20 Nov
2009
20 Nov
'09
12:59 a.m.
From: Fred Cisin
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:52 PM
>> How many "documentaries" never even
mention S100, TRS80, Atari, Commodore,
>> Northstar, Proctology, KIM-1, Electric Pencil, Easy Writer, etc.
>> and mention CP/M only as an introduction to Bill Gates?
On Thu, 19 Nov 2009, Tony Duell wrote:
> Isn't that a very biased list too? What about
all the larger machines?
To be an APPROPRIATE sampling of computing history,
DEC minis, IBM
mainframes, need to be included, as well as acknowledging the machines
from all of the seven dwarves, the era of EAM (my first computing work was
alphabetizing using an 084 counting sorter), the fundamental relationships
between personal computers, timesharing, "client/server", etc.
That last clause is very interesting: That is where we have concentrated our
efforts. We are most interested in the development of interactive computing,
both single-user (usually minis) and timeshared systems (usually mainframes,
but not always), into the personal computing model that grew out of the Alto
into the microcomputers of the later 70s and the 80s. Our general time period
is the 1960s through the 1980s.
We are also interested in the other side of the coin, the batch processing big
iron that many people think of as computing in that era, but every museum has
to have a focus. We think that there are others who have a better handle on
what is required to show off EAM and tube-based computers, for example, so we
would rather cooperate with them than compete.
Rich Alderson
Vintage Computing Server Engineer
Vulcan, Inc.
505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900
Seattle, WA 98104
mailto:RichA at vulcan.com
mailto:RichA at livingcomputermuseum.org
(206) 342-2239
(206) 465-2916 cell
http://www.pdpplanet.org/
http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org/