RUSS JENSEN'S "COMPUTER HISTORY"
I am a retired Electrical Engineer - I got my degree from UCLA in 1958
and worked as a civilian employee for the Navy for 36 years. I was always interested in computers and
took several
computer courses in college, including
machine language programming for the pioneer computer SWAC (National Bureau Of
Standards Western Automatic Computer) which had been "retired" to
UCLA several years earlier. That machine
had a Cathode Ray Tube memory where data bits were stored as dots on a CRT.
Also during my college years (1954-1958) I was introduced to
one of the earliest "personal
computers" which was used in our
Engineering Economics class, students
having to solve an economics problem by creating a program (using an
Interpreter) on it. That computer was
the Bendix G-15, was about the size and shape of a refrigerator, used vacuum
tube plug-in modules, and a magnetic drum main memory. The Input\Output consisted of a paper tape
reader/punch and an IBM electric typewriter.
After graduating in 1958 I got a job at a Navy missile range
in the "Pulse and Digital
Branch". There I first worked with
another early "personal
computer", the IBM 610. That
machine was
about the size and shape of a desk, was
partly electronic and
partly relay, used an IBM typewriter (of
course) for I/O, and was
programmed by a punched paper tape which
duplicated itself in order to perform extra "passes" through the
code; subroutines (such as Trig functions) being "programmed" on a
removable wired patch board. The 610,
incidentally, was not made by the Computer
Division of IBM, but by the Time Clock
Division.
A co-worker and I were placed in charge of this machine which was used
as an "open shop" computer facility where engineers and scientists
could solve problems they were working on.
The two of us, as our first junior engineering project, were asked to
design and build an "off-line" paper tape punch control unit to use
with the IBM 610. The pinball circuit
experience I had as a kid helped in that project. The device we made I later purchased at a base surplus sale and
still have lurking in the rafters of my garage.
Due to my past experience with the Bendix G-15, I recommended that that
computer later be purchased to replace the IBM 610 as the department's
"open shop" computer. This
was subsequently done and my associate and I were again in charge of that
operation. I was sent to both the machine language programming and
hardware maintenance schools and became
an "expert" on the machine.
When later a computer was needed to perform radar tracking
calculations on a missile tracking ship, a
G-15 was used and "went to sea".
Incidentally, I still have several instruction and technical manuals for
both the IBM 610 and Bendix G-15.
Also,Bendix Computer Division who made the G-15 was taken over by the
newly formed Control Data Corporation in the mid-1960's and they produced the
machine for a short time afterwards.
As far as "main frame" computers at the missile range were
concerned, when I first started working
there in 1958 they had a
brand new IBM 650 which stored data using
the "bi-quinary" number
system.
This was later replaced by a 709 (using vacuum tubes) and still later by
the new "transistorized" computer, the 7090.
They also had a specially built large computer called the
RAYDAC.
It as a vacuum tube machine designed especially for the
facility by Raytheon in
Massachusetts. That computer had a
"mercury delay line" main memory
and used some very unusual
magnetic tape units which had binary coded
ink marks on the tape
used for performing fast searches for
data. That computer was
dismantled in the early 1960's and our
branch used some of the
surplus electronic modules to build other
equipment.
At that point in my career my direct
involvement with
computers came to an end as my assignments
were involved with
acceptance testing of input/output
buffering hardware used on shipsto interface with on-board computers. I did, however, witness changes in the
UNIVAC military shipboard computers in the 1970's which used transistorized
plug-in modules and magnetic core memories.
My next direct involvement with computers in my career came in the early
1980's when I volunteered to be trained in "computer
program maintenance", again involving
UNIVAC shipboard military
computers. I learned about compilers at that time. Also at around the same time I had my first introduction to a
"time sharing" system called "SHARE 7" which ran on a
UNIVAC AN/UYK-7 military computer. We
could log onto that system from various terminals in our offices and access
databases or use a word processor. I
also could access time sharing functions on our main-frame DEC VAX computer.
A few years after that the organization I worked for decided
to go to "office
automation". First they purchased
a slew of Tandy TRS-80's distributing them around the offices. I attended at that time a course in VISACALC
and was introduced to "the wonderful world of spreadsheets". I also worked with a larger Tandy computer
running UNIX.
A few years later they decided to let a contract for a
networked office automation system. The winning contractor was
Hewlett Packard who provided a host of
Vectra (286) personal
computers all connected to an H.P. 3000
minicomputer (one per each department) which were interconnected to each
other. Each
department assigned a "System
Manager" and I was selected as ours.
The "system" also consisted of standard software to run on the
PC's including a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, and a graphics
package. An email system was also
provided on the
HP3000's accessible from the PC's. My main task was to help the
secretaries, admin personnel, etc., to
learn how to use the system and its software to better perform their duties.
After a year or so our department started slowly upgrading the PC's to
386's with WINDOWS, etc.. Well, I being
only a "support person" had a little trouble getting a new machine,
but I finally convinced the "powers that be" that if I was to help
people who were using WINDOWS I should have it myself.
Well, I was given a 386 with WINDOWS, was sent to a one week
class, and soon became a "WINDOWS
expert" :-) Our department also
installed a LAN and our PC's were interfaced with that which led to the
elimination of the "HP3000 network".
A year or so later I retired from Federal Civil Service after we were
offered a $25K bonus to do so.