Wow! I was bowled over after I visited the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View last Friday.
Over the years, I’ve heard and read about how different tech companies developed the technology that we take for granted today in our machines and in the process became the darlings of investors.
Like how IBM built the first PC in the early 1980s and assigned the development of the computer’s operating system to a small company called Microsoft. Two decades later, IBM exited the PC business by selling it lot, stock and barrel to Lenovo in 2004 as Microsoft grew into a multi-billion dollar software giant.
I had read about the Eniac, the first general purpose computer and the PDP1, the first minicomputer built by Digital Equipment Corporation (the company was bought by Hewlett-Packard in 1998).
I had also read about the Xerox Alto - the first computer built in 1973 to demonstrate the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI) that we know today.
To see all of them in real life was a great experience. The Eniac used to fill a whole room but only one block is now on exhibit. The PDP1 took my breath away. It is still a working machine and can play Spacewar!, one of the earliest computer games developed.
I was fortunate to catch the new major exhibition which opened on Jan 13 called Revolution, the first 2000 years of computing. I found it fun and informative. I discovered many snippets of information that I did not know.
For example, people had tried to make computing part of everyday living from as early as 20 years ago. The home catalogue of departmental store Neiman Marcus, for example, listed the Kitchen Machine which can be used to store recipes and ingredients.
Big problem though - its US$10,000 price tag then. I’m not surprised there were no takers.
There is an exhibit of Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer which beat chess master Kasparov in a match in 1997. What I didn’t know was that Kaspaprov had won the first match with Deep Blue in 1996. Confident that he could beat the machine again, he issued a challenge for the following year.
IBM improved the supercomputer for the 1997 re-match by strengthening its memory chips. Deep Blue outfoxed Kasparov, two wins to one.
I also saw an early Apple computer signed by its builder Steve Wozniak and learnt about analogue computers.
An early instrument using an analogue computer was for bomb sights used by US airmen during World War II to lock in on their targets while in their bomber aircraft. Once the target was sighted, the coordinates were fed in manually by cranking the shaft of the instrument.
SIGHTS AND SENSES
To dive deeper into some issues, I could listen to audio tapes and watch video clips of computer pioneers and experts who shared their thoughts on a variety of topics such as software languages, programming and Web development.
People, products and companies which played a big role in the history of computing were mentioned in Revolution. People like Don Knuth, legendary software programmer; and companies like IBM which made the
first IBM PC, and Fairchild, and Intel, which built the microprocessor industry.
Revolution cost US$19 million to put together. Most of the money came from donors like the Bill Gates Foundation. It comprises 19 alcoves starting with the abacus, the first instrument people used for
calculation and ends with the World Wide Web.
A visitor can see the exhibits in about 60 minutes to get a quick introduction to the history of computing. But to give it justice, one would need at least three hours to properly enjoy and appreciate Revolution.
The CHM has been chronicling the development of the computer history for nearly 20 years. A leading global institution, it explores the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society.
Originally part of the corporate museum of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in Boston, it housed some old DEC computers as an exhibit but it also included machines built by other companies. As a result, it was hived off into the CHM. It moved to Mountain View in the heart of Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s.
At Revolution, you can see the iconic relics of the computer industry like the IBM PC, the PDP and Deep Blue. But the exhibition goes beyond to show the continuing evolution into the Internet and the World Wide Web.
To get to the CHM, I took a train from San Francisco to Mountain View (a two-way ticket costs US$13) and then a taxi to the museum.
A worthwhile trip, which I would recommend to students, families and computer professionals. You will not be disappointed.
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