5 Aug
2009
5 Aug
'09
8:01 p.m.
This year's VCF East (6.0) keynote speaker is Ted Hurewitz.
Unlike some of our past keynoters -- Bill Mauchly, Chuck Peddle, David Ahl, etc. -- most
collectors probably never heard of Mr. Hurewitz.
But he's quite awesome. He was in the engineering group for RCA's Bizmac tube
computer, and he worked on the design for the RCA 501. This all went down in Camden, N.J.
in the 1950s. Amusing sidebar: one of his employees was Arnold Spielberg -- father of
Steven.
Some info about Bizmac is here: http://www.cedmagic.com/history/rca-bizmac-computer.html
and also here: http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/RCA-Bizmac-1951.htm ...... some info
about the 501 is here:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/RCA/RCA.501.1958.10264627… (and in
many other places, according to Google.)
Hurewitz will give his lecture on the morning of Sat., Sept. 12 (exact time to be
determined) followed by audience Q&A.
5 Aug
5 Aug
8:16 p.m.
Evan Koblentz wrote:
Amusing sidebar: one of his
employees was Arnold Spielberg -- father of Steven.
Mr Spielberg has a rather famous career in the computer
industry, and should be known for more than being the father
of a moviemaker.
http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a3558587d…
He won the IEEE's computer pioneer award in 2007 for his
work at RCA on the first automated cash register. From there
he developed process control computers at GE, was the architect
of the IBM 1800 (which lead to the 1130) was VP of Engineering
at SDS, and had a long career at Unisys.
8:23 p.m.
Amusing sidebar: one of his employees was Arnold
Spielberg -- father
of Steven.
Mr Spielberg has a rather famous career in the computer industry, and
should be known for more than being the father of a moviemaker.
http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a3558587d…
He won the IEEE's computer pioneer award in 2007 for his work at RCA
on the first automated cash register. From there he developed process
control computers at GE, was the architect of the IBM 1800 (which lead
to the 1130) was VP of Engineering at SDS, and had a long career at
Unisys. 
6 Aug
6 Aug
10:32 a.m.
Mr Spielberg has a rather famous career in the
computer
industry, and should be known for more than being the father
of a moviemaker.
He won the IEEE's computer pioneer award in 2007
for his
work at RCA on the first automated cash register. From there
he developed process control computers at GE, was the architect
of the IBM 1800 (which lead to the 1130) was VP of Engineering
at SDS, and had a long career at Unisys.
Interesting story about his SDS tenure was that he (Arnold) would
always complain about his "long haired son" (late 60s, we're talking)
not paying much attention to high school studies, and walking around
with a bunch of cameras equipment slung about his neck. Always tried
to sneak into MGM studios (or was it some other big flick producer, I
forget) to further his craft, but was tossed from the premises.
SDS's founder, Max Palevsky, though up in age, limited in mobility,
and somewhat frail, is still thankfully with us as of a week and a
half ago. And the same for many of the first founding employees
(understandable, given the company was founded in 1961.). A reunion
bash for a select group of [former] employees was just thrown by Max
at his oceanfront property along the Southern California coast. No, I
wasn't invited, but a family member was.
To further the story, Max seemed to have a disdain for Steven's movies
(this was by the mid-1970s), yet went on himself to produce some odd
documentary and other [now side-note] movies in this time frame.
There was a great SDS Panel discussion held at CHM back in November
2007. It was video taped, but last I checked, it wasn't apparently
available on the website though.
Eric
10:53 a.m.
eric wrote:
There was a great SDS Panel discussion held at CHM
back in November
2007. It was video taped, but last I checked, it wasn't apparently
available on the website though.
I think it's in the queue waiting to be transcribed. This was part of
a reunion held then for a lot of SDS folks. We brought out one of the
920's that we have for the event. It was interesting to talk to the Sigma
architects about its origins, and finding out how many of the software
people came from SDC and worked on SAGE.
We've also recorded an oral history with Robert Beck, who was the cofounder
of SDS with Max, and who worked on MADDIDA, the G15 and the PB-250.
7 Aug
7 Aug
10:29 a.m.
Al wrote:
I think it's in the queue waiting to be
transcribed. This was part of
a reunion held then for a lot of SDS folks. We brought out one of the
920's that we have for the event. It was interesting to talk to the Sigma
architects about its origins, and finding out how many of the software
people came from SDC and worked on SAGE.
The DVD was given to me by said family member, who attended a local
luncheon some months back with a few of the SDS folks. A written
transcription would be sweet (i.e., searchable text.)
We've also recorded an oral history with Robert
Beck, who was the cofounder
of SDS with Max, and who worked on MADDIDA, the G15 and the PB-250.
My family roots have similar lineage to that of Bob Beck (he was hired
by Max alongside Bob into SDS from Bendix and then Packard Bell.)
Max Palevsky = the business braun of the company, for the most part.
Bob Beck = the clearly recognized brains behind the technology.
(I suppose a _loose_ comparison to the roles that Jobs and Wozniak
played in Apple's success apply here.)
Eric
6:11 p.m.
eric wrote:
My family roots have similar lineage to that of Bob
Beck (he was hired
by Max alongside Bob into SDS from Bendix and then Packard Bell.)
Would be interesting to hear more details of Bendix and PB from your
contact. Bob Evans (Univ of Utah /E&S) was also there and developed
the electronic differential analyzer box (DA-1) for the G-15 before
going to UCB and then Univ of Utah. Bob considers the delay memory of
the PB-250 to be a significant advance over the drum in the G-15 and
MADDIDA. There is also some dispute over how much of a role Harry Huskey
really played in the development of the G-15.
Bob retired from the computer industry once ICs got into general use.
He never really liked them very much. Wayne Lichtenburger, one of the
main guys behind the GENIE project at UCB (which became the SDS 940)
told me that he really liked the circuits used in the 930 compared
to the stuff being sold by DEC at the time because they were better
designed. This was after I asked him why they based their timesharing
machine design on SDS instead of DEC.
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6 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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aek＠bitsavers.org -
eric940＠gmail.com -
evan＠snarc.net