640K ought to be enough for anybody

May 9, 2008 3:11 PM

The History of Computing Project is a collaborative effort to record and publish the history of the computer and its roots. The site includes a chronological timeline, biographies of computing pioneers, a look at computing hardware through the years, as well as software and games.

Having a 30-year career in the field, I am partial to mainframe computing. I started my career in 1973 working on this machine, and ended it on this one, with many in between.

Other mainframe timelines:
IBM mainframes
Viking Waters
Computer history: IBM 360/370/3090/390

posted by netbros (11 comments total)

If this slideshow started automatically you did not do anything for at least 30 seconds when you came to this site.

FAIL
posted by shmegegge at 3:22 PM on May 9, 2008

Ah, the 370... because it covers all the angles and then some.
posted by GuyZero at 3:40 PM on May 9, 2008

This is deeply flawed. I wasn't able to find a reference to Lawrence Waterhouse's contributions to computer science anywhere.
posted by mullingitover at 4:30 PM on May 9, 2008 [1 favorite]

mullingitover, it is a collaborative project, so I'm sure they would love to have your input and enhancements.
posted by netbros at 4:38 PM on May 9, 2008

Speaking of IBM... it is interesting to see IBM's hardware architectures coalesce into a single platform. The POWER6 chips, for instance, contain not only the RS/6000 instruction sets, but also the zSeries ones; I don't really know what it means for the future, but it will be real interesting to watch.

That new z10 looks like a fucking monster, as well... it's too bad I work for a company with no money, so we'll probably be running our z9 for the next decade or so. I can't wait to see what the p6 595 looks like. I'm guessing: z10 with a different racing stripe, and comes with a DVD of AIX instead of z/OS.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 4:55 PM on May 9, 2008

So...no one else sees broken graphics everywhere on the main linked site? No? Hm.
posted by maxwelton at 7:05 PM on May 9, 2008

it is a collaborative project
I emailed them about this much overlooked event - LEO, Lyons built and operated the world's first business computer.
posted by tellurian at 8:21 PM on May 9, 2008

Wikipedia has done quite a comprehensive job of detailing the history of computing hardware.
posted by msaleem at 12:11 AM on May 10, 2008

Tandy: TRS 100, destop computer with LCD screen built in

This is pretty lame. Needs editing.
posted by localroger at 11:52 AM on May 10, 2008

I haven't had a chance to go through this site much, but one favorite computer history source of mine is the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It's in a former Silicon Graphics Inc. building, and is an absolute must-see. They now have a working model of Babbage's Difference Engine. Some of the docents are legendary figures in computing; last time I was there, I was told one of the people leading another tour group was Gene Amdahl.

Also worth a look is the Digibarn.

And, of course, the folks at the Vintage Computer Festival.
posted by foonly at 10:31 PM on May 10, 2008

All the image links currently appear to be broken. Then again, maybe it's because I'm using Firefox-- now that would be delicious irony.
posted by Artaud at 4:20 PM on May 11, 2008