View allAll Photos Tagged computerhistory
I threw about six boxes of old stuff out of my garage this afternoon. Here's part of what you can find in my dumpster if you go diving for it before trash pickup day.
This PDP-8/s is at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA. The PDP-8/s was the first computer to be available for less than $10,000 US. It was also the first to be sold off-the-shelf. It was popular for its time because of the low price. 1024 units were made. The "s" in the name stands for serial, although some said it stands for "slow". To economize on gates and transistors, all arithmetic operations were performed serial-by-bit. The PDP-8 is a 12-bit word-length machine, so to add two 12-bit numbers, they were cycled through a 1-bit adder, and added 1 bit at a time. The machine was constructed using modular "Flip-chip" plug-ins. Many of the plug-in modules were interchangeable -- thus a module from the program counter could also be used in the accumulator. One common module contained two flip-flops (4 transistors), thus functioned as two bits in a register. The front panel displayed pretty much the entire state of the machine. The far right column of lights showed the phase of instruction execution. The next column of lights from the right shows the current instruction opcode (all eight of them!). This computer featured 4K words of core memory.
International Computers and Tabulators Ltd (ICT) was established in 1959 from a merger between the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) and Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd. ICT went on to produce a successful range of mainframe computers with international sales that rivalled those of IBM. Both ICT and later ICL, choose to specialise in the market for business mainframe computers used for commercial data processing but did not venture into computer systems for military defence or industrial process control.
During the early 1960’s, increased competition from American suppliers, particularly IBM, obliged British computer manufacturers to rationalise. Between 1959 and 1968 there was a flurry of mergers and take-overs, during which ICT acquired companies such as Ferranti Computers Division, English Electric, Leo Computers, Marconi Computer Division and Elliott-Automation. Under influence of the Labour government’s Industrial Expansion Act 1968, ICT was merged with the English Electric Leo Marconi Company (EELM) in 1968 to form International Computers Ltd (ICL). ICL in turn would become part of the Fujitsu group of companies in 2002.
This badge features ICT’s egg logo. I’m unsure if this was an employee’s badge or was issued as a promotional badge? If anyone can confirm this, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.
.
Enamels: 2 (blue & white).
Finish: Gilt.
Material: Brass.
Fixer: Pin.
Size: 1 ¼” x ¾” (32mm x 19mm).
Process: Die stamped. The badge is slight curved, as sometimes found with cap badges.
Imprint: No maker’s name or mark.
.
ICT/ICL Timeline:
1959 – ICT formed by a merger between the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) and Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd.
1960 May – The first ICT-1301 computer is sold to the University of London and having passed through ownerships and since 2012 has now resided in The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park). There it is kept in storage awaiting reassembly awaiting an exhibition space to house it, as it officially requires 700 square feet and weighs over 5 tons (thanks to Roger Holmes for providing this additional information 19th June 2024). The ICT-1300 series were among the first commercial mainframe computers to use germanium semi-conductor technology and magnetic core memory for Random Access Memory (RAM) data storage.
1962 July – EMI Electronics Ltd (Electronic Digital Computers Division) became part of ICT. EMI Computing had developed the EMIDEC range of computers of which the EMIDEC 1100 was later rebranded by ICT and marketed as the ICT 1101.
1964 – ICT purchased Ferranti Ltd (Computer Division) and developed their ICT-1900 series based on Ferranti’s FP6000 computer technology. The ICT-1900 went on to achieve international sales success, rivalling that of IBM’s System/360 computers.
1968 – ICT introduces its range of ICT-1900E computers.
1968 July – ITC merged with the English Electric Leo Marconi Company (EELM) to form International Computers Ltd (ICL) who continued to develop and manufacture the ICT range of computers producing the successful ICL-2900 mainframe series from 1974. The Industrial Expansion Act 1968 brought in by Harold Wilson’s government sought to promote British industry through mergers that were intended to streamline national productivity and achieve economies of scale to ensure better longer term viability for British industry. ICT benefitted from this when the government encouraged its merger with EELM to form ICL and from which the government retained a 10% shareholding. Government funding of to £50 million was also set aside for research and development at ICL.
1969 – ICT-1900A series introduced by ICL but the ICT name retained.
1984 September – ICL taken over by STC (Standard Telephones & Cables Ltd) who sought a convergence between telecommunications and the developing IT technologies of the late 80’s. However, this venture did not break any new ground and added to STC’s financial difficulties. It is ironic, but the convergence between telecommunications and computer technology did develop from the 2000’s and continues to flourish.
1990 – Fujitsu acquired an 80% shareholding in ICL for $1.29 billion (£734 million) with STC retaining the other 20%. Fujitsu would increase their shareholding percentage during the 90’s through the purchases of additional shares and further increase their control over the company.
1991 - STC (ICL) were bought as a going-concern by Northern Telecom of Canada (NorTel). ICL remained as an independent subsidiary of NorTel.
1991 - ICL purchased Nokia Data for £230 million, who were the computing division of the Finnish Nokia corporation. This gave ICL further benefits in the rapidly growing personal-computers (PC) and PC networking markets as well as greatly increasing their customer base in Scandinavian countries and Germany.
2002 April – ICL were rebranded as Fujitsu who dispensed with the ICL name and was fully subsumed into the Fujitsu group of companies. This effectively brought to a close Britain’s international role as a developer and manufacture of mainframe business computers.
References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Computers_Limited (ICL, 1968 - 2002 whose main competitor was the US-based IMB Corporation, whose computers finally established the industry standard. In 2002, the Fujitsu Corporation bought ICL for $1.29 billion and renamed it as Fujitsu Services (European).)
archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/ICT/ICT.Punchc... (ICT 1964 brochure on their range of accounting machines and punch-cards. Interesting information on data processing and the range of equipment involved.)
www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/icl-plc-history/ (History of ITC and ICL highlighting the technical and financial difficulties facing both companies throughout their history).
www.ourcomputerheritage.org/BTM%20ICT%20ICL%20company%20r... (History of ICT).
www.computerhistory.org/brochures/companies.php?alpha=g-i... (Short note on ICT history plus links to two ICT brochures of 1964).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Tabulating_Machine_Company (British Tabulating Machine Company founded in 1902 manufactured the Hollerith range of recording and data-processing equipment. BTM also produced data processing machines that were used at Bletchley Park during WW to help decipher the German Enigma code. BTM were part of the American based Tabulating Machine Company Inc which later became IBM computers.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers-Samas (Powers-Samas Accounting Machines Ltd was a British company founded in 1915 who developed and manufactured a range of mechanical data recording equipment.)
jp.fujitsu.com/brand-story/en/#stwy (Fujitsu Ltd is a Japanese transnational corporation established in 1935 originally to develop and manufacture telecommunications equipment. Today, they are a leading global leader in many aspects of computer information technology, R&D and services.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Computers (English Electric Company were already well-known for their development of the LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) range of business computers before they merged with ICT. The merger with ICT in 1968 also included Elliott Automation Ltd.)
www.tnmoc.org/virtual-flossie (About Flossie, an ICT 1301 computer)
This image is from a digital scan of a photo slide (E-868) located in the BU Records: Marketing and Communications: Baylor Photography section of the vast photographic holdings of the The Texas Collection, Baylor University. Rights: Some rights reserved. E-mail txcoll@baylor.edu for information about obtaining a high-resolution file of this image.Visit www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/ for more information about our collections.
IBM 7030 Stetch Mainframe operator console. Teletype is based on ball-type IBM selectric typewriter, it appears.
Deuxième voyage a Paris...
En tout :
- 21 unités centrale Mac et compatible (Mac IIvx, centris, Quadra, serie 8000 et 9000, iMac, ...)
- 3 écrans,
-,Duo Dock (2° génération)
- Documentations, claviers, souris, manuels, objets publicitaire,
- Boite de systéme, boite de logiciels,
- Ram, DD, Accélérateur G3, Lecteur CD...
Un des trois CD, le plus jolie, livré avec le Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (T.A.M) appelé aussi Spartacus (1997)
12000 machines furent vendus dans le monde dont 600 en France.
Le Cd contient " QuickTime Showcase" et faisait partie de la boite numéro 5 livré avec la machine.
Ce Cd ainsi que le micro sont activement recherché par les collectionneurs...
A noter, sur la publicité derrière le CD, le slogan " Un autre chemin " qui n'est pas du tout habituel pour l'entreprise Apple.
Mon T.A.M :
www.flickr.com/photos/41659869@N07/4779504931/in/set-7215...
Le site Francais des Apple vintage :
I just threw out boxes and boxes of old eight inch floppy disks.
I threw about six boxes of old stuff out of my garage this afternoon. Here's part of what you can find in my dumpster if you go diving for it before trash pickup day.
Computer Conflict est une collection de deux wargames publiés en un seul package: Rebel Force et Red Attack et publié par la société SSI
Computer History Museum in Mountain View California
1401 N Shoreline Blvd
Mountain View, CA
(650) 810-1010
The world's largest history museum for the preservation and presentation of artifacts and stories of the Information Age located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Picture Taken by Michael Kappel (Me)
View the high resolution Image on my photography website
Follow Me on my Tumblr.com Photo Blog
Comme le nom du jeu l'indique vous pouvez, dans se wargame de 1981, jouer deux campagnes des guerres napoléonienne. En l'occurrence la funeste bataille de Waterloo et celle de Leipzig.
Le jeu se joue, soit à deux joueurs, soit un joueur conte l'Apple II. Dans se cas à Waterloo le micro jouera Napoléon et à Leipzig celui des alliers.
Se wargame a un fonctionnement classique mais avec une particularité. L'ordinateur joue le rôle de vos commandants de corps d'armées. et communique avec vous à l'aide de rapports. Mais il se montrera très humain en commettant certaines erreurs d'estimation et même en désobéissant parfois. Il faudra apprendre à maîtriser cette fonction, en anglais.
A noter la présence dans la boite de jetons cartonnés représentant vos unités et à utiliser avec les cartes fournis
** Sur cette photo une petite partie de la carte de la campagne de Waterloo **
Ma collection de jeux Apple II :
www.apple-collection.com/HTMjeux/ColJeux.htm
Le site Francais des Apple vintage :
I threw about six boxes of old stuff out of my garage this afternoon. Here's part of what you can find in my dumpster if you go diving for it before trash pickup day.
La Wildcard est une carte de copie, aussi appelé carte de piratage. Elle permet de "freezer" n'importe quel programme présent dans la mémoire centrale de l'Apple afin de faciliter la copie de celui-ci. Comme vous le pensez, ce type de carte est conçue pour faciliter la copie de tout programmes mais principalement ceux protégés.
En fonction de la Ram présente dans l'Apple II, il est possible de mémoriser et de sauvegarder entre 48k, 64k et 128 K de la mémoire centrale. Une fois la mémoire enregistré sur une diskette, un ensemble de manipulation permet d'accéder aux donnée présente et ainsi faciliter la copie du logiciel cible...
This image is from a digital scan of a photo slide (E-165) located in the BU Records: Marketing and Communications: Baylor Photography section of the vast photographic holdings of the The Texas Collection, Baylor University. Rights: Some rights reserved. E-mail txcoll@baylor.edu for information about obtaining a high-resolution file of this image.Visit www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/ for more information about our collections.
Computer History Museum in Mountain View California
1401 N Shoreline Blvd
Mountain View, CA
(650) 810-1010
The world's largest history museum for the preservation and presentation of artifacts and stories of the Information Age located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Picture Taken by Michael Kappel (Me)
View the high resolution Image on my photography website
Follow Me on my Tumblr.com Photo Blog
Juin 2010, une partie de ma collection de "vieux' micros Apple et produits divers ...
Etagére du bas :
- 2 Macintosh II et un monobloc.
Au milieu et en partant du haut à gauche :
- LC
- Mac II VI
- LC 630
- Power Mac 7100 / 80
En haut à droite :
- 6100 / 66
- Mac II SI
- 6100 / 66 X2
- Power Mac 7200 / 90
Etagére du haut :
- Ecran A4 Apple
- Apple III et son écran
- Scaner Apple
Charles Babbage (1791-1871) designed the first automatic computing engines. He invented computers but failed to build them. The first complete Babbage Engine was completed in London in 2002, 153 years after it was designed. Difference Engine No. 2, built faithfully to the original drawings, consists of 8,000 parts, weighs five tons, and measures 11 feet long
This one is Serial Number 2 and is located in Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
More on the details of this engine at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine
and a video that describes it is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0anIyVGeWOI while a neat video of it in motion is at the bottom of the page at www.computerhistory.org/babbage/
This afternoon, our Photo Friday group had the pleasure of being invited to a private photo shoot at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Many thanks to our hosts at the museum, and Marcin for setting it up. (If you want your fix of old computer photos, feel free to browse the 1,500 other ones in his photo stream :-)
This is a photo of a Lehmer Sieve -- I tried really hard to come up with a clever title, but without any luck (feel free to suggest a better one in comments). Despite the crazy colors, this photo wasn't heavily edited in PP -- mostly a little unsharp mask and a tiny bit of brightness/contrast tweaking.
Here's what the museum had to say;
"Derrick H. Lehmer (1905-1991), professor at UC Berkeley and his father Derrick N. Lehmer (1867-1938), a leading number theorist, built computing machines to solve mathematical "sieve" problems. Number sieves perform tests to eliminate numbers that cannot be solutions to a problem, and thus find those that are potential solutions. One of the simplest uses of sieves is to determine prime numbers... The metal version could check 5,000 combinations per second, a record that was only beaten by computers in the 1960s."
Il s'agit d'un Macintosh 512 spécial "EDucation" (M 0001D) comportant un lecteur de disquette 3,5'' de 800 ko au lieu des 400 ko du modele standard.
Ma collection de micros Apple :
www.apple-collection.com/Collecmacinto.htm
Le site Francais des Apple vintage :
Jeu pour la famille Apple II : Southern Command (1981)
• Editeur : Strategic Simulations Inc. (S.S.I.) U.SA.
• Présentation : En coffret contenant une disquette, une carte, un résumé des règles et un manuel de 8 pages en anglais.
• Descriptif : Wargame stratégique et tactique simulant la guerre du Kippour dans le désert du Sinaï en 1973. (Israël contre Egypte).
Pour deux joueurs ou en solitaire contre l'ordinateur qui tient le camp Egyptien. Wargame sur cases hexagonales avec deux niveaux (stratégique et tactique). Vous disposez de la panoplie complète de la guerre moderne : chars, missiles, infanterie, artillerie, génie, aviation, etc.
Les possibilités de l'ordinateur sont exploitées au maximum dans ce wargame de très haut niveau : pièces cachées, mouvements retardés, etc.