12 Feb
1999
12 Feb
'99
11:42 p.m.
On Sat, 13 Feb 1999 Jgzabol(a)aol.com wrote:
To my knowledge the blinking lights go back to the
UNIVAC 1, 1951.
Hmm, click on the picture of Simon (1950) on my home page, and you'll
clearly see its toggles and lights:
http://www.blinkenlights.com/
It is possible that Berkeley got the idea from working on the Univac (in
the late 40's, when it was being designed by EMCC). I suspect that the
earlier relay machines also used lights to help debug faulty relays, but
I'm really looking for when lights were first used for output and switches
used for input, similar to the way a bunch of the mini front panels
worked. (It may be that Simon was the first -- I dunno.)
BTW, I found some great pics in an online version of IEEE's Computer:
http://www.indwes.edu/Faculty/bcupp/lookback/index.htm
-- Doug