19 Oct
2010
19 Oct
'10
10:25 a.m.
On 2010 Oct 19, at 12:36 AM, Evan Koblentz wrote:
Not to take away from your point, but why do you include SEAC/SWAC in
that list? (both National Bureau of Standards computers)
Military computing tends to be 800 pound gorilla
in the room that
historians tend to dismiss.
How do you figure? The early history of digital computing, especially
in the 1940s - 1950s, is dominated by military installations.
Colossus, ENIAC, many UNIVACs, SEAC/SWAC, SAGE, etc. .... in fact this
year's winner of the Computer History Museum Prize* is "Calculating a
Natural World" by Atsushi Akera. The book is a great read and focuses
on Cold War computer research.
* The prize is administered by the Society for the History of
Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information, and
Society, a.k.a. SHOT-SIGCIS. This is the primary organization for
professional computer historians.