Computermuseum der Fakultät Informatik at the Universität Stuttgart

Klemens Krause and Christian Corti, the caretakers of the Computer Museum at the University of Stuttgart, opened their museum on a Sunday so I could have a short visit. Well, the short visit was so fascinating that it lasted for over six hours. I really appreciated them giving up a large part of their weekend for my visit. I primarily wanted to see their collection of DEC PDP-8 systems because of my current restoration projects. They have a very nice looking and functional Classic PDP-8 system with a Tennecomp tape drive that is very similar to an 8-track cartridge. Their LAB 8/E has lots of peripherals, including a Votrax voice synthesizer and X-Y scope display. We also got to see their IBM 1130 and the Librascope LGP-30 running. That was the first time I have seen a vacuum tube computer running. It was quickly apparent from the demonstrations that just about everything in the room was interconnected so almost all of the peripherals could be connected to a system with the flip of a switch. They have extensive demonstrations that they run to demonstrate the capabilities of both the systems and the peripherals. If you are in Germany you really need to make an effort to visit the Computermuseum der Fakult?t Informatik. Klemens and Christian are very capable and very enthusiastic about their preservation, restoration, and demonstration work. http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de -- Michael Thompson