1.3_January_1994 1.3 January 1994

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January-~Iarch

The

1994

Volume 1.3

Analytical Engine

NEWSLETTER OF THE COMPUTER HISTORY ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA

Editorial: CAMPAIGN 1994
The Association begins a new year, and
everything we had dreamed of doing, we're
doing. The ENGINE gets thicker, the e-mail
deeper. New computers - well, new old
computers - are lugged to our doorstep.
Delivery vans bring boxes of books and files.
Collaborations are proposed, exhibits planned,
names written excitedly on scraps of paper
and then logged. And under it all the certainty, slightly awed still: This thing is

working.
We promised to build, from the outset, an
organization with room to grow - an organization that could start with a few like-minded
individuals, and smoothly become a major
voice for the preservation of computers and
their history, without spending scarce energy
to rethink and rebuild. The blossom is
implicit in the seed, the song foresung by the
note and the many awaited by the few.
Well, it does seem that in these few months
(where'd they go?) the CHAC and the
ENGINE have earned the interest and respect
of an illustrious community. The chorus of
welcome has convinced us that CHAC can
bloom into a great, broadly representative,
and truly grass-roots organization - even
though right now, so to speak, it's still folded
tight.
All signs suggest that growth is crucial for us
- and soon. CHAC is legally established as
an organization; it has an eagerly awaited
newsletter; it's beginning to attract media
attention (see SPOTTER;) and, as for collecting hardware, software and docs, just read the
ACQUISITIONS column on page 25. Really,

it's been almost more than we can keep up
with.
Now we need size. Size means weight;
presence; recognition; visibility. Size convinces
donors that charitable organizations are .
worthy and credible. Size helps us reach out
to potential members. Size brings down costs
through economies of scale. Size will make
the ENGINE a more attractive, more comprehensive newsletter.
And size alone won't build a museum - but
it's a key ingredient in the dealing we'll need
to do, between now and 1999.
So we're calling our own bluff. By the end of
1994, a year from this publication, we want
1,994 new members and ENGINE subscribers
for the CHACo Promotions, perks, collaborations, colloquia, prizes, press releases, or
(even) a party - whatever it takes, we'll do.

In coming months, look for mentions of the
CHAC in the computer and general press, at
trade shows, on bulletin boards - electronic
or otherwise - and on the net. The more
you see, the more it means we're accomplishing.
Meanwhile, join, if you haven't. That is what
this is all about. That will make the biggest
difference. One person, one subscription, one
check does matter. You are the spirit, the
meaning, the bootstrap load, the inspiration of
the Computer History Association of
California - because the history we try to
save 1S yours.
You've done the work! Now take the credit!
Join the CHAC today!

Page 2

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

PROCLAIM THE DAY

IN MEMORIAM: TOM WATSON

Looking at our science - that ungainly, anarchic, thrilling thing that even today plows so
much of its own energy back into growth it seems so unlikely that anyone could reasonably use the words "electronic computer"
and "fiftieth anniversary" in the same
sentence. But the day is almost upon us;
because February 16, 1996 will be the fiftieth
anniversary of the dedication of ENIAC, the
first complete and functional electronic digital
computer in the United States.

Thomas J. Watson jr., whose foresight and
dedication transformed IBM from a manufacturer of accounting machinery into the
world's most formidable computer company,
died at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich,
CT, on December 31, 1993. His death
followed a short illness.

Our good friend and great resource, Douglas
Jones of the University of Iowa's Computer
Science Department, has suggested that that
day should be one of remembrance and celebration, to remind ourselves - and others of how far computing has progressed in so
short a time, how much the world has gained
from computing and computers, and (not incidentally) how much work it all was and by
how many. Another phrase rarely found in
conjunction with "electronic computer" is "pat
on the back," but if this revolution is fifty
years old and still going strong, it's time for
one.
Given two years at our disposal, the CHAC
means to run with this. We hereby propose,
and will propose to appropriate agencies of
the Federal Government, that February 16,
1996 should be proclaimed National Computing Science Day throughout the United
States. A recognition long sought in itself, this
can also be an occasion for forums and promotions about computing science and its
contributions to economic production, education, research and entertainment.
On page 78 of the electronic ENGINE, or on
the mailing cover of the paper edition, you'll
find a Ballot. Please use it to jot down and
submit your ideas of what a National
Computing Science Day could and should be.

Few captains of industry have faced a more
difficult mission than Tom Watson 'did, or
carried it out with such strategic foresight and
attitude. He was the son of Thomas J.
Watson sr., first president of IBM, one of the
world's most meticulous visionaries and autocratic managers; as Tom Watson recounted in
his 1990 autobiography, Father, Son and Co.,
relations between the two were often strained
and perennially difficult. The younger executive would make decisions with full awareness
of their far-ranging consequences, only to be
overruled by the older one, who could point
to his own record of success. In the thirty
years between 1922 and 1952, Watson sr. had
built IBM from a modest producer of general
business hardware into an international corporation that dominated the market for electromechanical accounting machinery. His
achievement was prodigious.
Yet after World War II, when American
business began to be intrigued by the possibilities of electronic computing, Watson sr.'s
confidence in his own methods prevented him
from offering the necessary leadership. IBM's
first commercially available stored-program
computer, the Selective Sequence Automatic
Calculator (SSEC) , was an electromechanical
machine that owed much to prewar concepts.
IBM was then in danger of falling behind
other companies, such as Remington Rand,
which realized that the potential benefits of
digital computing justified a clean break with
past practlce.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

In January 1951, at the age of thirty-seven,
Tom Watson bet his own reputation - and
then the whole company, as IBM did time
and again - on comprehensive adoption of
digital technology. The Defense Calculator or
Model 701, meant for scientific use and
discussed at length on page 4 of this issue,
was quickly followed by the Model 702 for
business applications and the smaller Model
650. The 650 stunned the market by selling in
the hundreds, rather than dozens; it was
IBM's most popular computer model for
many years, and 1,800 were eventually sold.
Lifted on a wave of renewed confidence, IBM
was then ready for a second great expansion.
The company proved to the world that its
electronic computers shared the legendary reliability of its accounting machinery. Furthermore, because IBM computers used IBM tabulators and printers for input and output, sales
of the older equipment were helped rather
than hurt when computers were sold. Tom
Watson had masterminded a strategy that let
his company reap the benefits of both
approaches - the prestige derived from
headlong entry into a new age, and the sales
volume that accrued from extending the useful
life of existing design.
Watson then spent the revenues of this
success on research and development that
would fortify IBM's seemingly unassailable
position. IBM's labs developed ferrite memory
for the Model 704, transistor logic and circuit
printing for the 7030 and 7090, the RAMAC
disk memory.... the list is nearly endless. Yet
computing technology matured so quickly that
by 1960, in the context of design, IBM was
no more than first among equals. Its preeminence in the market was endangered.
In December 1961, the internal SPREAD
committee recommended that IBM should
commit unprecedented resources to development of a completely new, internally consistent line of computers. The products of this
commitment might sweep the market, or sink

Page 3

the company. Watson - a seasoned combat
pilot, Alpine skier and powerboat racer trusted his often daring judgment and concurred with the report. The development of
System/360 cost five billion dollars; it was the
single most expensive American industrial
project in history. But its impact was in proportion. In his definitive Historical Dictionary
of Data Processing, James Cortada calls
System/360 "perhaps the most dramatic success
story in the history of American products,
even surpassing.... the Ford Model T car." At
the end of 1965, the first full year that
System/360 shipped, IBM had captured almost
two-thirds of the domestic market for computing machinery. Under Watson's guidance, this
success was repeated, notably with the
Systeml370 introduced in 1970.
The dividends of success were stunning. In
1952, when Tom Watson assumed the presidency of IBM, the company's annual revenues
were about $300 million; in 1971, when his
health compelled him to resign from the chair
of the board, they exceeded $8 billion. By
1979, when he stepped down from the chair
of IBM's executive committee, annual sales
were almost $23 billion. Watson had won his
bet, again and again.
He returned to "private life" and spent his
retirement, so-called, in public service. His
belief that sound diplomacy depended on
honesty and trade, and his affection for the
Russian people that arose from wartime experience in the Soviet Union, led President
Carter to nominate him U. S. ambassador to
that country in 1979; he continued in that
capacity under President Reagan. In this occupation and numerous others, Watson demonstrated that the drive of a renowned
businessman could be tempered and refined by
the humanity of a statesman.
This text was originally intended. as commemoration of Mr. Watson's 80th birthday,
which he would have celebrated on January
8th, while this issue was still on press. We

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The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

profoundly regret making a more definitive
use of it. The Association offers condolence
to Mr. Watson's wife, Olive Cawley Watson;
to his children, Thomas J. Watson 3rd,
Jeannette W. Sanger, Olive F. Watson,
Lucinda W. Mehr.an, Susan W. Whitman, and
Helen W. Blodgett; to his many
grandchildren, and to his colleagues and
friends around the world.

18 Lockheed Aircraft Company, Glendale, CA
June 30, 1954

THE IBM 701 in CALIFORNIA

It's an impressive list, especially since leasing a
701 was a major commitment for even the
largest institution. Anyone who wants to
construct the timeline of California's love
affair with computing can anchor the origin
right here. - Editors ]

Introduction:
In every issue of the ANALYTICAL
ENGINE, we proclaim and celebrate
"computing in California." Why, then, is this
issue's big-iron article about the pride of
Poughkeepsie - the trailblazing IBM 701?
Because, at the very outset of the digital
computing era, the 701 conclusively demonstrated that the Golden State was wild for all
the computer power it could get! Bearing in
mind that only nineteen machines were ever
built, look at these serial numbers, sites and
delivery dates:
2 University of California, Los Alamos, NM
March 23, 1953
3 Lockheed Aircraft Company, Glendale, CA
April 24, 1953
5 Douglas Aircraft Company, Santa Monica,
CA May 20, 1953
8 U. S. Navy, Inyokern, CA (China Lake)
August 27, 1953
10 North American Aviation, Santa Monica,
CA October 9, 1953
11 Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA
October 30, 1953
13 University of California, Los Alamos, NM
December 19, 1953
14 Douglas Aircraft Company, El Segundo,
CA January 8, 1954
16 University of California, Livermore, CA
April 9, 1954

In other words, including Lawrence Radiation
Lab's acquisitions for Los Alamos, over half
the total production went to California purchasers. (Of those, half went to aircraft companies, fulfilling Konrad Zuse's prediction that
digital computing would become a necessity
for aircraft design.)

ORIGINS AND LEGACY
OF THE IBM 701
Douglas W. Jones
Department of Computer Science,
University of Iowa
Internet: jones@cs.uiowa.edu
THE HISTORICAL SETTING
In January, 1951, Thomas J Watson jr.,
Executive Vice President of IBM, convened a
meeting in his office to discuss a proposal by
his assistant, J. W. Birkenstock, for a new
computing machine using CRT memory with
about 20,000 digits of memory per tube, and
with a clock cycle allowing it to multiply
two numbers in one millisecond. The proposal suggested that up to 30 machines might
be made, beginning with a single prototype,
the Defense Calculator, under government
contract and nominally a response to computing demands posed by the war in Korea.
At this time there were about twenty electronic stored-program digital computer projects
in the world, all but three using binary
number representations. Most were patterned
after Von Neumann's machine at the
Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, with

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

40 bits per word. The Defense Calculator was
planned with a slightly shorter word, 36 bits,
and far better input/output facilities than the
lAS machine. The difference in word length
was corollary to the selection of a 6-bit byte
when recording data on magnetic tape, a new
storage medium IBM was currently
developing.
The Defense Calculator was designed fairly
quickly, based on the experience with the lAS
machine and with early experimental systems
at IBM. Newly developed component packaging methods resulted in a machine remarkably
compact for its time. The logic was packaged
in 64-pin modules with a row of 8 vacuum
tubes on the front of each module; logical
operations were performed by germanium
diodes in the base of each module. Modules
were plugged into a backplane, and the design
permitted modules to be swapped while the
system was powered up. The resulting CPU
occupied a cabinet about the same size as was
used 25 years later for the VAX 11/780; a
second similar-sized cabinet held 72 cathode
ray tubes storing 512 memory bits per tube,
for total memory of 1K words.
By April 1952 the prototype Defense Calculator was fully assembled; within two months,
the complete system was in use and undergoing debugging. The first production model
was shipped in December 1952, to IBM's corporate headquarters at 590 Madison Avenue in
New York, and became an instant favorite
with sidewalk gawkers. The second machine
was delivered to Los Alamos on April 1,
1953, and was working at the site within
three days. (In the context of this amazing
feat it is worth noting that Los Alamos was
operated by the University of California, and
that relations between the university and the
laboratory were far closer then than in later
years.)
Thomas J. Watson sr., preoccupied with his
company's almost sacred commitment to electromechanical punched-card technology, still

Page 5

had doubts about the new machine; but they
were probably alleviated by the monthly
rental of a fully equipped 701, which, at
$17,600, was about ten times the price of a
typical family car. His son, on the other
hand, noted that customers continued to
honor their contracts even while the
announced rental fee more than doubled from
its original $8,000. "That was when I felt a
real Eureka/," he noted decades later in his
autobiography. "Clearly we'd tapped a new
and powerful source of demand."
On April 7, 1953, the Defense Calculator was
publicly unveiled at an event attended by
over 150 guests, including John von
Neumann, William Shockley, J. Robert
Oppenheimer, and a roster of highly placed
scientists and executives. At this event, the
machine was newly described as the "IBM
Electronic Data Processing Machines, known
as the 701." A doctored photograph of the
prototype Defense Calculator was used in a
two page advertisement in National
Geographic in 1953, referring to it simply as
"The New IBM Electronic Data Processing
Machines."
In early 1953, the 701 memory units were
upgraded from 512 bits to 1024 bits per CRT,
[was this the first implementation of doubledensity? - Ed.] and a reference manual was
produced.
The entire planned series of eighteen IBM
701's was produced and shipped in only
nineteen months - from December 1952 to
June 1954 - proving that assembly and
testing of massive, complex DP machinery
held few terrors for this uniquely experienced
company. IBM's first venture into commercial
electronics at this scale was accomplished with
the thoroughness that had become their bestknown trademark. After the eighteenth 701
was shipped to Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank,
CA, enough spare parts remained on hand to
assemble a nineteenth machine, which was

Page 6

The Analytical Engine

delivered to the U. S. Weather Bureau on the
last day of February, 1955.
THE IBM 701 INSTRUCTION SET
The IBM 701 had a 36 bit word packed with
two 18 bit instructions. Each instruction had
a 6 bit opcode, leaving 12 bits for the memory address. Memory was addressed to the
half-word, so the architecture allowed up to
2K words, the entire capacity of the upgraded
CRT memory subsystem developed in 1953.
The sign bit of each instruction determined
whether the instruction was being used to
address words or half-words. Negative instructions were word addressed, while positive instructions were half-word addressed. Half
words were packed into words in big-endian
order, with odd addresses being used to
reference the least significant halves.
Numbers were stored in signed magnitude
form, and all of the documentation assumed
that the values being stored were signed magnitude fractions, with the point immediately
to the right of the sign bit and left of all of
the magnitude bits.
The machine had an accumulator and a multiplier-quotient register, and new complexity
was introduced by two extra magnitude bits
at the most significant end of the accumulator. These extra bits allowed sequences such
as "load, add, add, add" to be performed
before a check for overflow was needed, and
allowed such sequences to arrive at correct
results even when intermediate values were
out of bounds.
The instruction set included 21 programmIng
instructions and 8 input/output instructions.
The programming instructions included the
expected load, store, add to accumulator, and
subtract from accumulator instructions, but
also load negated and add or subtract absolute
value. As expected, the machine had multiply
and divide instructions, but it also had round
and multiply and round instructions that in-

January-March 1994

cremented the accumulator if the most significant bit of the multiplier-quotient register was
one. Finally, there were left and right arithmetic shifts in single and double precision
form and a logical and instruction that operated from accumulator to memory.
Control structures were constructed by branch
and conditional-branch instructions, but
programmers who wanted to code using procedures were forced to write self-modifying
code. Conditional branches could branch on
zero, branch on positive, or branch on overflow. A special instruction was included to
write the address field of a half-word in
memory, allowing straightforward self-modification, and there was a halt instruction.
The input/output instructions included instructions for starting unit record read or
write operations, for copying one data word
to or from a unit record, and for sensing or
setting device status or control bits. Special
instructions were included to handle
backwards reads from tape, to write end-of-file
marks on tape, to rewind tape units, and to
set the drum address of the next drum
transfer, but the central
instructions were,
to a remarkable extent, equally applicable to
all devices.

va

As noted previously, the sign bit of each instruction was used to determine whether the
memory address was a half-word or full-word
address, and with a 6 bit opcode field, this
would seem to leave room for only 32 instructions. In fact, the 5 control-flow instructions were always used to address half-words,
instrucand the 4 shift instructions and
tions did not use the sign bit. As a result,
there was plenty of space in the instruction
set to extend the machine as later models
were introduced.

va

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

INPUT /OUTPUT DEVICES
The 701 was developed soon after IBM had
constructed an experimental Tape Processing
Machine, and the success of that experiment
encouraged extensive support for 7-track magnetic tape on the 701. The decision to
support 7-track tape, with 6 data tracks and
one parity track, led to the selection of a
multiple of 6 for the word-length; this tape
format, originating with the 701, quickly
became an industry standard that was almost
universal for the next 15 years.
The 701's tape drives could be supplemented
with a fixed-head drum that allowed random
access to individual words. Each drum unit
had a capacity of 2048 words, and was clearly
thought of as swap-space and not as a device
for storing files. Other peripherals offered on
the IBM 701 were modifications of standard
IBM unit-record data processing machines, a
card reader, a card punch, and a line printer.
These were all "programmable" peripherals,
with patch-panels controlling operations on
the data encountered. All three devices were
limited to 72 characters per line of data
printed, punched, or read, with the patch
panel controlling the mapping between the 72
columns seen by the computer and the presentation of that data on punch card or listing.
Input! output was complicated particularly by
the utterly bizarre data formats of cards and
print records. For example, cards were read
row by row, so that two 36 bit words of
input contained one row of data from the
punched card, while the character code used
on the card used each column to hold one 12
bit character. This comes very close to the
philosophy espoused in Jackson W.
Granholm's "How to Design a Kludge"
(Datamation, Feb. 1962, page 30), and many
programmers were forced to spend hours
writing code to translate between character
data formats.

Page 7

Another problem with input-output was that
all data transfers were done under program
control, which - assuming moderately high
performance of tapes and drums - placed
stringent timing constraints on I/O code. On
later systems, the life of programmers was
greatly simplified by the introduction of direct
memory access I/O devices.
THE DESCENDANTS OF THE 701
The IBM 701 and 702, introduced within
weeks of each other, defined two parallel lines
of development for electronic computing, with
the 701 intended for scientific and military
customers, while the 702 was aimed at the
business market. (The 702 was a decimal digit
serial computer descended from the experimental Tape Processing Machine; it was
developed in parallel with the 701, using
similar technology, but it was not related to
the 701 at the instruction set level.) Watson
jr. understood that the 701 was, to use
today's term, a "power user's machine," and
provided energetic support for the quick development of a more capable successor.
At the end of 1953, while the earliest 701s
were still being delivered, Gene Amdahl later well known as the co-designer of the
IBM System/360 and the founder of Amdahl
Corporation - was put in charge of developing a follow-on to the 701. On May 7, 1954,
this was unveiled as the IBM Type 704
Electronic Data Processing Machine. The 704,
almost three times as fast as the 701, was the
first commercially available computer to incorporate floating-point arithmetic, and the
first IBM computer to have index registers.
The 704 systems control program (SCP) ,
which monitored the progress of calculation
and offered program control for input/output,
can be considered IBM's first operating
system.
Perhaps the primary innovation of the new
model was ferrite core fast memory, which

Page 8

The Analytical Engine

was announced in October 1954, even before
the first 704 was delivered. The first core
memory unit for the 704 was installable in
sizes up to 4,096 words; within two years,
32K words of core could be installed. This
technology contributed much of the 704's
speed and offered greatly improved reliability.
However, the expansion of 704 main memory
to over 2K words posed a problem that programmers have faced with annoying frequency
on later machines, that of addressing a large
main memory with a small direct address
field.
SHARE
In August 1955, IBM gave a seminar in Los
Angeles, as a briefing for potential 704 customers. Several executives who attended that
seminar met again almost immediately, on
August 22, to establish a group for mutual
support and pooling of information on the
704, called SHARE. The rapid growth of
SHARE - possibly the first, certainly a very
early, computer users' group - was particularly important to the success of the IBM 704.
By the end of 1980, SHARE had grown to
represent over 1,500 computer installations, of
which the majority did scientific work.
LANGUAGES
The speed and power of the 704, its register
architecture, and the SCP's ability to perform
low-level grunt work, encouraged the development of larger applications which incorporated subroutine programming. Code reusability became an issue, and conformity to agreed
coding guidelines became crucial to this. Even
at the inaugural meeting, members of SHARE
agreed on the need for a uniform assembly
language format for the 704; eventually, an
assembler written by Roy Nutt of United
Aircraft emerged as the standard.
Higher-level languages also received attention.
As early as late 1953, John Backus began to

January-March 1994

argue for the development of a compiler for
the 704 specifically, and in 1956 a group
under his direction completed this project, by
then known as FORTRAN. Optimized for
numeric calculation, this language offered
unprecedented computational power and guaranteed the future of the 704 for years to
come. The 72 column limit originally imposed
by the 701/704 card-reader continues to
puzzle FORTRAN programmers to this day.
BEYOND THE 704
IBM eventually sold 123 Model 704's, a gratifying improvement over sales of the 701 and
a total that absolutely mandated aggressive
development. The 704 was followed by the
Model 709, the last vacuum tube machine in
this series, and by the experimental transistorized machine known internally as the 709TX.
Borrowing heavily from the advances of
Project STRETCH while remaining fully
compatible with the 709, the impressive TX
was re-designated 7090 when the first example
was sold to Sylvania in October 1958. The
7094 and 7094 II, announced in the early
1960s, were faster still.
WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED?
The 70x family accomplished more for IBM
than could, probably, ever have been foreseen
when the original specification was laid down.
It defined a computer architecture that
endured for thirteen years, and might have
lasted much longer. It gave notice that IBM,
long the dominant vendor in tab card equipment, intended to be as formidable a competitor in the lucrative new world of computerdriven data processing. It proved that IBM's
polished sales force could sell computers as
effectively as they had sold less sophisticated
products - a transition managed less well by
many of IBM's competitors. Finally and conclusively, it dethroned. Remington Rand as the
primary American builder of computers.

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The Analytical Engine

The 7094 II marked the end of the line for
the 701 architecture. Lack of market was not
an issue; demand for these computers and for
compatibles could have continued for many
years. Rather, the SPREAD report of December 1961 changed the underlying direction of
mM's marketing policy for computers.
Until 1964, mM built two parallel lines of
computers for users in different categories.
Construction for science, higher education and
the military was exemplified by the 701, 704,
709, 7090/94, and 1620, while machines meant
for business and industry included the 702,
705, 7070, and the 1401 and its successors.
Naturally, potential customers didn't line up
into the two long neat rows that mM would
have preferred, and many users ran "business"
applications on "scientific" computers or vice

versa.
mM never argued with success unless it envisioned greater success. The SPREAD report
warned that, although this two-pronged
approach had resulted in tremendous market
share for mM, it entailed wasteful division
and duplication of effort internally. The company's array of niche machines should be
replaced by a line founded on a single basic
architecture, with enough gradation in power,
capacity, and peripheral capability to fill the
needs of any prospective customer for an mM
computer. This idea, and five billion dollars,
resulted in the innovative and immensely superior System/360.
Without a doubt, the 360 series justified its
titanic investment .:.- the largest in any single
American industrial project to that time and went on to become the "greater success"
that Tom Watson and Vin Learson had
predicted. But for many computer users and
historians, a 701, 704 or 709x remains the
machine that quintessentially defines "big
.Iron. "

Page 9

REFERENCES
Most of this material comes from IBM's Early
Computers, Bashe, Johnson, Palmer and Pugh,
MIT Press, 1986. This book gives an excellent
overview of mM's role in the early part of
the computer era, and it gives moderate technical detail. Incidental reference has also been
made to Cortada's Historical Dictionary of
Data Processing, Greenwood Press, 1987, and
to Tom Watson's autobiography, Father, Son
& Co., Bantam, 1990; the quotation above is
from page 243 of that edition. [The introductory table is abridged from "Customer Experiences" by Cuthbert Hurd, Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 5, Number 2, page
175, (c) April 1983 IEEE, and republished by
permission. - Eds. ]
I have also used my 1953 copy of mM's
"Principles of Operation" document for the
mM 701. This agrees in most places with the
technical appendix in Bashe, Johnson et aI,
but gives far more detail on instruction timing
and I/O data formats. It begins with an introduction to programming that is remarkably
timeless; the machine may be obsolete, but
the fundamental material a programmer must
know in order to program in machine
language. has not changed!

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The Analytical Engine

DAWN OF THE MICRO:
Intel's Intellecs
by Kip Crosby
Even sitting on a plain formica table, not
powered up, it looks incredibly gutsy and
serious. Thanks to the cheerful cooperation of
CHAC member Hal Layer, I'm looking at
one of California's - and the world's - first
micros, the Intel Intellec 8.
This sky-blue beauty first appeared sometime
in 1972 or 1973, two years or more before
the Altair 8800 often credited as the "first
microcomputer" by standard histories. Yet
there's nothing tentative or prototypical about
the Intellec 8, whose design and construction
puts many later (and cheaper) "hobbyist"
computers to shame. The story of its origins
is scarcely known, even within Intel itself.
BACKGROUND
Founded in 1968 by former Fairchild employees Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and
Andrew Grove, the Intel Corporation
immediately set to work designing and fabricating IC memory and microprocessors. The
first Intel micro chipset, the 4004, was a fourbit, three-chip combination developed by
Marcian "Ted" Hoff at the request of
ETIIBusicom, a Japanese calculator
manufacturer.
The 4004 design was a success, and Hoff
lobbied Noyce to renegotiate the contract
with ETI, securing the right to sell this chipset on the open market. Paradoxically, Intel's
marketing department raised objections. The
company's primary volume was in memory
chips, which were easily produced and found
an established market; if Intel began to sell
microprocessors in significant quantities,
profits might be overwhelmed by increased
support costs.

January-March 1994

But Intel had taken a step from which there
was no retreat. CTC (Computer Terminal
Corporation, later called Datapoint) commissioned an 8-bit version of the 4004 chipset capable of handling an extended-ASCII
character as a single word - for its line of
video terminals. Hoff and Intel's chief of
semiconductor design, Federico Faggin, were
excited by the sales potential of these microprocessors and foresaw opportunities for
further development; but the 8008 project
dragged on, and CTC cancelled its development contract with Intel, eventually awarding
it to Texas Instruments instead. When the
8008 appeared in 1971, it had cost a fortune,
faced an uncertain market, and already had to
prove itself against competition.
To find a way forward, the company took
stock of its assets. Intel's highly qualified staff
of electronic designers were experienced at
both chip and board levels, having produced a
wide variety of plug-compatible processor and
memory boards for OEM's. Their product
line included a complete array of support
logic chips. Finally, the company could fabricate or outsource other components - chassis,
cases, power supplies, and input-output devices
- at competitive cost while maintaining high
quality. The formidable imperative of the microprocessor, bolstered by Intel's broad and
deep abilities in production, set the stage for
the Intellec series of "development systems" which would be revealed in retrospect as the
first American microcomputers.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

INTELLEC SERIES HARDWARE
The Intellec series of development computers
comprised four models of CPU:
4 Mod 4

4004 chipset

4 Mod 40

4040 chipset (a later superset of
the 4-bit 4004)

8 Mod 8

8008 chipset

8 Mod 80

8080 chipset

MDS-800

8080 chipset

Intel maintains that the 8 Mod 8 was first
produced in 1973 and discontinued in 1975.
Tony Duell has an 8 Mod 80 CPU board
dated 1972, and the 8 Mod 8 and 4 Mod 40
are both listed in the Intel Data Catalog
published in February 1976, so the actual
period of production may have been
somewhat longer. (Pertinent Intel docs must
be read carefully because the names MCS4,
MCS40, MCS8 and MCS80 were used almost
indiscriminately to refer to chipsets, computers
or full systems.) The number of 8 Mod 8's
built is an open question since the company
has no contemporary figures on file, but given
that this author found only five in the course
of six months' research, they aren't common.
The line of modules and peripherals, known
collectively as the Microcomputer Development System, was comprehensive and included
a fast paper tape reader for each CPU model;
single or dual diskette drives with the available Intellec MDS-DOS operating system; a
universal PROM programmer; two in-circuit
emulator boards and three ROM simulator
boards. The Intellec chassis was available as a
rack-mountable barebone, supplied with a
CPU board, RAM board, PROM board,
board and twelve empty slots.

va

Adroit combination of these components
could bolster microcomputer development
from initial hardware stages to product prototyping; whatever was completed of the developer's system could be cabled to the MDS,
which would simulate, emulate, or provide

Page 11

the pieces still on the drawing board. Product
literature emphasized speed and ease of use.
The Intellec paper tape readers, "20 times
faster than [a] standard ASR-33 teletype,"
would "load 8K. .. program memory in less
than 90 seconds." Really impatient customers
were advised to order the MDS-DOS 8"
diskette subsystem and MDS-DRV second
drive, each of which would hold up to 200
files per 256K soft-sectored diskette. (This
format, compatible with the ffiM 3540 diskette
reader for mainframes, was later adopted for
the drives of several early CP/M micros.)
INTELLEC SERIES SOFTWARE
The 1976 Intel Data Catalog lists the following software available for the Intellec series,
all written in FORTRAN IV:
Cross assemblers: MAC40 for 4040/4004,
MAC8 for 8008, MAC80 for 8080
Simulator / debuggers: INTERP / 40 for
4040/4004, INTERP /8 for 8008, INTERP /80
for 8080
Language/compilers: PLIM HLL, a micro port
of ffiM's PL/I by Gary Kildall, with cross
compilers for the 8008 and 8080
All software included a source editor and
docs; it was supplied on 9-track tape at 800
BPI. Compiled or assembled code could be
tested against the appropriate simulator, then
run on an Intellec computer or the developer's own system, or encoded in BNPF
("Begin-Negative-Positive-Finish") format to
burn ROM's.
THE REAL ARTICLE
Clearly, Intel's conception of appropriate
hardware and software for the MDS was far
broader and more profound than the ideas
governing contemporary development of socalled "hobbyist computers." At $2,395, the
Intellec 8 was substantially more expensive
than a later Altair 8800 or other 8080-based

Page 12

The Analytical Engine

kit computer, but delivered solid value for
money. Twenty years after it was built,
Layer's 8 Mod 8 looks as if it could still boot
and run for another century.

January-March 1994

above two rows of white rocker switches:
Row 1:
ADDRESS / DATA: MEMory ADDRESS
HIGHer bits for dma, VO ADDRESS for
manual access, SENSE DATA input.

Its dimensions of 7"xl7"x14" (18x44x36 cm)
make it slightly smaller and taller than a
modern AT-class desktop box, and at 30 lb
(13.6 kg) it might be a bit heavier. It has a
very real front panel, tastefully silkscreened in
white on navy blue, with three banks of
sixteen red LED's:

ADDRESS / INSTRUCTION / DATA:
MEMory ADDRESS LOWer bits for dma,
INTerrupt INSTruction for fetch, DATA
deposit to memory or input/ output, data for
load to PASS COUNT register.

[Text in uppercase is the actual panel text.]

Row 2:

Bank 1:

ADDRESS CONTROL: LOAD PASS count
to register, DECRement loaded address by
one, INCRement loaded address by one,
LOAD high and low address to register for
dma.

STATUS: cpu RUNning, cpu WAITing, cpu
HAL Ted, console access HOLDing, cpu
address SEARCH COMPLete, console
ACCESS REQuested, console INTerrupt
REQuested, INT DISABLE [not used on the
Mod 8].
CYCLE: FETCH instruction, cpu MEMory
read/write, cpu VO read/write, DmA,
READ/INPUT, WRITE/OUTPUT, INTerrupt
cycle, STACK [not used on the Mod 8].
Bank 2:
ADDRESS access: [15 and 14 not used on the
Mod 8,] 13-0 display memory during access.
Bank 3:
INSTRUCTION / DATA: 7-0 display instruction or data between cpu and memory or
input/ output.
REGISTER/FLAG DATA: 7-0 display contents of cpu data bus or register on execution.

MODE: cpu input SENSE data, VO ACCESS
for edit at cpu wait mode, MEMory ACCESS
for edit at cpu wait mode, execute to
SEARCH point and WAIT, enter manual
WAIT state. (Tony Duell's comment on
SEARCH/WAIT: "Very nice feature .... You
could set a trap on a particular location, and
also set a counter. Then, the CPU would be
forced into a wait state on the nth access to
that location. Great for single-stepping the exit
condition of large loops.")
CONTROL: single STEP through program or
CONTinue from search complete, DEPosit 8bit word during access, DEPosit 8-bit word
AT programmed HaLT, cpu fetch/execute
manual INTerrupt, RESET program counter
to zero.
[Switches listed as "not used on the Mod 8"
were enabled on the Mod 80 only.]
T a the right of these controls and indicators
is a combination keylock/power switch, and a
PROM socket! with a power switch of its
own .... no need to pull the case and card
when blowing or reading a fresh EPROM on
an Intellec. Oh, and it's a ZIF socket, nothing
new under the sun.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

But let's pull the case anyway.... woops .... it
doesn't pull, it's a flip-up case with a piano
hinge at the back - something that all too
many micro owners might prefer even today.
Underneath the case, the sides of the card
cage are hinged too, then securely fastened to
the frame. Access to components is excellent
by any standard, certainly by comparison to
modern nanotower cases and postcard
motherboards.
An early clue to component quality is the
startling size of the power-supply capacitor, as
big as a small fist. The power supply is so
conservatively rated that, when Layer bought
the computer, the seller advised him to
salvage the supply and junk the rest! Other
low-stress components include a giant muffin
fan in the backplate, and the cage itself, made
out of aluminum bar stock.
The passive mainboard's sixteen slots run
front-to-back and the slot guides are yet more
satin-finish aluminum. Each modular card
plugs into a full-length hundred-pin connector
(identical to S-100, although the connections
aren't,) and is supported by nylon card guides
at both ends; the card guides are riveted to
the crossbars of the cage. Fliplocks at the top
corners of each card protect against creep and
vibration, although I suspect that only a trip
through a paint shaker would loosen a card
accidentally.
Seven standard card modules were supplied
with the S Mod S:
immS-S2 Central processor module with SOOS
CPU, memory and I/O interface, interrupt
logic and crystal clock
imm6-2S (x2) 4K RAM module: 32x1Kbit 2102
static RAM chips
imm6-26 2K PROM module: Sx2Kbit 1702A
static EPROM chips, eight empty sockets
immS-60 1/0 module: four S-bit inputs, four
S-bit outputs, a DART, and serial TTY connectors

Page 13

imm6-76 PROM Programmer module cabled
to the 24-pin EPROM socket on the front
panel
and the control module for the front panel.
Nine slots were left empty. The stock
machine was delivered with SK static RAM
and the Mod S system monitor (with paper
tape support) burned into the 2K PROM; by
combining and swapping other cards and
chips, any combination of RAMs, ROMs or
PROMs could be installed, up to the' 16K addressable by the SOOS. Unusually, RAM and
ROM boards could be installed globally set to
the same addresses, and their individual chips
then enabled or disabled with jumpers.
[Available accessory cards included an Output
module with eight S-bit ports (S-62,) a breadboard for wire-wrap sockets (6-70,) and the 672 "pop-up" card with extended connectors to
raise any module clear of the card cage.]
The backplate carries out the theme of sturdy
construction. On each side of the fan mount,
a subordinate cage provides five sockets for
DB37 connectors. Hefty 3-wire power and a
current loop interface through a Jones plug
cater to the anticipated Teletype connection.

BUT IS IT A MICRO?
The Intellec S has been denied the reputation
that it deserves - as California's and,
possibly, America's first microcomputer - for
two reasons that I find cogent.
Primarily, any SOOS-based device is relegated
to the archaic age of micros. Like Nat
Wadsworth's SCELBI-SH and Jonathan Titus'
Mark S, the Intellec saw only limited production and never entered the "popular" legend
and culture of computing. The SOOS went on
to become an embedded processor in Datapoint Beehive terminals and DEC PDP-11/34
front-panel boards; its successor the SOSO
seized its day to power cheap, commercially
available kit-built computers that helped ignite
the micro revolution ... .leaving the SOOS to be

Page 14

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

part of history in a more limited sense, as the
preoccupation of historians.

machine, if their corporate strategy had called
for one.

Secondarily, the Mod 8 had an especially
narrow declared purpose, as a system to build
systems. It was diffidently marketed by Intel,
which was still wary of selling microprocessors in volume to the general public. Certainly the company's strategy, to create broadbased demand incrementally through the good
opinion of influential hardware and software
developers, was defensible .... especially in light
of the results. But it did mean that awareness
of the Mod 8 was limited to a small population of technical specialists - to those specialists, furthermore, who thought that the potential of micro development and programming
justified a sizable investment in an MDS
system. In a way, this asked MDS customers
to have more faith in the future of microprocessing than Intel itself had. But in 1994
it's hard - almost literally "unthinkable" to recreate the mindset of respected computer
professionals who thought the micro was a
dark horse, a sucker bet, a testbed, or a toy.
Only a handful knew what the micro even
aspired to, not to mention what it would
achieve.

Still, there's no need to play "might have
been" with an Intellec, which is a fairly formidable box as it sits. Like a long-fendered
prewar roadster or a Schneider Trophy
seaplane, it embodies a vanished past so pure
that it becomes evocative. Sit for two hours,
if you ever get the chance, with a Mod 8 and
its manuals; when you stand up, you'll know
a lot more about computers.

But a computer's importance to history has
never been a function of its CPU type, nor
should it be. And special purpose is no deterrent to general fame - certainly ENIAC,
which "only" computed artillery tables, and
COLOSSUS, which "only" screamed through
brute-force solutions to Germany's encoded
military traffic, are two of the historian's alltime favorites. The Mod 8 was a deeply considered, robustly built, versatile, well-documented Real Computer™ with an architecture
heavily biased toward systems development. A
similarly meritorious Mod 8, or better yet
MDS-800, optimized for general computation
or business programming might have become
the first widely sold commercial microcomputer. One good look at the Mod 8 will
confirm that Intel could have built such a

[Thanks to Tony Duell, Jodelle French, Doug
Jones, Benjamin Ketcham, Klemens Krause,
Hal Layer, Jay Maynard and "Milan" for
source material, answers and encouragement.
- KC]

RSN: DSP ON A Z-80
We had announced Doug Mandell's article on
early digital signal processing for this issue;
unfortunately, in the interim, Doug went
mission-critical and got swept away by a code
tsunami. We sympathize (no doubt along with
many of our readers) and look forward to
publishing this article when it's ready. Editors

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

LAND OF THE SILENT GIANTS:
A Day at Livermore
On October 27, 1993, we - Tom Ellis, Tim
Swan and KC - met at CHAC's garage and
rolled up our sleeves for the drive. In El Cerrito it was a bright, warm fall morning; the
heat in Livermore, thirty miles further from
the coast and bordering the Valley'S stony
desert, might be punishing by comparison.
National and local security had dictated that
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
be plunked down in a sparsely populated
bowl of scrubland framed by far hills, cut by
service roads as straight and black as electrical
tape. It's not the moon but it could easily be,
say, New Mexico or Nevada.
Very Federal white-an-blue signs direct the
persevering visitor to "Computer Museum,
Pod F," a small, detached frame building that
the museum shares with a dosimetry lab.
While the museum is part of LLNL, the
building it's in belongs to the Livermore
School District, making the installation's status
more precarious than it otherwise would be.
We were met by the Museum's curator,
Barbara Costella; the registrar, Alice Pitts; and
the Lord High Fixer, Roger Anderson - all
volunteers or nearly so, and three-quarters of
the Museum staff. (Docent Jim Tracy wasn't
on deck that day.) This operation has been a
labor of love for decades and is still considered somewhat marginal by Powers that Are
in the Department of Energy. Which is too
bad, because it's one of the most exciting
computer museums in California. "Nationaf
here is no passing epithet; you won't see this
collection of hardware, documentation and
ephemera anywhere else.
Ever since it was established in 1952, LLNL
has performed advanced computation considered to be in the most stringent national
interest. This loosened traditional limitations
that might have forced some big companies,

Page 15

or even other government agencies, to settle
for less overwhelming devices. Livermore's
computers have always been the fastest and
crunchiest available, even if they were experimental at the time they were installed,
even if they have very low serial numbers,
like 5, or 6, or even One.
Case in point: The Control Data 6600,
announced by CDC in August 1963, was
supposed to be delivered to Livermore in
October 1964, at a cost of $3.8 million. It
inaugurated a firm tradition of teething
troubles with supercomputers (not unreasonably, since it launched the category too,) and
it got to the site six months late. But once it
arrived, it must have liked the weather,
because thirty years later, there it still is.
The main unit looks like a big, dull-gray
bank vault; in fact, the resemblance is eerie,
because you enter it by swinging open a
three-inch-thick metal "door." But, surrealistically, behind the door there's another door,
that swings open too.... These are the component planes for 350,000 hand-wired, individual
transistors, mounted in frames that might
survive geological eons. The whole box
weighs three tons, and what it required for
power, I can't imagine. Naturally it was
meant to have its own room and a Praetorian
guard of tape drives and printers; sitting in
that little school building surrounded by its
descendants, it looks almost aloof and pained,
as if to say 0/ all Real Computers I was the
Most Real. For a while.... The console is a
Formica desk with plenty of wing space, a
nice solid keyboard, and two big round greenon-black screens directly in front of the operator, like something out of a fifties s-f
movie. At the operator's bidding, the fastest
processors of the day, a gargantuan 128K
sixty-bit words of fast core ... .! sat and
imagined that Seymour Cray's looming
maiden effort, the first, the only supercomputer
in the world, was waiting for me to type in
the bootstrap commands and spin the drives.

Page 16

The Analytical Engine

Dizzying. Wrenching! (Later on, the 6600
even acquired LLNL's first hard-disk array, a
gargantuan Bryant with several platters
mounted vertically on a common horizontal
shaft; each platter was three feet in diameter
and held 244 million words of data. The
whole array must have really tried the
patience of angular momentum.)
But all things must pass, and where more
quickly than here? Because sitting next to the
6600, and not even five years newer (it
arrived in January 1969) is a CDC 7600,
looking absolutely audacious by comparison ....
a tall column, shallow V in cross-section,
sheathed in dawn-blue plexiglass and uninspired woodgrain. Behind the plexi are rows
and rows of quick-change aluminum circuit
modules, each a little bigger than a (US) pack
of cigarettes, painted black, and with a robust
multipin connector at the back end. These
plug into the main backplane not unlike
Legos, and did a great job of minimizing
downtime, because they could be swapped out
so easily. The 7600 has four times the main
memory of its predecessor and probably four
times the speed, but only cost about thirtyfive per cent more. "Top that," it says, with
every line.
Volumes could, and should, be written about
these two machines alone. But walk a few
steps....
and there's a CRA Y-L ..
which just Is.
A CRAY-1 doesn't even look like a computer, unless you know what you're looking
at. The tall column, in a logical (but weird)
development from the 7600, is a hollow cylinder with one quarter cut out of it; the
wiring goes around the inside surface of the
cylinder, to be short, and the access panels
for the circuit boards go around the outside,
for easy fiddling. Flanged around the outside
base is what looks like a padded bench,
which earned these computers the nickname
of "loveseat" forever .... it's the casing for the

January-March 1994

power circuitry and cooling hydraulics, readily
visible in the example at hand, because Ms.
Costella had two segments of the casing
neatly replaced with clear plexiglass. Step back
and be generally reminded of, say, a strange
phone booth in an airport.
Fast? You bet. All chips and still couldn't be
cooled with water, had to use peculiar pink
Freon. Over twice the main memory of the
7600 - a million sixty-four-bit words - and
up to forty times the speed, depending· on the
operation. Seymour's masterpiece; gonzo; long
since replaced by faster machines, including
variations on the same architecture, yet still
considered sort of.... out there. Always will be.
It was just too different.
Also, not the computer you'd choose to add
up the grocery budget - even of a small
country. To begin with, programming was
grueling even for experts, because the whole
language was biased toward speed of execution. Secondly, the main computer (four tons
this time) consumes four megawatts of power,
or about $720 worth per hour at PG&E's
current prices. The four tons got easier to
understand when Tom slid a circuit board out
of its U-channels and handed it to me; I
almost dropped it because the components
were mounted on a sheet of solid copper
about five millimeters thick. Seymour Cray
has ideas about computer design that have
never been subscribed to by anyone else.
This in turn has led to folktales about his
designs being Immaculate Conceptions, after a
fashion, devoid of compromise and devoted to
the speeding electron above all. Well .... yes and
no. Any time you get near people who actually worked on a Cray, you start hearing
furtive whispers about the mat, and how the
mat is why these computers could never be
mass-produced, because the mat used to leave
its .own engineers red-eyed with fatigue and
whimpering with frustration ....

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

The mat is the web of wiring around the
inner surface of the cylinder. Here again, in
the name of truth, justice and insatiable curiosity, one of the opaque covers has been
replaced with plexi - and behold, this
dreaded mat in all its dire glory. Not just
spaghetti, but boiling spaghetti, a bramblethick mesh of overlapping loops covering the
whole panel, uncountable thousands of wires
that would be nightmarish to trace even with
a total schematic. How this machine was ever
repaired, I have no idea. Tim stood in front
of that Rosetta Backplane, stock-still and
gaping, as if he were waiting for something to
move. This too, at the time of its creation,
was the fastest computer in the world.
From here we need to step back and look at
some theory, particularly as it applies to
Livermore. The lab examines very large phenomena at very high resolution; thus it needs
to process input as fast as it possibly can, if
the results are meant to arrive in any reasonable time. But that's only half the story.
Once these data have been collected and
stored, they need to be retrieved as quickly as
possible, lest these power-sucking, coolantfuming CPU's get bored.
So LLNL's most pivotal question - with
some of the most fascinating answers became rapid access to information. Livermore
began using computers in the days of
punched-card data storage [see page 4] and
progressed rapidly to tape; but with its unending need for vast blocks of data NO WI!, it
must have been one of the first installations
for which tape alone was flatly inadequate.
Tape is reliable, dumb, and forever slow,
because you spin the tape to every item you
need, and if you happen to be nearly a whole
tape's length away, it can take a while. Spin
the drives faster, make the reels lighter, be
ever more inspired about the sequence of
records on the tape, and you only buy
yourself breathers, because serial access is
limited in its very nature. My friends the

Page 17

twelve-year-old Visual Basic programmers
would pipe up with "Why didn't they just
use hard disks?" and - they did and do, lots
of them; but the Lab's need for torrential
flows of information in real time meant that
disk storage, classic nine-track tape, cartridge
tape and optical storage all overlapped in a
chaos of urgency.
Nine-track handling was expedited with many
devices, including wonderful robot arms that
searched through tape cabinets, grabbed the
desired reel, drew it out of the cabinet, and
auto-mounted it. CDC provided the cartridge
tape, and IBM the optical storage, with
devices so innovative (in very different ways!)
that they honestly deserve to be called heroic.
IBM's photo-optical storage memory, the
Model 1630, held thousands on thousands of
strips of what amounted to stiff microfilm
carefully slotted into small gray plastic boxes;
the boxes had spring-loaded covers and sat in
an array of cells on a wall. When the computer whistled, the device swung into action,
found the right cell in the array, drew out
the box, popped the cover, pulled the right
strip and read the data from it optically.
Halfway between tape and a disk, it had one
dimension of serial access and one dimension
of random access, and it was faster than tape.
Since this whole machine was finished, supported and documented to Big Blue's usual
standard, and IBM only ever built three of
them, it must have cost a [deleted] fortune.
CDC's MASS 38500 contained 16,384 plastic
cartridges - not much longer or thicker than
your middle finger - with shutters, that protected short, fat tape strips spring-wound on
spindles. Each strip held a million of the
sixty-bit words for the 7600. That's a terabit
in the array .... And it could find any file in a
second.

Page 18

The Analytical Engine

All these devices are on display along with a
Concise History of the Hard Disk, starting
with a single, millstone-sized, twenty-fivepound platter from the Bryant array. From
there the disks got smaller and faster and
smaller and faster .... development chronicled
here by a selection of platters in several sizes,
all flashing the glossy gold-bronze finish that
is the highest aspiration of all rust.
So it is with the whole Museum. Bits of
hardware, from the massive to the tiny, were
plucked off the conveyor belt to the scrap
heap, meticulously arranged and sagely
explained. A full-house PDP-8 concentrator
stands next to its ASR-33 Teletype, and you
can almost hear the clatter; across the room,
one wall is devoted to an anarchic-looking
PDP-10 (originally used for file transport
control) that had my fingers itching to flip
dimly remembered switches. On the other end
of the scale, there are tubes of core wire and
little heaps of cores in three sizes: tiny, tinier,
and where's-the-hole? Tim was startled to realize that core planes were assembled by hand;
Tom said that the display board of core
memory gave the best explanation he'd ever
read, and I imagine he's read a few. Further
over, a reel of UNN AC steel tape hangs
from doubled-up fishline, with an Alice-inWonderland sign that says "LIFT ME." In
one corner, two Commodore PETs cower like
kittens among cheetahs.
Yet older equipment includes a nice selection
of IBM EAM hardware, including keypunches,
summary punches, a sorter, and an early
alphabetic tabulator, all finished in the invariable battle-ready gray. I took the control
drum out of the 026 and remembered too
much about odd jobs in college, including the
way the insanely springy metal locking flap
always chipped one end of the control card ....
Control Data peripherals got rescued too. The
purplish, stair-carpet ribbon of the band
printer will still get your fingers very dirty.
The T -handled dust covers of the disk packs

January-March 1994

still look like cake protectors. It's all here,
clean and polished, none of it on a pedestal
but most of it with intimations of bootability.
In a world trembling on the edge of mania
for virtual reality, a day's worth of real
reality is a refreshing and startling change.
But the scavenger's apotheosis is the Programmer's Office in another corner. As Leo
Damarodas recalled in last july's ENGINE,
while you were coding in the fifties and
sixties you weren't at the console, and this is
where you were .... at this long oak table,
flanked by blue-on-brown boxes of IBM card
stock .... that's your dark cloth coat and fedora
on the wooden coat-tree. Framed awards and
pictures line the wall, OEM models adorn
tops of filing cabinets, and a few "internal
souvenirs" - like a nameplate from an IBM
7094 - are tacked to the bulletin board.
Sitting at the long table, puzzling over a cork
in your code, you might idly pick up the
plugboard punch, no bigger than a screwdriver but superbly finished in gray and red
with the IBM logo in white. Then it's back
to the fanfold, as you try not to notice the
clock, and reach for the pack of Camels in
the ashtray. With the cigs, there are matches
from a Chinese restaurant, emblematic of the
days before ANSI Standard Pizza conquered
the programming world. But it's a pack of
matches from a Chinese restaurant in the 1950's.
Only love could have accomplished this.
This is where you were. Maybe. Or maybe,
like my pre-teen object hackers who don't
know that a hard disk spins, you never were
and only need to be. Back to FORTRAN,
overpunches, absolute addressing, smudged
fingers, the chewy chatter of paper tape, and
the sickening thud of a card box hitting the
floor. Iron.
Since the dawn of computing, LLNL has built
unique systems - like the CHORS hard copy
output service, the RJET remote job entry
terminals, the TMDS video sub-network, and
the 50-MHz, multichannel OCTOPUS

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

backbone - to respond to completely exceptional needs. All of this had to be kept
patched together by brilliant improvisational
engineering. As much money as Livermore
had, as much clout with the hardware companies, still its retrospective history gives a
clear impression of scrambling to keep up of building levees and dams to channel tidal
waves of information that constantly
threatened to overwhelm the whole network.
Counting file data, print jobs, remote job
entry, and output to televisions and CRT's,
the two big trunk channels often handled
over half a million messages an hour. There
were few parallels to this, no matter where in
the world. And all the history that makes this
understandable, that makes it live, is packed
tight into a tiny, borrowed school, protected
- by four diligent volunteers - from the
rote indifference of a government department
on another coast. Somehow, the Computer
Museum even seems miles away from the
Western-redwood-serene-Zen architecture of the
Lawrence Livermore Visitor Center, which the
DOE does care about.
To speak plainly: This Museum needs protection - the protection of fame which arises
from recognition. Visitors, ink, and word of
mouth and keyboard can keep this unrivaled
historical asset from declining to "hardware in
storage" and slipping away.
Make the appointment, take the drive, prowl
and exclaim, stand and stare. You'll love it.
We did!
Lawrence Livermore Computer Museum
Pod F North
1401 Almond Avenue
Livermore. CA 94550
Hours by appointment only
+ 1 510 447-6109 or + 1 510 373-1373

Page 19

LONG LIVE the APPLE II
April 1977 - November 1993
Apple Computer has announced the end of
production for the Apple IIe, the last Apple
n model still available from the company's
educational catalog. After almost seventeen
years and over 5.5 million machines, this
dynasty is brought to its end.
When the Apple II was introduced at the
First Annual West Coast Computer Faire, in
San Francisco's Civic Auditorium, on April
16, 1977, it marked a risky departure for the
fledgling computer company. Apple's earlier
product, the Model One [see ACQUISITIONS] had enjoyed a modest success; it was
powerful for its day, well-designed, and
reliable. However, it was a hobbyist's
computer that required the proud owner to
add a case, a power supply, and I/O capability; it was also expensive, at nearly USS700
for the main board alone. Roughly 200 units
were sold.
The Apple II was intended for a far wider
audience. A revision of the "insanely great"
Apple One motherboard, combined with all
the bits that made it an operable computer,
was housed in a sleek, tapering beige case that
evoked fleeting thoughts of science-fiction
movies. It was meant to appeal to hi-fi buffs
and buyers of modern appliances, and at
USS1,195, it could almost qualify as an
impulse purchase. Apple's three top executives,
business manager Steve Jobs, circuit designer
Steve Wozniak, and president Mike Markkula,
hoped that this would become (to borrow a
later Apple slogan) the first-ever "computer
for the rest of us."
It came close. So many people found it attractive; computer professionals who wanted a
machine at home for recreation, executives
who realized that an Apple II running VisiCalc Til was an analytical tool more agile than
any minicomputer, students who wanted to

Page 20

The Analytkal Engine

edit papers without retyping, administrators of
clubs and churches who ran their mailing
lists .... An Apple TI brought the power of
computing to so many familiar activities,
slowly perhaps, but easily too, and without
being scary.
Roughly a year after the Apple TI's introduction, Apple brought out the Disk TI 5.25
floppy drive, a stroke of genius that may
even have surpassed the computer itself.
Earlier floppy drives had been hardware-heavy
and complex, which made them expensive,
finicky and fragile. The Disk II reduced
hardware to an absolute minimum and trusted
to software for control and timing, keeping
the drive affordable (though still a major
moneymaker for Apple) and reliable enough
for the mass market. At a stroke it banished
the bitwise mysteries of paper tape and the
eternal frustrations of data cassettes, and
brought speedy data retrieval to millions of
delighted users.
Over the years - so many years - a procession of new models brought more capability
to faithful users. The TIplus and TIe added
memory and agility. The TIc made (or tried to
make) an already small computer explicitly
portable. The TIGS, by adding vastly improved
color graphics and the beginnings of true digital sound, brought the family to the very
edge of today's infatuation with computerdriven "realities." But while these descendants
pushed the envelope, they never tore it. If
you've ever run one Apple TI, you can sit
down at a different one and at least get off to
a good start. Almost every model has its partisans - mention of the perennial TIe brings
smiles from teachers, while some designers still
call the IIGS "the best [deleted] computer
Apple ever built" - but they're all inviting
and ingratiating.
In the end, perhaps the IT's greatest contribution was to .education. Millions of children
have encountered a TIplus or TIe on the same
day they began primary school; and the mag-

January-March 1994

nitude of this contextual shift is hard to overstate. In the popular imagination of 1975, a
computer was a vast, wildly expensive, unapproachable cluster of machines, hovered over
by specialists in an air-conditioned room. Ten
years later, a computer was something that a
seven-year-old could walk up to, play with for
ten minutes, and wander away from. Without
giving Apple credit for the entire micro revolution, we can still admit that that dilatory
child was probably playing (and learning) with
a TIe. (And a few of those seven-year-olds
grew into twelve-year-olds who could run MSWindows or Finder, and are now sixteen-yearolds messing with Linux or hacking C+ +
.... but that's a different story and only begun.)
The educational market finally faded, the TIe
accounted for only two per cent of Apple's
shipments in 1993, and the TI series is at last
a closed book. With the turn of the century
so close, it's a shame that we won't see an
Apple TI Millennium Edition. But no doubt a
few hundred thousand of the originals will be
pumping bits in the year 2001, proving that a
6502 chip and a pocket calculator's worth of
RAM still add up to a useful, amusing and
beautiful computer.
Long live the Apple IT!

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

Page 21

A DECADE OF MACS

If you spot any mention of CHAC or the
ENGINE in one of these periodicals, please:

While we're under the Apple tree, happy
tenth anniversary of the Macintosh! which
was introduced to the world on January 24,
1984. In those ten years the Mac has - time
after time - set new standards in digital
sound and graphics composition, video manipulation, and ease of use. Few feelings in
the world of computerdom are as intense as
the devotion of a hard-core Mac user.

* If your copy of the piece is dippable, clip
and mail to the El Cerrito address.

We'll try to have a Mac artide for April, but
we don't know what's in it yet. Have faith.

Thanks!

(Speaking of the apple tree, here's a trivia
question: What was the text, in tiny letters,
that ran around the edge of the picture frame
in the original Apple logo? First correct
answer before March 28 gets published in the
April issue.)

SPOTTER ALERT
On November 24, 1993, the CHAC office
prepared a press kit that consisted of a release
about INITIATIVE 1999 and the Association,
a copy of the short piece entitled "Millennial
Chaos for Computers" that appeared in the
November 15th New York Times, and a copy
of the October-December ENGINE. This
mailing was our first contact with print
media.
Kits were mailed to these publications:
Byte
Government Computer News
Computer Currents
Information Week
Computer Technology Review
Info World
Computer World
Mac Week
Data Communications
MicroTimes
Datamation
PC Week
, ,Science
Defense News
Digital World
T.H.E. Journal
Dr. Dobbs' Journal
Whole Earth Review
Electric Engineering Times WIRED Magazine
Federal Computer Week

* If you can't spare the physical copy, send
the text as net.mail to cpu@chac.win.net, or
photocopy and fax to the El Cerrito address.
* If you're too busy for that, just send the
publication name, date and page number and
we'll do the hunting.

SPOTTER FLASH
At the moment before publication, our press
campaign has brought its first results. Emeryville's Computer Currents Oanuary 11-24, page
10) devoted a quarter-page to a fair and clear
treatment of INITIATIVE 1999. We appreciate
the coverage.
It was their editorial decision to publish
CHAC's voice number - rarely used, to put
it mildly - rather than our more popular email address. We were startled when the
garage got pelted with phone calls! Our callers
had several interesting propositions or suggestions and, if this exemplifies the power of the
press, we're all for it. Thanks again.

THINKING OF WRITING? ...
.... an article for the ENGINE? We'd be delighted to have some, but even more delighted
to have some about:

1.) Minis. A sober assessment of our first
three issues demonstrates that we've published
a lot about big iron, a lot about micros, and
not much at all about minicomputers which have been crucial to all manner of
research, simulation, programming, automation, process control, and hackerly weirdness.
Minis are Good Things and we know that
many of our correspondents share that opinion. So, dear readers, what interesting things

Page 22

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

did you do with one? In California, of
course.

DESPERATE PLEA FOR MONEY

2.) Scarcer large machines. We're very fond of
IBM and DEC both - having had forebears
who were spear carriers on both sides of the
Hardware Wars - but no less fascinated by
machines that weren't quite as ubiquitous.
Certainly there's every reason to write
proudly and at some length about the roomful of Amdahl, AT&T, Burroughs, CDC,
Cray, Data General, Datamatic, ERA, GE,
Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, NCR, Philco,
PRIME, RCA, SDS, Sperry, Tandem,
UNIVAC, Xerox, or What-did-I-Miss? iron
that you cut your teeth on. So when can you
start?

CHAC needs money. What else is new? Well,
what's new is that we're getting some .... not a
tremendous amount, but enough to produce
the ENGINE, pay for postage, telecomm and
storage, and very, very cautiously purchase
significant hardware. CHAC is in the black for the moment - and here to stay.

3.) Distinctly historical machines in current
use. To take one beguiling example, a couple
of ENGINE subscribers would swear that
some large company in California is still using
a System/360. Is this true? Who'd like to
prove it?
4.) Languages. We recognize that it isn't easy
to write about languages in a way that holds
the interest of non-programmers, but we did
get a terrific response from Aaron Alpar's
Smalltalk article in October. Comparable
treatments of other dialects eagerly solicited.
5.) Computer-related social and economic history. The tremendous impact of computing in
California has comprised far more than hardware and software. Why did you go to work
for a computer company, when you did?
What were the effects when your hospital, or
bank, or university adopted its first EDP? Just
as a computer is more than the sum of its
components, computing is more than the sum
of its computers.

When we take the strategic view, we re!llize
- and hope you'll concur - that the need
for ready cash is greater than ever. The
process outlined in October, of "forging links
with trade publications, industry executives,
and foundations .... in a word, being taken seriously," has begun; see this issue's
"Acquisitions," "Spotter Alert," and "Land Of
The Silent Giants" for examples. We've also
begun to recruit our Advisory Board.
In the near future, we will be starting
research into foundation support, filing grant
applications, traveling throughout California to
meet with industry representatives, and trying
to rescue some larger hardware. We're considering a public, promotional event at mid-year
to celebrate the first anniversary of the
ANALYTICAL ENGINE; later in 1994 we
may collaborate on a significant publishing
project. This will all take money that we
don't have now. But if we mean to fulfill our
ambition of "getting much bigger over the
years," we don't dare squander the momentum that CHAC has built up in only nine
months.
To those who have donated: Thank you,
you've kept us moving. To those who
haven't, yet: Please give soon and make the
biggest difference you can. Microeconomics is
an unforgiving science, and tomorrow's donations have a hard time paying today's bills.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

AND SPEAKING OF MONEy ....
With respect to our nonprofit certification,
the mills (and stores) of pertinent gods are
grinding very slowly indeed - it seems like
months since that paperwork went out of
here. Happily, the CHAC can act like a
nonprofit while it's still waiting to become
one. Our accountant says that, since our application is correct and pending, all donations
to the Association are fully deductible for the
donor. This includes ENGINE subscriptions.
(The $10 per year surcharge for paper copies
can't be deducted because it's a reimbursement
of our production and mailing costs.)

If you don't have an ENGINE subscription
yet, but you're hunting for charitable deductions, all we can do is encourage you to
subscribe. Today - did we mention today?

LIGHT A MATCH ....
One thought about donations: Your gift to
the CHAC could be augmented - even
doubled - by your employer through a
matching program. Computer-related companies offering to match charitable gifts include:
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Ampex Corporation
Cray Research
Digital Equipment Corporation
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
mM Corporation
Macworld Communications, Inc.
Microsoft Corporation
NCR Corporation
The Sun Microsystems Foundation
Tandy Corporation
TRW, Inc.
United Technologies Corporation
and, no doubt, there are many others. Ask
your company's Personnel or Benefits office if
matching is offered; if so, please take a
moment to request the appropriate form, fill
it out and mail it with your donation.

Page 23

OVERVIEW OF BUREAUCRATIC
PROCESSES
The last quarter of 1993 didn't produce much
on this front - largely because the easiest
work had already been done. Much is on its
way to completion, visible results are scant.
But here's what we hope to have accomplished by April:

* Certification

of California nonprofit status

*

Application for Federal ditto (which we
can't do till the state's certified papers are
returned to us)

* Application for a nonprofit postal permit
(mailing the ENGINE is expensive)

* Research on grants and filing of proposals

*

Contact with Bay Area colleges and universities to discuss a possible internship

* More formal accession and registration of
our computer collection

*

Acquisition of more storage space,
somehow!!
Naturally, more will come to light between
now and then. And no, we still can't take
credit cards.

Page 24

The Analytical Engine

ABOUT YOUR
OLD, DUSTY LAPTOP....
If you have an older 386SX or 386DX laptop
computer sitting around, and you're not doing
much with it, would you consider donating it
to the CHAC so we can trade it for some
fine old iron?
A nonprofit organization in Northern California has been given an elaborate, significant
and bootable Compupro micro system,
complete with a fourteen-inch hard disk. They
can't really use it, because no one on the
staff is familiar with it. They don't want to
scrap it, for reasons obvious to us and to
you. And - here's that bureaucracy again because it's donated material, they can't sell it
or give it away, except to another nonprofit
organization.
They, on the other hand, desperately need a
portable computer that they can use for onsite demos. They'd be perfectly happy with
some sort of 386 that had about an 80MB
drive and a mono screen. If we had such a
thing, we could donate it to them ("another
nonprofit organization") and trade it for the
Compupro. Given that Bill Godbout's
Compupro company spent its entire life in
the Bay Area, it's thoroughly within our
mandate to acquire this.

If you have a Toshiba 3100SX - or something like it - that you could donate to consummate this deal, please call us at + 1 510
527-7355 or send e-mail tocpu@chac.win.net.
We'll give you a tax deduction equal to the
laptop's current AmCoEx close price, which
should be about $650. Thanks!

January-March 1994

Book Review: STAN VEIT'S
HISTORY OF THE PERSONAL
COMPUTER
Asheville, NC: WorldComm, 1993
Photos, Index, 304 pages, $19.95
Reviewed by N. C. Mulvany
Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer
presents and expands a series of columns that
have appeared during the past eight years in
Computer Shopper. Veit writes that "This
history is intended to give the reader the
feeling of the times when, in a few short
years, the personal computer appeared and
grew to be a mighty force for change," and
feeling is a key word; this book succeeds exceptionally at conveying the atmosphere surrounding early microcomputing.
The charm of this book resides in its very
personal account of personal computing, and
of the industry that developed from it. This is
no dry historical tome that outlines the progression of PC development machine by
machine, but a chatty insider's account of
some people, places, and technology that were
most important to "computing for the people"
in precisely its most dynamic, anarchic era.
Veit's story begins in 1976 with the optimistic
opening of his Computer Mart in New York
City - the first retail computer store on the
East Coast and the second one in the world.
"Started in the back of a toy store on New
York's Fifth Avenue, it grew so quickly that
the customers and shoppers filled the entire
floor and interfered with the sales of Barbie
dolls and wind-up cars."
The description of retail sales, assembly, maintenance and support of systems such as IMSAI
8080, South West Technical Products
(SWTPC) 6800, SOL computers, and Apple
computers gives a vivid picture of comput~r
retailing at its very outset, constantly veermg
from excitement to frustration and back again.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

Cash flow was a problem not only for the
retailer, but for small manufacturers, who
depended on cash to produce the systems
ordered. Often the retailer had to pay up
front for systems sight unseen and hope that
they would be delivered within a reasonable
amount of time. Once the systems arrived,
technicians worked overtime to assemble them
and make them bootable. This was indeed
risky business! And for every computer like
the IM:SAI 8080 -the dark-horse bestseller
that got Computer Mart up and running - a
seemingly comparable machine like the Sphere
M6800 might prove to be a near-total flop.
Veit's account is punctuated with anecdotes
and many wonderful photographs of early
systems, and his prior background as a technical writer is used to good advantage.
Technical developments and specifications are
integral, but presented in "plain English" so as
not to disrupt the flow of the story.
[Unfortunately, the book's most distracting
faults are timid editing and slipshod proofreading, which could easily have been
avoided. - Ed. ] He also chronicles the chaos
and thrill of early computer shows, followed
by the maturation of an industry with the
emergence of PC distribution channels. His
tenure as publisher and editor of Computer
Shopper gives him authority to delineate the
important role that computer publications
played in the development of the PC market.
This book is an unfolding, meandering, firstperson story best read cover to cover, as if
sitting in Stan Veit's living room and listening
to him reminisce. Its allure is hard to describe
in a review, but typified by Veit's memorable
description of setting up at the first national
computer show in Atlantic City in 1976.
Computer Mart shared its booth with a "longhaired hippie and his friends" - Steve Jobs,
Steve Wozniak, and Dan Kottke. As Jobs was
readying the Apple display, Veit's formidable
mother-in-law noticed that his jeans were
torn. She looked him up and down and said,

Page 25

"Young man, your backside is sticking out of
holes in those jeans! You are NOT going to
be in my booth like that. Take 'em off and
I'll sew them up, now!" Unusually meek, Jobs
slid behind a curtain and handed over his
pants for mending.
Particular companies and their products are
given in-depth treatment. Proceeding from the
MITS Altair and IMSAI 8080. Veit describes
the SWTPC 6800, early Apples. the
Cromemco S100 boards and whole systems,
Sphere systems, SOL computers, TRS-80,
Commodore, Atari, North Star, Osborne,
Vector Graphic, and the rise of the mM PC.
Many other computers such as the DEC
Rainbow, Sinclairs, Heathkits, and Morrows to name a few - are considered more briefly.
Even so, there are omissions and near-omissions - only three sentences are devoted to
. the notably popular Kaypro CP/M machines.
Printers were clearly Veit's favorite peripheral
equipment, and we are reminded that early
Centronics dot matrix printers, which cost at
least $2,000 and as much as $6,000, could be
an investment that dwarfed the computer
itself. The arrival in 1981 of the Epson Model
70, selling for $600 and printing at 60 cps,
was a key breakthrough and universally
acclaimed.
This book wraps up with the introduction of
the mM PCjr in November 1983, but says
comparatively little about IBM's entries in the
field. This is nQt the definitive history of the
personal computer, but a valuable addition to
the collective history, a bird's eye view from
inside the whirlwind of activity that spawned
a revolutionary industry. In these days of
telemarketing, credit cards, and overnight
delivery it is easy to forget how much devotion and effort microcomputing consumed as
it began. Stan Veit's unparalleled perception of
the early days leaves us absolutely amazed at
the changes and advances of the past seventeen years.

Page 26

The Analytical Engine

ACQUISITIONS
APPLE ONE
A generous donation from Larry Tesler, Chief
Scientist of Apple Computer, underwrote the
Association's purchase of an Apple One from
Winston Gayler of Cape Coral, FL. Naturally
this is any collector's favorite Apple, but it's
also a printed-circuit design so pristine and
uncompromising that it's still used as a
teaching example in serious EE courses.
Gayler was as careful with this computer as
he was with the IMSAI discussed here in
October; the Apple arrived with a complete
spare chipset, sealed original manuals with
duplicates for reference, as well as cassette
software, program listings, schematics, correspondence, articles, magazine ads .... It's all
here, and to spare. We haven't booted it
because we don't have the right kind of, er,
TV set. Look for a full-length article by' an
appropriate Apple guru in a forthcoming issue
of the ENGINE!
50L·20
The Association purchased a Processor
Technology SOL-20 from Dave Coughran of
Turlock, CA, with funds donated by Tom
Ellis.
Walnut side panels?! What is this, stereo
equipment?! Actually, the adornment was less
frivolous than it seemed. When Bob Marsh
and Lee Felsenstein introduced Proc Tech's
SOL computer, at PC '76 in Atlantic City,
NJ, a year and a half had passed since the
Altair 8800 was announced in Popular Electronics; and the rule of thumb about microcomputers, that a new generation would
arrive every eighteen months, applied firmly
even then.
The SOL-20, built - like earlier Altair and
IMSAI machines - around the Intel 8080
CPU, needed to stand out from a growing

January-March 1994

herd of workalikes. Worse yet, Zilog's new
and potent Z80 chip threatened to dent the
sales of all 8080-based machines indiscriminately. Proc Tech's highly regarded memory
and 110 boards proved that their circuit
~esign was sound, but in the fiercely competitlve market of microcomputing's Big Bang,
good internals weren't enough to sway picky
buyers. So Marsh, Felsenstein, and partner
Gary Ingram broke new ground by making
their computers.... pretty.
.
Polished wood end-plates, a high-quality bright
blue finish, and a CPU with an integrated
keyboard all contributed to the SOL-20's taut
and "businesslike" appearance. With the monitor on top of the CPU, and the Helios
(persci) twin 8-inch floppy drive next to it,
the whole assembly would fit on a somewhat lavish - secretarial desk, and
without a dangling cable in sight. Proc Tech
photographed just such a setup to use in their
own advertising, with the caption "Introducing
the Monday Machine."
But in May 1979 Proe Tech closed its doors
forever. The unreliability of the Persci disk
drives had wounded it; a long, damaging litigation over the ownership of the company's
BASIC had brought it low; and aloofness
from the SOL's user and dealer base finished
it off. Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh went
on to work for Osborne, where Felsenstein
led the design team of the Osborne I.
The SOL-20 itself was largely without blame
for Proe Tech's collapse. It was highly
regarded for its reliability, compactness and
good looks; the surviving examples have
become some of the most sought-after of the
pre-Apple micros. We're certainly glad to have
ours.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

ALSPA
A little-known ALSPA microcomputer has
been donated to our collection by Jack
Brown of Adaptec Corporation.
We haven't popped the case on this one and
we know only that a 280 CPU somewhere in
the box talks to the standard 64K of RAM.
The case format is unusually deep and
narrow, leaving room enough in the front
panel for two 8" drives and not much more.
There's a nice assortment of ports on the
backplate.
Minimal, or fewer, docs are part of this
package, but there's probably a boot disk. At
a rough guess we would date it between 1978
and 1980. The full and unrestrained gratitude
of the CHAC will devolve on anyone who
tells us more about this computer than is set
forth here.
HP 150
Revenue from subscriptions to the
ANALYTICAL ENGINE was used to
purchase a Hewlett-Packard Model 150 touchscreen computer from Dave Lee of San
Francisco, CA.
The year 1984 was marked by a creative high
tide that has rarely been equaled in the micro
world. Speaking of hardware alone, it saw the
introduction of the IBM PC AT, the Apple
Macintosh, the Sinclair Quantum Leap, the
Coleco ADAM, and this HP 150, among
many others. Naturally some of these
machines were more innovative and successful
than others; but few can have been more innovative than this H-P.
When Hewlett-Packard implements a new
technology, they generally pursue its development until they feel that the customer can
receive maximum benefit from it. So it was
here. The touchscreen was coupled with an
unadorned, but effective, graphical applications
suite that (for example) lets the user touch

Page 27

the "tab" of a Rolodex card to display its
contents. Similar attention to detail is evident
throughout the design and it's obvious that,
by producing a touchscreen computer that
was intuitive and rewarding to use, the
company hoped to introduce a world-beater.
The 150 was not that. Instead, it became one
of the last computers to be doomed by lack
of "IBM compatibility" .... But, ten years after,
how fascinating it is to explore a micro so
different from the common run! - because
the touchscreen is only one of its idiosyncrasies. An optional thermal printer could fit on
top of the CRT, under a hatch in the computer. The floppy disk subsystem uses the
(then) scarce 3.5-inch disks, compact and
rugged; 5MB and 15MB hard-disk subsystems
were also available and could be daisy-chained.
The keyboard has scads of color-coded function keys to facilitate its use as a diskless
2623A terminal. Clearly this is a "multi-environment" computer meant to be equally at
home in an MIS department, a library, a
laboratory, an examining room, or in the
field.
This HP 150 is the Association's first
Hewlett-Packard computer. It won't be the
last and, if they typically have this much to
offer, we may need quite a few.
[Note to MIS packrats: We have an abiding
vision that the 15MB disk, model HP45660A,
the 5MB disk, model HP45655A, or the
wedge thermal printer, model HP2674A, are
sitting in somebody's stockroom, dusty but
functional. If you have such things and no
longer need them, we would particularly appreciate donation of the rest of the bits for
this box.]

Page 28

The Analytical Engine

MACINTOSH XL (MacLisa)
Al Kossow of Apple Computer has donated
an Apple Macintosh XL to the Association's
collection, and it's been hanging out on the
desk in our office ever since! This mysterious
machine, a vital way-station on the road to
the Macintosh, was meant to bring the
graphical, iconic, mouse-oriented Lisa interface
to home and business users - but at a price
that the desktop computer customer of 1984
would find attractive.
The XL has the same case as a Lisa, with an
11" (28cm) paper-white monitor on the left
and the floppy on the right; but whereas
most Lisas had dual 5.25 "twiggy" drives of
dubious reputation, the XL has one doubledensity 3.5 drive. Ours also has an external,
5MB ProFile hard disk sitting on top. (At the
moment, the ProFile won't cold-boot, but a
patient approach will trick it into warmbooting. Once it's up, it runs indefinitely.)
We have it set up with the surprisingly
complete Lisa Office System - LisaCalc,
LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaGuide tutorial,
LisaProject, Lisa Terminal, Lisa Test diagnostics,
and LisaWrite - but we could also run
MacWorks XL, an integrated application
written specifically for the hardware.
This machine is impressive, and the more so
the more you look. First of all, its click-toload windowing and its tear-off-the-pad file
metaphor make it an uncorrupted descendant
of the Xerox Alto and other P ARC computers. Consider also that in 1984 this Mac
competed in the marketplace with the IBM
PC XT or some of the later, more powerful
CP /M systems - which may have had bigger
disks, but couldn't come near the XL's futuristic interface. Want to look back from
today's perspective of MS-Windows, XWindows or OS/2? Well, the whole Lisa
Office System runs in 512K RAM and fits on
half that 5MB disk .... And, when you're done
for the day, you can hit the power switch

January-March 1994

without closing anything. The operating
system will meticulously put everything away
for you, and bring it back out when you
return in the morning.
Someday, sadly, we will have to put this
computer in storage, and some other
intriguing box on the office desk. But we're
in no hurry.
ATARI800
At press time - literally on the eve of the
upload - the Association received a fully
equipped Atari 800 from Shellie Stortz of San
Francisco. It includes a 410 cassette recorder,
a Wico joystick, and one peripheral we hadn't
seen before, a CX85 numeric keypad.
This Atari arrived in a bedraggled but still
garish pink-and-silver box that proclaimed it
to be "THE PROGRAMMER," so presumably
Atari BASIC is its forte. We don't know a
lot about it, other than that its dual cart slot
and real keyboard make it a much more congenial machine than the smaller 400, and that
it seems to have 48K RAM. Of the documentation in the box, some applies to the 400
and the rest is puff. If anybody has real Atari
manuals that they're not using, we'd welcome
the donation. Anybody with Atari manuals
that they are using, please call us or leave us
net.mail to discuss the box's capabilities.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

LETTERS
COMPUTER HISTORY ASSOCIATION
OF DELA WARE BEGINS!
.. Well, I've started the process. I registered
the name "Computer History Association of
Delaware" this afternoon - it's funny, you've
got to check a set of ledgers to ensure that
the name hasn't already been registered. I
would have been very surprised if I'd found a
match in the 1901-1925 ledger :-) ....
Would you be willing to forward me a copy
of your Statement of Incorporation and organizational bylaws as a starting point for discussions? In Delaware, you only need a single
person for incorporation and no assets .... It's
occurred to me that if you get a flood of
interest in starting other state organizations, it
might be worthwhile for me to put together a
set of boilerplate applications materials for
incorporation in Delaware ....
Let me know what you found useful (and
not) in setting up the organization in
California.
Now, where did I put those RK03 drives ...
Thanks!
- Tony Eros, Digital Equipment Corporation
[Thanks to you, Tony! As I write this we've
already sent you some material by net. mail,
but as we look back over the process of
assembling this organization, there's been a
whole lot to it - even so far. As we build
the CHAC, we'll put together - and try to
update - a suggestion file which will be
available from our request daemon.

Page 29

PLATO AND SMALLTALK
.. While we're on the subject of Smalltalk,
here's a bit of history the world is forgetting:
In the mid 1970's, there were only two organizations in the world with a large body of
experience working with bit-oriented graphics.
The group we remember best today is the
group at Xerox, working with the Alto computer, the Smalltalk language, and various exploratory windowing environments. The other
group was centered on the University of Illinois PLATO IV computer system. This
system supported close to a thousand interactive terminals, each with a plasma display
panel where the rest of the world expected a
CRT, and it supported the TUTOR programming language, a dismayingly mixed
blessing, with very high level input output
facilities geared to the bit-addressable plasma
panel, and control and data structures straight
out of the stone ages.
The two groups developed their ideas about
how to handle bit addressable display
hardware quite independently, but in the mid
1970's they got together and traded visiting
staff members, hoping to learn what they
could about each other's best ideas. Both sides
clearly had some excellent ideas, too. Xerox
had windows, mice, the object oriented paradigm, and the fundamental idea of bit-mapped
CRT displays, while PLATO had notesfiles,
input judging, touch-panel input, and the flat
panel bit addressable display.
The exchange was lopsided, though. The
PLATO people who went to Palo Alto found
Smalltalk to be impossible to learn. The
reason was that, as TUTOR programmers,
with background in other languages like
FORTRAN and BASIC, they found object
orientation almost impossible to grasp. On the
other hand, the Xerox people visiting Urbana
picked up TUTOR very quickly, complained
about its backward control structures and data
structures, and very quickly came to appreci-

Page 30

The Analytical Engine

ate the brilliance of its dialog management
tools.
The other side of the coin is also interesting.
The people at Xerox were being funded
largely out of a hope that they would provide
a new technology for the "automated office of
the future". In doing this, they put in too
much time trying to provide computer analogs
of the paper tools of a conventional office.
While the Xerox community talked about
electronic memo distribution in very learned
tones, they tended to miss the fact that digital
communication could take off in an entirely
different way that bore little resemblance to
the way we communicate with paper and
typewriters.
The PLATO project was intended as an experiment in computer aided instruction, and
they were so set in this orientation that they
used the word "lesson" for what all of the
rest of us would call a program. PLATO had
a large on-line user community, and interactive multi-user games were the single most
intensive application through the 1970's,
despite a string of official policies discouraging
such use. In this context, there was no effort
to mimic the paper and pencil world; instead,
as user demand grew, and as tools succeeded,
they were improved on.
The result was a world of inter user communication based on E-mail and notesfiles, where
a notesfile is exactly analogous to a newsgroup on USENET today. From their start in
1973, Notesfiles were moderated, but the need
for unmoderated notesfiles emerged very
quickly. Because of the educational setting, the
PLATO project ended up taking a very
mature stand about the need for anonymous
postings (a stand that is far more mature than
the stands currently being taken by the majority of Internet sites today).
Another example of this was the PLATO online user's manual, AIDS. The AIDS system
was entirely non-linear from its start in 1973.

January-March 1994

Today, we would call it a hypertext document, but that term had yet to spread from
California to the interior. The PLATO manual was never intended to be linearized into a
paper document (although that was eventually
done), and the interconnected structure of
AIDS was a marvelously effective way to
present information.
I was at TIlinois from 1973 to 1980, working
with PLATO but not for it. My MS project,
in 1976, was a re-implementation of the
TUTOR language on a minicomputer; this
was the first implementation of TUTOR on
any machine other than a CDC 6600. This
write-up centers on what I learned at lectures
by the visitors from XEROX PARC, as well
as being based on my own visits to XEROX
research facilities and on my memory of what
other PLATO people said about their experiences during the PARe PLATO exchange.
- from Doug Jones, via Internet
INVENTORY OF HAL LAYER'S
COLLECTION
• Outstanding!! Wonderful Vol. 1, No.2!!
Enjoyed it immensely. I agree with other correspondents in feeling alone in the pursuit
and rescue of artifacts before they were
thrown out by companies too involved with
survival and the future to be concerned with
the industry's history.
I have been collecting in the categories of
calculators, video games, and computers. for
several years. If of value to your readers, here
is my list of acquisitions, so far, in the computer category, with my best estimate of
dates.
computers ......................... .
1956 Heath Electronic Analog Computer kit
(front panel only), (Heath
1964 EAI analog computer, Model TR-20
(EAI)
1971 Compumedic analog computer,
(Compumedic)

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

1972 GRI Minicomputer, Model 99/IIB (GRI)*
1973 Intel Intellec-8 micro, CPU: 8008, (Intel)
1974 Intel Intellec-4-40 micro, CPU: 4040,
(Intel))
1974 Scelbi-8H Mini-Computer, CPU: 8008,
(Scelbi)
1974 IMP-16P. micro (front panel only), CPU:
IMP-16, (Natl Semicond)
1975 HP 3000, Series IT, minicomputer (front
panel only), (Hewlett Packard)
1975 IBM 5100 Portable Computer, CPU: IC
module, (IBM) w/cart dr & printer
1975 Altair 8800 micro, CPU: 8080, (MITS)
1975 Sphere-l micro, CPU: 6800, (Sphere) *
1976 Altair 680b micro, CPU: 6800, (MITS)
1976 IMSAI 8080 micro, CPU: 8080A, (IMS
Assoc.)
1976 Sol Terminal Computer-20, CPU:
8080A, (processor Tech)
1976 SCIMP Development Sys., singleboard,
CPU: SCIMP, (Natl Semicond)
1976 Intel 80/10 singleboard micro, CPU:
8080, (Intel)
1976 Intercept, Jr. singleboard micro, CPU:
IM6100, (Intersil)
c.1976 2-80 Starter Kit singleboard micro,
CPU: 280, (SD Sys., Micro Design)
1977 Byt-8 micro (front panel only" CPU:
8080A, (Byte Inc.)
1977 Byte 8080 micro, CPU: 8080A, (Byte
Inc.)
1977 COSMAC VIPsingleboard micro, CPU:
1802, (RCA)
1977 E&L MMD-l singleboard micro, CPU:
8080, with BUG Books, (E&L)
1977 Apple IT, Model "0," with "Language
Card", CPU: 6502, (Apple)
1977 Home-brew one-bit micro, CPU: MC14500B
c.1978 Am-2900 micro (singleboard), CPU:
2901, (Adv. Micro Devices)
c.1978 Microcomputer-in-a-Suitcase Trainer,
CPU: NEC8255,(Integrt Camp. Sys.) *
c.1978 IASIS Computer-in-a-Book,
(singleboard), CPU: 8080, (IASIS)

Page 31

1978 SPARK.-16 micro w/cassette recorder,
CPU: 9440, (Fairchild) *
1978 Instructor-50 micro, CPU: 2850
(Signetics)
1978 SYM-l micro, (singleboard), CPU: 6502,
(Synertek)
c.1979 Microcomputer/Terminal, Model ESAT200B, CPU:1802 (ElectroLabs) *
1980 Sinclair 280 micro, CPU: 280, (Sinclair)
1981 Osborne Modell portable micro, CPU:
280A, (Osborne)
1981 28 BasiclMicro Computer (single-board),
CPU: 28, (Micro Mint)
1982 Timex Model 1000 micro (Sinclair 2X81
design)
1983 TRS-80, Model 100, portable micro,
CPU: 80C85, (Tandy)
1983 Sinclair 1500 micro, CPU: 280A,
(Sinclair)
1984 Apple ITC micro, CPU: 65C02, (Apple)
computer-related miscellany................................ .
1948-?0 Library of computer literature,
manuals, pamphlets, etc.
1966 Lockheed mechanical digital timer
(USAF) *
c.1970 Dektak Inspection/Scriber machine
[w/microscope for IC Wafers] *
1970 Comp-U-Kit 10 (Sci. Measure., Skokie,

IL)
1971 Pulsar LED digital watch (Hamilton)
1972 Desk-top IBM card reader, Model D-1S0
(Documentation, Inc.)
1973 Pop Electronics Digital Logic Microlab
(SWTPC)
1974 CPU board with 4004 (pro-Log Co.) *
c.1975 Intel System Interface & Control
Module MCB 8-10 *
1975 Microsoft black paper-tape programs,
BASIC, etc.
c.1976 Processor Technology paper-tape
programs, games, etc.
c.1976 Processor Technology & Godbout
boards
.
1975 Paper-tape readers, mscl.
c.1978 Intel keyboard, Model MDS-CRT

Page 32

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

c.1978 Pro-Log 80 (tester of 8080 CPUs) *

IBM DISK DRIVES, AND OTHERS

* If

.. It is interesting how some generic terms
creep into our language no matter how technically precise it is supposed to be. [In
ENGINE #2,] Laurence Press refers to the
IBM 1301 disk as being a "Winchester disk
subsystem". If you check with the people at
IBM San Jose where all IBM disk subsystems
were designed from 1957 to the recent past,
you will probably find out that the term
"Winchester" applies to a single technology
developed in late 60's. It is derived from the
development project's code name. Each new
system, or subsystem, developed at IBM was
given an internal code name before it was
given a unit number ID, like 1301 for a disk
or 7094 for a computer.... During the late 60's
IBM was developing a new series of disk
drives with the main technical objective of
storing at least 30 megabytes and having an
average access time of 30 milliseconds or less,
so it was known as the 30-30 a fa
"Winchester" rifle fame. The Winchester
performance advance could only be achieved
with a new read/write head technology, so
any disks made with this head technology
have commonly been called a Winchester
disk. (What is strange is that newer head
technologies have been developed since then,
principally "Whitney" for the peak, as in
storage/performance goals; but we still call the
resulting disk a "Winchester". Why is that?)
So, the 1301 wasn't a Winchester; the IBM
3340 was the first in a long family of IBM
"Winchester" disks. Maybe someone out there
knows what the 1301 development code name
was; after all, the 1300 series disks provided
the basis for the explosive groWth of the IBM
San Jose facility.

anyone has documentation or information
for these items (*),1 would like to hear from
them.
Hal Layer, AV /ITV Center, S.F. State
University 1600 Holloway Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94132
voice ph: 415 338-2637
email: hlayer@sfsu.edu

DETAILS OF STANFORD'S
COLLECTION
.. In the editorial of ENGINE #2, you wrote:
"But at the moment, there's no such institu.tion in and for California. That's the rationale, or part of it, for CHACo Certainly Silicon Valley, in order to tell the story of what
happened there since Hewlett and Packard
built their first oscillator in 1938, could
endow and support an institution comparable
to TCM!"
In fact, Stanford has had a "Stanford and the
Silicon Valley" project in the Department of
Special Collections since 1985. We have
dozens of archival collections relating to the
history of computing, the semiconductor industry, physics, etc. Since you mentioned H
& P, one should also be aware of the
archives at H-P. Stanford's collections have
been widely used and are well known to
historians of science and technology.
We have a modestly informative brochure,
which I can send to anyone who requests it.
Also, see my article in ARCHIVES OF
DATA-PROCESSING HISTORY: A GUIDE
TO MAJOR U.S. COLLECTIONS for a
description of the computer-related archival
collections we have (as of 1990) ..
- from Henry Lowood, via Internet

I hope that people affiliated with this organization might find a way to record the views
of the disk drive pioneers who reside in this
area, especially IBM veterans or Al Shugart,
who worked for IBM and then went on to
found one or more of the disk drive manufac-

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

turing companies in the Valley. I can still
remember seeing Mr. Shugart's first 8" floppy
disk drive at the San Jose Labs. Maybe he has
one of them or the drawings. It was elegantly
simple, especially the track positioner, and the
reason it was designed at all is especially interesting, not what you would have predicted
considering the industry that it spawned along
with the single chip microprocessor. It would
have made an apt segment of the
"Connections" series.
- from Dean Billing, via Internet
MORE ON THE 1401
(passages headed with .... are from
Damarodas part 2)
.... The only way you could get the machine
to do something was put a deck of cards in
the card reader and hit the start button. And
that would read the card deck, load the
program into memory, and start executing it.
It was slow; there was no multi-processing, no
nothing. Just a really simple machine.
.. As Leo well knows [and as he mentions
later], this isn't right. What the start button
did was read *ONE* card from the card
reader [as he said into locs 1-80] and started
executing at location 1. The first instruction
was always "set word mark, 7, 13" or
something like that. A word mark delimited
the end of an instruction [the 1401 had variable length instructions]. By setting two [one
was at the end of the first instruction, itself,
of course] it marked the second instruction,
which [as I recall] was also a set word mark.
In fairly short order you got to reading in
another card.
.... Yes, in fact the bootstrap program didn't
even take a whole card. The bootstrap
program was about a dozen characters long.
Somewhere I have a framed white poster,
about four inches high and ten or twelve
inches long, with that program written on It.

Page 33

.. It'd be neat if he could find the bootstrap
and post it! 1'd be tickled to see that old
code again! But I think he has it wrong about
the length. I quite clearly remember that the
first two instructions in the bootstrap were
'set word mark' instructions, each seven bytes
long.
- from Bernie Cosell, via Internet

.... Did the IBM 1401 use the ASCII system, or
was it EBCDIC, or did it have... ?
.... The memory locations ~ere set up looked
just like an 80 column card - plus two more
bits. So there was a bit that represented zero
through one, eleven and twelve, which were
the zone overpunches, and then there were
what was known as the record mark and the
word mark. They were two other memory...
well, what we would consider bits. They
weren't called that, but memory looked like a
punched card with two additional positions.
Each memory location was like a column on
a card. The addressing structure used three
positions to represent lK. But then you had
overpunches, and I know the overpunches
were used on the left and the right ... there's a
combination of four overpunches, so you
can ... Is five enough to get up to sixteen?
Yeah. If you had no overpunches, it would
be zero through a thousand. or zero through
nine-nine-nine. I can't remember exactly what
the scheme was, but they used the overpunches to make up the difference.
.. The 1401 used a 6 bit "byte", appropriately
named BCD for binary-coded-decimal. The
core memory in the 1401 was actually an 8
bit system because it included a parity bit and
there was a Word Mark bit in each character
that defined field length. Six bits was enough
to encode 64 characters or enough for the
standard 48 character set that was a product
of the TAB machine days, 26 alpha characters
(CAPS), 10 digits, space and 11 special characters such as comma, period, dollar, $ * ( ) + =. (Which is enough to do accounting

Page 34

The Analytical Engine

clearly.) The other character was the record
mark. Word mark was a bit in each memory
position, but record mark was a specific bit
combination.
The bits were labeled:
C - (~heck or Parity bit)
B - (1 think these were called zone bits, but
they didn't really correspond to the "zone"
A - punches of the tab card, rows 11-12.)
8
4

2
1
M -

~ord Mark)

on the machine lights. You would need a
1401 programmers card to convert from the
12 rows of the tab card to the 6 bits of
BCD. Mr. Damarodas' recollection of addressing is accurate. The 1401 used "decimal" addresses using 3 "bytes" from 0-999, then used
combinations of the B & A bits to extend
addressing up to whatever the maximum
installed core memory was, [which] I
suspect ....was 16 or 20K (and this K= 1000).
The 1410/7010 series was the same architecture and 1 have heard of them having 40K of
core. Obviously, if you used all 18 bits available in three characters, you could address
256K characters, but there may have been
some other limitation on the bit combinations. I remember that it was a rather arcane
system and it seems to me the limit was

lOOK.
- from Dean Billing, via Internet
.. What was the origin of the convention
that a column binary card was identified by
the presence of a 7-9 punch in column 1? It
was well-established by the time I first met a
binary card in 1962, but I've never run into
any comments about *why* that bit pattern
was chosen. Was it just an arbitrary pattern
selected because it cannot occur in the BCD
character set?
- from Joe Morris, via Internet

January-March 1994

MORE ON SPACEWAR
(passages headed with .... are from Robinson)
.... Each ship could be rotated clockwise or
counterclockwise, fire reaction engines that
eventually ran out of fuel, and fire missiles of
finite range and finite number. The ship
obeyed Newton's laws, accelerating and decelerating under the influence of its engines and
of solar gravitation ....
.. But one thing it *didn't* do was do gravity on the torpedoes, and so there were a
LOT of sexy techniques that took advantage
of that anomaly. Also, Scott didn't mention
the wonderful Starfield. Peter Samson had
added it to the original SPACEWAR. IT was
a *real* star field, generated by some incredibly clever code so that it had real constellations in their real positions and they slowly
drifted across the background.
....... Collision of two ships produced a
vivid, graphically depicted explosion on
screen, and both players were out, whereupon
the game restarted.
.. One should probably note that for folks
weaned on 'Star Wars' and Super-VGA PC
games, it wasn't really 'vivid'. Kind of a little
star-burst. Very nice, and crystal-clear what
had happened. But nonetheless fairly simple.
.... The display was a vector-type CRT and
the quality of the graphics exceptional. The
motion was perfectly smooth, with no aliasing
artifacts noticeable.
.. This is just wrong. The display was a
*point*plotting*, no memory scope. ALL
displays were 'animated' since there was no
display memory: if you wanted something to
persist on the screen, you had to be in a
loop constantly redisplaying it. The scope had
a neat, special phosphor which displayed
green when fired, but then faded for short
while in yellow. This made the display flicker
a *lot* less, and it also meant that things left

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

Page 35

'trails' as they moved around. It made for
some quite wonderful 3-D effects.

rotate left rotate right
torps
(Actions a whole lot like Netrek)

- from Bernie Cosell, via Internet

left

.. The SPACEWAR to which I refer was run
on a PDP-liB at BBN in Cambridge. ((one of
the) first Timesharing machines - but that's a
different thread)

Program had patchable locations that controlled number of torps at a time and their
spacing, life, and speed. Also, rotation could
be "by thruster rocket" or "by gyros" Gyro would rotate while the switch was
thrown and stop when off, whereas Rocket
rotation would start and increase angular
momentum while the switch was still thrown.
To stop, you had to try to thrust the other
way for exactly the same time.

I believe this was the identical SPACEWAR
to that run on the MIT PDP-l; certainly
many of the same MIT programmers worked
at BBN too. (See hakmem threads also).
SPACEWAR at BBN was probably the first
"object oriented" program (nothing new under
the sun), the program had translate, explode
and rotate, etc. generic object functions that
would operate on whatever object you fed to
them (mostly the two ships).
The DECScope had 64(?) intensities (6 bits?).
Peter Sampson programmed a rather remarkable Starfield over Cambridge, that rotated a
24 hour day (in about an hour of play time)
as the background. (when last heard from,
Peter was at System Concepts who were
making -10 -20 clones)
Standard (no bit diddling) SPACEWAR was 2
ships, sun with gravity for ships not torps,
8(?) torps with life about 3/4 screen (about 23 inches/second); hyperspace survival probability started at about 75% and decreased per use
to about 20% (?), everything wrapped, torps
could be shot down by other torps. T orp
speed was additive to shooter's speed (by
some function) but you could shoot yourself
down if you fired ahead whilst going too fast,
or you could "leave mines" by firing opposite
the way you were going. All this in 4k of 18bit PDP-l words (including Peter's Starfield
database)
Control was accomplished using testword
switches (I/O instruction readable) the 4 on
the left for one ship, the right 4 for the
other. (order may be wrong, but ...)

A

right

=

thrust

Hyperspace.

The sun had switchable gravity and I think
you may have gotten a choice whether torps
were affected by gravity. SPACEWAR ships
and torps would wrap, although that may
have been another option. For a challenge,
there was billiard SPACEWAR; single shot on
the screen at a time, no kill counted unless it
had wrapped at least twice.
PDP-l SPACEWAR was the source of the
first computer-induced medical problem (well
before Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), "Spacewar
Elbow." Occasionally Cosell (Bernie) and I
would spend a night playing SPACEWAR,
only to find that leaning on the elbows for 7
or 8 hours straight would leave us unable to
straighten our arms for quite a while.
BBN outlawed SPACEWAR occasionally,
mainly because switches died. The life of
testword switches was shortened by this game.
(it took me 5 hours to replace the first switch
that needed fixing; I got it down to 22
minutes by the time the machine left.)
Someone posted that the PDP-l at the
computer Museum was one of the MIT
machines, I believe that too. (It has joystick
control boxes)
- from Paul M. Wexelblat, via Internet

Page 36

The Analytical Engine

.. I ran into SPACEWAR when I was a
freshman at MIT in 1962/63, and added a
couple of lines of code to it. (I have no idea
what those lines were, nor if they were included in any versions after I left. I do have
the source listings (promised to the Computer
Museum) but I hadn't yet learned the concept
of footprints to mark changed code.)
When I first saw it the user interface to
SPACEWAR was a pair of wooden boxes
about the size of a small file card box, each
of which had two telephone key switches
(turn left/right, rocket on, go to hyperspace)
and a button (fire torpedo). When we got the
second PDP-1 someone went over to Eli
Heffron and Sons (mono: "We have Surplus
Surplus") and bought a pair of Air Force
drone controllers to serve as input devices.
And the PDP-1 we ran it on was really an
amazing box: Memory of FOUR K! (well,
actually that's 4K words of 18 bits each), and
a blazing memory cycle of 5 uS.
The game was so popular that it "signed" the
console log itself: You might see entries for
an hour or two for the staff programmers, a
block here and there for a student, an occasional Big Name (Marvin Minsky, for
example), and huge blocks of time merely
noted as "Spacewar."
When we got DEC's first drum (Wow! 32
tracks, each of which held exactly one coreload of 4K words!) one of the tracks was instantly dedicated to SPACEWAR, and the
console load tape for it shrunk to a bootstrap
a couple of feet long.
- from Joe Morris, MITRE
COMPILATION PROJECT
.. For the entire 1960's, most of this information [requested for the Compilation Project]
can be gleaned from the June issues of Computers and Automation - that was their

January-March 1994

annual "directory" issue that printed a directory of the entire computer industry.
- from Doug Jones, via Internet
LOGO'S TURTLE
.. .. .. as near as I can tell, the original turtle
was a remarkable little robot that crawled
around the floor under LOGO control! It had
a hemispherical plexiglass top, two wheels,
and a pen, and it could drive forward, rotate,
and lift or lower its pen und"er command of
the LOGO system. I've seen photographs. As
I understand it, the split screen came later. I'd
love to program a real LOGO turtle!
- from Doug Jones, via Internet
APPLE II DISK CONTROLLER
.. I have often read about the supposed
unique simplicity of Steve Wozniak's disk
controller for the Apple II. According to
most of the material on the subject, Woz
created the basis of his controller long before
he actually studied the standard methods of
floppy control. Apparently his resulting controller used far simpler methods to handle
disk functions than any other controller on
the market. Can anyone out there give me a
good, technical explanation of Woz's method
for controlling disk drives as opposed to the
more conventional approaches?
- from Don Congdon, via Internet
EARLIEST NETWORK TOPOLOGY
CITED
.. Concerning the citation of the Pierce Loop
in Aaron Alpar's article, ENGINE #2: A
timeline for network history that I have been
developing includes the entry :
1969 NewHall LAN topology (token ring)
as the earliest instance of token ring LANs. I
believe this was some British work based on
Cambridge slotted ring networks. Unfortu-

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

nately, I do not currently have the reference
for .... this citation .... Anyone familiar with
sources for these LAN developments? I have
it that Ethernet (the term coined 22 May
1973 by Robert Metcalfe) was based on Aloha
radio network protocols, and token rings
descended from Cambridge rings, which tried
to remove the media contention in Aloha by
assigning each station a unique time slot for
data transmission. Verification would be
appreciated.
- from Stan Kulikowski II, via Internet
GUI ON A XEROX STAR?

.. I have just prepared a class lesson on the
GUI design and its place in human-computer
interfaces... .in this lesson I describe how the
GUI was developed at Xerox P ARC circa
1970-73 on the Alto. is there a source for
getting screen images of the original Alto
GUT? I would like to show how this evolved
into the standard designs we see today. I
understand that the Xerox STAR was in this
line of descent, but I have no sources on how
the GUI figured in there.
- from Stan Kulikowski II, via Internet
[Before our press time, Lee Wittenberg had
suggested "Designing the Star User Interface"
by David Canfield Smith, et al. originally
published in BYTE, April 1982, and reprinted
in Perspectives on the Computer Revolution,
edited by Pylyshyn and Bannon (Ablex,
Norwood Nj, 1989). We'd like to suggest
getting in touch with Larry Stewart at the
DEC Computer History Project,
stewart@crl.dec.com. ]
RE: DAVID HEMBROW'S OLD-IRON
QUERY
.. Concerning David Hembrow's request for
"Old Iron" specs (ANALYTICAL ENGINE,
Vol. 1, No.2, October 1993), you should be
aware of the surveys of computer hardware

Page 37

done by the military. They appeared in three
separate editions:
Office of Naval Research.
A Survey of Automatic Digital Computers.
Office of Naval Research, Washington, 1953.
I have the second printing, with revisions, of
this, which is dated November 1954 and specs
nearly 100 computers in 109 pages. The later
editions were:
Martin H. Weik.
A Second Survey of Domestic Electronic
Digital Computing Systems.
Ballistics Research Laboratory Report No.
1010.
US Department of Commerce, Office of
Technical Services, June 1957. 439 pp.
Martin H. Weik.
A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic
Digital Computing Systems.
Ballistics Research Laboratory Report No.
1115,
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
Department of the Army, March 1961. 1131
pp.
This final version is a massive work, fully
illustrated. These are hard to find in the
second-hand book arena, but are all readily
available through inter-library loan.
- from Dr. David B. Sarrazin, University of
Colorado, via Internet
[Thanks, Doctor! You may be interested in
this card from our reference database:
A FOURTH SURVEY OF DOMESTIC
ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTING
Weik, M. H.
Ballistic Research Laboratories Report Number
1227
Aberdeen Proving Ground, 1/1964
This is as cited in H. H. Goldstine's PASCAL
TO VON NEUMANN, page 120 in both the
1972 hardcover edition and the 1980/83
paperback; Princeton University Press. ]

Page 38

The Analytical Engine

COMPUTER MUSIC ON A PDP·g
• Some hackers at MIT in the middle 60s
actually wrote a note generation system for a
PDP-8. With the system, you could input
sheet music and it would play on a standard
AM radio.
WTBS (the ORIGINAL WTBS - broadcasting
with 5 watts from high atop Walker Memorial at MIT) used to play Petula Clark's
"Downtown" recorded via the above.
- from Jim Ebright, via Internet
MUSIC ON A CDC 3300
• The CDC 3300 had a loudspeaker under
the console/desk, and it was wired in to the
top three bits of the A-register. You could get
a max-volume sound, even a clean note, by
toggling the A-register (bits 23, 22 and 21 it was a 24-bit machine) all on, then all off,
at a frequency you could adjust. The system
was entirely designed around
multiprogramming, so a non-operator running
such a job might produce distracting sounds
or just garbage, depending on what else was
in the machine running.
On the CDC 3300 (and other machines in
that series), the real purpose of the loudspeaker was as an operator aid, and it was
very useful that way. The printer de-spooler
made the speaker chuckle a little, the reader
made so. much noise that the speaker didn't
matter, and most programs that we ran frequently made characteristic patterns of sounds.
And, of course, we did have programs
designed specifically to produce music. CDC
used the feature to make the expansion and
shrinking of certain system tables very obvious - when one table was changed in size,
the system would "whoop" up or down very
noticeably.
- from Edward Rice, via Internet

January-March 1994

APPLE II CIRCUIT DESIGN BOOK
AVAILABLE IN QUANTITY
• I am the author of ?he Apple II Circuit
Description, Howard Sams & Co., 1983, which
has been out of print for several years.
I.. ..would like to donate about 200 copies to
schools or computer clubs. Here is my offer:
Available for the cost of surface UPS only:
new copies of the book (second printing); 1
carton minimum order, 28 copies to a carton.
The book is 8.5xll inch format, plastic comb
bound, with 194 pages (172 standard-size pages
plus 22 fold-out pages ....which display schematics, timing diagrams, etc. Cover price: $22.95 .
The book is a very complete, clock-edge-byclock-edge, circuit description of the Apple II
Plus (and earlier) motherboard's CPU,
memory, video (text, lo-res, hi-res, color), lIO,
etc. Great for anyone troubleshooting an
Apple II to the IC level, or who wants to
understand the workings of the Apple II specifically or similar computers in general.
Sorry, it applies in general to the Apple / / e
(and later), but does not contain specific
Apple / / e schematics or description. My
favorite part of the book (to research and
write about) was the way in which software
and TTL chips combine to create an NTSC
signal for color graphics display on a standard
TV set.
- from Winston Gayler, via Internet
FOOTHILL MUSEUM IN TRANSITION
• A few years ago I visited a wonderful little
museum-I think it was called the Foothills
Electronics Museum-on the campus of a
small college above Silicon Valley. I recall a
modest but interesting collection, including
some things from Nolan Bushnell's
garage/attic! whatever.
Did this museum close? If so, what happened
to its collections?
- from Dr. Paul Ceruzzi, via Internet

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

[We have heard from Dr. Seymour Stein,
treasurer of the Perham Foundation in Los
Altos, that the Foothill Electronics Museum is
"in containers but very much alive - 40,000
square feet of materials." Their old building at
Foothill College was taken over for classroom
use, but they're negotiating for a 99-year lease
(no fools they) on a new building in Kelly
Park in San Jose. These negotiations have
made it out of committee and the proposal
will be made to the City Council of San Jose
shortly.
So, no, it didn't get scattered to the winds ...
MORE ON ELECTRONIC MAIL
• Hi Kip, I have one suggestion about the
ENGINE. Have you considered including
email addresses in the attributions of articles?
I might like to correspond with some of the
authors or letter writers if we had acquaintances or interests in common.
- from Tom Van Vleck, via Internet
[I take your point, but nothing is simple on
the net - where "uninhibited communication"
is as loaded with contradiction as "paperless
office" - and this is actually a holy skirmish
of no mean order, kept alive by the dedicated
followers of fashion for whom an unlisted
net.address is as cool as, say, an unlisted pager
number, so to speak. Read the letter and
reply "Attribution of Electronic Mail" in the
October ENGINE, but the kernel here is, we
print e-mail addresses only with pre-existing
permlsslon.
Now, certainly we can print yours and personally I wish we could print everybody's, but
to say so would be flame-bait, which we
avoid .... not only are we a Respectable Publication, but net.kickboxing takes time we don't
have, he said yawning .... ]

Page 39

QUERIES
[Queries are sorted by subject, and within
that, by model if applicable.

If the person querying has permitted us to
publish an e-mail address, we have done so,
and please reply directly to it; otherwise,
reply to cpu@chac.win.net or the EI Cerrito
address, and we will store and forward.
Necessary warning: Income from subs keeps
the ENGINE robust and lack of same, unfortunately, makes it lose weight. Currently we
try to publish queries that we receive from
anyplace in the world, on the premise that,
even if the subject and author aren't in California, the answer well might be. If the
ENGINE has to get thinner, we may be
compelled to require a California source or
tie-in for published queries. Vote against this
dire possibility by subscribing today! EOPlug]
ALTOS: NEEDS A HAND WITH A
BOOTLESS XENIX SYSTEM

• 1 have recently acquired an old Altos 486
computer running Microsoft XENIX 3.1. The
set of install disks is incomplete so I need to
know how I can make a bootable system disk
and set of backups so I can restore the system
if something gets trashed. If anyone remembers this particular XENIX implementation
and knows how to do this, please email me
with particulars. Thanks in advance.
Don Congdon, dcongdon@delphi.com
ATARI 2600: REALLY GETIING INTO IT
• I would like to read the contents of a
Atari VCS cartridge by constructing some
type of interface that will read the contents
into my computer. I remember several years
ago that one of the electronic project magazines published a article describing how to
construct a device that would allow you to
save cartridge contents to a tape. If anyone

Page 40

The Analytical Engine

has that issue or has the pinouts of a
cartridge please send mail. Thanks in advance!
- from Patrick Fleming, wiZ@apple.com, via
Internet
ATARI xOO: STRANGE ERROR MESSAGE
.. On the old Atari 400/800 computers (c.
1980), if you had the BASIC cartridge plugged
in, it generated error messages like "ERROR
12 AT LINE 1320" . You then had to look up
the error number in the manual to find out
exactly what the error was. The first entry in
the lookup table was "ERROR 0: Power not
on." Since it hardly seems possible that you're
going to be seeing any error messages at all if
the power isn't on, I've always wondered
whether this was a joke or whether it could
conceivably have referred to something else,
like a peripheral device.
- from David P. Mikkelson, via Internet
BASIS 108: QUERY
.. Does anyone know of or have experience
with a Basis lOS? It is/was an Apple IT compatible (6502?) with a 280 (CP/M) as a
second CPU. I think it was made in
Germany.
- from Peter F. Bastien, via Internet
BUGS 'N' LOOPS (GAME) QUEST
.. c. 1973-1976, my co-workers and I used to
amuse ourselves at lunchtime with a game
that ran on our IBM/360/370. The game was
called "Bugs 'n' Loops," and it was based on
the concept of a Turing machine emulation.
When your turn came, you had to code the
next instruction in the program; one which
would execute without forcing the pointer off
the end of the tape (a "bug"), or one which
would force the instructions to reiterate indefinitely (a, well, you know ...). You were
given something like 45 seconds to figure out
what your next instruction would be; and if

January-March 1994

you overran your allotment, you lost however
many subsequent turns were necessary to
make up the deficit. It remains one of the
most intellectually stimulating and challenging
games I have ever played ana computer. Oh,
yeah, it was written in APL.
Does anyone else have recollection of or experience with this game? More to the point,
does anyone have a copy of the source that
can be made available, either in the original
APL (I'll refresh mysel~ or, even better, in
some more contemporary, IBM-PC compatible
language?
Eagerly and gratefully awaiting your replies.
- from Steve Gross, via Internet
BURROUGHS 205: THEN WHAT DID
THE PENGUIN USE?
.. Was the (Bat)Computer used by Batman &
Robin on the TV series ('60s) a real
Burroughs Datatron 205 computer?
- from Marcelo Savio, via Internet
CANON CX-l: CALLED "OBSCURE" BY
NEW OWNER·
.. I have been assaulted with a CANON CX1. So far I have only read one of the manuals. And I wonder if the OS called MCX is
related with CP/M or is it some other
obscure beast. Any info is appreciated .
- from Lennart Sandberg, via Internet
CDC CYBER 180: POWER RATING
WANTED
.. I once had to use a CDC Cyber 180
machine for a few months (180/640 or some
such detail). It had a UNIX emulation
(VX/VE), and the oversize(?) NOS/VE native
operating system - SCL programming was
fun in a macabre sort of way because it was,
IMHO, so disgustingly complex ....

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

It was a regular monster, but I never did
learn very much about just what kind of
machine it was.... I don't really miss it, except
for a certain nostalgia that any such beast
would surely bring about.

So here are my questions: Would some one
out there know just how "powerful" these
machines were? How fast? How would they
compare with mainframes from their time
periods, or minis like the VAX series? And
how would they rank against the 32 bit
RISCs?
- from Shyamal Prasad, Department of Computer Science, Southern Methodist University,
via Internet
CIMLINC: DEPENDS ON YOUR
DEFINITION OF "OLD•••• "
.. I've come into possession of an old
Cimlinc PowerCim 68020 workstation. It has
a 19" Hitachi color monitor, 8Mb of RAM,
and an external chassis with 70Mb disk and a
60Mb tape. It's built on (gag) a Multibus
chassis.
The problem, as usual, is that no one will
admit to having a manual for it. Cimlinc is
still happily in business, but hasn't made
hardware in 6 years, and the guy I talked to
couldn't locate anything. Xerox, on the other
hand, wouldn't admit to knowing anything
about it at all.
A friend's dad is a regional muck with Xerox,
and rescued it from a warehouse in Atlanta
somewhere, but apparently, while I did get a
boot tape, there were no docs around for it
(so I don't know how to use the boot tape).
I refuse to let a workstation with 24bit
graphics and a 19" tube go to waste ... if I can
get docs on the video card, I'll port Xll to it
(it runs 4.3 BSD, so it shouldn't be that
hard ....) Help??!!
- from Jay Ashworth, via Internet

Page 41

CROMEMCO S3: EXPERIENCE SOUGHT
.. I live in the Washington D.C. metropolitan
area (Charles County, Maryland to be exact),
and I am looking for someone with
Cromemco System Three experience and a
kind heart (that means I can't pay :-)) to help
revive this part of computer history.
The S3 has two of the original Persci 8"
drives which use voice coils and I understand
were a bear to keep working. I would be
willing to reimburse gas cost and price of a
decent meal to someone who can help me
fire it up. After turning the key, the drives
spin up (yes, with a boot disk in A), but I
never get anything on the screen. I plan to
keep it regardless, so buyers need not
approach me (both of you! ;-)). Anyone who
can help, please respond via private e-mail.
Thanks!
- from Allan Hamill, p00722@psilink.com
DATA GENERAL MP /20: WHAT ARE
YOU ASKING ME?
.. I recently added a Data General MP/20 to
my computer collection. The system has a
cartridge drive, 5.25" floppy drive, and a 5.25"
form factor hard drive. Unfortunately, I know
very little (nothing might be more accurate)
about the machine, and the point in the boot
process at which I'm stumped isn't addressed
in the docs I have. When I boot the system
and type "26h" at the bang prompt to
(attempt to) get it to boot from the hard
drive, it responds:
SPECIFY EACH DISK IN THE LDU
DISK UNIT NAME?
I can't find this in the docs, and have no idea
what to type. Typing anything here gives me
the following:
DON'T UNDERSTAND '{whatever}'.
AVAILABLE TYPES ARE:

Page 42

The Analytical Engine

DKB, DPD, DPE, DPF, DPG, DPH, DPI,
DPJ, DPK, DPL, DPM, and DPN
DISK UNIT NAME?
I'm also looking for a set of the customer
diagnostic floppies and an AOS boot set, if
anyone happens to have these and could loan
me a set. If anyone from DG reads this, I'd
be happy to buy a set (if they're still available) - please send me a phone number to
call!
As always, Thanks!
- from Bill von Hagen, via Internet

January-March 1994

Apparently this chip contains a "configuration
register" which is loaded during power up and
controls various operating modes of the processor. The manual briefly mentions that in
the SBC-ll the chip is set to operate in "user
mode" with "addressing restricted to 16 bits".
This suggests that the chip is capable of operating in other modes or with more address
bits, but the manual gives no explanation.
There only seem to be 16 address lines
coming out of the chip.
Does anyone out there know more about this
chip and what it is capable of? Thanks for
any info,

DATA GENERAL NOVA DISK
CONTROLLER: SPECS, OR MORE,
WANTED

- from Greg Ewing, via Internet

• As part of the historic machines project (to
create simulators for machines of historic
interest), I am looking for a specification,
users manual, or even an 0/5 driver for the
NOVA moving head disk controller
(mnemonic DKP under RDOS, device 033 or
073). This controller handled a variety of
drives, including the Diablo 33 and 44, the
Century 111 and 114, and DG's first floppy
disk drive.

• I am looking for the source to a game,
which ran on a DEC-I0, called DECWAR. It
is a multiplayer Trek-type game developed at
the University of Texas, in FORTRAN. If
you have played Megawar on CompuServe,
that is it, but rewritten with slightly more
functionality.

(If I could only find MIMIC (the mini simulator system that ran on DEC-I0's), I'd have
sources not only for the 8, 11, and Nova, but
DEC's whole 18b line as well.)
Please reply bye-mail.... Thanks.
- from Bob Supnik,
supnik@human.enet.dec.com

DECWAR (GAME): IN SEARCH OF

All my leads have turned up negative. I heard
that one of the implementors was in Minnesota, but I have not been able to reach him
[since] he is not on [the] net .... Anyone with
any information, please contact me at
hsnewman@wixer.bga.com, or 512-322-3841.
Thanks!
- from Harris Newman, via Internet
DYNASTY SmartALEC: BOY, THAT Z-80
SURE GOT AROUND ....

DEC SBC-ll: SLIGHTLY PUZZLING
• Stashed under my desk I have an SBC-ll,
which also seems to have been known as a
"Falcon" (whether by DEC or others, I'm not
sure). According to the manual, its single-chip
processor is called a micro-TIL

• I'm trying to locate former users of an old
Z-80A PC, the Dynasty SmartALEC, that was
manufactured by Dynasty Computer Corp. m
Dallas, TX, during the '80s. Thanks.
- from "TORAIDHE@DELPHLCOM"

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

GNAT: ALL WE GOT
.. I've heard of a GNAT. The floppy
is compatible with some other systems
same era (Intertec Superbrain comes to
but the boot disks are not the same. I
have any disks for it, unfortunately.

format
of the
mind)
don't

- from Terry Kennedy, via Internet
[Further note: We are trying to track down
Thomas Lafleur, a co-founder of the GNAT
Corporation, in hopes that he might have
some tech ref. - Editors ]
HP 9000/3xx: NICE SAVE AT THE LAST
MINUTE
.. A co-worker has come to me looking for
advice on the identity and usefulness of an
HP 9000 300 system which a friend of his
caught before it hit the dumpster at the local
nuclear plant. It is apparently a series 300
with a 68010 processor and 2.5MB of
memory. (1mb on the system board, 1mb on
an expansion board, and .5mb on another
expansion.) It is also equipped with a
HP98546A Display Compatibility Interface and
a 35731A monitor, a keyboard, and a 9122D
dual floppy drive. On the keyboard is a
BASIC template. There is, unfortunately, no
hard disk, software, or manuals.
1) What is it? I assume it predates a 330
which is the oldest 9000 I had seen.
2) What does/did it run? Will this thing run
some version of HP-UX?
3) What more would be needed should one
be inclined to turn it into a system? Software
obviously, but any additional hardware?
- from John Ruschmeyer, via Internet
HP 9810: HELP AND DOCS WANTED
.. I have an HP 9810A calculator (1971
vintage, about the size of a large VCR ....)
which almost works, but not quite. I get the
display to light up and it sort-of responds to

Page 43

keypresses, but every numeral you type produces a '0' digit on the display. Typing 3
digits for example produces '000' on the
display. Does anyone know anything about
this beast? Does anyone have any schematics
for it? Anyone know any tricky things about
it (assuming I get it to work again)? The
pinout of the peripheral bus (it has 3 peripheral slots, as well as 3 cartridge slots)? It came
with 3 cartridges : Mathematics, Peripheral IT,
and Printer Alpha. Anyone, have any manuals
that I might be able to copy? Anyone even
heard of it?
Thanks in advance ....
- from Brian Murray, via Internet
HOME COMPUTERS: HOW HEAVY
WAS IT?
.. For reasons better left unexplained, I'd like
to hear about the heaviest PCs or peripherals
that you have run across (or been run across
by?). I'm looking for things that could conceivably have wound up in someone's home
which is the only reason for the PC qualifier
(" Aye, lad. I worked on the Univac Model 0
with the Strategic Air Command. Thirty tons
of lead shielding she had, and ran on dilithium crystals ... "). lilt was so heavy that..."
would be great. Come to think of it, "It ran
so hot that ... " would be fun too.
- from Eric Valentine, via Internet

Page 44

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

IBM 029: I'M SURE WE ALL
REMEMBER•••.

Does anyone know if BMEWS and/or the
DEW line is still up and still run by 7090's?

.. I have just acquired an 029 Keypunch in
working condition to use in my History of
Computing course in January; does anyone
know ~f sources of other EAM equipment
(such as a sorter)?

Any more out there?
- from Paul Pierce, via Internet
IBM PROGRAMMER APTITUDE TEST:
DREAM OR NIGHTMARE?

Tim Bergin
Department of Computer Science and
Information Systems
The American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20016-S116
202 S85-3863

.. Reading an old (1971) journal article, I saw
a reference to the IBM Programmer Aptitude
T est. The reference in the article was:

IBM 610 "AUTOPOINT": FOLKLORE OR
DOCS WANTED

From the (brieQ description in the article, the
test apparently has 3 parts: completion of
number sequences, geometric paired comparisons, and word problems similar to those in
junior high school mathematics.

.. Can anyone tell us about the IBM 610? I
remember wiring the 602 and 603, but this
does not ring a bell. (I saw it discussed in
Computing Review 9008-0469). Anyone have
anything written on the 610?
-

from Laurence 1. Press, via Internet

McNamara, W. J., & Hughes, J. L.
Manual for the revised programmer aptitude
test.
White Plains, New York: IBM, 1969.

My questions are: Has anyone out there actually taken this test? How would I go about
getting a copy?
Thanks in advance.

IBM 709, 7090, 7094: DINOSAUR
HUNTING
.. Are there any restored/living 709X boxes
on Earth, and, if not, could one be built?
-

from M. Edward Borasky, via Internet

.. I have a 7094-1 and a 709, both complete
with peripherals, spares, documentation and
software and in pretty good shape. Neither
has been powered up since I deinstalled them
about 7 years ago.
There is a rumor of an intact 704 in a closet
at Argonne.
IBM has at least one of almost every machine
they ever made in a warehouse' somewhere in
New York state. My understanding is that
they are not in general complete and probably could not be brought up.

- from Paul Palmer, Department of Mathematics, Oregon State University, via Internet
INTEL 8008: HLL's WANTED
.. There were high level languages for this
ingenious construction: PL/M-OS, and
SCELBAL, a very BASIC-like language. I'm
looking for these two languages for my
homebrew 8008-system. Is there anybody out
there, who has one of these languages?
You can write a cross-assembler, which translates a 800S assembler source to SOx86-code,
so that you can run your old programs in
the year 2007 on an Intel Nonium. I did this
for the 80486.
- from Klemens Krause, University of
Stuttgart, via Internet
[Editor's note: !!!!!]

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

Page 45

INTEL MDS: INFORMATION NEEDED

MOTOROLA VME/10: ANY ADVICE?

.. 1'm working on a project on the history of
microcomputer development systems, and need
information on Intel development systems for
8086, 80186, and 80286 systems. In particular,
I am interested in locating any Intel MDS
systems or MDS system documentation for
these chips or even just information about
them. I believe that the systems I am interested in are follow-on products to the Intellec
8/80 system.

.. Anyone out there familiar with the
Motorola VME/10 computers? I just managed
to acquire a working one not too long ago. It
runs something called VERSADos-a very
strange operating system indeed .... Commentsl
advice welcome.

Note: I am not looking for information about
the chips themselves.
- from Jeremy Brest, via Internet
LEE DATA MINI: HELP WANTED WITH
BAD DISK
.. I own a LeeData System 2000 mini computer [with] a problem. I think it has a bad
sector on the HD. Every time it boots it asks
me if it should repair the filesystem because it
wasn't shut down properly. Then it starts
repairing but .... gives "READ ERROR
SECTOR xx" (I can't remember the number)
Also some important parts of the system have
disappeared : the lusr directory is empty,
mkdir isn't there and so on .. Can someone
help me with this ? Most important I think is
to mark the bad sector but how can I do it?
System specs: it has a 80Mb HD, 5,25" DD,
+ 1- 12 serial ports, parallel port, Tapestreamer. It is running a XENIX version and
the machine is dated about Sept '85. I can get
an old backup but I haven't got ANY
manuals.
- from Wim van der Brink, via Internet

- from Kevin Fisher, via Internet
NIXDORF PC-OS: DOCS NEEDED
.. I recently picked up a Nixdorf PC-OS, a
hand-held computer with a rubber-key
keyboard and a graphics LCD screen that is
capable of displaying 8 lines of text. It
features an 80C88, 128KB RAM and,
according to the startup message, it is
programmed in FORTH. Since it does not
have any mass-storage, files are kept in RAM
and programs are added by inserting EPROMs
into slots in the bottom of the case. You can
fold the display onto the keyboard Gust like a
notebook). The only modules that were included in my PC-OS were for a demo to calculate some insurance fee. I would like to
write some software but, alas, I do not have
any documentation! Although this thing was
marketed by my company, there seems to be
nobody (who reads news) who does remember
the PC-OS. Furthermore I think that we only
re-painted the case (grey was the "color" to
go) of another company's product.
Does anyone remember such a beast? Any
documentation I might be able to get? Any
hints would be appreciated.
- from Josef Moellers, via Internet
PHILIPS P8xx: MATERIAL WANTED
.. Looking through the latest ENGINE.... I
was reminded of an omission in almost all
lists of computers, that of Philips.
In the early 70's, Philips made a series of
computers - the P800 series. The P8S0 was a

Page 46

The Analytical Engine

small, 16 bit (to the programmer - 8 bit in
hardware) machine with 1 or 2K words of
core (there were 2 cabinet sizes, 3U or 6U
rack), I/O slots, and a processor built from
MSI TTL. All ran off a large linear power
supply at the back. The instruction set was
weird, sort of RISC-like (although most instructions needed several processor cycles to
complete), and was something like 5-bit opcode, 4 bit register, 2 bit addressing mode, 4
bit register, I-bit load/store flag or 5-bit opcode, 3-bit register, 8 bit operand.
The registers were split into 2 banks of 8,
called AO-A7 and BO-B7, and the second
format of instruction could only use the A
registers. Register AO was the program counter
I think. I/O instructions could set processor
flags directly depending on the I/O result, so
it was quite common to have an OT (out)
instruction followed by a RB (relative
backwards) branch to keep on trying until the
I/O succeeded. The Most significant bit of the
word was called bit O.
The P855 was a larger machine, with up to
32K words of core and .... extra instructions.
For example, the P850 could only do I-bit
shifts, but the P855 could do multi-bit shifts
in 1 instruction. The operand field of the
instruction was always 1 on a P850, but could
be set to other values on the P855 I think.
The P851 was basically an LSI-chipped (2
custom chips, PLANET and SPALU. SPALU
was a 4-bit cascadable data-path chip,
PLANET was the control sequencer/ROM)
P850 with some of the P855 upgrades. The
system was now built on 6U Eurocards, and
the memory was semiconductor RAM. There
was a battery-backup option for this. There
were also P852, P857 and possibly some
others, but I have no documentation on these.
Does anyone else remember these machines,
and have any nice tricks for them?
- from Tony Duell, University of Bristol
(UK), via Internet

January-March 1994

PIED PIPER: NEEDS TO KNOW WHERE
IT'S AT
• I have a Pied Piper Z80-based computer.
Does anyone know anything about it, or have
a bootable disk for it?
.
- from Magnus Y. Alvestad via Internet
RADIO SHACK TRS-80: ANALYSIS PAD?
• I am looking for any old TRS-80 people
that recall a product called 'Analysis Pad'. I
need to know when it was released, and who
wrote it, and what company produced it.
- from Taylor Hutt, via Internet
RICE UNIVERSITY COMPUTER:
WANTED, USERS OF
• I'm looking for former users of the Rice
Institute Computer, also known as the Rice
Univ~rsity Computer, or, more simply, the
Rl.. .. If there are any Rl hackers out there
reading this, please drop me a line. I'd like to
interview you for the project I'm doing. Also,
does anyone know what happened to J.K.
Iliffe after about 1972?
- from Adam Justin Thornton,
adam@rice.edu or + 1 713 630-8884, via
Internet
SAGE: MULTI-MEDIA PROJECT
• Is anyone out there sitting on any informa-

tion, pictures, or film of the old Air Force
SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment)
system? It ran from around 1957 to 1984 and
handled the air defense for all of North
America. I am doing a multi-media project on
it. I called NORAD and even they are
looking for stuff on the system. Any help
would be great, even folklore. Thanks.
- from Alan Spurgeon, CTIS Project, via
Internet

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

STRIDE 460: IN NEED OF ATTENTION
.. Recently, at an auction ... .! picked up a
Stride 460 (10MHz 68K, 1M memory, 80M
disk (having recently been a DEC person I
took one look and screamed 'RD53! Argh!'
but that's another story...)) Anyway, the
machine currently has BOS installed .... For
very obvious reasons, I don't want this.
So, are there any alternatives? A UNIXderivative would be a bit much to ask I
think, given the hardware. I'm pretty sure
that the UCSD p-system was available on
these machines (I have space for 4M if 1 is
not enough) and my preference is to get the
system running rather than cannibalise it... I
have both cartridge tape and floppy drive, and
I can probably master a tape on another
system if you give me enough details.
Also, any documentation on the machine operating manuals, hardware manuals etc
would be great. I have no problems paying
postage, or making you a reasonable .... offer
for the stuff.... Thanks for any help/ideas.
- from Michael Smith, via Internet
TANDY 6000HD: DOCS WANTED
.. I've recently been given a dead Tandy
6000HD XENIX computer with all the
XENIX reference manuals and system disks,
but without a hardware reference manual.
These manuals are the 'puffy' woodgrainlooking books circa TRS-80 Model IV.
Around this time, Tandy was putting out
pretty useful hardware reference guides, so I
assume one is available for this 6000HD.

Page 47

Does anyone have one that they'd be willing
to sell/giveltrade to me? I'd really like to get
this computer working. Currently it displays
just a raster scan, and doesn't spin either the
8" floppy or the 15mb HD, so I'm assuming
it's gonna take a lot of work to resurrect
again ... Thanks bunches for any assistance.
- from Xyanthilous Harrierstick, Student
Computing Facility, New Mexico State
University at Las Cruces, via Internet
TEKTRONIX 8550: DETAILS WANTED
.. Does anyone know anything about the
Tektronix 8550 microprocessor development
system? One was being thrown out here ....so I
rescued it, and would like to know a bit
more about it. So far, I've found out that it
consists of 2 modules, the 8501 Data Management Unit, and the 8301 (Can't remember,
but emulator would be a good name for it).
The 8501 contains a DEC LSI11/2 CPU card,
a floppy controller (Z80-based), some RAM,
and a couple of I/O cards. That box looks
complete and untouched. The 8301 contains a
system controller based round the 2650A,
some more RAM, a 'language processor' (A
Z80 I think), the RTPA (A logic analyser/bus
grabber), and slots for a PROM programmer,
and emulation processors. Unfonunately I
don't have any emulation processor cards, and
am wondering if they have been removed, or
whether the above configuration would be
useful without them.
I have user manuals for some of it, but no
service data.
- from Tony Duell, University of Bristol
(UK), via Internet

Page 48

The Analytical Engine

January-March 1994

UNIVAC M642B: HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND SOUGHT

WHITECHAPEL WORKSTATIONS:
FORGOTIEN BUT NOT GONE

• Does anyone have any information or historical background on the UNIVAC M642B?
It was used as a communications processor
until recently in the NASA ground network
(satellite tracking stations). The computer uses
discrete transistor logic and core memory. I
think it also had a small amount of plated
wire memory. The I/O devices were a bank
of 7-track mechanical tape handlers that were
later upgraded to pneumatic operation. Two
CPU/memory units were connected to an
EMU (expanded memory unit?) in a typical
configuration. It used 6 bit field code instead
of ASCII or EBCDIC. I was told that it had
been used as a U.S. Navy fire control computer in a previous incarnation. It had a
"Battle Short" switch on the front panel and
a really loud fault horn that was turned on
whenever the system crashed. The instruction
set and architecture were really weird. Software was developed in a language called
SYCOL.

• At home I run a couple of Whitechapel
Workstations (WCW) MG-1s. They are
NS32016-based graphics boxes running 4.2BSD.
Until recently, I thought that the MG-1 (and
its colour version, the CG-1) were the only
models that WCW ever made - they went
bust in 1988, just like 80% of all 1980s workstation startups. However, I was recently told
that they also made a couple of other
machines: the MG-2 (also NSC32k based?) and
the HITECH-10 (MIPS R2000 based?) which
seemingly ran UMIPS.

The SCE (Spacecraft Command Encoder),
another old NASA system, used the Honeywell 316 .... There are still a few of these that
are in use. Wasn't this computer used as a
node in the original ARPANet?
- from John A. Limpert, via Internet
VOLKER-CRAIG: FOLKLORE WANTED
• How many of you remember using VolkerCraig terminals at some point in your hackish
careers? Did you love 'em, hate 'em, tolerate
'em; were they good for their day? And
whatever became of the company that makes
'em? I know little more than that, at one
point, Volker-Craig *was* a small outfit created by two guys named Volker and Craig, in
a rented office near the University of
Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
~

from "Royal Nuisance," via Internet

Can anyone give me *any* information on
either of these machines? Has anyone ever
seen either of them? Is anyone still using
either of them? Does anyone know where I
can lay my hands on an example of either?
Thanks.
- from lain A. F. Fleming, via Internet
ZILOG TAPE DRIVE: GETIING IT
ROLLING AGAIN
• I acquired a 1980-ish Zilog ZEUS 2000
system 80.... Everything worked fine until I
attempted a backup using the tape drive,
whereupon the rubber bit that turns the gear
thing on the cartridge tape fell apart; old age,
I guess, and less than ideal storage conditions.
I took the tape drive out and attempted to
make a replacement rubber part. Unfortunately I don't know how big the roller was
to start with. So, a few questions:
1) On the tape is a bundle of numbers and
names. Can someone tell me if the company
that made the drive is still going and would
be willing/able to show me how to fix the
thing? (The roller appeared to be an integral
part of the motor shaft, although I could be
mistaken, but it seems. silly to have to replace
the whole motor just to fix the rubber roller
on it.)

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

On the motor:
DATA ELECTRONICS INC
301386 24VDC
8133 12207
On the ribbon cable connecting the drive to
its controller board:
59-0117-00
REV-A
On a plate on the chassis:
DATA ELECTRONICS INC,
sn 34-12813
pn 301091 rev S
mn 3447-44ABDEF-S2
Somewhere (I didn't note down where
exactly-probably the read/record head):
American Magnetics Corporation
Carson, California
serial no 4241
part no 301178

2) Would somebody that knows about tape
drives please give an outline of how they
operate? Would I assume that the motor is
driven at some well defined speed and that if
the roller is the wrong diameter, or is "too"
eccentric, that the data written will be useless?
Is there some kind of read after write check?
I only noticed the one head and not that
many connections, so this seems unlikely.
Basically, if I want to get the drive functional
again, what are the important things to get
right about a replacement roller? I attempted
to turn one out of a rubber washer, but the
lathe didn't like it, and I can't file very accurately.... Bear in mind that this is just for fun
and I that I'm a poor research student (whose
subject has nothing to do with fixing up old
computers, and whose colleague~ in the department think the only use for the machine
would be to replace the heating.)
thanks,
- from Jonathan H. N. Chin, via Internet

Page 49

NEXT ISSUE
Interviews. Macintosh, the Computer for Lots
of Us. Turing's Contradiction. Letters.
Queries. And more and more and more ....

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
Hewlett-Packard Journal, Volume 35 Number 8,
August 1984 (photocopy). Complete details of
the HP 150 Touchscreen Personal Computer
[see ACQUISITIONS]. From Karen Lewis.

Historically Brewed, newsletter of the Historical
Computer Society.
Issue H1, Aug/Sept 1993. History of the GUI;
Influence of Star Trek on personal computers;
A look at P ARC; Altair and Cromemco;
Review of Stan Veit's History. 12 pp.
Issue H2, Oct/Nov 1993. Apple Lisa; VIC-20;
COLOSSUS; War stories; Coleco ADAM;
Review of Steven Levy's Hackers. 16 pp.
Issue H3, Dec 1993/Jan 1994. Apple II's
beginnings; Art of Computer Collecting;
Computer Generation; Review of Dr. Thomas
F. Haddock's Collector's Guide to Personal
Computers and Pocket Calculators. 16 pp.
US$15.00 per -year. From David Greelish.

Miracles in Trust, newsletter of the Perham
Foundation. Volume 5 Number 1, first
quarter 1993. The first Silicon Valley garage;
Background of the Perham Foundation; Chronology of West Coast Wireless, part 2. 8 pp.;
available for USS20.00 annual membership.
From Dr. Seymour Stein.

The Computer Museum News, Computer
Museum, Boston. Autumn 1993. Global
Networking Exhibit; 1994 Computer Bowl;
Interactive exhibits; Events calendar. 8 pp.;
available with USS25.00-50.00 annual membership. Also: The Computer Museum Annual
Report 1993. Summary of the Computer
Clubhouse and other outreach and educational
work. From Brian Wallace.

Page 50

The Analytical Engine

"University Courses," Martin Campbell-Kelly,
Department of Computer Science, University
of Warwick, presented at the ACM/SIGPLAN
Forum on the History of Computing, April
20, 1993. Discussion and guidelines for
teaching the history of computing at the
university level. From the author.
The Z·Letter, newsletter of the CP/M and ZSystem community.
Number 27, September/October 1993. Xerox
micros; Script programming; Radio Shack
Model 100; correspondence and technical
discussion. 20 pp.
Number 28, November/December 1993.
ReformaTTer 8" diskette system; Bondwell
luggables; correspondence and technical
discussion. 20 pp.
US$18 for 12 issues (2 years) From David A.
J. McGlone.

ADDRESSES OF
CORRESPONDING
ORGANIZATIONS
The Computer Museum, 300 Congress Street,
Boston MA 02210. Brian C. Wallace, curator
of historical computing.
Historical Computer Society, 10928 Ted
Williams Place, El Paso TX 79934.
Compu$erve 100116,217. David A. Greelish,
director and editor.
The Perham Foundation, 101 First Street
#394, Los Altos CA 94022. Donald F.
Koijane, president; Mike Adams, editor-inchief.
The Z·Letter, Lambda Software Publishing, 149
West Hilliard Lane, Eugene OR 97404. David
A. J. McGlone, editor and publisher.

January-March 1994

THANKS TO ....
Al Kossow for the Mac XL.
Allen Baum for FTP space.
Hal Layer for the great tour of his collection!
Ilya Galitzen-Weiss for wizardly Apple
hacking.
JAN Lee for the list of 701 sites.
Karen Lewis for the HP Journal photocopy.
Kevin Frank for proofing.
Lar Press for FTP space.
Larry Tesler, Robert Praetorius and Tom Ellis
for donations.
Lauren Weinstein for FTP space and gopher
access.
Nancy Mulvany for that quick (?) drive to
the Outer Sunset ....
Rayanne Waggoner and Win Gayler for
agreeing that CHAC needed an Apple One.

SUBSCRIBE!
Okay, we blew it in October. We put the
sub coupon on the back of the last page and
didn't realize that our subscribers, being conservative in a highly literal sense, wouldn't
want to cut up their copies. Guess how many
of those we didn't get back? New subscribers
just sent in personalized checks or addresses
on scraps of paper.
However, the information we ask for on the
sub blank is information we need to service
your sub properly. Therefore we'll make you
a promise. Until further notice (which translates to "until the ENGINE changes format,")
the coupon of the on-line edition will be on
the last page, separate from the rest of the
issue. The coupon of the paper edition will
be part of the stiff top sheet, which you're
supposed to remove and recycle anyway.
Either way, you can use the coupon and
your ENGINE will remain inviolate.

January-March 1994

The Analytical Engine

GUIDELINES FOR
DISTRIBUTION
The ANAL YTICAL ENGINE is intellectual
shareware. Distribution of complete, verbatim
copies through online posting, Internet mail
or news, fax, postal service or photocopying
is encouraged by the Computer History Association of California.
.
Excerpting or brief quotation for fair use, including review or example, is also permitted,
with one exception: Any material copyright
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ANALYTICAL ENGINE by permission shall
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ANALYTICAL ENGINE which change the
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PROHIBITED. Reproduction of the
ANALYTICAL ENGINE without its subscription coupon is abridgment in this sense.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION
The ANALYTICAL ENGINE solicits manuscripts of 600 to 1500 words on the general
topic of the history of computing in, or with
significant reference to, the State of California.
Articles should focus on one interesting or
illuminating episode and should be written for
a technically literate general audience. Submissions are welcome from both members and
non-members of the CHACo ISsue deadlines
are the first of each month prior to publication: June 1 for July, September 1 for
October, December 1 for January, and March
1 for April.

Page 51

Each author may publish a maximum of one
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Thank you for cooperating to protect diversity of voices and topics. We regret that we
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NINES-CARD
This agony column comes to us from
USENETter Lance R. Buckley:
When I worked for ADPNS, we had a major
power outage (our substation blew up). I was
the bozo in charge of the machine room at
the time (4 triple-CPU DECsystem-10's,
untold PDP-8's and 11's, and a heap of
washing-machine disk drives and a zillion
other things scattered throughout the
building). The power-out happened at the
very end of my 12 hour night shift. The next
shift in had no one who could bring it all up
again. So ... .1 had to wait for the power to
come back. When it did, I spent the next 8
hours booting machines (from paper tape and
front-panel switches mostly) and getting peripherals back online. By the time all the
machines were running reliably, it was time
for my shift to start again. I· spent most of
that time repairing the damage done to the
various filesystems by the crash, and re-establishing recalcitrant network links.

Page 52

The Analytical Engine

No sleep. No breaks. Very little food. No
drugs apart from gallons of coffee. I was
starting to see little black furry things in my
peripheral vision, and odd people were whispering in my ear. By the time I got home,

January-March 1994

I'd been awake for over 44 hours, and
working hard for a solid 36 of those. And I
couldn't get to sleep. You've got to laugh,
ain't ya?

CONTENTS
Editorial: CAMPAIGN 1994 .............................. 1
PROCLAIM THE DAy .................................... 2
IN MEMORIAM: TOM WATSON ................. 2

ADDRESSES OF CORRESPONDING
ORGANI2A TIONS .......................................... 50
THANKS TO .................................................... 50

THE mM 701 in CALIFORNIA ...................... 4

SUBSCRIBE! ....................................................... 50

ORIGINS AND LEGACY of the mM 701 .... 4

GUIDELINES FOR DISTRIBUTION ............ 51

DAWN OF THE MICRO: Intel's Intellecs.... 10
RSN: DSP ON A 2-80 ..................................... 14

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION ................. 51
NINES-CARD .................................................... 51

LAND OF THE SILENT GIANTS:
A Day at Livermore .......................................... 15
LONG LIVE the APPLE IT ............................. 19
A DECADE OF MACS ................................... 21

The ANALYTICAL ENGINE
Volume 1, Number 3, January 1994
ISSN 1071-6351

SPOTTER ALERT ............................................ 21
SPOTTER FLASH ............................................. 21
THINKING OF WRITING? ............................ 21
DESPERA TE PLEA FOR MONEY ................ 22
AND SPEAKING OF MONEy...................... 23
LIGHT A MATCH ........................................... 23
OVERVIEW OF BUREAUCRATIC
PROCESSES ........................................................ 23
ABOUT YOUR OLD, DUSTY LAPTOP .... 24
Book Review: STAN VEIT'S HISTORY OF
THE PERSONAL COMPUTER ..................... 24
ACQUISITIONS ................................................ 26
LETTERS ...................................... :..................... 29

newsletter of the Computer History Association of California, is published four times a
year - in January, April, July and October
- at El Cerrito, California.
Subscriptions are available with Association
membership at $25 per year individual, $75
per year corporate or institutional, or $15 per
year low-income, student or senior. Use the
coupon to subscribe, or contact the AssociatIon at:

1001 Elm Court, El Cerrito, CA
94530-2602
FAX: -510 528-5138
Internet: cpu@chac. win.net

QUERIES ............................................................ 39
NEXT ISSUE .......................................... :........... 49
PUBLICA TIONS RECEIVED ......................... .49

r

Kip Crosby, Managing Editor
Jude Thilman, Telecomm Editor



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