3.3_May_1996 3.3 May 1996

The

Analytical

Engine

JOURNAL

OF

THE

COMPUTER

HISTORY

ASSOCIATION

OF

CALIFORNIA

Volume

3.3 Maiga Wolf, Bookkeeper and Programmer

May

1996

May

1996

Volume

3.3

The

Analytical

Engine

JOURNAL

OF

THE

COMPUTER

HISTORY

ASSOCIATION

OF

CALIFORNIA

Editorial: THREE YEARS

On

April nineteenth, with

only

the

most

minor

ceremony, the

Computer

History

Association

of

California observed its

third

anniversary. We

look

back

on

three years -and especially

on

the most

recent year -

of

substantial accomplishment and

profound satisfaction. This

is

a personal, and neces-

sarily abbreviated, report

on

the current state

of

the

CHAC's

projects and prospects.

Publication: You're reading the

tenth

issue of

the

ANALYTICAL

ENGINE,

and we

look

forward

-with you, we hope -

to

many

more. Its present

situation has many positive aspects:

Good

material

is

coming

in

unsolicited. We have several prospec-

tive subjects for interviews,

with

at least the next

four solidly planned; preservation

of

oral history

is

and will continue

to

be

the

ENGINE's

single most

important mission. Volunteers have begun to share

editorial responsibility.

The

ENGINE

is

poised

to

become the first general-circulation trade magazine

of

computer history in

the

United

States.

On

the other hand: This

is

ENGINE

3.3, which

says May

1996

on

it and should have appeared

then. Since it's September

as

I write this,

you

might reasonably expect

to

receive issue 4.1; so the

magazine has slipped

by

two

full issues. Most

of

the discrepancy has opened

up

in

the

last few

months. We, and you,

want

to

get the

ENGINE

back

on

track,

but

it's proving difficult.

Why? Because,

in

the three years since

our

founding, computer history has attracted

much

more general interest -so

that

the

CHAC

staff

finds itself handling hundreds

of

pieces of e-mail,

firing off faxes

to

far corners, giving lectures and

videotaping them, and trying

to

stay in control

of

a

bulging inventory

of

hardware, software and docs.

Just answering a single day's e-mail for the

CHAC

can take

two

to

three hours

of

one person's time.

We're delighted

to

be so popular. But

something-

maybe it's living

in

Silicon Valley -makes us

acutely aware

that

the

CHAC

may

become a casu-

alty

of

its

own

success. This organization has

not

grown in step

with

the interest

in

what

it does.

Later

on

we'll tell

you

about some new strategies

to

keep the

CHAC

on

top

of

its

own

situation.

What

else haven't we done? We haven't managed

to

publish much history from Southern California,

in

spite

of

making inquiries for about a year. As we

inventory, we learn more about

our

SDS

930,

which was built in Santa Monica;

but

we've pub-

lished very little about

the

ARPAnet,

not

much

about the fascinating

computer

culture

that

cen-

tered

on

UCLA,

and nothing at all about computer

use in the aircraft factories,

or

the

development

of

the

many

experimental "one-off" mainframes. At-

tracting this material will continue

to

be a high

priority.

We've published nothing so far about military

computing, certainly a rich topic

in

California

above all.

One

or

two

articles

now

in

preparation

may

remedy this before

the

end

of

the

year.

The

sparse selection

of

powerful desktop publish-

ing software for

the

MS-

Windows platform

is

irri-

tating.

The

ENGINE,

now

produced in Microsoft

Word,

is

about at the limit

of

what

that

very capa-

ble

word

processor will accomplish easily.

Our

plans for ad layouts,

more

and better illustrations,

and color will soon make

more

advanced page

composition imperative.

The

electronic edition

of

the

ENGINE

has slipped

badly, for reasons

too

gory

to

relate; profuse

apologies

to

those subscribers

who

are waiting for

it! 3.1, 3.2 and succeeding issues will appear

in

electronic format

as

soon

as

we can produce Acro-

bat .PDF files. Andrew Eisner's generous gift

of

a

Macintosh

SE/30

may

help bridge this gap; for the

latest developments, pay an occasional visit

to

the

ENGINE's

Web page,

http://www.chac.org/

chengin.html.

Page 2

The

Analytical

Engine

May

1996

Collection: Thanks to

our

newest collaborators

arid benefactors, the Perham Foundation

of

Los

Altos CA, the

CHAC

now

has a modest amount

of storage space that will serve us well until the

Computer

Institute/SFCM

is

established in San

Francisco -

see

p.

47.

Accordingly, we are once

again acquiring software, docs, and hardware. Read

this issue's Acquisitions column for

the

juicy

details on, for example,

our

new

HP

2114A.

Recently we have committed significant time,

energy and money to improving utilization

of

storage. Edwin V. EI-Kareh, the

CHAC's

new

Tactical Director,

is

working energetically

to

replace all cardboard cartons with lidded plastic

crates. These

not

only provide

much

better protec-

tion for artifacts, but they are stackable, meaning

that

our

storage areas can

now

be used literally to

the roof.

Over

the summer we'll also be scroung-

ing steel shelving.

Now

that the founding

of

a

computer museum in the Bay Area

is

a likely pros-

pect,

your

Association's role

as

a conservator has

been revitalized.

MUSEUM

ACTIVITY

Closest

to

our

hearts,

of

course, are

the

two

com-

puter

museum projects

now

taking shape in

the

San Francisco Bay Area.

The

Computer

Institute

in Berkeley, headed

by

Fred Davis, Sylvia Paull,

and Andrew Eisner, plans a museum

as

one part

of

a "global center

of

computer technology" in down-

town

San Francisco;

see

Fred's article

on

p. 47 for

the ambitious details. A second effort, the Com-

puter Museum

History

Center,

is

being planned

by

Gwen and

Gordon

Bell

of

the

Computer

Museum

in

Boston MA; we are promised an update

on

this

project for

ENGINE

3.4.

Personally, we hope that these

two

projects find a

way

to

converge if

not

actually combine. As Erwin

Tomash has wisely suggested,

"Of

all ways

to

teach

history, a museum

is

the most expensive;" and phi-

lanthropy in California,

as

in

most places, has long

passed the lighthearted grip-and-grin stage.

The

Bay

Area's computer museum,

to

justify its substantial

cost,

must

offer commensurate value -

both

per-

ceived and real -

in

education and

in

entertain-

ment. Building such a museum, and even making

the best case for it, will require every scrap

of

en-

ergy that all the interested parties can

summon

up

together.

Heinz

Nixdorf

Museumsforum

Energy, meanwhile, seems abundant at the new

Heinz

Nixdorf

Museumsforum in Paderborn,

Germany. Curators Ulf Hashagen and

Dr.

Karl-

heinz Wiegmann are building

on

enviable foun-

dations - a realistic budget, a deep fund

of

knowledge, and serious floor space in an existing

multistory building. These assets, together with

their obvious dedication and the luck they richly

deserve, will soon produce one

of

the finest com-

puter

museums in Europe.

See

page 46.

Australian

Computer

Museum

Society

The

Australian

Computer

Museum Society has

circulated a Site Planning report and proposal for

its long-contemplated facility.

The

authors come to

many

of

the same conclusions

as

has

the

CHAC:

A considerable

amount

of

capital

and

resources, in-

cluding

volunteer

labour,

would

be necessary to estab·

lish

and

maintain

a

Computer

Museum to attract a

significant public interest .... Because

of

the

planning

time

for

major

developments ... .[tlhree to

five

years

would

be good going,

but

the 2000

Olympic

year

is

a

good target.

If

established as

part

of

a

major

develop-

ment

this strategy

will

secure us a good site

in

a

prime

location.... We need,

in

the

immediate

future, a site

that

we

can use as a workshop to actively engage

in

restoration

and

development

work.

We

also need

storage space, preferably integral

with

the workshop.

[ACMS Newsletter #10, April 1996.]

We believe that, like the

CHAC,

the ACMS

is

des-

tined

to

"ride the wave" of public interest

to

a

re-

sounding success.

The

recent, well-publicized

purchase

of

a module

of

Babbage's Difference

Engine

by

the Power House Museum

in

Sydney

is

a clear indication that computer history has

become a newsworthy topic

in

Australia. In the

last year the ACMS has raised

$Aus10,OOO

through

a direct-mail campaign and begun site negotiations

with

the Australian Technology

Park

in

the

Ev-

eleigh workshops at Redfern, Sydney.

On

the

other

hand, ACMS President Graeme Phil-

ipson laments "two major problems ....

the

contin-

ued inability

of

the

Society

to

find a suitable stor-

age

area .... [and] lack

of

time."

Ain't

it the same the

whole world over!

May

1996

The Analytical Engine Page 3

IN

MEMORIAM:

DAVID

PACKARD

David Packard, who co-founded one of the world's

most highly regarded businesses and personally

guided it

to

undisputed leadership in its field, died

in Palo Alto, CA, USA

on

March 26,

1996.

He

was

eighty-three.

Packard managed the Hewlett-Packard Corpora-

tion in a deeply personal and proactive way from

its founding in

1939

to

his retirement in

1993.

In

the process he set an example for technically adept,

skill-conscious companies throughout the world;

he

also

helped build a company which, in

1995,

had over 100,000 employees and annual revenue

of

$US31.5 billion.

HP

is

routinely cited for its en-

lightened treatment

of

personnel, its innovative

management, and its unrelenting pursuit

of

quality,

all principles which Packard believed fundamental

to

corporate survival and growth.

Packard

was

born

in

Pueblo,

CO,

USA, and

as

a

boy was interested in electricity, general science,

and particularly radio engineering, building a

"fairly sophisticated vacuum-tube receiver"! when

he

was

twelve and becoming the secretary

of

his

local radio club in high school.

At

sixteen he oper-

ated his own ham radio station, 9DRV. His other

favorite pursuit was riding, a love and skill that he

kept up almost

to

the end

of

his life.

In

the

fall

of

1930

Packard enrolled at Stanford

University, and met his future business partner and

lifelong friend, Bill Hewlett. Packard, Hewlett,

Ed

Porter, and Barney Oliver were all

encouraged-

primarily

by

the legendary EE professor Fred

Terman -

to

pursue careers in electronic engineer-

ing, a field then so new

that

it was assumed

to

be

an ill-defined subset

of

"radio." Packard also distin-

guished himself

as

an athlete, setting rec()rds in

track and earning varsity letters in football and

basketball.

Terman's four star pupils, in the spring of

1934,

determined

to

start "something

on

their own"

using their cutting-edge technical training, which

Terman had carefully reinforced with hands-on

experience. But the founding

of

the new enterprise

1

The

HP

Way,

David Packard, HarperCollins, 1995,

p.7.

had

to

be

deferred

when

Packard received a job

offer from General Electric - a prized commodity

in the depths

of

the Depression.

General Electric, however, was

not

poised

to

take

best advantage

of

Packard's talent. The company

had

no

interest in electronics, and assigned him

to

"uninteresting"

work

in refrigeration.

He

quickly

wangled his way into other positions, and found

rewarding

work

troubleshooting GE's production

of

vacuum tubes. The yield

of

one particular mer-

cury-vapor rectifier, a large and expensive compo-

nent, was disastrously low. Packard responded

by

spending "most

of

[his] time

on

the

factory floor,"

working closely with line employees

to

pinpoint

and remedy causes

of

tube failure.

The

effort was a

resounding success and Packard's first application

of

"management

by

walking around," which he

soon recognized

as

key

to

any kind

of

technical

manufacturing.

In

1937

Packard briefly visited Palo Alto and held

the first recorded business meeting

of

his

"proposed business venture" with Bill Hewlett. But

his employment at

GE

was so important, at a time

when jobs were still brutally scarce, that he

re-

turned

to

upstate

New

York

immediately; and his

bride-to-be, Lucile Salter, traveled there

by

train

(a

four-day journey) so

that

the two could marry and

have their honeymoon in barely more than a

weekend! Packard would

not

formally resign from

GE for years

to

come.

In

the meantime,

the

Packards were at least able

to

settle in Palo Alto, thanks

to

a Stanford fellowship

and stipend arranged

by

Terman. Packard worked

with other electronic innovators, including the

Varian brothers and Charlie Litton,

on

advanced

development including vacuum-tube engineering, a

field still

of

considerable interest

to

GE. But in

1939

he and Hewlett were at last able

to

start their

"venture" in the famous garage

on

Addison A

ve-

nue, which would be declared a California Historic

Landmark fifty years later.

Some of Hewlett and Packard's earliest projects, in .

the search for income, ranged far afield even for H

and P - a harmonica tuner, a telescope tracking

controller, even a foul-line spotter for a bowling

alley. But the first "Hewlett-Packard product" was

an audio oscillator, well-designed and priced far

below its competition .... actually, and accidentally,

priced below cost. Packard christened

it

the Model

200A to give

the

fledgling company an air

of

expe-

Page 4 The Analytical Engine May

1996

rience. Within months

the

oscillator had been im-

proved, and the resulting Model·200B sold well at

the (corrected and profitable) price of $71.50 each!

Eight 200B's were sold

to

the Walt Disney Com-

panyforuse

on

the

movie

Fantasia.

By the end

of

1939,

HP's

first full year

in

business, the company

recorded a respectable profit and moved

to

larger

quarters

on

Page Mill Road.

World War II, justly called

the

"electronic war,"

saw

HP

expand its facilities again and

put

line

workers

on

double shift. A perpetually over-ex-

tended Government was grateful for product qual-

ity combined with timely delivery;

HP

became one

of only three California companies

to

earn

the

coveted Army-Navy "E" award. Although wages

were frozen in wartime,

HP's

pre-existing bonus

plan -coupled with remarkable gains

in

produc-

tivity -made

it

possible

to

pay bonuses of

as

much

as

85

per cent

of

base wage. Tangible recog-

nition for improved productivity became another

cardinal principle

of

HP

management, one

that

accorded with Packard's deeply philanthropic

nature.

When peace came and controls

on

employment

were loosened, Packard gave his corporate strategy

unfettered expression.

Any

company's greatest

asset, he insisted, was a highly skilled, highly moti-

vated, and meticulously trained employee.

The

company, therefore, had three primary obligations;

the first was

to

hire

top

talent, the second was

to

assure congenial and secure conditions

of

employ-

ment and the

third

was

to

maintain channels

thro~gh

which any employee could easily contrib-

ute

to

the company's success.

These strategic goals were

put

in

place through

tactics that were innovative and even startling for

their time. Elaborate provision for

the

welfare

of

a

company's workforce per

se

was nothing new;

ffiM,

to

take a well-known example, was renowned

for the scope

of

support it offered

to

its employees.

But whereas ffiM intended

that

the

individual

worker should draw strength

from

a highly pre-

scribed and strongly hierarchical corporate struc-

ture, Packard

took

the

opposite tack, trying

to

re-

strict the "company"

to

no

more

than

would serve

to

bind its employees into a productive relatio?-

ship. Designed for agility and constantly

prunmg

anything superfluous, Hewlett and Packard's

HP

was a company created

by

engineers for engineers

-and

it

worked;

the

strength of the company was

the strength of its people.

Every effort was made

to

keep

the

company's

structure "flat" and lines

of

communication short,

so

that executives with decision-making power

would have ready

access

to

the company's fund of

ideas. Coffee talks, company picnics and barbecues,

and open offices all contributed

to

the exchange of

information; at

the

same time, a support structure

that included flexible scheduling, tuition sharing,

and catastrophic medical coverage made it clear

that

HP

employees were a valued resource.

The

HP

Way,

as

a corporate culture, just about

wrote the prototype specification for Silicon

Valley's high-tech business. Perhaps this model

now

goes

too

far at times, creating personalities

who are better-known

than

the companies for

which

they

work. But when we look at

HP

its~lf,

it's clear

that

the

model worked

to

near-perfectlOn

at least once. Si

monumentum

requiris .... look

around and you'll probably

see

the

HP

logo!

David Packard would have been famous enough,

certainly, if we had only

HP

itself

to

remember

him

by.

He

himself preferred

to

be remembered.

for his great philanthropic endeavors -the

DaVId

and Lucile Packard Foundation,

now

the largest

charitable private foundation

in

the United States;

the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has attracted

millions

of

visitors

to

the

Central California coast;

Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, one of

the world's most highly regarded pediatric facili-

ties; and visionary projects with a worldwide reach,

such

as

the Center for the Future

of

Children and

the Packard Humanities Institute.

He

was more

than

merely a generous man, more

than

a captain

of

industry, and more

than

a statesman.

He

was, at

last someone

who

understood the supreme good

fo~une

of

his

lot

in

life, and worked hard

to

give

as

he had received.

The

Computer

History Association

of

California

extends condolence

to

Mr. Packard's children,

David W. Packard,

Nancy

Ann

Packard Burnett,

Susan Packard

Orr,

and Julie E. Packard, and

to

his

many colleagues and friends throughout

the

world.

May

1996

The Analytical Engine Page 5

The LOMAC ADAM (1977) with 50Mbit Control Data hard disk raised for service, terminal, and

Centronics dot-matrix printer.

THE COMPUTER WILL

DO

ANYTHING

YOU

TELL

IT

TO

DO:

An Interview

with

Maiga Wolf

HLC:

See,

in accounting,

the

"assets equals liabili-

ties plus equity"

--

that

was from about 1300. So,

from

1300

to 1967, huge companies

--

international

companies

--

functioned

without

computers

in

their accounting departments.

Then

suddenly,

from

1967

to

now,

nobody

can even write a check

without a computer.

What

I'm

saying here

is

that

the computer has made a tremendous difference

in

everyone's life

--

but

it seems

to

me that

you

techies

think

you're

the

only

ones

who

really ap-

preciate what an incredible breakthrough com-

puters are. I want

you

to

understand

how

signifi-

cant it

is

for the rest

of

us. I

think

you

should

ex-

plore

how

computing changed the life

of

an ordi-

nary bean-counter.

KC:

On

January 19th we got a call from Maiga

Wolf. She had an

ADAM

minicomputer

that

had

been built

by

Logical Machines

Company

in

Sunnyvale, and she was retiring from twenty-plus

years

of

running

her

own

bookkeeping business;

would the

CHAC

be interested?

The

software, oh,

easy!

She wrote it herself.

So

Hilary Crosby, a certified public accountant;

Edwin El-Kareh, an engineer and

CHAC

volun-

teer; George Durfey, an engineer and photog-

rapher, and I rose

to

this challenge.

SYSTEMS MATTER

EVEK:

You

worked

in

a large company in the

accounts payable department?

MW: I was brought

in

to

revise their accounts

payable.

They

had a big problem.

They

couldn't

pay their bills

in

time,

they

couldn't

get discounts

in

time, and it was one big mess. This was in 1963.

HLC:

And

they

had

no

automation

in

the

ac~

counts payable?

Page 6 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

MW:

No,

everything was manual. I

had

29

people

in

accounts payable, processing bills for Ampex. I

went

in

and revised

the

procedure,

how

they

were

handling [paperflow.]

In

the

first year I managed

to

recapture $275,000

of

discounts.

In

those days

that

was a

lot

of

money.

[To

begin with] we

didn't

get

all

the

discounts.

It

took

me

a while

to

get there,

but

by

the

end

of

the

first year

we

had

saved

that

much.

In

Canada originally I was

working

for a

company,

but

on

the

side I was trouble-shooting.

The

other

chartered accountants

would

come

to

me

and

say,

"Oh,

one

of

my

clients has so

many

problems, can

you

come over and straighten

them

out?

We

don't

have time."

So

I'd

work

at

that

site

on

Saturday

or

Sunday. Finally I

had

so

many

waiting for

me

that

I realized I was earning

more

doing consulting

than

from

my

regular job. So I quit, and began arrang-

ing systems

to

process

paperwork,

full-time.

HLC:

Were

you

using bookkeeping machines at

that

point?

MW:

Not

bookkeeping machines.

There

were

Burroughs posting machines and calculators.

HLC:

Did

you

have

your

accounts receivable inte-

grated

with

your

sales

and

the

manual system?

MW:

No,

no.

I

had

separate girls doing separate

jobs.

One

girl

would

do

the

invoicing, and

the

other

girl

would

do

the

recording

in

the

sales

journal, and

another

girl

would

take

the

invoices

and post

to

the

receivables.

HLC:

So each invoice got posted twice -once

in

the

sales journal,

and

once

as

accounts receivable

to

the

specific customer?

MW: Right, manually.

Then

in

1967

or

'68, I

don't

recall

the

exact date,

when

we

went

on

the

com-

puter

at Precision Instruments,

it

went

from

the

sales journal right

into

the

accounts receivable.

They

had

the

payroll

in

a bank, and

that

was also

computerized,

but

the

bank

had

lots

of

problems

there

too.

HLC:

So,

by

the

late sixties, all

the

tax withheld

and

the

deposits

and

the

quarterly reporting was

handled

by

the

bank

on

a

computer,

and

people

just got

their

paycheck, and at

the

end

of

the

year

their

W-2?

MW: Well, I'm

not

a certified public accountant in California. I studied

in Canada

to

be

a chartered accountant, and I went into accounting

for

one reason. I was

an

immigrant after the Second World War and I

could

see

that

I wasn't going

to

do

anything

with

the positions

that

were available

for

young women in '48, '49

--

I

didn't

want

to

be

a

nurse, I

didn't

want

to

be

an

office clerk

or

a teacher --

that

was about

my choice, and

it

just

didn't

appeal

to

me.

So

I decided there was a

little

bit

more leeway

if

I

went

into

accounting, and

so

I studied in

london,

Ontario.

Maiga in 1947.

First you

got

your

four

years

at

the university.

Then

you had

to

be

an

apprentice

with

a chartered accountants' firm, the equivalent

of

a

CPA

firm,

for

five years, and then you

wrote

your

exam

and

got

your papers.

When I moved

to

California, I wanted a

job

to

start with, and Ampex

hired me

as

a consultant in their systems and procedures -- they had

problems, especially in accounts payable. I

went

in there and started

to

work, and things just rolled along, and I never

got

around

to

doing my

CPA

because nobody

asked

for

it. [laughs.]

HlC: What about tax returns?

MW: I never did tax returns. After I

quit

Ampex I wanted

to

see

what

the tax laws were in California,

so

I hired

myself in

with

a small

CPA

firm. And I just happened

to

be

there between January and April,

with

the tax

returns and stuff, and I said, "That's a rat

race,

I

don't

want

that." And that's

why

I stuck

to

this [bookkeeping]

so

I never had

to

bother

with

taxes. Most

of

the small

businesses

also have personal

stuff

involved, and I

don't

want

to

know anything about the personal.

May

1996

The

Analytical Engine Page 7

MW: I didn't have

to

worry about those.

That

belonged actually in personnel, so I didn't have

much

to

do with the payroll at all, except

to

take

the feeders [reports] and

put

all that in the general

ledger.

HLC: When was the first time that you encoun-

tered the computer?

MW: When I was a controller at PI [Precision

Instruments] in Palo Alto.

They

decided

to

install a

computer, one of the great big ones with punch

cards, and

my

accounting department posted

in

through the computer.

KC: Was this an early minicomputer

or

a

mainframe proper?

MW:

It

was a mainframe, I

think

a big Burroughs.

I wasn't familiar with computers at all, so whatever

the company brought in,

that

was it - I had

no

say

as

to

what type. All the departments were

throwing stuff at the programmer, and expected

him

to

have answers for whatever came into their

heads.

KC: Meaning that the department heads expected

the programmer

to

know

their business and

requirements.

MW: Right, and it didn't work, of course.

KC: Never does.

MW: And

so

I was looking at what they were

doing, and I realized

that

nobody told the

programmer what they actually needed [in output]

from that machine.

The

engineering, and

marketing, and other departments threw

everything at the

poor

programmer and said "Do

it."

And

it would come out wrong,

or

not

work

at

all, and they had lots of problems.

So

I decided,

that's foolish, this

poor

fellow

is

really

not

an -

engineer,

or

marketing manager,

or

whatever else

they expect

him

to

be.

When

my

turn

came

to

put

the accounting in, I broke it into separate phases. I

put

in -let's say -sales first, and got the

sales

journal, then I

put

in

cash receipts, and so on. By

working with one phase after the other, we

brought it off with only slight adjustments.

Everybody [else] was hollering

"How

come

you

don't

have anything wrong when we all have

problems?" and they were cussing the programmer!

And I said, well,

you

want

him

to

bite

it

off and

chew it up for you, and he doesn't

know

what

you

need. You have

to

tell him what

you

need.

I worked for Precision Instruments something like

6

or

7 years.

That

was

my

start with computers,

and the only experience I had with computers,

until I bought

my

own.

ALONE,

AT

LAST

KC: And

you

went

out

to

do more systems

installation?

MW:

No,

I began doing bookkeeping for

companies that were

too

small

to

keep an in-house

accountant

or

a full-fledged bookkeeper. I got into

that in a strange way -maybe

not

so strange,

considering what had happened in Canada.

Someone I had

known

at PI,

not

from

my

own

department, called me

up

and said "I have two

good friends who want

to

buy

into a business - "

which was a bar and a restaurant

in

Palo Alto -

"but the fellow hasn't got any books.

Is

there any

way

you

can help?"

I'd

just quit PI and was sitting

at home, thinking about what

to

do next; so I said

that 1'd take a look.

I had

no

equipment at home.

My

neighbor, who

had a typewriter [that was] from

her

club, said "I'll

let

you

use

my

typewriter."

My

insurance guy had

just bought a new calculator, so he gave me his old

calculator.

At

first I wasn't going

to

buy

anything,

because I didn't

think

I would continue

that

way. I

set up all the books for the restaurant. It was early

in the year, something like March

or

May, so

it

wasn't too hard

to

catch up. I

took

the

1120

[corporate

tax

return] balances forward and set up

the new year. The restaurant looked like

it

was

making money, and I told them, "That's what I

can get out

of

the paperwork." Then, of course,

this fellow

who

had the

bar

had a friend who was

in

trouble, and .... [Laughter.]

It

just mushroomed,

so I got an adding machine and a typewriter of

my

own, and off I went.

HLC: What made

you

decide

that

in order

to

have

the volume,

you

needed a computer -what

put

that

together for you?

How

did

you

know

that

to

service the number

of

bookkeeping clients that

could give

you

an income,

you

needed a computer?

MW: I was

on

my

own

and I needed more income.

Right away, I could

see

that

I wasn't getting very

far manually. I was spending hours and hours

adding back and forth across all those pages in the

ledgers and journals, and

it

was very time-

consummg.

Page 8 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

HLC:

There weren't

too

many women in accounting

--

or

in computers --

at

that

time.

MW: Well there weren't

too

many [women] controllers at

that

time either. I was a controller

for

Precision

Instrument.

HLC:

Did you

think

people there

resented you, a

woman, having

that

job?

MW:

Oh

yeah, very

much.

The

vice

presidents from

different sections

would come -

from

marketing especially

-and

say

"That girl

in the office there,

she

wouldn't

sign

that

.... " Conrad

Schoebel backed me

up very well.

He

let

them know,

if

Maiga

said

no,

it

meant no.

HLC:

When you

went

to

that

convention in

Pasadena,

where you

were looking at com-

puters,

how

many

other women were

there

as

customers?

Half

of

the people?

Looking

at

the books.

MW: No, very few, very few.

HLC:

Did

it

feel strange, walking around there

as

a customer and a woman?

MW: No, because I've always been working in a man's world.

In

1953, accountants were

not

women, and

so

I've been looked

at

-you

know

-

as

an

oddball.

HLC:

The guy

from

LOMAC

that

came

to

help you, the guy -

MW: Gary Kench, was very helpful [and] very nice.

HLC:

Did he ever

say

anything like ''You're good

at

this

for

a woman .... "

MW: Usually

he

said something like "How's

it

going," and I would

say

"Well,

it

seems

to

be

working," and he

might

say

"I

knew you

would

do

it." That was about it.

KC:

He

was the

sales

guy

for

the company, right?

MW: Well, he was the salesman

for

this computer. What

else

he did

for

the company I have no idea.

May

1996

The Analytical Engine Page 9

Just at that time I read an announcement in the San

Jose paper of the first Business

Computer

Conference,

in

Pasadena, with displays and the

whole business. I got

on

the plane and went there,

spent

five

days walking from place to place, from

one computer to the next, and attending any

lecture that was given. I came

to

the conclusion

that there wasn't one program

that

would suit me!

And I couldn't afford an in-house programmer,

who at that time would have charged around

$40

an

hour

-

not

to

mention

that

I'd

probably have

to wait two weeks before a freelancer would come,

and I couldn't spare

that

kind

of

time either.

Then

I discovered this ADAM, and they assured me

that

I could program it myself, so I bought it.

KC: Those assurances have been given since there

have been computers, and they haven't always

been true, but

in

your

case it was true.

MW: I had a good start. Gary Kench, the salesman,

said he would come and get me started. In the

beginning, he spent a couple

of

hours with me

every day. Meanwhile I was studying the manual

and trying

to

do the

homework

he gave me.

Then

the next time he came, if

my

work

was okay, we

just progressed from there. After about three

or

four weeks he said "You're

on

your

own," and I

took

it from there.

KC: It's important

to

point

out

that this machine

is

not

a micro

in

any sense. This

is

a minicomputer

with a fourteen-inch disk and a terminal, and it's

built into a desk along with a [dot-matrix] printer.

If

you

don't

mind

my

asking,

how

much did the

whole shebang cost

when

you

brought it home

from LOMAC?

MW: Thirty-two thousand dollars.

KC: In 1977.

MW:

Yes.

HLC: You had

to

keep a lot

of

books

to

payoff

$32,000 in

1977!

MW: It paid off very easily. As far

as

money went,

it was no problem. But it was a big risk for me

in

the sense

that

I had

no

idea if I could handle

the

programming

or

not. There was

no

other

way, so I

took

a chance and said

that

if it didn't work, it

didn't work.

KC:

And

you

had

to

buy

one disk pack

per

person.

MW: Each customer had

two

[disk packs], one for

backup.

HLC:

So

you

kept a back-up in the same box?

MW: Yeah, they were labeled,

number

1,

number

2.

I would take a back-up after every

two

hours'

work

just

in

case.

HLC:

And

how

long did it take

to

do a back-up?

MW: Just a few minutes, I just wanted

to

copy the

information from

the

built in disk.

HLC:

How

much were

you

paying for those disk

packs?

MW: I have

to

think,

now.

At

first I had only the

two

disks

that

came

with

the

computer.

Then

as

I

started

to

work

with separate accounts I needed

more disks, and

Gary

offered me

20

disks at

something like $175.00 each. In

my

very first year I

bought

all

those disks, because I knew I was going

to

enlarge.

KC:

Did

that also limit the

number

of

clients

you

could take at one time?

MW:

No,

I could get

more

disks after that.

HLC:

Are

they

still available?

MW: Yes, come

to

think,

one of the computer

supply catalogues had these large disks, still. Maybe

not

the

same make -these are

Control

Data -

but

they had some hard disk [packs] still for sale.

KC: Just to recap:

You

had

to

computerize

in

order

to

get enough volume.

You

didn't find any

ready-made software

that

would meet

your

needs,

and

you

knew

that

you

couldn't afford to invest

time and money

in

custom programming from

someone else; so

you

decided

to

do

your

own

programming.

Now,

you

were programming

in

BASIC?

MW: Well,

in

what

LOMAC

called English.

I'm

no

expert

on

computer languages - I

don't

know

anything about any

other

computer except this

one, so I have

no

idea.

They

told

me it could be

programmed in English, and that's what I was

doing.

HLC:

So

is

your

program actually a database

where information

is

saved centrally,

to

be accessed

from different perspectives and combined

into

reports?

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WOLF:

They claimed, for instance,

that

I could not have a total

for

that

week,

for

the month,

for

the

quarter, and the year print out right then and there. And originally it looked

to

me

as if I

couldn't-

time and again I was running into a dead end, and I couldn't get this printed out

fom

the

file.

Then I

finally discovered what was wrong with

it!

You

see

these references here, the transaction numbers,

they were in the general

file,

and I was working out

of

that

file.

And I would say,

go

in the payroll

file,

then take the next one,

do

this; take the next one,

do

this; take the next one,

do

this -but at the

last reference in the

file

[the routine] would jump out.

It

was finished. And I couldn't branch back

into the payroll program to print out these titles.

KIP:

lt

was a question of recapturing the numbers associated with those transactions.

WOLF:

Yes,

but

right

then~

[Laughs.) But I realized, first

of

all,

that

I had tran'saction numbers up

to

5 digits built in -and I could even have enlarged

that

if I needed to. Then

you

see

that

on this

sheet, my transaction numbers are ll,400-something, and

that

was in June.

My

transaction

numbers would never

go

beyond

five

digits, almost certainly;

so

I put [transaction] number 99,999 at'

the end

of

the file. Then, when I went into the

file,

I would say "Get next transaction; if it doesn't

equal 99,999

do

this," over and over again, and then "If it equals 99,999,

go

into this program and

print it out."

KIP: Because you knew

that

99,999 was the end

of

the

file

-

WOLF:

-and

that

it would never

be

a transaction number, yes.

KIP: There's your subroutine, Edwin.

RECAP

PRL

PRINT

1 Does

2

and

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end

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8.29.95

REFERENCE

PARTICULARS

*

DAILY

REPORT

DEPOSIT

HILARY:

What about the

bank

reconciliation? Would this program allow you to clear the checks

when

the

bank statement came in, and get your outstanding check list?

WOLF:

Yes,

and this is the program for a selection -it's nearly English. For bank first

~

reconciliation, I would have

the

selection on the screen; if I wanted BR with an X - cleared -it

would CONTINUE and jump out of the program.

If

not, number one is from bank one to bank one

transactions, which

just

meant

that

it remained uncleared. Number two would

go

to transaction

deletion. Number three would let

me

make an adjustment, number four would

print

it.

HILARY:

So

that's how

you

get your clear, clear with error, error adjustment.

4224

2CI(

8.31.

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5

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$I,

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$3,000.00

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and

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and

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DL

=

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=

"X"

1

-

3

4

Page

14

The Analytical Engine May 1996

MW: I start with [the screen] called Menu. First

of

all, I can change the date, if

that

was needed.

If

I

was working

in

the same

month,

the date was

in

there already.

And

then

I would

go

in

and start

with a batch

that

I had.

HLC: So

you

put

in

a batch

of

invoices?

MW:

So

I

put

a batch in. Every line that went

in

got printed out, so

that

if I needed

to

check back, I

would see anything wrong

on

the

printout. Then,

when

the

batch was completed, the program

took

over and re-arranged all the accounts and printed

out by accounts into

the

journal.

HLC: So if

you

had a stack

of

purchase orders,

payables,

you

could

put

in

the

name of the

company

that

you

are buying from -

MW: I have five pieces

of

information

that

I

put

in:

the account number,

the

date, the reference

to

the

document, and

then

the

description -vendor's

name

or

whatever -and

the

amount.

HLC:

And

then

will

your

program write

the

check

to

the

vendor

also?

MW:

No,

you

see,

my

programs were made for

once-a-month processing for the small company.

My

customers did

the

daily

work

themselves;

in

later years some

of

them

even got computers

to

do

their daily chores. I did payroll for just one

company,

but

I didn't even

bother

writing a

program because

it

was

so

small - I calculated the

payroll manually,

they

processed

on

the

computer

from the time cards, and I printed out the payroll

and

the

employee details. I made an exception for

this one company only because

it

was so small

--

about

ten

people.

It

didn't pay

to

computerize the

initial calculations. But I stored the payrolls and

the

employee individual information all

on

the

computer [post facto].

KC:

Now,

how

long did

it

take

you

to

write all the

modules of this system?

MW: I

think

I worked about

two

months

on

the

very first basic system,

or

maybe a little more.

That [handled] the smallest account that I had.

When that functioned, I tackled

the

next bigger

account.

To

the very basics, I added whatever I

MW: I'm the kind

of

person

who

hangs

onto

things. Everything I have around me

is

old. I just sold my other

car, a

Porsche

I drove

for

29 years [with] the same motor, and

put

300,000 miles on it.

For

the first, about, ten

years

it

was

the second car,

so

it

never

went

on big trips .

.

HLC:

Which model?

MW:

It

was a 912; actually, my 912 was the first

one in California. When I was still married, the

Porsche

manager

for

the West Coast used

to

live

across

the street; when

we

went

to

Europe he

arranged

for

us

to

pick one

up

at the factory in

Stuttgart. But the 912 wasn't shipped

to

California

yet,

so

when mine came in, nobody here had

seen

one. And I had trouble, because anywhere I parked

I had ten

or

fifteen people standing around it. But

cops were the worst problem! I

don't

know where

they came from,

but

they were right behind

me.

And that's unnerving when you have a cop behind

you all the time.

EVEK:

A

lot

of

protection

for

us!

MW: A guy called Rolf

took

care

of

it

from day one Maiga

and

her

Porsche 912.

until I sold it, and

we

overhauled the engine just once, and when I had another 120,000 miles on

it

[after that]

he said "Well, it's still good

for

another 100,000 miles." The

motor

was okay,

but

of

course all the rubber

[gasketing] was getting old ....

May

1996

The

Analytical

Engine

Page

15

Removing

the

disk pack.

KC:

Did you ever try

to

interest Logical

Machines in

the

programming you had

done,

that

they claimed couldn't be

done?

MW:

It

wasn't

the

company --

it

was one

of

the

engineers from Lomac

who

had

gone on his own.

He

had taken an ADAM

or

two

and opened

up

an office where

people could rent time on them. And

when I said

"I

got

the payroll the way I

want

it," and showed him the print-out,

he

asked

me

for

the

program. I said

"Oh,

no way."

He

said, "Well, my clients could

use

it," and my answer was

"Then

send

them

to

me."

KC:

And did he send them

to

you, or did

he buy the program?

MW: I

wouldn't

sell the program. What he was willing

to

pay

for

the program probably wasn't very much, and

there were no royalties,

so

why

should I bother? I felt

that

[the program] was something different, and

that

I

could give my customers something better.

If

everybody

else

started

to

have that,

it

wouldn't

make any

sense.

needed for the next account. Actually, I

don't

see

any big deal about it. I had the machine do what I

would do manually, followed

my

manual

procedures exactly and just programmed

them

in

there.

KC: But instead

of

working module

by

module,

you worked company

by

company, starting with

the smallest company?

MW: Right.

So

I got

as

far

as

printing out journals,

and printing

out

the general ledger ,

but

I did

not

work

on

receivables and payables and the payroll

until the last.

When

I started

to

work

on

[those

modules,] the people from

LOMAC

told me

that

the kind

of

payroll printout I wanted couldn't be

done. I said

to

myself, there's got

to

be a way.

I struggled for some time.

Then

I discovered the

reason that they said

it

couldn't be done, and I

started

to

work

around it.

Then

the payroll and

payables became very simple for me.

KC:

Now

how

long was

it

from

the

time

you

wrote the system for

your

smallest company,

to

the time you felt

that

your

program was fully

realized and capable

of

handling anything

you

threw at it?

MW: About a year.

I'm

almost positive,

not

more

than

that.

KC:

And

I believe

you

mentioned earlier that, for

example,

by

the

time

your

system was finished

every transaction was validated

on

the fly, and the

system absolutely didn't tolerate rounding errors.

It

only

took

a year from

the

beginning

to

get

it

to

that

kind

of

sophistication?

MW: I had

to

rush - I needed

that

machine

to

work

forme.

SERVICE

WITH

A SMILE

HLC:

How

quickly did people get their reports?

What

did

they

get

in

their reports?

MW: Depending

on

when

they

brought their daily

paperwork in,

the

turnaround would be about

three days. I screened [the data] after

it

was done

and proofed

it

myself. This was for

ten

customers.

KC:

So

you

were giving 3-day turnaround

of

reports for all

the

stuff

to

ten

people?

That

was a

lot

of

work.

Page

16

The Analytical Engine May

1996

MW:

It

was!

But that's

why

it paid off that

[computer] fast.

These are

my

copies,

you

see.

HLC:

So

you

always had

hard

copy

of

everything,

and didn't keep it

on

the computer.

MW:

No.

[It would be] deleted

out

of

the

computer. Otherwise there was

too

much garbage

in

there.

HLC:

What

about the paperless office? [Laughter.]

MW: I found

that

if I had

too

much

information

in

there, it would slow

down

the

processing.

And

I

needed the time.

My

customers had

no

access

to

my

computer [data,] so

they

had

to

look

in

their

printouts anyway.

HLC: So, from being a manual bookkeeper,

you

went onto a computer, and suddenly something

would take

too

much time because it

took

a

minute,

or

five minutes.

So

rather

than

keep a lot

of

data

on

your

disks, like all these month-to-date

totals through the year -

MW: I would take time

to

transfer the information

out

of

current

work

into a file for storage, because

the computer had

to

work, and meanwhile I

couldn't do anything else. Many

of

my

companies

had a lot

of

entries, between 500 and 1,500 for the

month.

So

it was

worth

the

time

to

transfer from

the original file

into

storage.

HLC:

How

long would

the

computer take

to

close

the month?

MW: I never timed it. This company would take

the

longest because

they

have the most entries.

For

the

others, it depended

on

[the

number

of] entries.

HLC:

But

how

long would it take [the computer

to

post the batch]? Was

it

short enough

that

you

sat at the console while

it

did it,

or

would

you

go

away from the computer for that time?

MW:

Oh,

I usually sat there.

If

I closed the

month

on

this company -this was the largest

that

I had

- I would let it

run

and come [across the room]

to

the

desk. But for

the

others I would just sit there,

because it wouldn't take long enough for me

to

start

something else while it ran.

HLC:

I notice

you

have a television over there.

Would

you

watch TV?

MW: While I was posting I would. I would prepare

the paperwork before I

went

to

the

computer.

Then

I would

know

what

entries should go in, and

in

general what transpired

in

that

month, and the

input

was very mechanical. I would listen

to

public

stations, some lecture

or

concert, while I was doing

the input.

HLC:

So

then

when

you

were finished, and it was

sorting and posting the batches, and putting

them

into

all

the different accounts -

MW:

No,

the original

entry

automatically goes

right into the account, and [the program] brings it

from there whenever it's needed.

KC: That was

how

the

transactions were validated,

right? You checked the

input

against content,

as

soon

as

it went in.

MW:

The

input was checked for balancing

as

soon

as

it went in.

And

then

when

the journal was

printed out - I

don't

have any journals [now]

because I didn't

print

them

for myself - I would

check

to

make sure that paper clips were

not

under

automotive, for example.

So

the journal gave me

the totals, and each account would give me the

detail. As the journal printed I would proofread it.

The

batches were automatically balanced

as

far

as

the numbers are concerned.

HLC:

The

debits equaled

the

credits.

MW:

Then

I would proofread the allocation

to

accounts when the journal was printed, and finally,

when I printed the general ledger I would

proofread it a second time.

In

case of an error I

could

go

in and change it.

HLC:

Oh,

you

could change it until

you

closed the

month?

MW:

For

something

that

was wrong [in a

prior

month] I would make corrections through the

general journal,

but

within

the current

month,

I

could change anything

in

the program except the

transaction

number

- I could change the account

number, the document reference, the date, the

amount

or

the description, and correct misspellings

anywhere.

For

instance, I had

to

hand-pencil

something into

my

printed copy here - I

put

in

48

cents, I

think

this was a payroll correction.

And

then

here, 56.79

in

employee benefits,

that

went

into the wrong account somehow.

HLC:

So

then

you

would change

it

by

hand, key

in

the corrections -

May

1996

The

Analytical Engine Page

17

MW:

And

print out a clean copy for the customer.

But I penciled it in for myself when I found

something wrong.

HLC: Then after

you

closed the month, if

you

had

put this company

in

concrete pouring

sales

and the

customer said, "No, no, no,

we

didn't do concrete

pouring for them; we did drywall," -then would

you reclassify the transaction through a journal

entry?

MW:

Yeah, I would change [the entry] from one

account to the other through the journal, but the

current entries could be changed anytime.

WORD

OF

MOUTH

HLC: When

you

were getting new business, did

you advertise that

you

had a computerized system?

MW: I never advertised for business. My new

business came through recommendation from

my

other clients.

HLC: Were new clients interested

in

the fact that

your system was computerized?

MW:

Oh,

yes. After they saw what I could provide

for them, they all wanted it right away.

HLC: What reports and financial statements could

you

give

them?

MW: Whatever the company wanted, let's

put

it

that way.

HLC: You had the ability

to

change

the

format?

MW: Most

of

the time I just changed the programs.

I would get

my

new customers at the start

of

a

small business, and usually they would have some

problem with their bookkeeping. There

was

no

point in overloading them with reports they

couldn't use, I just

gave

them

whatever was

necessary. Then,

as

their company grew, I would

"grow" the program

to

match.

So

I had every

customer

on

an individual program, custom-

programmed for them.

HLC:

And

you

would

give

them a balance sheet

and an income statement?

MW: They got all the printouts from me.

HLC: Now,

you

were using this system [from

1977]

until October

1995?

MW: I retired

as

of

October 31st, yes.

HLC:

So

they can't download their information

from this into QuickBooks,

or

something. They

have

to

just start over.

MW: They have to start over

on

their

own

systems

because this doesn't translate into anything.

KC: You've said that any time

you

found an

apparent disk drive error, which only happened

lately,

you

traced it

to

a board

on

the

computer.

Did

you

ever lose any data off the hard disks?

MW:

No,

I haven't,

not

as

a defect. When I started,

Gary had me build in all kinds

of

things I called

"idiot stoppers," that would ask me whether

or

not

I wanted something. I

took

Gary's advice and

put

them in, but they made the processing

too

slow.

Once I

was

on

my

own

I

took

them

all out. Well,

at one point, I had

the

choice

on

my

menu either

to

delete one transaction

or

to

delete the whole

batch; I pushed the wrong button and

two

hours of

work weill down the drain -I could

see

it go.

After that I

put

an "idiot stop"

in

that place that

said "Do

you

really want

to

delete this batch?"

HLC:

So

you

knew, when it came up, that it -

MW:

That

it was a batch instead

of

one

transaction. I also moved

the

selections further

away, one from the other. Originally

they

were 2

and

3,

and I pushed 3 and I should have pushed

2.

So

I moved the selection

to

delete

the

batch

all

the

way

to

the bottom. When I wanted

to

delete just

one transaction I wouldn't hit the wrong button.

SUPPORT

HLC: When the computer needed fixing, were

you

able

to

do a lot

of

that over the telephone?

MW: As a matter

of

fact, just

in

the

last six months

the battery went, and Raul [the current support

tech] said "Well, since

you

plan

to

stop working

and that battery's very expensive, we can fix it.

"

And

so we bypassed the battery with a little piece

of

wood, a piece

of

Chinese chopstick, and then I

had it plugged into one

of

those outlets where I

could

turn

it

on

and off.

With

the

old battery I

couldn't

turn

it

on

with a key, I needed a [new]

battery. But when Raul told me over

the

phone to

put

the piece

of

chopstick in there, and I bypassed

the battery so

it

worked.

HLC:

So

this has an ignition key?

Page

18

The Analytical Engine May

1996

MW: This particular [terminal] hasn't got it. We

had

to

change

my

[CRT] tube

in

the

last week

that

I worked. Raul came

out

and

took

the

whole

[terminal] from

the

spare computer and

put

it

on

this.

He

explained

to

me

that

the

tube was

supposed

to

last seven years, and this was the

eighteenth year.

HLC: You got

your

money's worth.

MW:

And

so he said, we'll just switch it.

The

inside [of the terminal]

is

now

from

the

spare

c()mputer, and I couldn't find

the

key. Since

it

would have

to

be

turned

on

with a switch from

the

line voltage, instead of

with

the

key and

the

battery, the key was

not

important.

He

felt there

was

no

sense trying

to

chase d()wn a battery

in

the

last week. It was crazy.

HLC:

And

the second [ADAM]

that

you

got for

parts,

how

much did

that

cost?

MW: Seven hundred dollars.

HLC: Instead

of

$32,000.

MW: Well,

it

was a used machine and Raul just got

it, I would say,

two

years ago.

He

asked me $700

and I said, okay.

EVEK [pulling boards and scrutinizing them:]

Initially these looked almost like

DEC

PDP

boards, but

the

backplane doesn't look right,

it

looks more like an

S-100

type backplane.

KC:

16

K words.

EVEK:

16

K words?

KC: 16K 16-bit words.

MW: I

know

nothing about it.

If

Raul told me

over the phone "Do this, and push that button,

and

look

at that,"

then

I could do it. But otherwise

I have

no

idea what it

is.

Right

now

it has original

boards in there, some boards from the second

computer, and some

of

Raul's boards. Last time he

came in, he said

"Now

we're

not

going

to

mess

HLC:

Once you paid

for

the machine,

how

much business expense did you have?

MW: Not much;

what

I needed was

stuff

like paper and ribbons and paper clips.

It

wasn't much

of

an

expense.

Now,

for

a number

of

years I also had a china shop.

HLC:

Did you keep your bookkeeping business and your china shop business going

at

the same time?

MW: In 1985 I decided that,

as

long

as

I could still

work

a little harder than

necessary, I would open the china shop

for

my retirement. I

felt

that

as

I grew

older [the bookkeeping] was taking quite a

bit

out

of

me --

it

required a

lot

of

concentration about the things

that

I had

to

remember

or

else.

And then no

sooner was there a deadline than my customer

would

come in

two

days

beforehand and give me five days' work.

HLC:

Right, and you'd

work

all night.

MW: Oh, yeah.

So

I thought, well, I

can

always run a china shop, that's no

problem,

so

I bought

into

a little shop and I was running both businesses. But

from '85

to

'88 the shopping center

that

this shop was in

went

down

the tubes; the nice shops

went

out

and

Payless

and [some other discounters] moved in, and I was

too

fancy, I had only good quality china and crystal

and stuff.

So

this shopping center wasn't doing much

for

me, and in April [1989] I moved over

to

Saratoga.

In

October

we

had

the

[Loma Prieta] earthquake and -- I've

got

a

lot

of

pictures

to

show. [Laughs.]

HLC:

And you

got

insurance, right?

MW:

Yes,

but silly me, being in the business I

didn't

think

rationally. When I

got

the insurance money was

when I should have packed

up

and gone home. Instead I

thought

"Well, gee,

so

many people have broken

dishes

now

that

it'll be a godsend

to

them

if

I

can

supply them

with

good dishes."

So

I

took

all the money,

refurbished my store, and

within

two

weeks I was back in business.

The

ladies came in and said "I'm

not

going

to

buy anything breakable any more." That was the attitude. And right after

that

the

economy

went

down, my

May 1996

The

Analytical

Engine

Page

19

around," because I had three more days'

work

and

the thing conked

out

on

me.

EVEK: Just had

to

get things finished

up

to

give it

back.

MW: We just patched it

up

so

that

I could

work

on

it

to

finish up.

At

least it lasted long enough.

EVEK: It's still astonishing

to

me

that

you

have

$32,000.00

in

that, that's a lot

of

money.

MW: But if

you

earn $40,000

to

45,000 a year, in a

couple

of

years it's [amortized]. It paid for itself.

KC: Handsomely, I would say.

EVEK:

And

then

when

you

think

- I get a new

computer about every

two

years.

KC: Right,

you

get a new computer every

two

years,

but

there are computers and computers; and

this

goes

right

to

the

heart

of

the old debate

that

always ends with the line "It isn't

the

cost

of

the

hardware, it's

the

cost

of

the software."

The

major

cost here was actually

the

development time and

the debugging and refinement time

of

the

software.

MW:

What

I

put

in

there was

what

I wanted and

needed.

Now,

truly, once

the

system was working

and I was working fluently right through, I found a

lot

of

other

things

that

I still could refine -make

an even shorter verb

or

something -

but

it

was

working, so

who

cared? I could see areas where I

could make improvements,

but

it

was giving me

the

answers anyway, so I didn't

bother

spending

the time. By

then

I had all the customers and I was

too

busy

to

tinker

around. Some customers would

ask me

"Oh,

do

you

think

that

we could get some

percentages

on

this statement,"

and

sure I could get

them,

so

away we went. But

if

people

didn't

want

percentages, I didn't offer them.

KC: Right,

you

don't

give people features unless

they ask for them.

lease

came up, they wanted more money, and I wasn't going

to

work

just

for

the rental,

so

I packed up and

moved everything here. I still have some $15,000 in china samples sitting in the garage.

HLC:

Hope there's

not

another earthquake.

MW: Well,

what

are you going

to

do? I had a big

sale

and fairly well sold

out

the regular merchandise,

but

I

couldn't get rid

of

the samples.

How

can

you sell one place setting

of

each

pattern?

KC:

I have

to

say

at this point

that

you may

be

the only person I

know

who

went

into retail

for

relaxation.

MW: I'll tell you,

for

me

it

was very simple -- the paperwork was a cinch. I could devote my

time

to

the

merchandise and

to

the customers.

HLC:

Did you yourself

work

in the store, or did you have employees?

MW: Just myself.

HLC:

Just yourself.

How

many hours a day did you have

it

open?

MW: It was open from ten

to

six,

and then

I'd

come home and

work

[on bookkeeping] until

about

two

o'clock

in the morning.

At

ten o'clock I'd

be

back at the store. I worked 16 hours a day, 7 days a week

for

7 years.

KC:

Hm.

Okay.

MW: Well, actually I

didn't

work

16 hours towards the end. Some

of

the customers retired, and I

didn't

take

any new customers,

so

gradually I

went

from 10 down

to

4.

HLC:

In the bookkeeping.

MW: And then after I closed the store I kept the

four

and

didn't

add any more.

See,

I'm

not

a spring chicken

anymore, I can't keep up. An old lady

is

not

a bullet train. You have

to

make stops here and there.

Page

20

The Analytical Engine May

1996

MW:

Now,

sometimes I would say "You need this

for

your

own

good,"

or

"I

think

you

need detail

of

this

or

that." But there are all kinds

of

customers. I

had some who were

only

interested in the

bottom

line, just

how

much profit was made, that's all

they

cared for.

They

couldn't care less

how

you

got it.

Then

I had customers

who

would look into it

but

were

not

very interested, and

then

I had some

who

wanted to

know

everything about the general

ledger -

how

to read it,

how

to

find things

that

they wanted to look up.

So

there are all kinds

of

people.

I charged

them

according

to

a system figured

on

the base

work

that I needed. Like the one account I

showed

you

had a lot

of

entries, so

my

base charge

would

be

high.

For

those

who

had only

100

or

150

entries,

my

base charge would be low. In addition I

charged a dollar per thousand

on

gross income, so

if they started

as

a small company and kept going

up,

my

fee

automatically would go

up

[with their

gross]. I also charged

$5

per

person

on

the payroll

every month, and

when

it was time for the

quarterly reports, I didn't have

to

charge extra -

that was prepaid already.

If

the

company grew,

my

fee

automatically went up, and if

they

had

no

income at all, I still had the base.

HLC:

That's a good way

to

charge.

MW: It worked beautifully, and I never had

to

ask

for an increase.

KC: This was a complete custom system.

Who

would sacrifice the hardware platform that it ran

on?

MW:

I'm

sure

that

[computer] system

is

a lot more

capable than what I used

it

for.

If

I needed more

information [in the ledgers]

then

I could have

put

in

more [in the program]

but

I

didn't

need it. I

only

put

in

what I needed.

KC: When I say

the

capabilities

of

the system,

I'm

not

talking about the hardware specifically,

I'm

talking about the capabilities

of

the accounting

software.

MW:

Oh,

okay. I

thought

the

computer will do

anything

you

just tell it

to

do. I

don't

think

there

is

any machine that

won't

do

what

you

want.

If

you

know

what

you

want,

you

can

put

it

in

there.

Quick Take:

RAMAC 40th ANNIVERSARY!

That's right .... the fortieth birthday

of

RAMAC,

sometimes

known

as

the IBM 305, the world's first

hard disk.

The

fact deserves some thought -since

in

that

time a

CPU

has

turned

from rack

on

rack

of

firebottles,

to

TTL,

to

a single IC; memory

shrank from ferrite core arrays

to

daughterboards

crammed with RAM chips;

II

0 was a Teletype

then

and a color flatscreen now. Yet we're only

beginning

to

think

about

what

might replace the

hard disk, a device

as

spectacular

now

as

it was in

1956. Three cheers for Rey

Johnson

and the fine

engineers

of

IBM San Jose -and

many

happy

returns.

(If

you

don't

know

the stunning story of RAMAC,

you

might want

to

order

ENGINE

1.4 and 2.2,

which are still available from

our

back issues

department at US$6 each. Overseas customers

please add US$3 postage.)

Quick Take:

GETTING FRAMED

IN

3D

Did

you

happen

to

notice

the

nicely framed and

glassed Apple

One

that sold for $22,000 at the

1996

Computer

Bowl? Would

you

like

to

frame

your

own

favorite singleboard -

or

the

circuit that

made

your

reputation? Problem

is

that an ordinary

downtown framing shop, even a competent one,

will sometimes back off

when

queried about a box

frame. But the ever-vigilant

CHAC

has found a

framer

who

won't

flinch. Contact:

F rame-o-Rama

210 Hamilton Avenue

Palo Alto

CA

94301 USA

+ 1415-321-3939

and ask

to

speak

to

Victoria Miller ....

who

says she

truly

enjoys framing an occasional computer.

The

end result

is

gorgeous, too.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine Page 21

THE

MAC

AND

ME:

15 Years

of

Life

with

the

Macintosh

(Part

2)

by

J

ef

Raskin

ANTI-MICRO ATTITUDES

The computer industry in the middle 70's tended

to ignore

or

minimize the microcomputers

that

I

saw

as

the future

of

computing. (The

term

"personal computer" was

to

come later.) None-

theless, I was invited

to

chair

the

National Com-

puter Conference session

on

documentation

in

1979

-

but

this was mostly

on

the

basis

of

my

presence

in

the large-computer world.

At

first, those

who

asked

to

exhibit micro-

computers were

turned

down. By

1978

they

were

given a

room

in

the

basement. A few

of

my

friends

at the large computer companies asked

me

why

I

was throwing away

my

career

by

working for a

microcomputer company.

At

one of the National

Computer

Conferences I

was

on

a panel where I was expected

to

uphold the

proposition

that

microcomputers were useful.

Many mainframers

thought

and said

that

micros

were -and would remain -toys. We each gave

our

little talks,

but

I

didn't

score until

the

discussion

seSSIOn.

To

show

the

superiority

of

large computers, one

of

the speakers challenged me

to

some "benchmarks."

The exchange

went

something like this:

"Anything

your

little Apple can do,

my

mainframe

can do, and do it better," he boasted.

"For

one

thing, microcomputers

don't

have the speed

of

a

mainframe!"

"OK," I replied, "name

your

speed benchmark."

"Invert a

100

by

100

matrix!

It

will take me about

40

seconds."

"You win," I conceded. "It would take

my

machine

hours

to

do it."

The audience gave a bit

of

applause for

the

main-

frame.

Then

it was

my

turn; "We

both

have

to

run

across

the hall.

The

person getting

to

the

other

side first,

carrying his computer, wins."

There was laughter

as

people pictured

him

trying

to

pick up and

run

with his mainframe, larger and

heavier

than

a refrigerator, and

then

there was a

solid

round

of

applause

as

I raised

my

Apple II

with one hand.

"For

my

next benchmark, let's discuss power," he

said. "Have each

of

our

machines create an index

to

a thousand page book."

I had

to

concede.

My

computer

couldn't

even hold

that

much

text. This admission got a few guffaws

from the audience.

Then

I proposed

my

second benchmark: "You take

$100

out

of

your

salary every

month

and I'll take

$100

out

of

mine.

The

person

who

can pay for his

computer first wins."

There was a lot

of

laughter and applause. "But,"

argued

my

opponent, "that's

not

computer

power!"

"A computer," I answered, "has

no

power

at all if

you

can't afford it."

From

the audience reaction,

it

was clear I had

won

the debate.

MACINTOSH

PROJECT

PRELIMINARIES

Early in 1979, probably in March, I talked with

[Mike] Markkula about

my

idea for a new com-

puter.

He

had had an idea for a $500 game

machine, which he called" Annie."

I

thought

that

a game machine, although a good

idea, was

not

something

that

1'd feel comfortable

doing.

So

I counter-proposed a general-purpose,

low-cost computer based

on

my

own

ideas -and

dreams -for an interface. Markkula agreed

to

it.

I picked "Macintosh"

as

the

name for

my

project,

since Macs were

my

favorite apples. I changed the

spelling because I wanted

to

avoid conflict with the

name

of

an electronics manufacturer -an attempt

that

proved

to

be

in

vain.

Most

of

all, I

didn't

want

to

call

the

project

"Annie," since I felt

that

the

trend

in

the

company

to

give

new

products feminine names was sexist -

and if

you

had spoken

to

the namers

you

would

agree.

Markkula's "Annie" project would, besides games,

have allowed the user

to

program

in

BASIC. But it

was

not

intended for business, and I

thought

any

new product should be able

to

handle a much

wider range

of

applications.

Page

22 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

I also said

that

using a

TV

set

or

a third-party

monitor

was playing Russian roulette

with

one

of

the

most

important

selling points

of

a system -

how

the

screen looked.

With

these wants

and

limitations

in

mind, Mark-

kula sent me off

to

do design

and

cost studies.

Working

with

my

friends at Apple, notably Brian

Howard,

I came back

with

an absolute

minimum

selling price

of

$1,000, far

from

Markkula's goal.

The

machine I designed was based

on

the

6809 chip

and

had

a 256

by

256 bit-mapped screen. I came up

with

a proportionally-spaced character set

that

would display

25

lines

with

an average

of

over 80

characters

per

line

on

the

little display. (To

put

this

into perspective,

the

Apple II displayed

only

40

upper-case characters

per

line.

The

idea

of

propor-

tional fonts

on

a display was

then

unknown

at

Apple,

though

commonplace at

PARe.)

My

choice

of

the

6809 was dictated

by

the

tight

price constraint imposed initially

by

Markkula.

The

better 68000,

when

it

first became available a

little later, was $400 -if we

bought

it

in

quantity.

That

would have made

the

product

have an intro-

ductory

price of about $3000.

My

original concept was biased

toward

the

inex-

pensive and memory-efficient. I

noted

that

a 256

by

256 display could be addressed

in

exactly

two

bytes, making fast software easier

to

write -speed

is

of

the

essence

in

a good interface.

To

convey one

of

the

Macintosh design features

to

others

in

the

company, I built an Apple II

with

a

monitor

incorporated

into

the

lid. I used

it

at lec-

tures and demos and

it

had

great appeal wherever I

demonstrated it.

(To this day I

don't

know

why

Markkula

-

to

whom

I pitched

the

idea

the

strongest -Jobs, and

all

the

other

people

in

management

didn't

use

my

idea

in

the

II.

The

Apple II

had

a pop-off lid,

and

we could have sold a replacement lid

with

an

angled

CRT

built in.)

My

very

happy

experience

with

this prototype settled it:

the

first Mac

would

have a built-in display.

FRICTION

WITH JOBS

While

the

company was

thinking

about

manufac-

turing

tens

of

thousands

of

computers a year

(another unheard-of idea), I

wrote

an

internal

document called

"Computers

by

the

Millions."

In

it

I looked at questions

of

design, manufacturing,

marketing, and general social

and

economic impact

of

computers

in

those quantities. Management

found

the

paper valuable,

and

would

not

allow me

to

publish

it

for three years,

to

avoid letting

the

competition

know

what

we were thinking.

It

was

still years ahead

of

its

time

in

1982,

when

I

published

it

il).

the

ACM's

SIGPC

Bulletin

0101.

5

No.2).

Jobs, unaccountably, did

not

at all agree

with

my

views of

the

future,

nor

with

my

distributing

them

internally at Apple, even

though

I was doing so at

Markkula's request. By proposing

new

strategic

ideas and products independently

of

Jobs, I began

to

get

on

his "wrong" side.

By

this time Jobs

had

begun

to

have people

who

were "in" and those

who

were "out;" if

you

were "in," everything

you

did was golden, if

you

were

"out"

everything

you

did was rotten. By

the

time

Jobs

had

started

had

become a major

trait

of

his, according

to

Randall Stross's

book,

"Steve Jobs &

the

My

take

on

this book, and its view

of

Jobs, appeared

in

1994

as

"Hubris

of

a heavy-

weight" (IEEE Spectrum,

July

1994, pp. 8-9).

But

as

I began

work

on

the

Mac, I

didn't

recognize

the

Jobs

phenomenon.

Thinking

I was still "in," I

kept

on

trying

to

get Jobs

to

go

see

what

PARC

was doing; since I was actually "out," he resisted

the

idea strongly.

I ,

of

course, remained oblivious

to

what

was going

on. I

thought

that

he

would

turn

around

as

soon

as

he saw the quality

of

what

I was doing. Besides, we

had

been friends,

and

our

disagreements were

purely technical.

PASCAL

Early

in

1979, I tried very

hard

to

convince

the

company

that

we

should

move away from using

BASIC

and

assembler

as

our

main

languages for

applications and system software.

After

presenting

the

case for

and

against a

number

of

major com-

puter

languages,

from

FORTRAN

to

APL, I

argued

that

we should base

our

work

on

Pascal. I

hired a clever

and

inventive ex-student

of

mine,

Bill Atkinson,

who

implemented a Pascal devel-

oped

under

Ken Bowles at

UCSD.

They

had

it

running

on

the

6502 processor,

the

same processor

used

in

the

Apple II, and

Atkinson

suggested port-

ing

it

to

our

product.

May 1996

The

Analytical Engine Page

23

In

the

process, Bill

had

to

write

graphics

routines,

an

experience

that

proved

extraordinarily

valuable

for

Apple.

Many

in

the

company

had

rejected

PASCAL

as

impossible

to

put

on

an

Apple

II,

con-

tradicting

several

technical

memos

I

had

written

showing

how

it

could

be

done.

As

Atkinson

later

said,

"We

had

a

bunch

of

self-

trained

amateurs

who

didn't

really

understand

modern

software

development.

The

system

soft-

ware

team

actively

resented

a

new

language.

Once

we

had

it

up

enough

to

demonstrate

the

word

processor,

and

Markkula

saw

that,

it

was

clear

sailing."

I

supported

Bill's

implementation,

and

then

wrote

a

PASCAL

manual

with

Brian

Howard.

Pascal,

as

I

had

predicted,

allowed

us

to

hire

more

professional

programmers,

and

later

became

the

main

develop-

ment

language

for

"Lisa"

and

the

Mac.

At

the

time,

I

personally

paid

a license fee

to

UCSD

so

that

Apple

could

use

their

Pascal system.

Apple

never

reimbursed

me,

since

Jobs

insisted

that

Apple

didn't

need

and

would

never

use Pascal.

Almost

all

Mac

and

Lisa

software

was

written

in

Pascal

derived

from

UCSD.

I

remain

amused

by

the

thought

that

in

some

vague sense,

it

was

all

owned

by

me.

THE

MAC BECOMES OFFICIAL

By

September

1979,

Mike

Markkula

had

-

over

Steve

Jobs's

objections

-

approved

the

Macintosh

project.

But

by

going

around

Jobs

I

had

unknow-

ingly

set

up

a

dynamic

that

made

the

project

far

more

difficult

politically

than

I

could

have

antici-

pated.

From

the

first,

Jobs

opposed

it,

calling

the

Macin-

tosh

the

"dumbest

idea"

he'd

ever

heard

of.

He

would

often

recite a list

of

imagined

advantages

that

the

Lisa

project

had

over

the

Mac

and

put

ob-

stacles

in

the

way

of

my

obtaining

staff

or

supplies.

His

interference

eventually

became

so

overt

that

Mike

Scott

had

me

move

the

entire

Mac

project

to

some

buildings

behind

a

Texaco

gas

station

across

De

Anza

Boulevard,

so

that

we

would

be

able

to

develop

the

Mac

in

peace. Since

we

were

on

the

second

floor,

we

called

it

"Texaco

Towers."

Later,

when

Jobs

took

over

the

project,

he

put

up

a

pirate

flag

and

claimed

that

he

moved

the

Mac

out

of

Apple

headquarters

so

that

it

would

remain

pure

and

uninfluenced

by

the

stodgy

company

engi-

neers.

Tome,

the

pirate

flag really

indicated

a

pirate

within:

as I see

it,

Jobs

took

over

the

project

by

fiat

and

lies,

and

was

nearly

successful

in

steal-

ing

the

credit

for

having

originated

it

as welL

From

the

beginning,

to

keep

the

project

on

track,

and

so

that

we

would

not

lose

good

ideas

(and

the

reasons

for

abandoning

others)

in

the

press

of

de-

velopment,

I

created

a

document

numbering

system

and

put

the

collected

documents

in

the

"Book

of

Macintosh,"

which

grew

to

some

400

pages. I

wrote

most

of

the

book,

since I

liked

to

write

-

and

was

the

fastest

typist

in

the

group

-

but

the

ideas

were

generated

by

everybody,

and

every-

body

got

credit

in

the

text.

Here's

one

example

of

the

standardized

heading

format:

MACINTOSH

PROJECT

DOCUMENT

18

VERSION

0

DATE:

20

OCTOBER

1979

TITLE:

DELIMITING

STRINGS.

AUTHOR:

JEF

RASKIN.

I

asked

all

the

participants

to

explain

the

reasons

for

their

conclusions,

their

right

turns

and

wrong

turns,

as

we

went

along. I

wrote

most

of

the

documents

late

at

night

at

home;

we

were

too

busy

during

the

day

to

get

around

to

it.

I believe

Jobs's

opposition

was

partly

due

to

his

not

understanding

what

I

was

trying

to

accom-

plish,

though

at

the

time

I

incorrectly

thought

of

him

as

the

supportive

friend

he

had

been

for

so

long.

For

example,

when

I

insisted

on

bit-mapping

and

square

dots,

he

would

retort

that

W

oz

had

put

a

character

generator

in

the

Apple

II

and

it

didn't

have

square

dots

and

its sales

were

paying

my

salary.

THE

FAMOUS

ANACHRONISM

It

has

been

often

said

in

the

computer

and

general

press

that

the

Mac

was

a

straightforward

copy

of

the

work

done

at

P

ARC.

It

was

not,

and

the

idea

does a disservice

to

the

hundreds

of

people

at

Apple

who

developed

the

hardware,

software,

marketing,

and

interface

concepts.

This

erroneous

belief

turns

what

was

a significant

intellectual

debt

into

the

appearance

of

moral

bankruptcy.

I

can't

blame

people

for

making

the

mental

leap

from

hearing

that

the

Mac

resembled

-

and

was

partially

inspired

by

-

the

interfaces

at

P

ARC

to

guessing

that

it

was largely

"stolen."

But

at

the

same

time

I

cannot

forgive

those

who

write

on

the

subject

(and

Page

24

The Analytical Engine

May

1996

make the same claim) for

not

doing their home-

work. Most of

them

never saw

or

used an Alto, a

Dorado,

or

a Star -

the

systems developed at

P ARC. They simply assume

that

the

earlier

systems were much

the

same

as

today's Macs and

Windows machines.

Then

there

is

that

apocryphal story about Steve

Jobs visiting PARC, having an "Aha!" experience

and coming back

to

Apple

in

full cry

to

create the

Macintosh project.

Well, he did go,

he

did see, and he did come back

enthused, but the Macintosh project was well

under way at that time, having been officially

started months earlier.

The

trip was set up

to

convince

him

of

the

value

of

the Macintosh

project.

I'm

not

sure

how

the

story got reversed,

but I later learned

that

Apple's

PR

department re-

peatedly told the

false

tale

to

anybody who asked.

Nearly a decade after the introduction

of

the Mac-

intosh, Xerox

took

Apple

to

court over

the

issue. I

was briefly invited

to

be an expert witness,

not

by

Apple -

as

I might have expected -

but

by

Xerox.

The Xerox attorneys soon learned

that

the main

thing I could. testify

to

was

the

originality

of

the

work

done

on

the

Macintosh. (The Lisa group did

do what I consider some shameless copying

of

the

Xerox Star, down

to

the names for some individual

fonts, but

that

is a different story arising from

the

fact that a lot

of

key people

on

the

Lisa project had

been hired from Xerox, something

that

was

not

true of people

in

the

Mac group.)

The

case did give me a chance

to

use a Star and an

original Lisa, each for

the

first time, an experience

that taught me

how

much further

the

Mac was

from its predecessors

than

I had remembered.

INTERFACE

INNOVATION

One

of

the substantive differences

in

the

"look and

feel"

of

the Mac interface was

the

one-button

mouse.

The

one-button paradigm has become so

pervasive

that

many applications for IBM-compati-

bles ignore

the

second

button

that

clutters most

IBM-compatible mice;

the

third

button

that

was

part

of

the Engelbart and P

ARC

mice has also dis-

appeared almost completely from popular use.

My

own

difficulties with

the

three-button mouse -and

watching other people have trouble learning

it

-led

me

to

rethink

the

design.

With one button, I reasoned, you could

not

get

confused about which

to

use.

It

took

a while,

but

I

was able

to

find methods

that

in

every case re-

quired the same

or

fewer operations

than

those

required

by

the

PARC

system; it was faster, easier

to

learn and use, and

it

was far

less

"modal."

Of

the methods I invented,

the

most fundamental

was the idea

of

pressing and holding a

button

while

dragging, and using

the

release of

the

button

to

in-

dicate that

the

operation was complete. This dif-

fered from the method -used at

PARC

and dating

back

to

the

work

of

[Ivan] Sutherland -of click,

drag, and click again.

When

Larry Tesler came from

PARC

to

join

Apple he was naturally resistant

to

the

one-button

mouse. Larry was comfortable with the three-

button implementation and had long touted its

ad-

vantages over non-mouse systems. It

took

consid-

erable effort

to

convince him,

point

by

point,

that

my

solution was

not

only

workable (which he and

others doubted at first)

but

in

fact superior.

In

any

case,

the

interface we developed was a dis-

tinct and new creation,

though

it shared many

elements with and owed a very real debt

to

what

had been done at PARCo A major part

of

that

debt,

of

course,

is

that

I was able

to

use PARC's

work

as

a living demonstration

of

a highly evolved

graphical interface.

The

one-button mouse was

not

the only major dif-

ference between the Mac and

the

systems at

PARCo Another interface improvement that made

the

Mac feel so much easier

to

use was the way a

user selected something

or

engaged a menu.

At

PARC, menus were relatively static lists of limited

length

that

the user could summon and dismiss.

Bill Atkinson -later

to

become 'an Apple Fellow

-proposed

that

we instead extend

my

method

of

selection and drawing so

that

just

the

title

of

a

menu would be shown,

but

when

you

pointed

to

it, clicked and held

down

the

mouse button, the

menu would appear!

Then

you

would release the

mouse

button

when

the

cursor was pointing at

the

desired item. This made menus appear when

you

needed

them

and disappear without apparent

effort. Furthermore,

as

we

both

pointed out,

having the menus at an edge

of

the

screen and

having

the

cursor position confined at the edge

meant that

you

had

to

point

accurately

in

only one

dimension, which made

the

menus easier

to

use.

The design

of

Microsoft's Windows and similar

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

25

interfaces does

not

have this useful

"pin

to

the

edge" idea.

Atkinson

was led,

by

analogy

with

my

point

and

drag methods,

to

pulldown

menus

that

you

can

drag across

to

your

desired item.

Probably

because

it

worked

much

as

typewriter

SHIFT

keys do

and

as

a pencil does -

you

put

it

down

at

the

beginning

of

a line

and

lift

it

up

at

the

end

-

my

method

of

using a mouse has prevailed.

I extended this idea

to

drawing lines

and

to

creating

rectangles

and

other

shapes

by

pointing

and

sweep-

ing across

the

diagonal.

My

"hold

and

sweep" con-

cept was

then

applied

to

making

graphical selec-

tions.

We

created a rectangle

that

surrounds

or

touches

the

items

to

be selected while

the

button

was held.

The

methods

I devised are

now

so uni-

versal

that

some people

who

worked

on

the

earlier

systems have forgotten

how

they

worked.

They

tend

to

"remember"

them

working

as

the

Mac does

now.

What

I

remember

is

the

effort

it

took

to

convince

my

fellow engineers

that

what

I was pro-

posing was better.

I suggested

that

Apple

patent

the

one-button

mouse

and

the

new

way

of

using such a

pointing

device,

but

Jobs nixed

the

idea

in

favor

of

patent-

ing

Atkinson's

pull-down menus. Apple missed

this

opportunity

simply because

Jobs

didn't

want

my

name

to

appear

on

any

Apple patents (though I

have

about

a

dozen

of

my

own). I was still

"out."

A

more

subtle difference between

the

Mac

and

the

work

at P

ARC

is

this:

in

the

Mac

you

point

to

something

and

then

tell

the

system

what

to

do

with

it.

It

is

the

"noun-verb" paradigm

that

is

now

nearly universally recognized

as

desirable

by

inter-

face designers. As Bill

Buxton

of

P

ARC

has re-

minded

me,

the

Xerox

products used a

more

com-

plex noun-verb-noun

method

involving a

bunch

of

function keys Qike

the

current

IBM compatibles).

To

quote Buxton,

"Both

the

concept

and

the

op-

eration were quite different ...

it

is remarkable

how

few people

who

teach

and

talk

about

GUIs

even

seem

to

understand

the

differences

to

even this

degree

of

subtlety."

Buxton

and

his colleagues also

published research

in

the

1990s (on

what

they

term

"kinesthetic feedback")

that

showed

why

my

click-

and-drag paradigm

worked

so well.

Another

fundamental

part

of

the

Mac

from

the

very beginning was

the

insistence

that

unifying

software

would

be

built

in.

Knowing

the

time

con-

straints

of

the

real

world

and

the

inherent

laziness

of

all humans, I suspected

that

if

we

built

in

an

in-

terface,

programmers

writing

applications

would

use it, grudgingly,

for

their

first

mock-up

as

it

was

much

faster

and

easier

than

writing

the

interface

themselves -standard practice

in

all products

prior

to

the

Mac.

I

knew

that

writing

a rule

book

would

only

an-

tagonize

the

independent

spirit

of

software devel-

opers,

who

are

inherently

entrepreneurial.

They

had

to

be

tricked

into

using

the

Mac interface. I

could

depend

on

their

time

constraints,

and

the

likelihood

that

our

interface

would

be far superior

to

what

they

planned,

to

insure

that

the

details en-

forced

in

the

software

prototype

would

appear

in

the

final

product.

It

worked.

When

the

Macintosh

was released, users

found

that

learning

new

applications

on

a Mac re-

quired far less effort

than

the

same

task

on

any

competing

system.

This

gave

third-party

software

developers added incentive

to

do

things

in

the

Mac-

intosh

manner,

and

Mac users have reaped

the

benefits.

The

success

of

the

Mac led

other

companies

to

copy

its interface,

and

one

can

now

move

without

too

much

difficulty

from

the

Mac

to

Windows,

to

Geoworks,

to

most

workstations,

and

even

to

some mainframe front-ends

without

retraining

and

with

barely a glance at a

manual

or

help screens.

My

unifying software originally was

to

be a graph-

ics-and-text

editor

within

which

applications

could

run

as

additional

commands

(via menus), all

input

and

output

being

through

the

interface designed

for

the

editor. Later,

the

PARC

desktop

metaphor

was

adopted

from

the

Lisa group,

who

had

adapted

it

from

the

Xerox

Alto

and

Star

computers.

The

incredible

work

of

the

Mac

software

team

designed

and

squeezed

the

necessary code

into

a

"Toolbox"

within

a relatively small

ROM

(Read

Only

Mem-

ory)

that

we

could

afford

to

put

into

the

product.

The

interface concepts I

wanted

to

implement

re-

quired

fundamental hardware changes.

One

exam-

ple was

the

way

the

electronics

of

keyboards

were

designed,

not

in

keyboard

layout

-

which

obvi-

ously affects

the

interface -

but

in

the

way

the

key-

board

works

at

the

chip level. Before

the

Mac,

and

excepting P

ARC

which

was

at

that

time

not

a

commercial manufacturer,

the

makers

of

commer-

cial keyboards

built

each

key

to

put

out

a signal

Page

26 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

when pressed. By the middle 1970's a special

"encoder" chip

took

a signal from a key and pro-

duced the code for

the

symbol

that

key repre-

sented. There were usually a few exceptions: the

SHIFT key could be pressed and held and while

other actions

took

place;

the

same was often true

of

other state-shifters such

as

the "control" key.

But these exceptions were built

into

the encoder

chip; what I wanted was a keyboard whose

keystates -whether any keys were up

or

down -

would be "known"

by

the

computer. By analogy

with pianos and organs, which can use any combi-

nation

of

keys simultaneously

to

play what musi-

cians call a

chord,

this was

known

as

a chord key-

board. I had long believed

that

this was an essential

step toward improved interfaces and when I first

went

to

P

ARC

I was delighted

to

learn that

they

had come to the same conclusion.

Burrell Smith,

our

hardware designer, participated

avidly in these discussions, and often suggested

ways

in

which hardware changes could help the

interface, sometimes also proposing changes

in

software design

that

could simplify hardware re-

quirements. In each case the interface requirements

took

precedence,

but

this was probably the first

time a commercially successful computer was

de-

signed with hardware and software subservient

to

the issue

of

usability.

The Mac succeeded because

the

initial impetus for

its creation came from a humanitarian impulse,

rather than a hardware dream

or

a marketing

study.

SELLING

JOBS

ON

THE

IDEAS

A popular description

of

Jobs

is

that

he has a

"reality distortion field." This phrase accurately

described Jobs's ability

to

convince people

that

whatever he was saying at

the

time was inevitable.

1'd seen

him

charm otherwise reasonable people

into believing absolute nonsense.

Some

of

this

is

helpful

when

doing something new

in the world,

but

-

as

I see it -Jobs lived at the

center

of

this field and actually believed and acted

not

only

on

vision,

but

on

the

basis

of

his

own

falsehoods, sometimes

with

unpleasant conse-

quences.

It

seems

to

me

that

Steve Jobs was also mesmerized

by

the power

of

part

of

his

key

insight

that

had

helped make the Apple II a success: 'make it

look

attractive' became a guiding principle.

He

contin:

ued

to

confuse appearances and quality ever after;

years later at

NeXT,

his first major expenditure

was

to

hire decorators for

the

new

office complex.

This passion for appearances would have been an

asset,

or

at worst immaterial,

in

someone who also

understood the products;

but

Jobs often did not.

THE

PASCAL

POSTER

In

1979

he botched the design

of

a poster

that

summarized the structure

of

the Pascal program-

ming language. Programmers found sets

of

dia-

grams created

by

the originator

of

the language,

Niklaus Wirth, a handy reference. In writing the

Pascal manual I had discovered several errors

in

Wirth's diagrams and also disclosed some simplifi-

cations. Diagrams in the manual reflected these

corrections and improvements. I thought that it

would be good advertising,

as

well

as

a real benefit

to

programmers,

to

put

the entire set into a decora-

tive poster.

Color

would serve

as

a key

to

link

items

of

the same syntactic type, making relation-

ships among language elements clearer.

Jobs thought it was a great idea, and promptly

hired a prominent graphic artist, Kamifuji, to pro-

duce the poster. Jobs asked me for a copy

of

my

diagrams so

that

the artist could estimate the

project, telling me

that

once we had a quote I

would

work

with the artist. But the next thing I

knew, Jobs proudly came

into

my

office with the

finished work. Thousands had been printed.

The

poster was very good looking, with bold

colors

on

a jet-black background. But some

of

the

diagrams were

no

longer correct and the colors had

been chosen purely for esthetic effect, making the

chart unnecessarily hard

to

use.

!'told

Jobs that it

was very pretty

but

wrong; he didn't care, and

blissfully went

on

to

something else.

The

posters

were sent

to

stores

as

advertising posters,

but

they

couldn't be shipped

with

the

Pascal product

as

planned.

It

was a waste

of

time and money. This

example

is

not

significant

in

the

history

of

Apple

per

se,

but does say a lot about

how

Jobs thought.

MAC

POLITICS

By the end

of

1979

it was clear

to

many

people that

unless Jobs had a better understanding

of

what was

being attempted

on

both

Lisa and the Mac, he

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

27

would continue

to

inadvertently sabotage the

former and be antagonistic

to

the latter.

My

friend Bill Atkinson

knew

a great deal about

what was going

on

with

the

Macintosh even

though Jobs had officially forbidden

him

to

work

with members of

the

project. This meant that Bill

had

to

keep his involvement with the Mac secret,

lest he lose his "in" status, while he worked

on

the

Lisa.

At

the time he was writing his meticulously

crafted QuickDraw graphics system -

then

called

LisaGraph -for Lisa (Apple knowingly used

the

name of the list-structured graphics system I

designed for this central piece of software -without

permission

or

compensation).

With Bill's connivance and

the

help of

Tom

Whitney -who had given me

the

title of

"Manager of Advanced Systems"

to

correspond

with my

work

on

the

Mac -and

by

keeping

my

name out of the picture, we at last managed

to

convince Jobs

to

visit P ARC.

Jobs later said

that

after he went

to

P ARC, he

returned inspired, and launched

the

Lisa and

then

the Macintosh. This story, once promulgated

by

Apple's

PR

department and often repeated

in

books, articles, and even

by

the

generally excellent

PBS

series

on

the history

of

the

computer,

is

inac-

curate,

to

say

the

least. As Atkinson

put

it in a

phone call

to

me, "You were instrumental in

getting Jobs

to

go

to

PARC, and

that

was central

to

getting his support for new interfaces." Jobs

pointedly did

not

invite me

on

this visit, and ex-

cluded me from

the

conversations about

it

when he

got back; it would have been very hard for

him

to

have admitted

that

I had been right about the value

of the

work

done at Xerox.

In

general, I remained oblivious

to

the politics

going

on

at Apple, and concentrated

on

the

design

of the Macintosh. This left almost

no

room

in

my

life for anything else, except practicing

the

piano

and occasionally getting

out

to

fly a model plane. I

bought a house a few blocks from Apple so I could

bicycle in and back

on

a moment's notice.

The

Macintosh project was

my

life.

CONCEPT

AND

COSTING

What was the Mac concept like

in

the

early days?

We researched

many

possibilities.

For

example, we

considered a bit-mapped

LCD

display which had a

resolution of

256

X

26

(yes, twenty-six) and a cost

to

us of about $240.

At

our

usual five-to-one ratio

of

parts cost

to

list price,

that

part alone would

have been $1200 at retail. A 256 X

256

or

larger

display with any technology

other

than

the

cath-

ode ray tube (CRT) was

then

totally

out

of

the

question, since a

CRT

display cost between

$35

and $50.

A drawing done

by

Brian

Howard

in

1980 shows a

one-piece box with a built-in

CRT,

5 1/4" drive,

keyboard, and joystick.

The

joystick is

in

the

same

position occupied

by

the

trackball

in

the later Mac

Portable.

We also worked

on

a strain-gauge stick almost

identical

to

the

current IBM graphic

input

device.

Embedded pointing devices have a long history at

Apple; for example,

in

1978

W

oz

came with

the

idea building a pair of orthogonal

thumb

wheels

(one each for vertical and horizontal motion)

under the Apple II keyboard. This was a response

to

my

request

that

we build a pointing device into

the box that could be operated without removing

the hands from

the

keys. This seemingly obvious

good idea reached fruition years later with

the

PowerBook series and was probably reinvented

independently

by

the

PowerBook group.

Graphic

input

was an essential element

of

the

Mac-

intosh from

the

first. I

thought

that

the

mouse

in

particular was a clumsy way

of

going about

it

-for

one thing,

it

takes

up

too

much desk space, and for

another

you

have

to

find

it

anew each time

you

want

to

use it.

But Jobs was an adamant mouse-ist, (mainly, I

think, because that's

what

PARC

had), and until

third

party vendors supplied trackballs, the mouse

was

the

only graphic

input

device available for the

Mac.

TEAM

BUILDING

AND

THE

TOOLKIT

One

of

my

basic concepts was

of

a softwarenu-

·deus

that

would be built

into

ROM,

and serve

as

a

home

port

to

the

user, tossed about

on

the

high

and varied.

seas

of

application software.

To

write

the

software, I hired Bud Tribble,

who

had similar

thoughts.

He

and

the

two

other

"B' s," Brian

Howard

and Burrell Smith, were

the

first Macin-

tosh team.

The

Mac Toolkit was initially written

by

Tribble,

who

was

in

charge

of

Mac software;

it

was taken

over

by

unstoppably hard-working

UC

computer

Page

28 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

science dropout

Andy

Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson,

Bruce

Horn

(who, at fourteen, had been one

of

the

usability testers

of

Smalltalk at PARC), and others.

Each member of the original "gang

of

four" came

to

the group

through

a different route. Bud Tribble

was a medical student, a programmer and designer

of

genius

who

I had

known

at UCSD; he and Bill

Atkinson had been good friends there. Atkinson

pointed out the talents

of

a

man

working

in

repair,

Burrell Smith, and after interviewing Smith, I hired

him

as

head

of

hardware design. Brian

Howard

had

been a friend

of

mine for years.

There were established hardware designers

that

I

had tried

to

bring over to the Mac (and

who

wanted

to

work

with

me),

but

Jobs had forbidden

them

to

join the project. Still, Smith proved a first-

rate designer

who

was open

to

thinking from a

software and human-interface point

of

view, and

he was a delight

to

work

with.

I brought MIT anthropology student Joanna

Hoffman

on

as

our

marketing person.

Her

major

contribution

to

the

Mac was

to

make sure

that

design decisions

didn't

preclude international sales;

this concern was unusual

in

the

then-parochial mi-

crocomputer industry. Thus the Mac had, from the

first, the accents, special characters, and diacritical

marks needed in languages

other

than

English. We

had come a long way from the philosophy

that

upper-case letters were all

you

needed. a oanna also

introduced me to

my

future wife.)

Steve Clark (another

UCSD

student I brought

to

Apple, and whose Olympic-Ievel-kayaking sister

Candi was later

to

marry

Woz

-

as

I've said, it's a

small valley), and a few others formed

the

nucleus

of

a team easily

the

equal

of

the

much

larger and

better-funded Lisa group. I hired some, such

as

programmers (and musicians) Gareth

Loy

and Bill

Schottstaedt, from SAIL; another,

the

remarkable

poet Bana Witt, had been a music student

of

mine

when I taught at

the

San Francisco

Community

Music Center. She later married Bruce Tognazzini,

another Apple employee

who

worked

with

me

and

was

to

write and lecture extensively about interface

design. (Being a minister, I had the pleasure

of

con-

ducting their nuptials.)

Donald Reed,

the

very image

of

a bookish intellec-

tual

in

appearance and manner,

worked

with

me

closely

on

documentation.

Of

course we enjoyed

the

under-the-table help

of

Atkinson and others

on

the Lisa team

who

believed

in

what I was trying

to

do, and the

warm

support

of

the late

Tom

Whitney,

who

had been hired

to

head engineering

for all

of

Apple.

THE

END

OF

THE

BEGINNING

John

Couch, a good manager and insightful com-

puter scientist who was running the Lisa project,

increasingly found Jobs a nuisance, and eventually

managed

to

get

him

removed from the Lisa project.

Jobs, at loose ends and hearing rave reports about

the Macintosh, decided

to

have a hand in it.

Apple's

top

management helped shunt

him

to

the

Mac project

to

get

him

away from Lisa, which was

seen

as

the company's hope for profitability

in

the

1980's.

Jobs's attempts

to

undermine the Mac project

now

took

the form

of

destroying

my

credibility.

One

of

the more blatant incidents was the

"brown

bag"

lunch at which I was

to

describe

the

Macintosh

project to the company at large. It

is

discussed in a

confidential memo that I wrote to Mike Markkula

to

explain why, though I was seeking someone

to

manage the Macintosh project

so

I could concen-

trate

on

technical issues, I didn't want Jobs

to

be in

charge. The

memo

specified, in detail and

in

my

judgment, Jobs's

many

and egregious failings

as

a

manager.

I had asked that the

memo

be kept secret, and

Markkula agreed, though he said

that

he

didn't

think

he could do anything

to

control Jobs. I be-

lieved this assurance and, thus, felt betrayed a few

days later when Jobs called me in

to

his office to

"discuss" the memo. I dimly recall Markkula saying

something about having had

to

discuss it with Jobs.

But Apple was a very open company, doors were

left unlocked, and people wandered freely

into

one

another's offices.

Any

of

a

number

of

people might

have seen

the

memo and made a copy for Jobs,

or

he may have noticed it himself. Markkula thinks

that something

of

this nature

is

what

must have

happened, and it might well be.

The

memo reflected the running joke

that

the

way

to

get Jobs

to

agree

to

something was

to

tell

him

about it, let

him

reject it, and wait a week;

when

he came running to tell

you

about "his new" idea,

you'd

exclaim, "Great, Steve, we'll do it right

away!" In

the

memo I also made a prediction

that

was

to

prove exact: "Jobs was wrong

on

his Apple

May 1996 The Analytical Engine Page 29

III schedule, wrong

on

the Lisa schedule, wrong

on

the cost and price estimates, and he will be wrong

on

Macintosh.

He

is

a prime example

of

a manager

who takes the credit for his optimistic schedules

and then blames the workers

when

deadlines are

not

met."

The memo also related the incredible

brown

bag

incident: "Jobs

is

often irresponsible and inconsid-

erate.

An

example

is

the

brown

bag seminar I was

scheduled

to

give

on

17

February. In January, he

first cancelled the seminar,

but

then

he agreed that

I was

to

give it.

Two

hours before the talk he called

me to say that he was canceling it again. His reason

was:

I cancelled it because

of

the reorganization

in

PCs.' However, Jobs did

not

tell the seminar's or-

ganizer about the cancellation,

nor

did he place any

notices announcing the cancellation."

"At noon, fortunately, I made a last-minute deci-

sion

to

go

over

to

the seminar site, where I discov-

ered a crowd

of

over

100

employees waiting

to

hear the seminar. I announced the cancellation

myself -and

then

I gave a talk

on

my

current

work

and interests at Apple, instead."

I was careful

not

to

mention Macintosh

or

give

specifics since Jobs had forbidden it,

but

just

explained

the

cognitive aspects

of

the interface and

design principles

my

group and I had developed; it

was -

as

everybody knew - a veiled introduction

to

the Macintosh project.

The talk was received very enthusiastically.

The

morning after the seminar Jobs called me into his

office and told me

that

I had violated his explicit

instructions and was fired. Ignoring what he said,

since he often spoke

without

thinking things

through, I told

him

that

I'd

come back

in

the

af-

ternoon, after

I'd

completed something I was

working on, and

we'd

discuss the matter.

Later I

went

back and,

as

I expected, he had de-

cided

not

to

fire me

but

I was "given" an extended

paid leave from Apple.

The

leave turned

out

to be

a very important time in

my

life.

For

one thing, I

went to a party at marketer Joanna Hoffman's

house where I

met

my

future wife, Linda Blum. I

found a place

to

live

on

ten

acres

of

land high in

the foothills

of

the Santa

Cruz

mountains, offering

a magnificent view

of

Silicon Valley. I rebuilt

the

dilapidated old house

that

stood there, adding a

large music

room

for

my

piano and a small flying

field for

my

model planes.

When I came back from

my

leave I was offered the

position

of

head

of

Apple's research division. I had

been offered this before, had accepted, hired a good

group, and seen

them

whisked away

to

"put

out

fires." In those days Apple didn't

know

what

re-

search meant, and looked at the talented people I

hired

as

resources wasted if

they

weren't

working

on

current products. Besides, there was

the

matter

of personal integrity. Steve Jobs had become im-

possible for

me

to

work

with.

Most people worked around

him

or

sucked up to

him

or

were

in

awe

of

him.

In

fact he was no

genius; he resembled a planet shining

by

reflecting

the light

of

others. Yet he

thought

of

himself

as

the

Sun King.

He

could

not

abide someone

who

was

unimpressed

by

Steve Jobs, yet

by

his actions he

had lost

my

respect, and I am incapable

of

being a

sycophant.

Steve had chutzpah

in

the extreme;

he

said that the

Mac would make "a dent in the universe," without

the least idea

how

big

the

universe

is,

or

how

little

a dent all

our

activities really make.

And

you

can

also explain Jobs

with

another Yiddish word,

mensch.

It

is

high praise

to

say

of

a person

that

he

(or,

in

these enlightened days, she)

is

a mensch

or

"a real mensch." A mensch

is

cultivated

without

losing the

common

touch, upholds high principles

while remaining practical,

is

kind

and

generous

without short-changing himself, and

is

attentive

to

his responsibilities

to

himself, his family, his busi-

ness, his associates, his community, and

the

world.

If

you

understand

the

qualities

that

make a man a

mensch,

then

you

understand a lot about Steve

Jobs. Everything a mensch is, he isn't.

At

this

point

the

only

alternatives left

to

me were

to

leave

or

learn

to

toady

to

Jobs. I resigned from

Apple and gradually watched

my

predictions about

the Mac come true. Jobs

took

until 1984

to

get the

project out. Burrell Smith quipped

that

it

was

in

"constant time

to

completion mode"

and

I was

re-

peatedly

told

that

Jobs did exactly

what

he said I

would do, make endless mindless changes; I have

many faults,

but

lack

of

direction

is

not

one

of

them.

Steve was given

to

imposing absurd requirements

on

the

project's designers. This was especially

ironic since one

of

the

arguments he used,

to

con-

vince management

that

he should be given

the

Mac

project, was

that

I was an "academic dreamer and a

perfectionist"

who

would keep

on

changing his

Page 30 The Analytical Engine May 1996

mind

and never

bring

the

project

to

fruition

on

time.

My

detailed schedule

showed

release

of

the

product

toward

the

end

of

1982. Jobs's verbal plan

was something like six

to

eight

months

shorter.

There

is some evidence

to

back

up

my

perspective:

the

next project

of

comparable scope

that

I

managed

(a

workstation

for

Canon)

was completed

on

budget and

on

schedule.

The

tried

to

manage (the

ter

in

both

these regards.

The

resultant Mac

not

only

took

more

time

to

come

to

market,

but

was a less

coherent

and -

in

some ways -less capable

product

than

what

I

had

been

working

towards.

The

interface was less con-

sistent and harder

to

use,

and

there

was

no

way

to

get at

the

hardware bus.

Other

parts

of

the

Mac

design were improved.

Whether

my

version

(as

it

would

have

matured

as

it

approached production)

would

have been

more

commercially successful

than

the

128K Mac is an unanswerable question.

The

experiment

cannot

be done, and we will never

know.

I feel

it

would

have been a somewhat

better

product

that

would

have penetrated

the

market

faster. I

would

guess

that

Jobs

would

disagree.

DREAM FULFILLED ...

ALMOST

Three

decades ago I dreamed

of

a

computer

with

which

I could compose music

and

print

it

out

in

full musical notation,

write

properly

formatted

text

in

a

panoply

of

fonts, have

the

ability

to

mix

text

and graphics, and

do

drawings

with

precision

and ease.

Today

I do all this

and

more

at

the

tiny

and capa-

ble Macintosh

PowerBook

that

sits at

my

desk.

It

goes wherever I do.

This

much

of

the

dream came

true.

My

reasons for deciding

to

abandon

teaching for

commerce proved correct.

The

Macintosh's profit-

ability

(as

contrasted

to

Xerox's extensive pub-

lished record) convinced companies such

as

Micro-

soft

and

IBM

that

the

interface was

the

controlling

element in most sales.

Now

a vast majority

of

the

computers sold have

an

interface

that

looks

much

like

the

Mac's.

Because

of

the

Macintosh project,

computing

has

been made easier

and

more

pleasant for hundreds

of

millions

of

people years before

it

might have

happened otherwise. I

made

not

a

penny

for

my

work

on

the

Mac,

beyond

my

salary at

the

time;

but

I helped change

the

world

in

accord

with

my

own

personal vision,

and

I have seen

the

effect

of

this

in

my

own

lifetime.

This

would

be fully satis-

fying if I

didn't

know

so well

that

we can do

much

better.

The

desktop

metaphor,

used

by

everybody

from

PARe

though

Apple

and

Microsoft and extended

almost absurdly

by

Apple

spin-off General Magic,

was a clever

way

of

making

the

workings

of

an op-

erating system palatable

and

learnable.

It

is

far

more

fundamentally good

to

eliminate

the

need for

an operating system altogether.

The

current

para-

digm

of

using application programs

is

inherently

wrong

from

the

standpoint

of

interface design.

This is widely recognized,

but

the

solution offered

is

to

make

them

interoperable,

which

solves some

of

the

problems

but

by

no

means all.

GUIs

as

presently designed

and

used are an inter-

face dead end.

They

can be patched endlessly,

but

only

a completely different approach can bring a

large

jump

in

usability.

The

Cat

computer,

which

I

developed for

Canon,

demonstrated

that

my

alter-

nate approach is implementable and

both

more

productive

and

more

pleasant

than

GUIs.

Canon

failed

to

market

the

product

effectively, possibly

because

the

moribund

Electronic

Typewriter

Divi-

sion

had

been selected for

the

task, and it

is

now

a

dead Cat.

The

parts

of

computer

interface design

that

I am

working

on

now

are

not

dependent

on

particular

technologies;

any

advance

in

the

basics

of

interface

design will apply -

however

more

powerful com-

puters become, however

broad

the

information

networks

of

the

future spread, and however

the

technology is melded

into

our

everyday

or

even

everymoment

lives.

A

CRITIQUE

OF

SOME HISTORIES

Many

friends have suggested

that

I

counter

the

numerous incorrect accounts

of

the

history

of

the

Macintosh

with

a

true

one

of

my

own.

It

is

diffi-

cult, for even

though

nobody

was

or

could have

been

more

closely involved

with

the

initial crea-

tion

of

the

Macintosh

than

I, I

cannot

eliminate

the

colors

that

tinge

my

memories.

It

was a very

emotional time, full

of

strong

feelings, massive egos

in

conflict, distinctive personalities, and

many

rights and wrongs.

But

I

cannot

do worse

than

some

of

what

has been published.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

31

There

is

a strange avoidance

of

scholarly seeking

after

truth.

An

egregious example

of

the

anti-aca-

demic attitude occurs

in

a

book

by

Robert

Cringely,

who

writes a delightful

column

that

appears weekly

in

Info

World.

In

his

book

he

has

the Mac and Lisa projects being created

by

Steve

Jobs after Jobs made a visit

to

PARC

in

1980 and

came back inspired.

I wrote

to

Cringely

and

pointed

out

that

his

account -like those

of

several

other

authors -was

wrong; Jobs

had

indeed made

the

visit

in

1980

(some say

in

December

of

1979,)

but

the

Mac

project was proposed

in

the

spring and officially

started

in

September

of

1979.

In

other

words,

the

project was well

underway

before

the

supposedly

pivotal event

took

place.

Cringely was unabashed.

He

wrote back: "As for

all the business

of

what

project started when,

whether Lisa started before

or

after Steve visited

P

ARC,

whether

the

Mac

had

already begun

or

not,

well I

don't

think

that

it

really matters very much.

My attempt was

to

EXPLAIN

(I

say

that

at the

front

of

the book),

not

to

be a historian."

How

one can hope

to

explain

what

happened,

without

even knowing

what

happened, eludes me.

A

PBS

special

on

the

history

of

computers made

the same mistake

of

attributing

the

genesis

of

the

Mac

to

jobs's

visit

to

PARCo

When

I wrote

to

Jon

Palfreman, its

producer

at

WGBH,

he replied,

"The

part

of

the

program

you

are referring

to

comes at

the

end

of

a lengthy segment about

the

highly innovative

work

done at Xerox

PARe.

This section was based

on

extensive interviews

with

Alan Kay, Bob

Taylor

and Larry Tesler.

The

purpose was

to

show

that

the

key concepts

of

in-

terface design

which

today

are a feature

of

most

PC's

(if

you

count

Windows) were first discussed

at Xerox

PARe.

When

those ideas were embodied

in an affordable machine -

the

Macintosh -

they

began

to

change

the

world

of

personal computing.

I was aware

of

your

key

role

in

the

Macintosh

project, and indeed

of

the

contribution

of

people

who

developed Lisa.

My

aim

in

this particular

program wasn't

to

detail

the

history

of

Apple,

but

to

show

how

the

key

interface ideas found

their

way into consumer PCs. "

Again the false scenario seems so plausible

and

story-like

that

the

person

in

charge does

not

care

to

"detail

the

history." But

it

is

in

that

history,

and

not

only

the

history

ofPARC,

that

"the interface

ideas found

their

way

into

consumer PCs."

The

people he interviewed were at

PARC;

their

associa-

tion

with

Apple began

only

after

the

Mac was well

under

way.

Thus

they

could

only

tell

him

about

the

development

of

the

ideas at P

ARC

and,

in

the

case

of

Larry Tesler,

about

the

work

on

Lisa

only

after 1980 -

that

is

after Apple was committed

to

the

basic direction I wanted

the

company

to

take.

Larry was quite resistant

to

some

of

the

non-

PARC

ideas

that

we

had

developed independently.

He

did

not

at first understand

many

of

the

im-

provements over Xerox's

work

-such

as

the

one-

button

mouse -

that

I created.

He

did

not

work

on

the

early Macintosh project at all

but

on

Lisa,

which was modeled closely

on

the

Xerox Star,

even

to

the

point

of

having

the

same Xerox-created

names for

the

fonts.

The

Macintosh proceeded for

years

much

more

independently

and

(significantly

for

the

reports

that

used

them

as

sources)

out

of

the

view

of

the

people interviewed!

The

years

of

thinking

and

experimentation

on

the

early Macintosh project have gone unreported,

even

though

the

early

work

led

to

the

break-

throughs

that

made

the

Macintosh

and

everything

after so

much

of

an

improvement

over

what went

before. Against this reality we have

the

powerful

mythological image

of

Jobs going

to

P

ARC,

having an "Aha!" experience

and

coming back at

full

cry

to

Apple

to

create a fantastic project.

The

fabricated Jobs

story

is

familiar -

it

parallels

that

of

Archimedes jumping

naked

out

of

his

bath

crying "Eureka!,"

and

a

dozen

other

stories.

That

there was a little-known

computer

scientist

who

had

been

working

on

the

concept for over a decade

-

who

created

the

project,

and

then

maneuvered

Jobs

to

go

to

PARC,

so

that

Jobs

would

begin

to

understand (and

thus

support)

what

was already

going

on

at Apple -is a

very

different, more com-

plex, and unlikely-sounding story.

Also,

the

appealing

and

basically

true

legend

of

two

college drop-outs

who

created

the

profitable

and

excellent Apple II blends

in

easily

with

the

fiction

that

one

of

the

dropouts

went

on

to

create

the

even

more

revolutionary Macintosh.

It

is

a less

striking tale

that

a

former

college professor

and

computer

center director

with

a degree

in

com-

puter

science instigate such a

thing

-

but

although

it

may

not

be

as

good a story,

it

is

what

happened.

Page

32 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

Cringelyand Palfreman were

not

being under-

handed, only a bit careless and

---

in Cringely's

case

-cavalier.

In

some

other

cases, authors drew the

wrong conclusion

by

lacking accurate information.

Jeffrey Young, in his

book

"Steve Jobs," writes

of

the first time that Jobs (along with Atkinson and

others) saw the

work

at P ARC.

"Atkinson and the others were asking Tesler ques-

tions, one after the other." "What impressed me

was

that their questions were better than any I had

heard in the seven years I had been at Xerox ...

Their questions showed

that

they understood the

implications and the subtleties ... " But Young did

not

ask

why

their level

of

instantaneous under-

standing was

so

impressive. The reason was that I

had been explaining all this stuff

to

Atkinson and

Jobs for years; Atkinson

(a

student of mine who

had worked with me extensively prior

to

this

meeting) had grasped it very well. Tesler didn't

know about this background, wasn't told, and so

was

bowled over.

Atkinson couldn't very well say that Raskin had

briefed him and some others, because I was out

of

favor with Jobs at the time, and anything I pro-

posed was automatically rejected.

Only

after much

planning and sleight

of

hand, during which it ap-

peared that Atkinson supported the

PARC

trip

and I opposed it, did Jobs agree

to

go.

There

is

also the halo effect. During the years that

Steve Jobs was

on

top

at Apple -and before

credited with inventing the Macintosh. Later,

when his star was declining -

as

his company,

NeXT, beat one strategic retreat after another, and

as

General Magic, co-founded

by

Bill Atkinson,

. Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat, was about

to

announce its first product -the December

27,

1993

issue

of

Info World included a story hailing

Bill Atkinson and

Andy

Hertzfeld

as

the creators

of the original Macintosh.

Their contributions were essential

to

the product

and represent some brilliant work,

but

neither

of

them has ever claimed that they created the Macin-

tosh. Again we find the heroes

of

today falsely

credited with the achievements

of

others

not

cur-

rently

in

the limelight.

Steven Levy's history

of

the Macintosh, Insanely

Great -published

to

ride the wave of publicity for

the 10th anniversary

of

the Mac -

is

also occasion-

ally at odds with historical fact. Levy retells the

Jobs-at-PARC story. Strangely, he credits me with

having paintings shown at a famous museum; in

fact I have never done any paintings. (An adapta-

tion of this book, published in the February

1994

issue of Popular

Science,

tells a story that

is

far more

accurate, -although it still calls me a painter.)

John

Sculley, in his ghost-written book

Odyssey,

refers

to

me

as

a "programmer" at Apple. I was

never a programmer at Apple, and the rest

of

what

he says

is

nearly

as

inaccurate.

He

got his misin-

formation about the history of the Mac primarily

from Jobs, with

whom

he spent a lot

of

time. Like

Cringely, Levy, and Palfreman, he chose never

to

interview me

or

even call me -

or

others who

were there -

to

check

on

his facts.

My experience with Jeffrey Young

was

especially

disturbing. I had agreed

to

the interview with the

understanding that I would

see

and comment

on

the galleys before publication; he never sent them -

his inaccuracies compounded by a breach of trust.

By way of contrast,

Owen

Linzmayer's

The

Mac

Bathroom Reader

is

more accurate; for example,

it

gets the order of events straight.

In

any case, Jobs's

own

view of

how

things came

about necessarily must have been distorted.

For

one thing, we often misattributed ideas deliberately

when speaking

to

Jobs.

If

the group admired an

idea by someone Jobs didn't like at the moment,

we

gave

the credit

to

someone currently

on

Jobs's

"good" list.

It

was also often necessary

to

use

"reverse psychology"

on

Jobs; we got a lot

of

fea-

tures into the Mac

by

having someone (usually

me)

suggest the opposite. Jobs would then

see

the

problem in "my" approach and often tell

us

to

turn

.

it around.

Another technique was

to

tell

him

about some-

thing informally. Often he replied that the idea

was dreadful.

Then

when he "proposed"

that

same

idea after its merits had settled in, a few days

or

weeks later, we'd tell

him

he was a genius for

having thought

ofit.

Thus, Jobs's recollections

ofthe

history

of

the Mac

would often be far from what actually went on.

Being very independent, I was often

on

Jobs's "bad

person" list, so I had

to

rely heavily

on

these tech-

niques.

You'd

think

he would have caught

on

when one of "his" ideas turned up implemented

later that afternoon

or

the next day,

but

he simply

May 1996 The Analytical Engine Page

33

believed that his great engineers -and his way

of

driving

them

-could get it done so quickly.

He

had little intellectual basis

on

which

to

judge the

difficulty

of

software

or

hardware tasks, which

often helped us pull the wool over his eyes.

How

it

all

looked

to

him

I cannot say . Eventually his im-

possible management style became so well

known

that Sculley and the board

of

directors

of

Apple

had

to

remove

him

from all functional duties

in

the company.

My

memo had finally been acted

upon.

JOBS

AND

THE

PIPE

ORGAN

Here's another story

that

doesn't quite fit

in

any-

where,

but

gives some insights into the interper-

sonal dynamics

of

the time.

When

I first started

working at Apple, Jobs and I would take long

walks (probably like the much-reported walks he

would later take

with

John

Sculley). I remember

giving

him

mini-lectures

on

the philosophy

of

sci-

ence

or

the performance practices

of

early music.

On

one of these walks I shared with

him

my

life-

long ambition

to

own

a pipe organ. I explained

that the valves

to

the

pipes in many organs were

driven electrically, and I hoped

to

hook

up

an

Apple II

to

one which would

turn

it into a modern

player organ.

(I

published an article with details

in

Byte.)

He

asked me

why

I didn't have one; I told

him that it was mainly a matter

of

space, and

that

there was a secondary consideration

of

cost.

Jobs had a suggestion:

if

I could find an organ I

could afford, I should

buy

it and Apple would let

me

put

it

up

in the lobby

of

the new, large build-

ing

on

Bandley Drive,

in

Cupertino CA. I would

hook

it up

to

an Apple II, which would play

it

for

visitors. After hours, I could practice

on

it,

or

even

give

company concerts.

Jobs was excited about the idea and told

many

people about

the

organ that was going

to

be in-

stalled.

With

this encouragement, I searched for an

organ

in

earnest. In a few months I got lucky and

found an abbey where the organ was being

replaced. I

told

Jobs

the

good news and he con-

gratulated me

on

the find. I purchased their old

organ, had

it

crated and moved

onto

the abbey

lawn (no small task

in

itself) and called Jobs to tell

him that

the

crates

with

the

organ would be there

in a day

or

two.

"What organ?" he asked. "The pipe organ we're

putting up in the lobby," I replied, thinking

that

he

must be distracted

to

have forgotten.

He

first said

that he had changed his mind, because it looked

like space would soon be tight;

when

I suggested

that it was a bit late

to

change his mind, since I had

already purchased

the

organ, he retorted

that

he

had never agreed

to

have the organ installed at

Apple

in

the

first place.

When

I got back I reminded

him

that

he had made

a commitment, and

that

I had gone

to

some trou-

ble and expense based

on

his assurances.

He

told

me

that

he had never assured me

that

he would

give me

room

for

the

organ, and refused

to

speak

in

my

presence

to

the

people

who

had heard his

promises. I asked if, until the issue was resolved, I

could store the crates

in

the still-empty buildings.

The

crates were outdoors, this was an imposition

on

the abbey, and if

it

rained,

the

organ could be

seriously damaged.

He

simply said no.

I was stuck.

The

organ was

too

large

to

fit into

my

house

or

even a rental storage unit. I called every

organ builder, organ teacher, and church I could

find and, after

much

desperate work, found a

church in Santa Clara

that

needed an organ. They,

in

turn,

found a benefactor

to

purchase the organ

from me for them. After long negotiations I suc-

ceeded

in

selling it for a fraction

of

its value.

This was

my

introduction

to

the new Steve Jobs,

or

perhaps a phase

of

the

old Jobs I

hadn't

yet seen.

Apple's first employee and his friend

of

many

years,

Dan

Kottke,

who

had traveled

with

him

in

India and

worked

with

him

day

and

night

to

help

Apple get started, was treated even

more

shabbily.

In late 1980

Dan

was surprised

to

find

out

that-

in

spite

of

their long friendship and the

many

un-

compensated hours he had

put

in

-he was

not

going

to

get any stock options. Later W

oz

gave

some stock

to

Kottke, and

to

some

other

deserving

people from

the

early days

of

Apple (such

as

Bill

Fernandez, Chris Espinosa, Randy Wigginton,

Cliff

Huston

and

Dick

Huston) all

of

whom

Jobs

had

t1,lrned

his back on. Woz's was an admirable

act of pure generosity.

As for me, I still

don't

have a pipe organ.

This

is

a preliminary version

of

a

portion

of

a

book

in

progress. Comments

and

corrections are

welcomed. Please send

them

to

jefraskin@aol.com.

Page

34

The Analytical Engine May 1996

SPEAKING

OF

ENGINES ....

Joel Shurkin has updated his eminent survey text

of

computer history, Engines

of

the

Mind, and W.

W.

Norton

has done us all

the

favor

of

publishing

the new edition

in

paperback. Whether you've

read this

book

before

or

not,

you

may properly

rejoice

that

it's available once again; one of the few

respectable attempts

to

pack its topic into a single

volume,

Engines

of

the

Mind is compelling, ener-

getic and well-annotated.

The

new paperback

is

priced at $US13.00 and its ISBN

is

0-393-31471-5.

Go

hound

your

favorite bookstore.

FTP SITE FOR COMPUTER

CONSERVATION SOCIETY

by

Chris

P. Burton

The Computer Conservation Society, a special in-

terest group of the British

Computer

Society

in

association with

the

Science Museum of London

and

the

Museum of Science and Industry of Man-

chester,

now

has an ftp archive site.

All issues of the Society quarterly bulletin,

"Resurrection", are available

in

several formats,

as

well

as

a small collection

of

simulators

of

historic

machines. Many

of

these simulators have

not

been

available previously, and more are "in

the

pipe-

line", awaiting documentation from their authors.

To

access

the archive, make an ftp connection

to

< ftp://ftp.cs.man.ac.uk/pub/CCS-Archive>.

World Wide Web pages will be announced at a

later date. Meanwhile, readers may be interested in

WWW

pages of

the

work

on

Colossus at Bletchley

Park, where the CCS has an exhibition room.

The

URL

is

<

http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/CCC/

BPark>.

THE FRIDEN EC-130:

The

World's Second Electronic

Desktop

Calculator

(With some notes

about

the

world's first.)

by

Nicholas Bodley

BACKGROUND

In late 1963, advances

in

electronic technology

made it practical

to

build and market an electronic

desktop calculator.

The

world's first was the Anita,

made

by

Sumlock Comptometer (Ltd.?)

in

England. The Anita had a beautifully built full

keyboard; each digit place had a vertical row of

10

(or

11)

keys,

in

a

row

extending toward and away

from the operator.

It

probably had 10-digit input,

which would imply

100

keys for digit entry. (The

eleventh was a column-clear key, most likely; a

zero didn't need

to

be explicitly entered.)

The

display used shaped-cathode neon glow nu-

merical-indicator tubes,

known

among the techni-

cal community in the USA

as

"Nixie" tubes; this

is

a trademark, probably

of

Burroughs.

The

internal

logic used beam-switching decade-counter tubes;

one variety (not necessarily

that

used in

the

Anita)

had thirty cathodes.

Only

one cathode would have

a glow discharge; a series resistor

in

the anode

circuit kept the voltage below

that

required for

other

cathodes

to

conduct.

Ten

cathodes kept the

count;·the other

twenty

were connected into

two

groups

of

ten, and a two-phase clock stepped the

glow

to

the next "stable" cathode

in

two

stages

by

temporarily "stealing"

the

glow from

the

"stable"

cathodes.

The

Anita performed all four functions,

but

because each digit was costly,

it

wasn't designed

to

display all digits

of

a full product

of

a multiplica-

tion. This wasn't

too

bad if

the

operands were in-

tegers; but it did have decimal-point logic, and the

decimal point sometimes appeared

in

a bizarre

place when mixed operands were multiplied -

it

wrapped around

the

end and popped up

in

a logi-

cal, but peculiar, place. Speed was of

no

particular

consequence; an "all nines" multiplier imposed

no

special wait.

About a year after Friden introduced

the

EC-130,

Marchant brought

out

a nice, rather compact

machine called

the

Cogito,

with

a display like that

May 1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

35

of

the

F riden

but

with

peculiar half-size zeroes

that

looked quite odd.

Monroe

was

the

other

of

the

"Mechanical Big

Three"

in

nonprinting

desktop calculators

in

the

USA,

but

seemed late

in

bringing

out

an

electronic

desktop machine; however,

they

had

a brilliantly

designed

mechanicga}

printing

calculator,

in

two

units cabled together,

that

was a successful com-

petitor

to

the

EC-130.

The

model

name was

PC-

1421.

THE

FRIDEN

EC-130

Having sketched

in

the

contemporary

competition

to

Friden, we can proceed

to

recollections concer-

ning

the

design

and

success

of

the

Friden

EC-130, a

very significant

product

in

the

history

of

calcula-

tors.

The

author, Nicholas Bodley

(nbodley@tiac.net

as

of

this writing) was

one

of

the

original eight technicians

to

be trained at

the

fac-

tory

on

this calculator.

It

was fascinating, exciting,

and completely memorable

to

see this device for

the

first time;

the

EC-130 was beautifully styled

although,

in

my

opinion, some

of

the

prototype's

striking quality was lost

in

the

translation

to

pro-

duction dies.

EXTERIOR

PACKAGING

In

external appearance,

the

EC-130 was a distinc-

tive,

rather

low

box

with

a gracefully curved

top

cover

over

the

electronics,

and

a vertical panel

(mostly blank)

with

an

extended glare shield

around

the

display face.

The

keyboard

extended

across

the

full

width

of

the

machine;

it

was a

10-

key, serial-entry type,

with

various

function/

con-

trol

keys

on

both

sides.

The

keyboard

panel sloped

up

toward

the

vertical

front

panel.

The

rear was a

finned die-cast heat

sink

of

generous

proportions,

although

power

consumption

was modest. Overall

"footprint" was

that

of

a fairly large electric type-

writer,

although

perhaps longer

from

front

to

back. Friden's chief engineer,

the

wonderfully ca-

pable

Robert

Ragen -

one

of

the

most

brilliant

people I have ever met, and a pleasant,

rather

self-

effacing fellow

in

the

bargain -was responsible for

the

remarkably innovative architecture

of

the

EC-

130,

which

was produced at a 1963 list price

of

roughly $2,100.

ARCHITECTURE

When

the

EC-130 was designed, ICs were hope-

lessly expensive; I recall

that

a Westinghouse

DTL-

930

NAND

gate,

with

perhaps

four

inputs, cost a

big

chunk

out

of

$US50 each.

The

EC-130 design,

in

a militantly cost-conscious setting, was all dis-

crete

PNP

germanium

diodes

and

transistors. (To

duplicate

the

internal logic

of

one

of

today'

s calcu-

lator

chips

with

discrete

components

would

-at a

personal,

rough

guess -result

in

a

box

too

big for

a desktop,

which

might

draw

a few

hundred

watts,

and

cost

about

$10,000.)

Reverse Polish

Notation

(RPN)

This

calculator preceded Hewlett-Packard's desk-

top

machines,

and

was

the

first

to

use

RPN,

which

Friden

called simply

"PN".

(No,

HP

wasn't

the

first

to

use

RPN,

and

they

have

never

claimed so.)

The

EC-130

had

a four-register visible stack func-

tionally very close

to

that

of

the

HP-48, for exam-

ple. A stack

drop

caused zeroes

to

enter

the

top.

It

even

had

a "Last x" register, for repeat multiply,

but

the

contents were

not

displayed.

The

Enter

key

worked

exactly like

that

on

the

HP

calcula-

tors.

DISPLAY

Output

was displayed

on

a

type

5DEP1, 5-inch

round

green-phosphor electrostatic-deflection

CRT,

with

about

2

kV

accelerating voltage. (All

computer

CRTs

use magnetic deflection.)

The

characters were seven-segment, similar

in

appear-

ance

to

those

now

universal

in

inexpensive

LCD

calculators.

The

beam

of

the

CRT

was swept

across

the

screen

to

write

the

strokes

that

made

up

the

individual characters;

it

was a

vector

scan,

not

a

raster scan.

The

deflection waveforms were won-

drously complicated,

and

always

the

same. (The

slant

of

the

characters was created

by

just

one

resis-

tor

that

cross-coupled

the

vertical deflection

into

the

horizontal,

without

a buffer amplifier;

it

was a

marvelously simple

yet

subtle circuit.

There

was

no

visible cross-coupling

the

other

way, and

it

didn't

seem obvious from.

looking

at

the

circuit

how

the

isolation was done.) Individual digits were

created

by

unblanking

(turning on)

the

CRT

beam

at

the

appropriate times;

the

decoding matrix used

a remarkably small

number

of

diodes,

probably

Page

36 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

about

80.

There was a decimal

point

visible in each

register.

DECIMAL POINTS

Marketing decreed that logic for a floating decimal

point, universal in contemporary calculators,

would be

too

elaborate for inclusion in a discrete-

component design.

The

EC-130 did have decimal

points and a decimal-paint-entry key,

but

the

display had a selectable fixed point, the same for all

registers

of

the stack.

The

user

had

to

decide

how

many

decimal places

to

work

with,

then

make the

selection through a rotary switch with an edge

wheel

knob

projecting

through

a slot; about six

choices were available. I have seen

two

different

sets

of

[numbers

of

places]

in

different machines.

Internal logic permitted any

number

of

places

within the limits

of

the machine,

but

the switch

was the constraint. Someone must have hacked a

freely-selectable decimal selection at some time.

The

machine had

13

digits and,

through

reposition-

ing

of

the decimal point, could provide

all

26 digits

of a product. Overflow

and/or

truncation natu-

rally occurred in such cases.

It

could

work

as

a

purely fractional

or

purely integral machine. Divi-

sion required 1.050 seconds for an all-nines

quotient; an all-nines multiplier was slightly faster.

KEYBOARD

The

keyboard was serial-entry

of

the type called

10-key.lts unique mechanism was borderline prac-

tical

as

a design. Each keystem was part

of

a

stamped piece

of

steel, which included a "blade"

with a rounded

bottom

edge extending from front

to

back. Pressing a key moved this blade down

against ramp-shaped recesses

in

seven (or eight?)

code bars made

of

stamped phenolic laminate and

positioned crosswise.

Each code bar had a small magnet attached

to

it,

which operated a reed switch. As I recall, the code

bars had no return springs

but

were actuated posi-

tively

in

both

directions.

One

code bar was actu-

ated for any

of

the ten digits, and reset for other

keys, resulting

in

the terms "common function"

and "common digit" frequently used

by

the tech.

folk. There probably was one code bar reserved to

distinguish digits from non-digits. A small, fast

electromagnet with an armature locked the code-

bars

in

place -and

the

keys

as

well,

in

some way,

-until a time-consuming operation such

as

multi-

plication

or

division was complete. It always

was

pulsed,

but

most operations were quite fast, and it

served

as

a keyclick noisemaker most

of

the time.

Some malfunctions could lock the keyboard; it

wasn't rare for a defective machine

to

have its mul-

tiplication key, once pushed, lock

down

and stay.

All functions and digits were coded, with codes

that specifically allowed minimal component count

in

the electronics.

The

"touch" was quite accept-

able despite the oddity

of

the design.

INTERNAL STORAGE

Like all desktop calculators

of

its time, the EC-130

required

too

many

digits of internal storage to

allow use

of

discrete-component flip-flops for data.

Static RAM ICs came quite a few years later, even

after the heyday

of

serial shift-register ICs. (One

Toshiba machine that came

out

a few years later,

the

so-called TOSBAC, stored

in

discrete capaci-

tors with refresh circuits;

the

basic principle was

that

of

dynamic RAM! Shades

of

the

Atanasoff-

Berry machine ... )

The

Friden machine stored data in a low-cost im-

plementation

of

the ultrasonic wire delay line, a

truly

serial storage. These devices had been used in

expensive systems, with tight control over delay

time and clock frequency, for mass storage of

bi-

nary data; apparently the idea was

to

make the

delay time some large multiple

of

the clock period,

and control it

to

within a fraction

of

one period.

F riden

took

a simpler approach.

Once

all the digits

had been clocked into the delay line, the timing

chain (cascaded binary counter stages) did a carry

(overflow)

out

the most-significant flip-flop, and

shut down the clock -so

to

speak, although the

oscillator continued

to

run.

The

first pulse written

onto

the line was a dummy

pulse;

when

it came

out

of

the

line again, after a

delay

of

four milliseconds, it effectively restarted

the

clock. Short-term drift was accounted for, and

kept within good bounds.

The

timing chain had

three fast stages

run

by

the oscillator; these were,

as

I recall, jammed

to

zero

by

the start pulse,

to

force

the apparent clock phase

to

be

in

step with the

start pulse and succeeding data. (This technique

is

probably embedded inside every

UAR

T chip.) The

actual clock rate -

not

the oscillator rate -was

330

kHz.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

37

Since pulses

on

the line were retimed

and

rewritten

with

every "latest" clock frequency, modest me-

dium-to-Iong

term

drift was of

no

consequence. A

fairly large timing gap, between

the

last digit

written

and

the

start pulse, allowed for

both

long-

term

droop

in

clock frequency and mechanical tol-

erances

of

the

delay line. (The oscillator used a dis-

crete molded inductor and maybe a couple

of

sil-

vered-mica capacitors, perhaps a Colpitts circuit.

Quartz

crystals

weren't

needed,

and

ceramic reso-

nators were probably

25

years

in

the

future.)

The

line itself was a subassembly

on

the

bottom

of

the calculator, a flat spiral

of

about eight inches

(20cm) radius and roughly a dozen turns.

The

wire

itself was mild steel;

it

was carefully selected,

but

no

exotic alloy was needed.

The

spiral, supported

by

soft silicone rubber sheets

with

punched

holes

and loading slits, sat

in

a shallow sheet

aluminum

tray/chassis

with

a huge hole

on

the

center.

This type of delay line stores torsional pulses

with

a duration of a very few microseconds at most,

and

an angular magnitude (probably) substantially less

than

one degree

of

arc. Even given

the

short

dura-

tion

and small magnitude, stress

on

the

wire was

probably relatively high. Several

thousand

such

pulses could be launched

into

this wire,

and

remain

adequately discrete at

the

far end. (Whether soliton

phenomena

are involved, I

don't

know,

and

probably the original designers

didn't,

either; I

suspect solitons are a comparatively recent discov-

ery.)

Pulses were launched

with

magnetostrictive tapes,

probably

of

pure nickel,

and

welded carefully

to

the

exact

end

of

the

wire

-tangential

to

the

surface, and at right angles

to

the

length,

of

the

wire. (If

you

hold

a pencil between

your

thumb

and forefinger,

and

let

it

droop,

the

tapes are

your

fingers and

the

pencil

is

the

wire.)

My

recollection

is

that

each side

of

the

wire used

two

tapes for en-

gmeenng reasons.

These tapes were passed

through

the

bobbins

of

two

tiny

coils, positioned close

to

a

permanent

bias

magnet.

The

magnet's field made

the

tapes shorter,

by

perhaps a few parts

per

million,

than

they

were

without

the

field. Pulses

to

the

coils canceled

the

field for one tape,

and

doubled

it

for

the

other.

In

probably several

hundred

nanoseconds,

the

longi-

tudinal stress pulses traveled

to

the

end

of

the

delay

wire

and

gave

it

a sudden twist, followed a micro-

second

or

two

later

by

a relaxation

to

normal.

Stress pulses

in

the

tapes

would

also travel

the

other

way,

but

these superfluous pulses would

reflect

from

the

ends

of

the

tapes,

and

be absorbed

by

sheets

of

silicone

rubber

which

also functioned

as

a support.

Later

printing

calculator designs (with

no

display,

just a vertical stack

of

four lamps

to

show

non-zero

contents) used

IC

logic

and

a smaller-diameter coil;

tapes were "single-ended"

rather

than

of

the

earlier

push-pull type. Apparently

they

worked

quite well

enough. These machines

had

the

Singer logo

on

them.

At

the

other

end

of

the

delay wire, a second similar

transducer converted

the

torque

pulses

to

longitu-

dinal ones;

the

inverse magnetostrictive effect, fed

into

another

permanent

magnet, developed ade-

quate signal

in

a second pair

of

coils.

Pulses coming off

the

line

had

a shape reminiscent

of

the

wavelet sombrero function.

(I

recognize

that

there

may

be a

more

formal

name

for these.)

The

pulse takes a negative-going

rounded

dip, returns

and

crosses

the

zero axis, continues

to

a peak

maybe three

or

four times

as

high

as

the

dip,

and

then

falls back

to

a second dip like

the

original.

It

settles quickly afterward. Simple gain stages

and

a

slicer convert such a pulse

to

a clean rectangle at

logic level.

INTERNAL DATA REPRESENTATION

The

internal representation

of

the

digits was not

BCD;

it

wasn't

really coded at all,

but

became

radix-one

on

the

wire. Digits

one

through

nine

were represented

by

strings

of

pulse

count

equal

to

the

digit being represented. (A

two

was

two

pulses;

a nine, nine pulses.) Each digit was given its

own

time

slot

in

the

total data

time

of

48

llSec.

A lack of

pulses occurring at a given

time

was interpreted

as

a zero digit.

Remember

that

the

timing [ counter] chain was

started

by

the

first pulse

out

of

the

line after an

"end-around-carry" stopped

the

counters. This,

combined

with

good short-term stability

of

the

clock, meant

that

the

"number"

in

the

counter

chain defined

the

identity

of

the

digit.

I

no

longer recall

how

many

internal 13-digit

numbers were

kept

in

the

calculator.

Four

stack

registers were all displayed;

two

others,

not

dis-

played, were a store/recall

and

an

arithmetic regis-

ter.

One

was a "last x" register

with

space

to

store

Page

38 The Analytical Engine May 1996

one 13-digit number, and there were Store and

Recall keys.

Numbers were written

onto

the delay line in a

sequence with the "hidden" registers first, then

progressively up the stack; all LSDs were written

before the next digit. Decimal points were

not

stored since their location made

no

difference in

addition and subtraction; multiplication and divi-

sion decimal settings simply affected where the

result digits were placed.

Once in the electronics, the digits

took

on

another

unusual form, but before I explain that I'll pop the

real surprise:

There

was

no

adder in this

calculator,

or

at least

not

in the conventional sense. You

might well expect some such coding

as

8,4,2,1

BCD,

or

excess-three,

or

4,2,2' ,1, with a 4-bit com-

binatorial adder. But

no

....

-

5 = 11111

6 = 11110

7 = 11100

8 = 11000

9 = 10000

This code

is

"wasteful" in that

22

of

32

states are

disallowed, but in the calculator, it permitted a

fast

bit rate on the delay line and use

of

particularly

simple, low-cost logic

to

count the pulses coming

off the line. This logic

is

called a Johnson counter

or

"switch-tail ring counter;" it's basically

as-bit

shift register with a parallel reset for all stages

to

set

it

to

zero. The normal and complement serial out-

puts are connected back

to

the inputs,

but

with a

half-twist, so that a zero going out one end shifts in

as

a one at the other.

-

Seri

al

input

from

del

ay

line

A

========~

B

====~

C -

..........

Seri

al

output

to

del

ay

1i

ne

L.....,..

0

===(~)

Flip-flop arrays

(I'm

not

sure, but I

think

[A

..

D] are

Friden's designations.)

In the electronics, digits were represented

by

a code

the Morse code for each digit.

It

is

and

has been used elsewhere and there are (or were) ICs

that counted in this code. It's a really simple

nonweighted code, which we might call the

baklava

code:

o = 00000

,.

1 = 00001

2 = 00011

3 = 00111

4 = 01111

-

The code bars in the keyboard defined the ten

digits

by

this code; "common digit," when asserted,

signified that the code was

to

be interpreted

as

a

digit.

At

the proper time, this digit was read mto

the arithmetic unit in parallel.

ARITHMETIC UNIT

The arithmetic unit contained three counters

of

this type, and a simple 5-bit register with parallel

input and output. This totaled

to

20

flip-flops,

not

an insignificant circuit when built

of

discrete com-

ponents. This shows the arrangement

of

the four

5-

bit flip-flop arrays, with one block for each group

of

five.

In

this illustration, the single lines are serial data

paths; the inputs

to

the A and D counters are logic

pulses from the delay line's read amplifier. These

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

39

pulses {when enabled

by

gates, which

is

usually}

cause the A counter

to

count

up, and the D

counter

to

count down. {Subtraction!} Likewise,

the C counter feeds pulses serially

to

the delay

line's write amplifier until it counts down

to

zero.

Double lines represent 5-bit parallel data paths;

when these are enabled, the contents

of

a given

counter/register shift

to

the right, into the "new"

counter/register. This happens every time a digit

comes out

of

the delay line.

When

the

calculator

is

just sitting there, for each

digit, the A counter gets reset;

then

the

serial pulses

from

the

delay line's read amplifier make it count

up. (The D counter probably counts

{down}

as

well,

but

nothing

is

done with its contents.)

At

the

end

of

this time slot, the contents

of

A shift in par-

allel into

B.

The

next digit time, the digit

in

B

shifts into C.

The

next digit time after that, clock

pulses

to

the C counter make

it

count

down and

feed serial pulses

to

the delay line until

it

counts

to

zero.

The D counter's

output

is

usually gated off; it

doesn't

go

to

the B register. (That's

why

I

put

the

> in parentheses.)

To

do an addition, the A counter

is

not

reset

when

it usually would be, and

the

next digit from the

delay line causes its

count

to

increment "on

top

of"

the count already there.

If

it

counts past nine, logic

detects the fact, and a carry flip-flop

is

set. {Extra

logic accounts for carries caused

by

a carry.}

At

the

next digit-column time,

the

logic increments

the

A

counter

by

one,

to

add

in

the

carry. Similar things

take place during a

borrow

in subtraction.

There

is

at least one

path

not

shown

for parallel

transfers.

My

memory

of

this isn't clear, but I

think

a bypass around

the

B register feeds the con-

tents

of

the A counter directly

to

the C counter.

This makes a digit return

to

the

line,

but

one

(register) time earlier

than

usual.

The

end result

is

that the stack drops. Stack lift involves an extra

delay; I

think

the D counter serves

as

a plain regis-

ter

{i.e.,

not

a counter} for that, again using paths

not

shown. A given digit would probably take

the

path

Qine)

to

A

to

D

to

B

to

C

to

Qine).

Subtraction,

as

I said "prematurely", involves dec-

rementing the D counter; it's connected/ defined

as

such. I really

don't

recall

the

details,

but

they're

not

any great mystery.

None

of

the

three counters

is

bidirectional.

Multiplication involved an extra (time-defined)

13-

digit register, and might even have involved shift-

ing

out

multiplier digits from one end,

then

prod-

uct digits into

the

other;

the

MQ

registers

of

1970s-

era computers come

to

mind.

The

D counter might

well have controlled the

number

of

addition cycles.

The

control logic, while fairly complicated, was no

more

so

than

necessary -every resistor, capacitor,

diode, and transistor counted

when

determining

cost.

Division,

as

expected, performed consecutive sub-

traction (and tallied the

number

of

subtraction

cycles) until underflow, following with a restoring

add-and-shift.

CONTROL

Control

was

of

the state-variable variety. I dimly

recall a 3-bit control counter

that

advanced when

the

next detailed stage

of

an operation was ready

to

take place. There was

no

explicit diode matrix

in

one spot for decoding logic states along

with

the

contents

of

the counter;

the

logic was simply em-

bedded.

When

square

root

was added (vff.),

the

control counter possibly had

to

gain another bit.

CIRCUITRY

Most transistors were 2N1305's, germanium

PNP,

in

TO-5 cans, except where

the

faster 2N1499's

(TO-1S) were required.

The

deflection

output

stages were 2N2043A's, a popular RF power tran-

sistor. Logic diodes

{DTL}

were 1N662's.

The

cir-

cuitry was highly optimized; collector load resis-

tors and base resistors, all

1/2

watt

Allen-Bradley

carbon comps, were individually calculated. Ca-

pacitors were chocolate-colored dipped mica,

mostly, and also individually "calculated".

The

CRT's

high-voltage

power

supply was an in-

verter; it had a small transformer like a low-

powered vacuum-tube filament transformer con-

nected "backwards", and a voltage multiplier chain.

The

main logic power was quite conventional.

There were roughly

165

logic gates, perhaps

40

flip-flops in all,

of

which

the

timing chain had

14.

In

total there were 300 transistors.

Of

seven circuit boards, each about

12

inches

by

5

inches

{30x13

em,}

six were paired

with

spacers and

(amazingly) lots

of

hand-soldered jumpers

to

join

the

two

at the edges opposite

the

connector edge.

One

connector served

both

boards

in

a pair; the A

Page

40 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

through D

counter!

registers occupied either one

board

or

one pair. Layouts were rather closely

packed.

The

boards mounted vertically and

plugged downward into edge connectors, in

standard fashion.

The

EC-130 no doubt served

as

an inspiration for

the Hewlett-Packard desktop calculators; I remem-

ber

how

amazed I was

to

read, in

the

Hewlett·

Packard Journal

of

the time, about their scientific

desktop machine, which had

no

ICs either!

That

HP

machine, the 9100A, was quite

as

remarkable

in its

own

right

as

was the F riden. 1

MANUFACTURING

Circuit boards were double-sided,

with

plated

through-holes, and plating was done after drilling

as

usual. The pattern

of

traces was "deposited"

by

reverse electroplating

in

a unique machine devel-

oped

by

the inventor Gilbert Marosi. A copper

negative master for the trace was wrapped around a

drum

and clamped.

The

drum

was rotated in close

registry with the drilled and plated copy, while

electrolyte was flushed through a very small gap

between the master and the copy.

The

liquid went

in clear, and came

out

blue.

The

copper was im-

mediately extracted and the electrolyte reused.

The

current must have been quite high, perhaps hun-

dreds

of

amps.

Any

remaining copper that had

dis-

connected itself electrically was removed with a

quick etch.

When

this system worked, it worked

quite nicely.

Unfortunately, there was one inherent (and nasty)

contradiction.

The

process

of

plating

the

through-

holes created faint anthill-like raised regions

around the holes, which were

of

no

consequence

to

the boards themselves,

but

they

shorted

out

the

Marosi machine.

The

result was significant damage

to

the master; apparently it wasn't easy

to

stop the

current before the damage was done. (Multi-

hundred-ampere transistors were still

in

the

future.)

Manufacturing was, one would presume,

in

a

major quandary.

They

had

no

practical alternative

to

the

Marosi machine; setting

up

a conventional

photoresist/ etch line wasn't a job

of

a few days.

They

decided

to

"level" the unpatterned boards

by

following the plating step

with

a surface grind.

The

1

See

ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

2.3, p.

6ff.

shop knew more about surface grinding copper

than I do,

but

not

quite enough, and the conse-

quences were horrible.

The

circuit boards would

work

fine until

they

were shipped

to

the branch

offices, even sometimes until

they

reached the

cus-

tomer's premises.

Then

the failures would begin

as

the copper, fatally weakened

by

grinding, broke

and separated the plating inside

the

hole from the

trace

on

the surface.

At

this time I was the "depot" service technician

for the Northeastern United States. A

torrent

of

failures descended

on

us, about

98%

of

which were

mechanical intermittents

that

necessarily resulted

from surface grinding; we had commendably few

actual part failures. We would get a set

of

boards

in, plop

them

into a test machine -stock, but

with extenders for

all

the boards -and start warp-

ing the boards. As connections began separating we

saw some wondrously peculiar symptoms, much

more fascinating than those typical

of

a more con-

ventional architecture.

If

we found more than, perhaps,

two

definite

symptoms, we opened up the pairs and I hand-

soldered every through-hole

on

every board with

great attention to technique. I still recall a gold-

plated transistor lead

that

was surrounded

by

a per-

fectly good-looking fillet

of

solder.

The

lead went

through the board

to

a pad

on

the

opposite side,

which

in

turn

connected

to

some

other

circuits;

but the lead was

not

connected

to

the pad

on

the

component side, even though

it

was surrounded

with a perfect-looking fillet. There must have been

a very

thin

layer

of

rosin

or

other

insulator

on

the

lead, and the component-side pad had broken away

completely from the plating

in

the hole. Solder

continuity from

bottom

to

top

didn't

help in this

case.

THE

FRIDEN

EC-132

After I left depot maintenance

on

the EC-130,

Friden introduced the EC-132, which offered a dif-

ferent selection

of

the

number

of

decimal places,

and added square root. Square

root

was considered

a key feature

by

Friden; their mechanical Model

SRW did square root using the "fives" algorithm,

and

their

mechanical masterpiece,

the

Model SRQ,

did

both

squaring and square root. Squaring was

trivial

on

the EC-130; I suspect

that

the EC-132

also had a squaring key.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

41

The

internal architecture

of

the

EC-132,

as

the

model

number

implies, was an elaboration

of

the

EC-130's,

but

the

algorithm

was

probably

new

to

that

machine.

More

modern

calculator architec-

tures aside, at

the

time

of

the

EC-13x

it

made sense

to

calculate square

root

by

elaborating

the

division

logic (or algorithm)

to

perform

a division-related

process whose "divisor" is constantly incrementing

in

a controlled fashion, instead

of

remaining static.

The

details

of

square

root

calculation

by

this

method

become

somewhat

messy,

but

the

general

scheme for incrementing

the

"divisor"

is

worth

describing.

It's been

known

for a

long

time

that

the

sums

of

the

odd

integers are

the

squares

of

integers,

as

a few

examples will

make

clear:

1 = 1 squared

1 + 3 = 2 squared

1 + 3 + 5 = 3 squared, etc.

This is

the

straightforward basis

of

"direct" square

root

calculation;

the

messy details involve shifts

and preserving existing digits

of

the

root

as

they

develop, along

with

the

developing "divisor",

which

gains

another

digit every time a

root

digit is

found. (When I say "direct", I have

in

mind

Newton's

method,

which

progressively refines

an

initial estimate.

That

algorithm

was

thoroughly

impractical for a calculator

of

the

EC-13x era,

and

is

probably

not

a

good

one

for

any

calculator. I

could be wrong,

but

what's

taught

in

school some-

times differs

wildly

from

the

Real World.)

In

the

EC-130, incrementing a register

by

twos

isn't

easy at best;

it

becomes hairier still

when

the

developing

root

digit becomes so large

that

a 9

must

be incremented

to

an

11.

The

two-place rep-

resentation

of

the

current

"divisor" digit becomes

especially messy. F riden came

up

with

an

alternate

scheme; people

aren't

generally

in

a blinding

hurry

for

their

square roots. Division involves repeated

subtraction

of

a constant divisor; square root,

as

noted, increments

the

"divisor".

Friden

decided

to

subtract

1,

first.

If

no

overdraft,

then

subtract

three;

but,

to

create three,

they

didn't

simply sub-

tract three.

They

subtracted

one,

and

then

one

more

in

a second cycle.

This

"one

more

than

that"

scheme (my term), involving a pair

of

subtractions

for each increment

of

a

root

digit, was

the

key.

Each square-rooting cycle

of

"division" was

now

elaborated

into

a

pair

of

subtraction

cycles

in

each

of

which

the

"divisor" was

incremented

by

one.

Incrementing became

much

simpler

as

a result.

So:

Let's assume

we

want

the

square

root

of

16.

16

- 0 =

16

(overdraft

not

possible)

Subtract

one

more

than

(zero):

Take

16 - 1 = 15.

This

has

now

effectively subtracted

1.

If

no

overdraft,

increment

the

"divisor",

which

now

becomes

1.

Also tally

one

count

for

the

root

digit.

Now,

do

this:

15

- 1 =

14

and

subtract

"one

more

than"

the

1,

14

- 2 =

12.

This

pair

of

subtractions has effectively

subtracted 3.

If

no

overdraft, again

increment

the

"divisor",

which

becomes 2,

and

continue. Incre-

ment

the

tally

for

the

developing

root

digit.

12

- 2 =

10

then

subtract

one

more

than

2:

10 - 3 = 7

This

pair

of

subtractions has effectively subtracted

5.

There's

still

no

overdraft, so

increment

once

again,

to

make

the

"divisor" become 3. Increment

the

root

digit again.

7 - 3 = 4

and

subtract

one

more

than

3,

4 - 4 = 0

No

overdraft

yet,

so

increment

the

root

digit once again.

There

have

been

four

pairs

of

subtractions; each

time

a pair created

no

overdraft,

the

tally was in-

cremented,

and

now

stands

at

four.

The

"divisor"

also equals

four

in

this instance;

the

calculation is

complete.

Thus,

incrementing

by

one

with

proper

controls

can calculate

by

the

"consecutive

odd

integers"

method.

This

case is simplified;

in

real life,

that

nice zero remainder

would

probably

be ignored,

handy

as

it

looks, because

it's

a rare case. Most

square

root

calculations leave a remainder

(although

no

calculator I

know

of

ever makes

that

remainder available

to

the

user;

it

wouldn't

be

of

Page

42

The Analytical Engine

May

1996

much use). In real life, the incrementing process

would continue,

the

subtraction would cause an

overdraft, and the overdraft would tell

the

control

logic

to

get ready

to

calculate another

root

digit.

The

best information I have

is

that

the EC-132

always computed

to

a zero result.

In

the

logic, that repeated "one

more

than" prob-

ably was represented

by

an extra pulse fed

to

either

the

A

or

the

D counter after the digit in

it

was

passed

on

to

be rewritten

to

the

delay line.

I'm

speculating here.

AFTERMATH

My

boss, a decent fellow, finally had me trans-

ferred

to

Friden

R&D

in

Rochester, which

is

an-

other interesting tale I may tell someday. Some-

what sad; lost opportunity,

but

also mismanage-

ment.

R&D

was an instance

of

youth

being wasted

on

someone young, and ended (back

in

1966, I think)

with early corporate downsizing/R&D cutbacks.

It

hit

me early! Singer had bought Friden about

the

time I first

went

to

work

for them, and progres-

sively destroyed a very good company.

One

particularly interesting highlight

of

my

time

in

Rochester came

in

1964,

when

Friden was unof-

ficially developing an electronic Flexowriter.

It

re-

tained the basic electric typewriter mechanism, and

even had a bus architecture, something quite

ad-

vanced at

that

time. I wasn't directly involved with

the project. It would have considerably extended

the product lifetime

of

the

Flexowriter,

but

man-

agement was, once again, fatally reluctant.

The

prototype added

to

the

pain

by

being built with

multipin connectors that looked great,

but

turned

out

to

be miserably unreliable.

The

resident genius,

Dave Frick, independently conceived

of

static

RAM chips, and perhaps dynamic ones

as

well.

This was

when

the first prototype dual-inline

packages appeared -and

it

looked so stupid

to

standardize

on

a package

that

could be inserted

backwards ....

What

Was

The

First

PERSONAL COMPUTER?

An

Exploration

by Roy A.

Allan

DEFINING

TERMS

Recent literature

is

inconsistent

in

defining "the

first personal computer"

as

the

term

is

presently

understood. This has resulted,

to

an extent, from

limited awareness

of

some early products with a

claim to the title. Which computer was

truly

the

first

to

be personal in the modern sense?

This article does

not

discuss the early personal use

of

mainframe computers; it also excludes experi-

mental computers, such

as

the

MIT

Memory Test

Computer, and minicomputers, because

they

were

not

oriented

to

a consumer market. In an article

entitled "Is There Such a Thing

as

a Personal

Computer?" [7], Lawrence

I.

Press presented

sev-

eral criteria

-such

as

architecture, software, physi-

cal characteristics and marketing -which would

serve

to

distinguish a personal computer.

Thus, for

the

purposes

of

this article, the

term

"personal computer" requires clarification.

Up

to

the mid-1970's, when the majority

of

computers

were mainframes shared

by

many

users, a

"personal" computer was defined

as

being designed

for use

by

one person. As the technology pro-

gressed,

our

understanding

of

the

term

has

changed; we

now

consider some early hardware

too

large and

too

expensive

to

qualify

as

being

"personal," and require that "a PC" should also be

small, easy

to

use, and

of

relatively low cost.

Today's personal computer has evolved

into

a

desktop appliance, available

through

the consumer

market,

that

provides ready and affordable com-

puting power

to

an individual. In this context,

which

of

the early computers

then

called

"personal" should we consider for

the

distinction

of being "the First"?

1957:

The IBM Auto-Point

John

L. Lentz at IBM developed a small Personal

Automatic Calculator (PAC)

in

the

late 1940's, and

described an engineering model

of

PAC

in

Decem-

ber 1954. This project evolved

into

the

IBM

610

computer, described

by

the

reference

work

"IBM's

May

1996

The

Analytical Engine

Page

43

Early Computers" [1]

as

being "IBM's first Per-

sonal Computer."

The

Model 610, also called the

Auto-Point, was announced

in

September 1957,

with a purchase price

of

$55,000.

The

computer

system consisted

of

a floor-standing cabinet -in-

corporating the electronics, magnetic drum, plug-

board, and separate paper-tape readers and punches

-with a keyboard for

input

and an electric type-

writer for output.

It

was

not

a stored-program

computer; a programmer entered instructions from

the keyboard,

or

input

them

through

the paper-

tape readers.

Scientists and engineers used the Auto-Point com-

puter to solve small scientific and engineering

problems. IBM built about

180

units,

but

was

not

then an aggressive competitor

in

the

'development

of small computer systems.

Other

organizations,

such

as

Bendix Aviation, Librascope, Digital

Equipment Corporation (DEC) and

the

Massachu-

setts Institute

of

Technology (MIT), were thus able

to

participate

in

an emerging market and devel-

oped, respectively,

the

G-15, LGP-30,

PDP

Series

and

LINC

small computer systems.

1963:

MIT

LINC

Gordon

Bell, a principal

in

the desigrt

of

early

DEC

PDP-Series minicomputers, has stated

that

the

MIT

LINC

was

the

first personal computer.

MIT

developed

LINC

-an acronym for

"Laboratory INstrument Computer" -

to

facilitate

the use of computer technology

in

biomedical

research laboratories

[3].

Principal designers were

Wesley Clark and Charles Molnar.

MIT

demon-

strated a prototype

in

early 1962 and completed

sixteen units

by

mid-1963, which were assembled

by scientific users

to

improve their understanding

of the system.

LINC

had four console modules, an

electronics cabinet and a keyboard.

The

processor

logic circuits used transistorized circuit modules

from

DEC.

An

oscilloscope module could display a

512-by-512-point image.

Memory

was magnetic

core with a basic capacity

of

1,024 twelve-bit

words;

two

magnetic-tape drives provided addi-

tional storage. Each system cost about $32,000.

Initial software was a text editor, an assembler and

some utilities. A small

number

of

scientific labora-

tories used the

LINC

computer

in

dedicated appli-

catlOns.

The

IBM

610

and the

MIT

LINC

were "personal"

computers developed

with

reference

to

established

larger architectures, at a cost which confined their

use

to

major scientific organizations.

In

the

late

1960' s a company called

Computer

Terminal Cor-

poration (CTC)

took

the

opposite tack

by

starting

development

of

a "smart" computer terminal

which would incorporate a microprocessor.

1971:

Datapoint

2200

An

Invention & Technology article [11] quotes Jack

Frassanito

as

saying "I invented

the

personal com-

puter

... "

CTC

hired Frassanito

in

1969

to

develop

a computer terminal

that

would have its

own

proc-

essor and

other

circuitry which would allow it to

mimic

other

major

computer

manufacturers' ter-

minals.

The

self-contained

unit

included a 12-line

display, keyboard,

two

cassette tapes, a Texas In-

struments bit-serial processor supported

by

TTL

logic, and 8K bytes

of

internal memory.

CTC

in-

troduced the resulting Datapoint 2200 in June

1970, and shipped

the

first units

in

early 1971.

Although

CTC

designed

the

unit

purely as a ter-

minal

with

unprecedented capabilities, a number of

commercial users wrote programs and used it

as

an

early, small, desktop computer.

The

Datapoint

2200, however, was still

not

made available at a

price attractive

to

an individual user.

The

first mi-

croprocessor-based

computer

affordable for the

general public was

the

comparatively unheralded

Kenbak-1.

1971: Kenbak-1

An

Early Model Personal

Computer

Contest,

advertisements

as

"The totally

new

and

the

very first -Mini-computer,"

the

8H

used

the

Intel 8008 microprocessor and

up

to

4K bytes

of

memory.

In

kit

form

it

sold for "as

low

as

$440."

The

price was right,

but

Wadsworth

had

health

problems, and a change

in

the

company's

first pri-

ority

-

to

publishing -resulted

in

poor

sales

of

the

computer.

The

first "magazine project" microcomputer, called

the

Mark-8, was designed

by

Jonathan

A.

Titus

and

appeared

in

the

July

1974 issue

of

Radio-Electronics

[10].

It

used

the

Intel 8008 microprocessor and had

256 bytes

of

memory.

Enthusiasts

could

buy

plans

from

the

magazine for a

nominal

amount,

or

a sub-

stantially complete

kit

of

parts for $350; sales were

insignificant.

Today,

just over

twenty

years later, a

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

45

Mark-8

is

one

of

the

most

valuable and sought-after

of

all historical micros.

It

was

the

misfortune

of

both

the

SCELBI-8H and

the

Mark-8

to

stumble

and

fall

in

the

darkness just

before

the

dawn.

Only

a few

months

later, a

New

Mexico-based

company

called MITS -Micro In-

strumentation and

Telemetry

Systems -could

not

cope

with

the

orders

it

received

when

it introduced

the

Altair microcomputer.

1975:

Altair

8800

The

January

1975 issue

of

Popular

Electronics

[8]

featured

the

Altair 8800 developed

by

Ed

Roberts

of

MITS -although

the

unit

on

the

magazine's

cover was

only

a painted,

empty

case.

It

used

the

Intel 8080 microprocessor, and basic

memory

was

only 256 bytes. A lOO-pin bus

with

16

slots facili-

tated expansion

of

the

system

with

additional

memory

and peripherals. Kit price

by

mail

order

was $397.

The

Altair 8800 was a startling success,

and a flood

of

orders created severe delivery prob-

lems at MITS;

in

theory,

the

same

computer

was

available assembled and tested for $621,

but

cus-

tomers

who

ordered a finished

unit

waited for

months

while

the

factory caught up.

In

retrospect,

the

Altair's position

in

the

vanguard

of

the

microcomputer revolution

is

puzzling.

The

layout

of

the

hundred-pin Altair bus (more com-

monly

known

today

as

the

"S-100 bus") was deeply

compromised and made

the

design

of

third-party

peripherals unnecessarily difficult. MITS'

own

add-

on

products were sometimes

poorly

engineered,

like

the

4K dynamic

memory

boards,

or

sometimes

were announced

but

never

produced.

And

if

the

hardware was attractively priced,

the

software was

not; a paper tape

of

Bill Gates

and

Paul Allen's

"Micro-soft" Altair BASIC interpreter sold for

$150.

Regardless,

the

combination

of

the

Altair hardware

and

the

Microsoft BASIC

interpreter

was

the

first

runaway success

of

the

"personal computer" indus-

try.

More

sophisticated products

with

better pro-

motion,

like

the

Apple II

computer

introduced

in

June 1977

and

IBM's

PC

released

in

August 1981,

gave substantial

computing

power

to

the

consumer

in

the

mass market.

Which

of

these early comput-

ers we can

honor

as

"the First" will depend

on

our

narrow

and literal,

or

broad

and

inclusive, inter-

pretation

of

the

term

"personal

computer"

-

which

has obviously

meant

many

things

to

many

people over

the

past

forty

years!

CONCLUSION

The

IBM 610

Auto-Point

Computer

was

the

earli-

est personal

computer,

but

did

not

use

the

stored-

program

concept.

The

MIT

LINC

used

the

stored-

program

concept,

but

was a limited scientific

project

with

no

impact

in

the

general market.

The

Kenbak-l,

the

first low-cost personal computer,

had

a very limited interface

and

enjoyed few sales.

Xerox' Alto introduced

many

of

the

concepts

widely used

in

computers

today,

but

was a

"personal computer"

only

in

a rarefied environ-

ment

and at prohibitive cost.

The

French

REE

Micral was

the

first personal

microcomputer

to

use

a microprocessor.

The

Scelbi-8H

and

the

Mark-8

were

the

first US microcomputers,

but

did

not

have significant success

in

the

market.

The

Altair

8800 -

with

a

more

powerful

microprocessor,

an

innovative BASIC

interpreter

and

an affordable

price -was "the first" personal

computer

to

be a

commercial success

and

start a "personal" techno-

logical revolution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.

Bashe, Charles J.,

Johnson,

Lyle R., Palmer,

John

H.

and Pugh,

Emerson

W.

1986. "IBM's

Early Computers." Cambridge:

MIT

Press, 1986,

pp. 505-508.

-Describes

the

Personal

Automatic

Calculator

(PAC)

and

the

IBM 610

Auto-Point

Computer.

2.

Buchholz,

Werner

(Editor). 1988. "Was

the

First

Microcomputer

Built

in

France?" Annals

of

the

His-

tory

of

Computing, Vol. 10,

No.2,

1988, p. 142.

-Discusses

the

Micral

microcomputer.

3.

Clark,

W.

A.

and

Molnar,

C. E. 1965.

"A

De-

scription

of

the

LINC."

Stacy,

Ralph

W.

and

Waxman, Bruce W.

{eds.}.

Computers in Biomedical

Research.

New

York: Academic Press, 1965, pp. 35-

66.

4. Editor. 1989. "Early Small

Computers."

Annals

of

the

History

of

Computing, Vol.

11,No.

1,

1989,

pp.53-54.

-Discusses

the

IBM 610, Kenbak-1

and

Micral

computers.

Page 46 The Analytical Engine

May

1996

5.

Juliussen, Egil

and

Isaacson, Portia. 1987.

"Computer

Industry

Almanac." Dallas, Texas:

Computer

Industry Almanac, Inc., 1987, pp. 288-

289.

-Briefly describes

the

Kenbak, Micral and Altair

computers.

6.

Noyce,

Robert

N.

and Hoff, Marcian E. 1981.

"A

History

of

Microprocessor Development at

Inte1." IEEE

MICRO,

February

1981, pp. 8-21.

-Describes

the

SIM-4 & 8 and Intellec 4 & 8 de-

velopment boards.

7. Press, Larry. "Is

There

Such a

Thing

as

a Per-

sonal

Computer."

Abacus, Vol.

1,

No

2,

Winter

1984., pp. 69-71.

-Describes

"What

really distinguishes personal

computers from larger mainframes?"

8.

Roberts,

H.

Edward

and Yates, William. 1975.

"Altair 8800 ...

The

Most Powerful Minicomputer."

Popular Electronics,

January

1975, pp. 33-38.

9.

Smith, Douglas K. and Alexander,

Robert

C.

1988. "Fumbling

The

Future:

How

Xerox In-

vented

Then

Ignored,

The

First Personal

Com-

puter."

New

York: William

Morrow

and

Co.,

Inc.,

1988.

-Describes development

of

the

Alto

computer.

10.

Titus,

Jonathan

A. 1974. "Computer! -Build

This Minicomputer Yourself." Radio·Electronics,

July

1974, pp. 29-33.

-Describes

the

Mark-8 microcomputer.

11.

Wood, Lamont. 1994.

"The

Man

Who

Invented

the

PC."

American Heritage

of

Invention

& Technology, Vol. 10,

No.2,

Fall 1994, p. 64.

-Describes

the

Datapoint

2200 "smart" terminal.

CHACDONATES

EARLY

MICRO TO

NIXDORF MUSEUM

On

April

6,

in

a

ceremony

at

the

Santa Clara

Marriott

Hotel,

CHAC

presented a Processor

Technology SOL-20

to

the

Heinz

Nixdorf

Museumsforum

fUr

Informationstechnik. Partici-

pants were Kip

Crosby

and

Edwin

EI-Kareh for

CHAC,

Joachim

Wolf

for

the

Nixdorf

Museums-

forum, and former

Proc

Tech

designer Lee

Felsenstein.

The

donation began

with

an inquiry

to

the

Smith-

sonian

History

of

Technology (SHOT) mailing list

by

Nixdorf

curators

Ulf

Hashagen and

Dr.

Karl-

heinz Wiegmann, explaining

that

one focus

of

the

new

facility

would

be

"the

personal

computer

and

its development

in

the

USA [and]

the

history

of

pioneers and idealists,

who

got the development

of

PCs

under

way."

They

were, at

that

time, looking

for an Altair 8800, an IMSAI 8080 and a KIM-l; we

were

happy

to

suggest

the

addition

of

a SOL-20

which, given its Intel 8080 processor, rugged

design, and 1976 introduction,

is

certainly

"pioneers' development."

Thanks

to

the

generosity

of

Al Kossow

(see

Acquisitions) we even

had

such

a

computer

to

contribute.

The

SOL

will travel

to

Paderborn,

DE,

for

exhibit

in

Europe's newest

museum

of

information tech-

nology. This complete remodeling

of

Nixdorf

Computer

AG's

original headquarters building has

resulted

in

18,000 square meters

of

floor area for

the

entire museum,

of

which

roughly half will be

exhibit space.

The

remainder will be devoted

to

conference rooms, a research institute, library and

archive, restaurant

and

museum store. This project

is

underwritten

by

the

estate

of

the

late

German

computer

pioneer

Heinz

Nixdorf,

through

the

Westfalen Foundation;

it

will be "dedicated

to

the

historical development

and

present significance

of

information technologies, and

their

impact

on

culture

and

society."

Sounds like

our

kind

of

museum and, frankly, we

hope

someday

to

be among

the

200,000 visitors

that

the

Nixdorf

Museumsforum expects

to

attract

each year.

In

the

meantime, we're

happy

to

send

one

of

California's earliest micros

to

this brand-

new

and

truly

fine European institution.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

47

NEW COMPUTER MUSEUMS

UNDERWAY

IN

BAY AREA

by

Frederic

E.

Davis

Founder and President,

San Francisco

Computer

Museum

The

Computer

Institute Inc., recently incorporated

as

a

nonprofit

organization, has joined

with

the

CHAC

to

create

the

Bay Area's

museum

of

technology:

the

San Francisco Com-

puter

Museum. As envisioned, this Museum will

provide a global center for recording and present-

ing

the

scientific, historical, artistic,

and

cultural

aspects

of

computing.

An

accompanying institute

will offer scholars and researchers

the

opportunity

to

extend

the

bounds

of

computer

technology

-a

profoundly

important

stage

in

the

development

of

human

civilization.

The

San Francisco Bay

Area

and its environs offer

an ideal setting for this facility. Silicon Valley

is

the

birthplace

of

commercially successful personal

computing and remains

the

world

center for com-

puter

technology.

The

City

of

San Francisco, pro-

posed

as

the

site

forthe

facility, has been ranked

the

number

one

tourist

destination worldwide, is a

major global business center,

and

serves

as

a gate-

way

to

Pacific

Rim

countries

that

are definitive

to

the

computer

industry.

The

project has received enthusiastic

support

from

the

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and

from San Francisco's

Mayor

Willie Brown.

In

an-

nouncing his

support

for

the

museum

project,

Mayor

Brown

said

"The

time

is clearly ripe for

such a museum

with

its related educational oppor-

tunities, and San Francisco

is

clearly

the

place for

it. "

Phase One:

CIVIC CENTER MUSEUM

Long-term plans are

to

develop

the

project

through

several phases.

The

first phase, scheduled

to

start

within

the

next year

pending

final approval

from

the

City,

will establish a

museum

facility

in

Brooks

Hall

in

San Francisco's Civic

Center

Plaza. Brooks

Hall

is

a 90,000 square

foot

facility and

former

convention site

that

boasts a notable

computer

in-

dustry heritage;

it

was

the

setting for several sig-

nificant events

in

computing

history, including

Doug

Englebart's seminal presentation

of

the

mouse

and

graphical user interface

in

1968, and

the

West Coast

Computer

Faire,

where

the

Apple II

and

many

other

major

computers

were launched

in

the

late 1970s.

Based

on

the

theme,

"Computing:

Yesterday,

Today,

and

Tomorrow,"

this first phase

of

the

San

Francisco

Computer

Museum

will feature exhibits

showcasing

computing

through

history, hands-on

displays

of

state-of-the-art technology, and exhibits

of

the

world's premiere

computer

graphics and

multimedia art.

It

will be

the

first

museum

of

com-

puting

in

the

world

to

have such a comprehensive

focus.

Later Phases:

MUSEUMS, THEATER, INSTITUTE

Later phases

of

the

project have

the

goal

of

creating

a larger "World's Fair-style" exhibition

that

will

become a

major

tourist

attraction for San Fran-

cisco. A

major

facility is

planned

that

will contain

four distinct museums -

The

Computer

Pavilion,

The

Computer

Jungle,

The

Computer

Gallery, and

The

Virtual

Museum

-

as

well

as

a multimedia

theater

and

auditorium,

and

the

Computer

Insti-

tute,

an

educational, cultural,

and

research resource

for

both

the

general public

and

the

computer

in-

dustry.

THE

COMPUTER

PA

VIUON

The

Computer

Pavilion houses a general exhibit

area and a

number

of

company-sponsored pavil-

ions.

The

general exhibit area traces

the

history

of

computing

and displays,

where

one

can see early

computer

artifacts

and

memorabilia.

The

com-

pany-sponsored pavilions provide a

look

into

the

future

of

computing

and

are modeled after

"World's Fair" exhibits.

THE

COMPUTER

JUNGLE

The

Computer

Jungle, less

structured

than

the

Pa-

vilion, will include

an

informal exhibit area offer-

ing visitors hands-on access

to

a wide spectrum

of

computer

technology. Cutting-edge products,

and

those still

under

development, will be showcased

in

exhibits

underwritten

by

the

companies responsi-

ble for

the

technology.

This

will be a cross

between

an

"Exploratorium™

of

computers" and

an

ongoing

computer

trade

show,

without

the

sales

hype.

Page

48

The Analytical Engine May 1996

THE

COMPUTER

GALLERY

The

Computer

Gallery will exhibit

computer

and

multimedia art.

Computers

are enabling

new

artis-

tic expressions

that

are

not

easy

to

display

in

a tra-

ditional art gallery.

This

will be

one

of

the

only

facilities worldwide

with

the

technological horse-

power

to

present a

broad

spectrum

of

computer

art

-

from

multimedia masterpieces

to

computer

ani-

mations

and

virtual reality simulations.

THE

VIRTUAL

MUSEUM

The

Virtual

Museum

will extend

the

Computer

Museum

into

cyberspace,

through

the

Internet

and

other

online services,

and

will also offer special

"exhibits"

on

CD-ROM

and

other

deliverable me-

dia. Providing worldwide access

to

the

Computer

Museum,

The

Virtual

Museum

will also serve

as

a

"community

center"

without

borders, bringing

together

computer

users, scientists, artists, vendors,

and

enthusiasts

in

real time.

THEATER

AND

STORE

The

San Francisco

Computer

Museum

complex

will contain a multimedia

theater

and

auditorium

and

an

adjacent

museum

store.

The

multimedia

theater

will

support

live presentation

of

new

works

by

multimedia artists,

as

well

as

previews

of

new

software

and

hardware,

and

other

visually intensive

events difficult

to

present

in

a standard theater.

Used

as

an

auditorium,

the

theater

will sustain an

ongoing schedule

of

cultural

and

scientific presen-

tations

by

scientists, artists, writers,

and

others.

The

museum

store will offer a selection

of

com-

puter

books, software, art,

and

high-tech souvenirs

to

help generate operating revenue

for

the

facility.

THE

COMPUTER

INSTITUTE

The

Computer

Institute,

which

will operate

and

administer

the

San Francisco

Computer

Museum

facility, will also

sponsor

resident fellows

in

the

arts

and

sciences,

who

will

pursue

research

into

multimedia

and

computer-interface design.

The

Institute, unlike research labs operated

by

private

companies, will place

in

the

public

domain

all

software, research,

and

design

work

produced

by

it

and

its fellows.

COMMPUTERSEUM

Grand

Opening

Season

July

6 -

August

19

by

Kevin

Stumpf

Curator,

Commercial

Computing

Museum

Fact: because

of

18

people

Canada

can

now

boast it

has a

computer

museum.

I

am

so

proud

and

happy

to

write

an

actual review

of

the

Commercial

Computing

Museum's

first ex-

hibition

season. I

mean

it actually

opened

and

people actually came

and

those people actually

enjoyed themselves.

The

exhibits were built

around

mainframe systems.

The

theme

was

"input

-process-output."

The

slogan

was "A

Remarkably

Small

Museum

For

Remarka-

bly

Big

Computers."

Despite

the

venue

and

the

lack

of

advertising

(because

of

the

lack

of

a budget),

many

people

(adults,

youth,

and

families)

took

the

time

to

visit.

People came

from

all over.

Many

people came

from

the

Toronto

and

Hamilton

areas (about a 60

minute

drive),

and

we were gratified

when

people

from

New

Jersey

and

New

York

arrived.

Of

course

the

locals were

very

supportive,

but

we

didn't

see

as

many

teens

as

we

had

hoped. Atten-

dance

isn't

the

only

indicator

of

the

success

of

such

an

endeavor, because

when

visitors

spend

several

hours

browsing, investigating,

photographing,

and

discussing

the

exhibits

something

must

have been

done

properly.

The

Waterloo

County

Board

of

Education pro-

vided

the

venue.

We

operated

from

July

6

until

August

19

from

the

gymnasium

of

University

Heights Secondary School

in

Waterloo,

Ontario.

This

was

an

unusual place

to

operate a museum,

and

no

doubt

some

people

didn't

take

us seriously

and

refused

to

visit.

The

Board

provided

the

facility rent-free since

our

mandates are

both

educational

in

nature. I

think

tax payers

of

the

Regional Municipality

of

Water-

100

should

be

pleased

that

their

board

of

education

acted

in

such a responsible

and

creative

way

to

en-

able Canada's first

computer

museum

to

open.

Unlike

other

attempts

at

opening a

computer

museum

in

Canada,

we

first

obtained

artifacts

and

then

opened.

Nothing

would

have

happened

though

without

the

efforts

of

many

dedicated vol-

May

1996

The

Analytical Engine Page

49

unteers.

No

matter

how

many

ancient computers

sat in storage, a group

of

energetic, helpful, and

interested volunteers were needed

to

wash them,

prepare

them

for presentation, move them, and

assist visitors.

The

Commercial Computing

Museum

is

blessed

with

such people.

A much more complete review will be published at

the end

of

the year.

Until

then

please visit

our

site

from time

to

time and stay

in

touch.

exhibition

is

already

in

the

works and there are

many interesting events and fund-raisers

on

the

way.

We also had a

booth

at Comdex Canada exhibiting

"The Art, Science, and

History

of

Computer Con-

trol Panels."

About

300 people stopped by. This

made July a very busy

month.

While traveling

back from Comdex I was interviewed for a CBC

radio show

that

aired

on

Labor Day.

If

you

weren't able

to

visit the

COMMPUTER-

SEUM

you

can still "picture yourself" there. Please

spend the time

to

examine the photographs taken

during the grand opening (www.sentex.net/

Nccmuseum). Send us

your

comments and

suggestions,

as

well

as

your

mailing address if

you

want a copy

of

the newspaper article about

the

museum. It's an honest review

of

the exhibit and

idea.

Thanks

to

every member

of

the

CHAC

and

of

the

computer-historical

community

who

gave gener-

ously

of

their support and good wishes during this

long project!

Book

Review:

THE MICROPROCESSOR:

A Biography

Michael

S.

Malone

New

York, NY:

TELOS/Springer-Verlag, 1995

333

pages, $29.95 (cloth)

ISBN 0-387-94342-0

Reviewed by

Kip

Crosby

In

the Preface

to

this book, Mike Malone says

that

he called

it

"A Biography" because "We anthro-

pomorphize a lot

of

non-human entities

in

our

world .... people have long referred

to

their com-

puters

by

their central processors .... rather

than

their brands." Well, maybe,

but

it's hardly neces-

sary

to

"anthropomorphize" the microprocessor

to

recognize

the

trait it

most

shares

with

humanity -

a rapacious and half-blind destiny

to

flow

into

any

niche

that

might accommodate it, nudging any

number

of

apple carts

into

chaos

on

the way. I

might once have

written

this review

on

a type-

writer,

but

instead

I'm

in

front

of

a computer so

freighted

with

microprocessors

that

I couldn't

count

them

all.

The

computer

would be bored just

listening

to

me type, so it's playing a

CD

on

a

drive whose laser is held steady

by

a ....

you

guessed

it.

And

I'm

drinking coffee

that

I just heated up

with

microwaves whose intensity was controlled

by

a .... uh-huh.

The

microprocessor

is

a fit subject

for a biographer because

it

is pervasive -and inva-

sive and transformative -

in

degrees almost appro-

priate

to

a living thing. .

Now,

of

course, microprocessors have only existed

for twenty-five years. "What?" "Huh?"

"No

way!"

Okay,

you're

right -

not

quite yet, because

the

silver anniversary

of

the

Intel 4004

won't

happen

till

November. Yet microprocessors are

now

so

ubiquitous

that

you -whoever

you

are -

don't

know

how

many

you

own. Even if

you

count

the

ones

you

can

think

of

(scholastic exercise

to

say

the

least,) you'll miss

the

ones

you

don't

know

about.

They're

called "embedded controllers" and

you

have more

of

them

than

you

can imagine.

How

did

we

get

here -and

in

a mere quarter

of

a century?

And

that

question,

in

its startling

and

sometimes

bewildering complexity , is

the

one

that

Malone

attempts

to

answer

in

a remarkably entertaining

book.

Page

50 The Analytical Engine May

1996

Like any good biography, this one requires unre-

lenting craft

in

its writing, since years

of

life are

condensed into a few hours' reading (talk about

lossy compression!)

that

still has to cover the high

points, tell an understandable story, pay homage to

the passage

of

time, and leave us with a coherent

image

of

the

subject. But

by

taking

the

storyteller's

approach

to

the microprocessor, Malone gives

himself a hard

row

to

hoe, because most biogra-

phers can rely

on

a certain baseline

of

community

that unites subject and reader.

Not

so this time,

and Malone has

to

begin

by

telling us

what

a mi-

croprocessor is, where it originated,

how

it's pro-

duced,

how

it works and

how

it fails. Imagine for

comparison the biography

of

an extraterrestrial,

which would have

to

include long sections

on

the

creature's anatomy and internal medicine, its lan-

guages, and the energy cycles and atmosphere

of

its

home planet. (The atmosphere

of

a microproces-

sor's "home planet" -the wafer

fab

-

is

not

much

like what we breathe, being

as

dust-free

as

humanly

possible. Soon, Malone assures us, even air will

not

suffice

as

a medium and fabrication will have

to

be

done in vacuum.)

So

this

book

already comprises a

small library.

Groundwork

thus laid, it's time for the micro-

processor's definitively tangled history, with its

elements of almost Shakespearean treachery (the

disintegration

of

Shockley Semiconductor and

founding

of

Fairchild was only a spectacular over-

ture,) and its names worse

than

Tolstoy's -can

you tell Xilinx, Xidex and Zilog apart, in a hurry?

Only

a Silicon Valley native could easily navigate

all

this,

but

Malone traces the industry's incestuous

connections with such agility

that

we come

to

un-

derstand a great sea-change; the microprocessor,

changing everything,

more

than

anything changed

its own industry, combining irreplaceable minds

into temporary companies, letting designers

hop

from tilt-up

to

tilt-up while

they

amassed experi-

ence that earned fortunes again and again.

One

of

this book's finest explorations

is

of

intellectual

property

in

its full flaming weirdness, which has

finally turned litigation from a weapon

into

a tedi-

ous kind

of

insurance.

These changes, once begun, are

not

spent; in fact,

they probably haven't reached full acceleration.

At

the beginning

of

this

book

I grumbled

when

Malone called

the

Intel 8080 the "invention

of

the

century;"

by

the

end I realized that microproces-

sors are practically inventing themselves, and the

century has four years

to

go.

In the book's last

section, "Dreams

of

Light," Malone turns his clear

and quick style

of

inquiry

to

the concepts and

technologies -like fuzzy logic, neural networks,

optical circuits, and replacements for silicon -that

will drive forward the next consolidation

of

the

microprocessor revolution. As

much

as

we've seen,

we await wonders

that

will stun us

to

silence again.

These few paragraphs are

only

a sketch

of

a book

that might

as

well be called

"The

Microprocessor:

An

Archaeology, Anatomy, History, Ecology,

As-

sessment and Prognosis." It's

not

a completely even

book, because the range

of

topics is an awkward fit

in a single binding.

The

author's talent for explana-

tion, honed

by

a long and conscientious career

as

a

journalist,

is

tested to its limits

by

the

deep wiz-

ardry

of

technical fine points.

And

if the illustra-

tions are

both

excellent and necessary, the book's

overall design depends

on

contrasts that are some-

times distracting. Still, I

don't

mean

to

be

too

loud

about a few little kinks. Building adroitly

on

the

insider's perspective

of

Malone's first book,

The

Big

Score,

this

book

is

ambitious, energetic, and com-

pelling; it tries

to

give a real, rigorous picture

of

historical transformation still

in

wild process.

The

Microprocessor:

A Biography will appeal

to

any

reader who wants

to

understand integrated elec-

tronics

as

primal force.

May

1996

The Analytical Engine

Page

51

ACQUISITIONS

From

smoldering

rumor

to

blazing

truth

-yes,

the

CHAC

is

accepting hardware again.

And

hardware for the

ages!

We need

to

know

more

about a lot

of

these computers (and take a longer

look at some

of

them)

but

here's a barebone

de-

scription, for the record,

of

our

accessions

in

the

last quarter. Share

the

joy, 0 ye faithful.

The

ENGINE's

next allocation

of

time and space will

bring pictures and detailed stories

of

many

of

these

machines.

Apple Lisa 2 and

Apple

Mac

XL; thanks

to

Craig

deRosa. These aren't quite from the computer

store.

One

of

them

has a slotted, transparent plexi-

glass

front panel -we suspect made in a p.r0to-

typing shop,

not

hacked -and a ten-meg mternal

hard disk ....

Compupro

homebrew;

thanks

to

James Birdsall.

A Z80-based

S-100

in

a rack cleanly fabricated from

plywood and sheet aluminum. Lots

of

spare boards

including a Hayes modem; lots

of

software; docs

on

everything, neatly alphabetized

in

manila

folders.

The

definitive museum-piece micro.

Data

General

Nova

II; thanks

to

Max

Anthony,

and we'll have details later.

GRID

Gridcase 3; thanks

to

Mike Tassano.

The

secret agent's laptop, in stealth-black cast alloy.

The orange plasma screen

is

so sharp

that

the pixels

are visibly square. Honestly a bit heavy

by

modern

standards,

but

it could double

as

body armor

in

a

pinch, and it looks so .... serious.

HP

2114A; thanks

to

Cliff Olson.

One

of the old,

old, original-original

HP

rack-mount minis,

with

a

single-digit prototype serial number. Beautiful in

that faintly patinated way

that

brings

to

mind, say,

a classic car. Stay

tuned

for a feature.

HP

terminal

and

tape

drive; thanks

to

Max

Anthony, and we'll have details later.

Intel

MDS; thanks

to

the

Tech Museum

of

Inno-

vation. This

is

one

of

the

later Intel development

"blue boxes," with an integral

CRT

and

(we

sus-

pect) an i8086, rather

than

an Intellec.

It

came

with

what look like full docs for Isis.

Intertec

Superbrain;

thanks

to

the Tech Museum

of Innovation.

An

early attempt at an all-in-one

business micro, this combined computer/terminal

boasts dual Z80's, dual 8" floppies, a 12"

CRT

and

32K RAM. (Note

to

younger readers: In

1979

that

was a lot.)

The

whole package

is

clean, imposing

and humongously heavy.

Not

a bad computer

by

the standards

of

the

day,

the

Superb rain has faded

so

far back

into

history

that

some people today

think

it's a game machine.

Kaypro II; thanks

to

Craig deRosa. A second

ex-

ample

of

the well-loved blue-and-silver luggable,

this -like all spares -will make the rounds

as

an

exhibit computer. Although we haven't yet

checked the

two

computers side

by

side for

minor

distinctions ....

but

then, were any

two

K-twos ever

totally alike?

Osborne

One;

thanks

to

Mike Tassano. A pristine

and "late," gray-cased example

of

the

blockbuster

Z80 luggable

that

every laptop and notebook owes

its soul to.

Only

a few years after cozying

up

to

a

desktop, micros -thanks

to

the Ozzie -were free

of even that. A

true

classic joins

the

roster.

Processor

Technology

SOL-20; thanks

to

Al

Kossow. Actually,

two

more

of

the handsome and

gutsy pre-Apple micros

with

walnut sides.

With

AI's enthusiastic permission, we donated one

to

the

new

Nixdorf

Museum

(see

p.

46;)

the other will

become an exhibit computer.

Seattle

Computer

Products

8086; thanks

to

Char-

lotte D'Amico. A connoisseur's micro

on

two

counts. First, this

may

have been

the

first produc-

tion

8086 computer outside Intel. (Article topic!

Article topic!) Second, it was one

of

these - a close

relative at least -

on

which

Tim

Patterson devel-

oped

QDOS,

the

precursor

of

MS-DOS; and,

probably,

on

which he alpha-tested Microsoft 8086

BASIC

in

May 1979.

Tektronix

8562; thanks

to

James Birdsall. This

rarely seen article

is

a rack-mount development

box based

on

a ceramic-pack

DEC

LSI-11. Built at

a time

when

Tektronix

had an almost unrivaled

reputation for quality,

the

8562

is

of

achingly beau-

tiful construction. Since

the

outside

is

beige and

has

the

usual eight corners, we

may

display it with

the case off. Watch for a feature.

Page

52 The Analytical Engine May 1996

Xerox

Alto;

thanks

to

Al

Kossow. YesllReally!

Absolutely!

The

CHAC

has an Alto,

with

its

graphical interface, its Smalltalk, its fourteen-inch,

2.5

Mb

hard

disk ....

This

computer

had

stuff no

other

computer

had

in

1974.

This

computer

has

stuff your

computer

doesn't

have

now

-like a full-

page

portrait

monitor.

And

all

of

this pales next

to

the

fact

that

it

plays Galaxian.

To

sit and play at

the

Alto,

with

Butler Lampson's black-covered

manual at elbow,

is

to

enter

a major time

warp

....

in

which

the

roots

of

LisaOS, MacOS,

Atari

GEM,

X-Windows, MS-Windows, etc., are finally laid

bare

to

the

dazzled seeker.

One

of

the

few com-

puters

that

can be

totally

ingratiating and still send

chills

down

your

back.

Tech

Corner:

DE-CRUFfING

a POWER SUPPLY FAN

by

Kip

Crosby

and

Joan

Piker

[Note:

The

procedure outlined here, if performed

correctly, will clean

the

power

supply generally

to

be found

in

a

commodity

desktop

or

tower

com-

puter.

Neither

the

authors

nor

this publication are

responsible for loss

or

damage suffered

as

a result

of

performing this procedure incorrectly,

or

per-

forming it

on

a

unit

not

of

the

design described

below. Caveat lector. ]

The

fan

in

the

power

supply

of

an average desktop

computer leads a ghastly life. Expected

to

deliver

consistent

throughput

and constant uptime,

it

sur-

vives

on

a diet

of

spiky wall voltage and dust-laden

hot

air.

The

hot

air flows

through

the

fan and does

its bit for global warming;

much

of

the

dust-

spongy gray

gunk

seeded

with

evil glitter -accu-

mulates

on

the

fan blades

or,

worse,

within

the

power

supply

box

itself.

Wouldn't

it

be nice,

you

think,

to

really get

in

there

and suck

out

all

that

cruft? But it's

not

that

easy ....

An

inexpensive

power

supply

is

typically cooled

by

a muffin fan

mounted

inside

the

power

supply

box.

The

fan

is

covered

by

a protective grid

of

either stamped sheet steel

or

welded wire.

Four

bolts, one at each

corner

of

the

fan,

run

through

the

protective grid,

through

tubes

in

the

corners

of

the

fan shroud,

then

through

speednut clips

that

secure

them.

(Figure 1 shows a fan frame,

with

the

fan

omitted

for clarity,

and

one

speednut

in

typical

position at

the

upper

left.)

o

o o

Figure

1.

The

dread begins

when

you

realize

that

this entire

sandwich, held

together

by

the

bolts, can never be

removed from

the

tack-welded steel case.

You

have

to

do all

your

work

inside

the

case, while

you

avoid dislodging

the

speednuts,

which

would

fall

in

and be almost impossible

to

retrieve. (And

no,

you

can't

leave one

in

there,

or

you

risk shorting

out

the

power

supply circuit board.) This maintenance

is

a challenge,

but

it's possible, and

with

a little

extra care, it can even be repeated

when

necessary.

T oals and materials list:

Screwdriver,

probably

#2 Phillips

Hex

driver,

probably

1,4"

Mini vacuum cleaner

with

wand

tip

Bench rag

Large paper clip

or

other

short

stiff wire

Round

toothpicks

Superglue

pen

Double-face

narrow

(1,4

It)

tape

Cotton

swabs

Isopropyl alcohol

1.)

Power-down

your

computer

and

unplug

it.

If

you're

really

prudent,

let it sit for a while so

the

capacitors can drain.

Go

use

your

other

computer.

May

1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

53

Figure 2.

2.)

Spread the bench rag

on

your workspace. Dis-

connect the power supply's connectors from the

devices and main board, taking note of their orien-

tation

as

you

do. With the hex

or

Phillips driver,

undo and pull the (probably) four bolts that hold

the power supply against the backplane

of

the

case

-

not

the four bolts at the immediate corners

of

the fan frame. These will be outside the cutouts for

the fan and power cables.

In

a desktop case,

the

supply

is

also probably held in

by

two tangs at the

bottom of the computer

case

that fit into recesses

in the power supply box. Pull the power supply

forward -away from

the

backplane and toward

the drive connectors .,- about three-quarters

of

an

inch (20mm);

then

lift it up and out, and set

it

on

the rag.

3.}

Get all possible dust out of the fan, and off the

perforated sections

of

the box, with the mini-vac.

Put the box back

on

the rag with the fan protector

at the top.

4.}

Bend the paper clip

or

wire into a slim hook.

Slip

it through

the

fan protector and snag one

blade of the fan. Remove the four bolts that hold

the fan in place, making sure

(as

you

withdraw the

fourth bolt)

that

you

have a good grip

on

the fan

with the wire hook.

Be

careful

not

to

knock

the

speednuts

out

of

alignment; they are

now

loose.

S.}

Remove the fan protector. With it gone,

you

can probably get a better grip

on

the fan with

your

fingers than with the wire hook. Move the fan

around inside the box so

you

can

see

each corner

in turn. Carefully clean each corner

of

the fan

frame, and the

face

of each speednut, with a cotton

swab and alcohol.

6.}

Make sure each speednut

is

aligned with the

tube that its bolt goes through. Touch the edge of

the speednut with the superglue pen

(as

in figure

2)

to

glue it

to

the fan frame.

Hold

the fan till the

glue dries.

7.}

Using the minivac,

or

turning the box upside

down and shaking it, remove dust mercilessly. Get

the minivac's wand past the fan and into the box,

to

clean the circuit board gently.

8.)

Put

a small piece of double-face tape over each

speednut. Set the box down with the fan facing the

edge

of

the table, make sure the fan

is

aligned

properly, and pull the fan back into place

to

stick

it

to

the inside

of

the box. Poke a toothpick into

each bolt hole, through the tape.

9.}

Hang the fan protector over the toothpicks.

Replace each toothpick, one at a time, with a bolt.

Re-connect the power supply's connectors and

check any other cables

you

may have jostled.

You're done! The fan will be significantly more

efficient, and probably quieter.

When

you

want

to

do this again,

you

can just take

out

the bolts and

unstick the tape, without worrying about the

glued-down speednuts.

Page

54 The Analytical Engine May 1996

QUERIES

APPLE

ONE

Chris

Bachmann, c-bachmann@nwu.edu, is

trying

to

compile a registry

of

owners

of

the

Apple

One

-

partly

to

share increasingly scarce

information,

and

partly

to

find

out

how

many

boards still sur-

vive. Interested parties can reach

Chris

via e-mail

or

care

of

Bachmann, 225

N.

3rd

Street, Wheeling

IL 90090 USA.

APPLE

LISA

2/10:

MYSTERIES

I recently acquired a Lisa

2/10

from

my

school,

running

an outdated version

of

Mac

Works.

I have

a few questions

which

I have been asking since

the

purchase

of

the

machine.

If

anyone

here

could

lend

a hand,

thanks

in

advance.

1.

Under

the

CRT,

there

is

a small panel listing

the

serial

number,

Applenet

#,

and

Manufactured

#.

What

do all these fields mean?

2.

The

hard

drive makes a high-pitched squeak

whenever

the

arm

moves

out

of

and

into

the

parked position

(I'm

guessing, I

know

at least

that

it's

the

arm).

Is

this normal?

The

disk

doesn't

seem

to

be suffering,

and

no

data

is

lost.

If

this needs

to

be remedied,

what

can I do?

3.

What

is

a good

way

to

get

that

hard-to-reach

crud

out

of

various cavities

in

the

body?

Would

Dust-Off

or

a similar

product

be a bad idea?

4.

The

keyboard

is

covered

with

that

familiar

Apple keyboard

crud

that

accumulates

on

all keys

of

Apple keyboards (maybe others).

How

can I

remove this?

5.

Out

of

curiosity,

the

fact

that

I have an

old

Mac,

and

the

fact

that

the

Lisa makes a

rotten

Mac, I

am

reinstalling

the

Lisa Office System. All I really

need

is

LisaTerm (which is a

term

program,

right?

I've

only

seen

the

Office System once;

my

apolo-

gies

if

I am using

incorrect

terms),

but

does

the

Lisa

support

any

sort

of

networking

whatsoever?

Gotta

go,

thunder

...

Tom

Stepleton

ssteplet@artsci.wustl.edu

APPLE

MACINTOSH

I have recently rescued a Macintosh

128

from

a

trash heap. I have made

what

repairs I could,

but

need some system software

to

try

it

out! Please

send

me

any

information

you

have regarding

where I

might

get

hold

of

some. I sure

would

like

to

get this little toaster smiling again!

Thank

you

for

your

time.

Stephen

Jones

swj0001@jove.acs.unt.edu

UNT

Box 7519

Denton

TX

76203

(817)

243-5242

BOSTON

IV

I'm

looking

for

the

company,

or

any

info,

on

a

Boston IV

home

computer

system. All I

know

is

that

it

had

a 6502 processor.

Can

you

help?

Thanks

....

Chuck

chuckS@psln1.psln.com

COMPUTER

AUTOMATION

Does anyone at

CHAC

know

of

a place

from

which I could purchase

programming

manuals for

certain obsolete

minicomputers

(without

the

asso-

ciated hardware)?

My

interest is

in

one

of

the

lesser

known

manufacturers,

Computer

Automation,

Inc.

They

were

probably

forced

out

of

the

mini-

computer

manufacturing business

by

the

advent

of

the

microprocessor,

but

used

to

be

in

Irvine, Cali-

fornia.

The

models I

am

interested

in

are

the

Alpha-16 and

the

LSI-4 minicomputers.

Thanks,

Roy Campbell

75537.2422@compuserve.com

May 1996 The Analytical Engine Page

55

DATA

GENERAL

NOVA

3

I recently acquired a

Data

General

Nova

3 mini-

computer. Anyone

with

memories

or

information

on

this beast?

I'd

like

to

know

more

of

its history.

Is

it true

that

the

Nova

design was initially rejected

by

DEC?

Edwin R. Parsons

edwin@peninsula.apana.org.au

EAGLE PC-2:

DOCS

AND

S/W

WANTED

A rthur Bauman has recently inherited an Eagle PC-

2,

an Intel 8088-powered California IBM

PC

clone

that can run either MS-DOS

or

CP/M-86.

He

would appreciate hearing from anyone

who

has

docs

or

software for this machine, especially a

user's manual.

If

you

can help, please write

to

him

at

124

Orchard

Avenue, Mountain View

CA

94043.

80

MICRO

MAGS

OFFERED

I have a complete set

of

80Micro Magazines.

The

magazine for the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, II,

III etc.

The

collection includes Issue 1

(1-80)

through Issue 74

(3-86)

With

a special edition

published Jan 1983. Wayne Green was

the

pub-

lisher.

I am looking for a good home for the magazines,

please contact me if

you

would like

them

or

if

you

know

of

an organization which would like them.

Regards,

Rick Hoover

rick _ h@community.net

ENIACDOCS?

Does anyone

know

where I can find technical

documentation for

the

ENIAC

computer? I would

be very interested in detailed descriptions

of

the

hardware and instruction set. Ultimately, I would

like to write a

ENIAC

simulator for the

PC

and

run

some

of

the

original programs if I could get

hold

of

them.

Jim Stewart

jkmicro@dsp.com

IBM

I have a bunch

of

IBM

unit

record equipment in-

cluding a large

number

of

plug boards card sorters

with tubes and printers.

When

it was taken

out

of

service a few years ago it still ran.

Any

idea

of

who

might be interested

in

it and

how

much

it would

be worth.

Thanks,

Bob Swartz

rs@interaccess.com

IMSAI

Do

you

know

of

anyone selling

any

IMSAI 8080's?

I am VERY interested

in

obtaining one with

floppy drives. Being the computer

in

the movie

War

Games makes it quite interesting.

Thanks.

Nick

conartis@tiac.net

[8080's are relatively

common

because

they

were

gutsy and performed well, so people kept them.

The

going rate for a functional one seems

to

be

about $300.

Be

warned

that

you

mayor

may

not

want the floppy drives, which earned themselves

the name

of

"Pizza Oven;"

you

might be just

as

well off with paper tape.]

MINIX/286

I have a couple

of

old 286s witch I wish

to

put

to

slow redundant tasks.

And

to

do this

of

course I

can

not

use

DOS.

I

am

looking for someone

willing

to

sell/

donate/

pay-me-to-take a useable

copy

of

Minix

(I

figure everyone must be running

Linux primarily nowadays)

that

would

run

on

a

286 machine .....

E-mail if

you

can help.

T.Camp

camp@industrial.com

Page

56

The

Analytical Engine

May

1996

NCR

1-9020

I have acquired an old

(1978)

NCR

1-9020

rack

mount

computer,

with

ribbon printer, and

20

14inch floppies.

All the hardware seems

to

be

OK,

but

the

SYSGEN tapes are corrupt. I have been unable

to

locate a source for the tape which

is

required

to

boot up the system.

Hope

someone has an idea

or

suggestion.

Any

help

would be appreciated.

Thank

you,

Joe

Mohnike

jmohnike@valleynet.com

OSBORNE

ONE:

DISKS,

DOCS,

MAGS

I'm

looking for

Osborne

1 disks, and any

of

the

Osborne 1 magazines

that

still might be

out

there.

Can anyone help? Thanks,

Bill Johnson

bjohnson@moa.com

P.

O.

Box 579781

Modesto

CA

95357 USA

: DISKS,

DOCS,

or

OFFER

I have an Osborne I in

mint

condition; looking for

software and manuals.

Alternatively, open

to

some sort

of

counter offer.

Susan Rosen

RRosen@postoffice.worldnet.att.net

SHUGART

14"

DRIVE

INTERFACE:

ANYTHING?

Does anyone have any information about the his-

tory

of

the interface used

with

the

Shugart SA4000

14"

hard drives, and information about any

other

drives that were compatible

with

this interface?

Also, did the SAI000 interface, which, if I recall

correctly,

is

the predecessor to, and (about?)

the

same

as,

the ST

412/ST506

interface, precede

the

SA4000 series

hard

drives?

Can

anyone provide

any information

on

the

SAI000 hard drives?

I'm

trying

to

figure

out

it

the

SA4000 interface was

meant

to

be an improvement

upon

the

SAlOOO

interface,

as

it has a higher data transfer rate

(7.11

MBit/s

vs.

5 MBit/s), and in

that

it

uses

NRZ

(non-return-to-zero) pulses for

the

data, bears some

resemblance

to

ESDI (although

10

to

15

MBitl

s,

it

also uses

NRZ

for

the

data, and uses MFM encod-

ing, like the SA4000 and SAlOOO/ST506).

Also, out

of

curiosity, are there any others out

there, aside from those of

us

still using PERQ-1

graphics workstations,

who

are still using these

14"

Shugart hard drives (or remember using them)?

I'm

sure that there must (hopefully) be some people

out

there

who

are still using these drives with Z80,

S-100

bus, based

CP/M

systems

as

well,

as

there

was a Discus M26 Winchester Disk System con-

troller used

with

these

S-100

based systems.

The

User's Manual for

the

Discus M26 (written

by

George Morrow)

is

rather

nice, containing sche-

matics and source code.

Is

anyone still using the

M26?

Thanks very

much

in advance for any information

that anyone can provide about any of the above!

R. D. Davis

http://www.access.digex.netrrdd

WANG

320SE

I have a

~

1967

Wang Model 320SE multi-user elec-

tronic calculator unit.

It

is

approximately

60x20x13cm and weighs about l5kg.

It

has four

connectors for external keyboard-display units. I

would like

to

find more information about this

beast.

Do

you

know

where I might look?

Any

in-

formation would be welcome.

Thanks,

Scott Coburn

scott@bnl.gov

XENIX

Hey,

HELP. I am looking for a copy of Xenix-286

Ver. 3.2 (2.3). I need

the

boot

disk and utility disks.

I am surfin' the

net

for any help I can get. Thanks

Dennis Rapp

rapp@i-link.net

May 1996 The Analytical Engine Page 57

ZILOG

Z8000:

ONLINE

DOCS?

Does anyone

know

where

to

find some online

documentation

on

the

Z8000 family

of

CPUs? I

wrote email

to

someone

that

said Olivetti made a

computer based

on

one

of

the Z8000s, does anyone

out there

know

what

it's called?

I'm

also trying

to

track down a cross-assembler for the Z8000 (the

Z8002, specifically, which can only address 64K),

and I

think

there's a commercial table assembler

available

that

has the Z8000 in it,

but

it's $200 and

I was hoping

to

find a freeware

or

shareware

program that might have it.

Any

info would be

greatly appreciated!

Gary

garyd@haus.efn.org

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

In the interest

of

getting

ENGINE

3.3

out

the

door

during the present century, listing

of

publications

is

postponed until

the

archive ("heap") can

be

re-

viewed and reorganized. We hope

to

finish an up-

dated list in time for 3.4.

ADDRESSES OF

CORRESPONDING

ORGANIZATIONS

Amateur

Computer

Group

of

New

Jersey

(ACGNJ), P.

O.

Box 135, Scotch Plains

NJ

07076.

Joe Kennedy, president.

Australian

Computer

Museum Society,

PO

Box

103,

KILLARA 2071, NSW, Australia. Michael

Chevallier, secretary.

Charles Babbage Institute,

103

Walter Library,

117

Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis

MN

55455. Bruce

Bruemmer, archivist.

Commercial Computing Museum (formerly Un-

usual Systems,) 220 Samuel Street, Kitchener

ON

N2H

lR6, Canada. Kevin Stumpf, president.

Computer Conservation Society,

15

Northampton

Road, Bromham, Beds. MK43 8QB, UK.

Tony

Sale, secretary.

The Computer Museum, 300 Congress Street,

Boston MA 02210.

No

contact at present; use

www.tcm.org.

The

Computer

Journal, P.

O.

Box 3900, Citrus

Heights

CA

95611. Dave Baldwin, editor.

Computer

Preservation Society (Inc.), Ferrymead

Historic Park,

269

Bridle

Path

Road, Christchurch

8002,

New

Zealand.

Abraham

Orchard, secretary;

abe@voyager.co.nz.

Computer

Technology Archive, Box 4376,

Stanford

CA

94309. Bill vanCleemput, director.

East Bay

FOG,

5497 Taft Avenue, Oakland

CA

94618.

Tom

Lewis, president.

Hewlett-Packard

Journal,

Hewlett-Packard

Company, Box 51827, Palo Alto

CA

94303-0724.

Richard P. Dolan, editor.

International Association

of

Calculator Collectors,

14561

Livingston Street, Tustin

CA

92680-2618.

Guy

Ball, Bruce L. Flamm, directors.

IEEE

Computer

Society, 10662 Los Vaqueros

Circle, Los Alamitos

CA

92640. Bob Carlson,

director.

Lambda Software Publishing,

149

West Hilliard

Lane, Eugene

OR

97404. David A.

J.

McGlone,

editor and publisher.

Lexikon Services, Box 1328, Elverta

CA

95843.

lexikon2@aol.com.

Mark

Greenia, director.

Perham Foundation,

101

First Street #394, Los

Altos

CA

94022.

Don

Koijane, president.

Santa Clara Valley Historical Association,

525

Alma Street, Palo Alto

CA

94301.

John

McLaughlin, director.

Page

58

The Analytical Engine May

1996

THANKS TO ....

Aaron Alpar for his donation.

Charlotte D'Amico and

Dan

Lahey for hand-

delivering the Seattle Computer Products 8086.

Fred Davis for the Dell Dimension

486-100

now

serving

as

our full-time

fax

machine, among other

things.

George Durfey for his help with the Maiga Wolf

interview.

Andrew Eisner for the Macintosh SE/30; Frank

Freeman for the

SE

video board; and Gavin

Carothers for setting it

all

up with System 7.1.

Tom

Ellis for ongoing support

of

MS-FrontPage

and MS-Windows

NT;

and for configuration

of

our brand-new Ethernet network

(yessssss!.~

Edwin Vivian EI-Kareh for his fomidable contribu-

tions

as

your Association's Tactical Director.

Don

Koijane for his collaboration and support

on

the lecture circuit.

Bob Ragen for fact-checking Nick Bodley's Friden

article.

Erich Schienke for fine-tuning this issue's graphics.

NEXT ISSUE / COVER ART

To

begin with, it's the silver anniversary of the

microprocessor and that's worth commemorat-

ing .... there's an interview in the works with a

workstation pioneer .... maybe an excerpt from a

major new computer history title .... and a review of

Hafner and Lyon's new

book

on

the origins

of

the

Internet. In your hands

as

soon

as

we

can get it

there.

Cover: Maiga Wolf at

work

in London, Ontario,

1949.

GUIDELINES FOR

DISTRIBUTION

The ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

is

intellectual

shareware. Distribution

of

complete,

verbatim

copies through online posting, Internet mail

or

news,

fax,

postal service

or

photocopying

is

en-

couraged by the Computer History Association of

California.

Excerpting

or

brief quotation for fair use, including

review

or

example,

is

also permitted, with one

ex-

ception:

Any

material copyright

to

or

by

a third

party and reprinted in the ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

by

permission shall

not

be

used in

an-

other periodical

or

context, unless the permission

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is

separately secured for

the new use.

Alterations, abridgments

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L YTICAL

ENGINE

which change the intent

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fornia;

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which contrive

to

injure the Computer

History Association

of

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tributors, volunteers

or

members; are PROHIB-

ITED. Reproduction

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the ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

without its subscription coupon

is

abridgment in this sense.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION

The ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

solicits manu-

scripts of

750

to 2500 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 lit-

erate general audience. Submissions are welcome

from both members and non-members of the

CHACo Article deadlines are:

July

15

for the No-

vember issue, October

15

for the February issue,

January

15

for the May issue, and April

15

for the

August issue.

Each author may publish a maximum of one

signed article per year. This restriction does

not

apply to letters, queries,

book

reviews

or

inter-

views.

Thank

you

for cooperating to protect diver-

sity

of

voices and topics. Previously published ma-

terial will be republished only in clearly attributed

May 1996 The Analytical Engine

Page

59

quotations

or

citations;

or

when

its publication

in

the

ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

will

bring

it

to

the

attention

of

a significantly

broader

audience;

or

when

the

original publication is materially obsolete

or

inaccessible.

Decision

of

the

editors is final

but

copyright

of

all

published material will

remain

with

the

author.

The

preferred

document

file

format

is Microsoft

Word

for

DOS

or

Windows,

but

almost

any

DOS

or

Macintosh

word

processor file will be accept-

able. Submit manuscripts

on

DOS

5.25"

or

3.5",

or

Mac

HD

(1.4) diskettes. Alternatively, please send

your

article

as

ASCII

or

ISO

Internet

maiL Please

avoid submitting

on

paper

unless absolutely

necessary.

The

ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

Volume

3,

Number

3,

May

1996

ISSN

1071-6351

newsletter

of

the

Computer

History

Association

of

California, is published

four

times a

year

-

in

Feb-

ruary, May, August

and

November

-

at

Palo Alto,

California.

This

magazine is available

both

on-line

and

on

paper. Basic, domestic subscriptions are $25 elec-

tronic

and

$35 paper,

with

$25 deductible

as

a

charitable

donation.

For

information

on

institu-

tional, international,

and

low·income subscrip-

tions, contact

the

Association at:

41S9-C El

Camino

Way

Palo Alto,

CA

94306-4010

USA

Internet: engine@chac.org

WWW:

http://www.chac.orgl

NINES-CARD

WHO

INVENTED

"SOFTWARE?"

by Herb Kanner

In

1958, I managed

by

sheer

chutzpah

to

wangle

myself

an

assistant professorship

at

the

Institute for

Computer

Research,

University

of

Chicago.

My

graduate degree was

in

physics,

and

all

that

I

knew

about

computers

was

that

I

had

written

some

programs

for

an

IBM 650

in

assenibly language,

in

Perlis's

IT,

which

was perhaps

the

first high-level

language

on

earth,

and

in

the

Bell Labs interpreter,

which

simulated a three-address machine.

The

Institute was building a transistorized com-

puter

(one

of

the

first,

if

not

THE

first)

on

an

Atomic

Energy

Commission

contract. So

here

were these guys soldering transistors, capacitors,

and

resistors

.onto

printed

circuit boards

and

quaintly

referring

to

the

stuff

as

"hardware."

This

I

found

very

amusing;

my

concept

of

hardware

was

something

you

bought

in

a hardware store.

Because I was responsible

for

the

initial programs

for

this

machine, e.g. a symbolic assembler, I

thought

it

would

be

a

cute

idea

to

put

a sign

on

my

office

door

that

read "Software

Department."

I'm

sure

that

the

term

"software"

did

not

radiate

from

my

usage.

But

I'm

also fairly sure

that

it

was

not

floating

around

the

literature

at

that

time. So,

at

worst, I

made

an

independent

invention.

It

might

be interesting

to

try

to

track

down

the

other

origins

of

the

term.

CONTENTS

Editorial:

THREE

YEARS ..•....•.•.....••...•.••..••••...•.•••••.•.••.•.•.•...•.•...•••••...•...••.................•....•..••.•.................... 1

IN

MEMORIAM:

DAVID

PACKARD

...•...........•.•....••.....•.....••......••..•....•.•.•..•.••..•.........•.•...•.........•.......... 3

THE

COMPUTER

WILL

DO

ANYTHING

YOU

TELL

IT

TO

DO:

An

Interview

with

Maiga

Wolf

by

Hilary

Crosby

••..••..•....•.....•.•.••.•.•..•.••..••••.........•....•............................... 5

Quick

Take:

RAMAC

40

th ANNIVERSARY! ........................................................................................... 20

Quick

Take:

GETTING

FRA.MED

IN

3D

••••...•..•..•....•.•.•.•..•••....•.•..........•........•.....••••.•.•..•.•...........•.....•...

20

THE

MAC

AND

ME:

15 Years

of

Life

with

the

Macintosh

(Part

2)

by

Jef

Raskin •......•...•.•.....•.•..•.•....•................•..........••....•..... 21

SPEAKING

OF

ENGINES

..•....•.....••...•..••...•......•.......•...•..•..•.•••...•..........•..................•..•.......................... 34

FTP

SITE

FOR

COMPUTER

CONSERVATION

SOCIETY,

by

Chris

P~

Burton

..•............................ 34

THE

FRIDEN

EC-130:

The

World's Second Electronic

Desktop

Calculator,

by

Nicholas Bodley ...•...... 34

What

Was

The

First

PERSONAL

COMPUTER?

An

Exploration,

by

Roy

A1lan ..................................... 42

CHAC

DONATES

EARLY

MICRO

TO

NIXDORF

MUSEUM

............................................................ 46

NEW

COMPUTER

MUSEUMS

UNDERWAY

IN

BAY AREA,

by

Frederic E. Davis ........................... 47

COMMPUTERSEUM

Grand

Opening

Season

July

6 -

August

19,

by

Kevin

Stumpf

......•..................•.. 48

Book Review:

THE

MICROPROCESSOR:

A Biography,

by

Michael

S.

Malone

...•.•..•.••...•.•......•........... 49

ACQUISITIONS

••.••.•.•••••.•.••••••.•.•......•••••.•.•••..•......•.•.•..•.•...•••.•..........•.........•.•....••.•.•....••................ : .........

51

Tech

Comer:

DE-CRUFTING

a

POWER

SUPPLY

FAN,

by

Kip

Crosby

and

Joan

Piker

......................

52

QUERIES .........••••....•.................••....••....••............•••....•....•.•.....•.•....•.....•....•.•...................•••...•.•..••............. 54

PUBUCATIONS

RECEIVED

.••..•.•...•.•....•.•....•••••.•••..•.••••.•.•...•..•......••..........•.....•....•....•.....•.................... 57

ADDRESSES

OF

CORRESPONDING

ORGANIZATIONS

................................................................. 57

THANKS

TO

.•..•••••.•••••....•.••.•.••.•.•.•.•.•.•.•...•.•....•.•..•.•.•..•.•.•.•.•••.•...•••..•.•....•...•.•....••....••...•••....•....•.....•........ 58

COVER

ART

••.•.•.•••..••••.•.•..•.•.

~

......................................................................................... 58

GUIDEUNES

FOR

DISTRIBUTION

..................................................................................................... 58

GUIDEUNES

FOR

SUBMISSION

..•.•.•.....•.•.••.•.•..•.••••.•.•.•.•.•....•...•...•.•..•.....••...•............•.•.•.•.•.•.•.....•......

58

NINES-CARD:

WHO

INVENTED

"SOFTWARE?,"

by

Herb

Kanner

................................................... 5 9

SUBSCRIBE!

US$7.00

UK£S.OO

12.S0DM ¥1000

Lee

Felsenstein

and

Joachim

Wolf

examine

the

SOL-20

(page

47)

and.

...

The

Computer

That Could Do

Anything

• David Packard, 1912-1996

The Earliest

PC's

• Friden Calculators • Raskin's

Mac

and Me,

part

2

Malone on Microprocessors •

San

Francisco

Computer

Museum

Dealing

with

Fan

Cruft

•

Nixdorf

Museum

in Paderborn • and more!

The

Computer

History

Association

of

California

3.3_May_1996 3.3 May 1996

3.3_May_1996 3.3_May_1996

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