?
...and what on earth was "Magnetic rod memory"?
Type: Magnetic rod
Physical Principle: magnetic coupling via removable ferrite rods between loops in a
woven mesh
Application: read-only very high-speed auxiliary internal store
Status: in use on Univ. of Manchester MUSE, Ferranti ATLAS computers, and several Italian machines
Remarks: retains advantages of wired-core memories but permits easy modification. Highest speed operating memory of comparable size to date, (0.15 microsecond access time, 8192 words, 48 bits)
...sounds promising! Why haven't I heard of this technology? Check Wikipedia[2]:
Rod memory is one of the many variations on magnetic core memory that attempts to lower costs by automating its manufacturing. [...] Like many similar concepts [...] rod memory was competing for the role of taking over from core when the first semiconductor memory systems wiped out the entire market in 1970.
Oof.
I'm finding it very much worthwhile to read not only older histories of computing, but also old books that provide a survey of the state of the art at a given time.
[0] https://archive.org/details/challengeofcompu0000park
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit#Patent_wars_of_1962–1966
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_memory
Watching "The Big OOPs", new 1h50m talk by Casey Muratori about the long and meandering history, mistakes & shortcomings of OOP and looking for better/alternative ways forward...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84LFzx5nI
(Also very interesting for some #PermaComputing & KISS aspects)
"If you bought a ThinkPad between 1995 and 2017, it was probably designed under the oversight of David W. Hill, who served as lead designer under both IBM and Lenovo for those 22 years. We caught up with Hill, who today runs his own firm, ThinkNext Design, to talk about the history of ThinkPad, what drove him to make key design decisions, and the products he wanted to come out with but just couldn't."
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/02/thinkpad_david_hill_interview/
Eliza Bot Running and ready for your retro psycological problems
Toot me a Hello to start
#RetoComputing #Eliza #ComputerHistory
Today 38 years ago a small computer manufacturer in UK launched their new product. The RISC machine became the Acorn Risc Machine and later Advanced Risc Machine -> ARM
It is the most used CPU ever. Intel? Never heard of it...
Remembering Chiptunes, the Demoscene and the Illegal Music of Keygens - We loved keygens back in the day. Our lawyers advise us to clarify that that’s all... - https://hackaday.com/2025/07/20/remembering-chiptunes-the-demoscene-and-the-illegal-music-of-keygens/ #computerhistory #musicalhacks #chiptunes #demoscene #keygen
Memoirs of the CP/M creator released:
“Our father, Gary Kildall, was one of the founders of the personal computer industry, but you probably don’t know his name. Those who have heard of him may recall the myth that he ‘missed’ the opportunity to become Bill Gates by going flying instead of meeting with IBM. Unfortunately, this tall tale paints Gary as a ‘could-have-been,’ ignores his deep contributions, and overshadows his role as an inventor of key technologies that define how computer platforms run today.
Gary viewed computers as learning tools rather than profit engines. His career choices reflect a different definition of success, where innovation means sharing ideas, letting passion drive your work and making source code available for others to build upon. His work ethic during the 1970s resembles that of the open-source community today."
https://computerhistory.org/blog/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/
We've expanded our open hours: Saturday - Monday 10am - 4pm.
Please visit https://icm.museum for membership and booking information.
Thank you for supporting us!
#programming #softwareEngineering #computerHistory #bibliography #Sandewall #softwareIndividuals #LISP #CAISOR
https://screwlisp.small-web.org/complex/Sandewall-caisor-bibliography/
My promised bibliography of open-access CAISOR #AI articles from the 1960s-2010s. Each citation links into https://codeberg.org/tfw/pawn-75 's collected oddities. Because I focused on preserving rarities such as draft versions of papers from the 60s and a single sentence article with JOHN overwrote onto it, my collection should be regarded as a primary archive.
Wir waren heute in Bad Hindelang Hinterstein. Und ich hatte es nicht mehr Präsent, aber natürlich, das ist ja der Ort, an den Konrad Zuse am Ende des 2. Weltkriegs mit all seiner bisherigen Arbeit geflohen ist!
(Falls es außer mir noch jemanden interessiert, der hier abgebildete Rechner ist eine Z22, ein viel späterer Röhrenrechner (1955) und nicht die Z4, welche in Teilen in einem Zug ins Allgäu geschafft wurde!)
#Zuse #zusekg #computerhistory
Oh wow, I just learned what Lisp's "car" and "cdr" stand for!
From this video: https://youtu.be/2MYzvQ1v8Ww?si=rAvzDxtoIYadh6Xh&t=93
It's from an IBM 7090 or 7094 computer, if I'm hearing Sussman correctly.
Each instruction had two parts: an address part, and a decrement part. Those got put into a register.
So, "car" is "contents of the address register" and "cdr" is "contents of the decrement register"!
Thanks to a book recommendation by @bert_hubert [1], I went on a tangent learning more about the absolutely fascinating history and workings of core memory (and core rope memory, its read-only version). Some of this also very interesting for #PermaComputing and giving me ideas for future art projects...
Apollo Core Rope Memory (restoration and read out of 50 year old memory from the Apollo Guidance Computer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckwxq8rnr0
Core Memory Explained and Demonstrated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwsInQLmjXc
#lispyGopherClimate #interview #transcript #webDev #technology #computerHistory #lisp #commonlisp #harlequin #CLIM
https://screwlisp.small-web.org/show/kmp-lisp-web-testing/
Summary and transcript of the first eight minutes of the hour-long downloadable episode, including Kent's summary of his personal web work in lisp (mostly at Harlequin) through the 80s and 90s.
@vindarel @khinsen (being the missing guests)
@kentpitman @dougmerritt @mdhughes
I'm hand-transcribing and summarizing, so this is something like part 1/6.
Designing Creative Data Visualizations from Charts to Art (CRC Press)
This book is a guide to adding creativity to data visualization, looking at how to make visuals more…
#Europe #Data #C #Computerbookreviews #computerhistory #developerbookreviews #developernews #joomla #News #PHP #programmernews #Programmingbookreviews #programminghistory #programmingnews #programmingtutorials #python #Ruby #softwareprogrammernews #spreadsheets #theory #VisualBasic
https://www.europesays.com/2170913/
CARDIAC (CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation) via Adafruit Industries [Shared]
Back in the 1960’s and early 70’s Bell Labs made some very sophisticated educational kits available to high schools and colleges. Designed for classroom use, they included wonderful manuals written by Bell Labs staff. One of these kits, introduced in 1968, was CARDIAC: A CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation.
CARDIAC is a learning aid developed by David Hagelbarger and Saul Fingerman for Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1968 to teach high school students how computers work. The kit consists of an instruction manual and a die-cut cardboard “computer”.
It is interesting how the world has historically varied on this, and what the default out of the box settings are.
Visual bells were the rage because they worked well with GUI terminal emulators, and didn't bog a real terminal down with waiting until the sound had finished before it accepted the next bit of output. They were also friendly to one's neighbours sitting on the next desk. (-:
And indeed on #NetBSD for example there's the whole wsbell(4) thing and the idea that a machine doesn't necessarily *have* a tinny speaker to make beeps, because it isn't necessarily a descendant of an IBM PC/XT.
In contrast, Microsoft Windows wants to play sounds seemingly at the drop of a hat; and the ethos has been over the years that all personal computers since at least the PC98 times have sound cards (or mainboard equivalents) and speakers and users always want sounds on, out of the box.
#MicrosoftTerminal defaults to noises rather than flashes.