80 years ago, IBM gave Harvard University one of the world's earliest computers Eighty years ago, IBM presented Harvard University with one of the world's earliest computers: the Automated Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), later known as the Harvard Mark I. harvard mark 1 Harvard Mark 1 – Pic: Public domain, Wikimedia The computer was the brainchild of Howard Aiken, who convinced IBM Corp that the …
You haven't done firmware updates by dialing a remote piece of kit, hitting the control key to get into reprogram mode, sending the new image as zmodem, typing the new init vector entry, hitting the get-out-of-program-mode control key, rebooting and praying.
It would take several more decades until we were introduced to DLL Hell and BSODs.
My first "computer" was a series of collators, sorters, and printers that read and punched cards that were fed between the beasts. All programmed with plugboards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plugboard). Well, it wasn't "mine" but once I saw the setup at the American Management Association in upstate NY, I knew that's what I wanted to do. Still plugging the bits even now.
Memories... some of us bought some of those from a surplus store. Those things were built solid - like any early IBM stuff. The local model railroad club used them for power control panels - the wires and plugs of appropriate plugboards worked quite well for it.
What I don't see in the Wikipedia picture is what we called "men". They were plugs that simply connected one hole with an adjacent hole. They had a "handle" with a top "head" on it.
No idea what happened to them - the building the club used is long gone.
He designed and built digital computers in the same timeframe (or earlier?) without any knowledge of Anglosaxon efforts.
First mechanical, then relais based. After the war tubes and finally transistors.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z1_(Rechner)
These computers were used for airfoil construction calculations.
The relais were supplied by the General der Nachrichtentruppe. Not sure about funding, but a good guess is OKW.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Zuse
I have a fascingating book called "IBM and the Holocaust" about computers of this era. The Nazis apparently used early punchcard computers to keep records of the Jewish community and manage the logistics of rounding them up and murdering them. It is what enabled them to commit such a massive genocide in such a short space of time. There are strong suggestions that IBM's German subsidiary assisted them in this, although realistically they didn't have any choice in the matter.
It's worth reading for anybody interested in early computers, or anybody that thinks that the government collecting lots of data about its citizens is a good idea.
I believe IBM's German subsidiary, "DAHOMAG", was specifically set up to funnel profits from it's morally-repulsive business dealings, back to the US in a plausibly-deniable way.
I also read that book.
You are correct about government data-gathering (which these days, also effectively means, "and business data-gathering").
I've been reading this book too. The revelations are far more serious than what's been stated here--specifically, Watson was completely aware of how the Nazis were using his licensed equipment to perpertrate the destruction of the Jews of Europe. Dehomag, supposedly a German company, was 90% owned by IBM. The equipment used by Dehomag was manufactured by IBM in the US. Punch cards were used for both input and output, and IBM was the only supplier of punch cards. At the time (and as it still is now), IBM was a service company that provided solutions. Since I worked for IBM in the 60's, I'm almost certain this means that German officials told IBM what they wanted to accomplish, and IBM provided a solution using IBM equipment. Part of the solution were IBM punch cards designed to spec for the various needs of the Nazi regime. Also, IBM FE's were onsite (including concentration camps) to maintain the equipment. It was only IBM that had the expertise to provide a "business" solution using IBM equipment for the German government. For Watson, it was all about profit, and the fact that his company was being used to commit murder didn't prevent him from continuing to do business with the Nazis.
I'm endlessly fascinated by old kit.
CSIRAC, the oldest complete first generation digital computer, is on display in Melbourne's Sciencework museum, and I'm sorry to say it's such a disappointment. I first saw the machine in the Melbourne museum, where also was displayed a filmed oral history, from his hospital bed, by one of the inventors; sorry, I forget which one and can't find the film on the Web.
The exhibit at Melbourne museum was awe inspiring. You could walk around and through it. You could see the mercury storage tubes, a magnetic drum and disk, and, well, all of it.
Alas, at the exhibit at Sciencework is very disappointing. Many of the goodies, including meet tubes, drum and disk, are hidden against a wall, and they've added some ghastly light sequence to flash lights on a control panel. No doubt that hints at what it looked like in operation, but I don't like it. It cheapens what is one of the most important, if not the most important, historical computer exhibits in the world.
None the less, it's a thrill to stand in the presence of this artifact.
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