The Director's Letter

In our countdown to opening the Museum, I am pleased to have the opportunity via the report to reflect on the evolution of the Museum. Five years ago, I was charged with the task of creating a "computer museum." The only models at that time were IBM's dismantled history wall done by Charles Eames in the sixties, the small exhibit of historic machines at the Smithsonian, and the interactive and historic collections at the Science Museum in London. None of these could be collected and brought back. And I felt as though I had been told to "Go fetch a rock." Every time I brought an idea back, the feedback was quick: "That's not the rock," or "How did you ever get that-it's just great."

Two and a half years ago, on June 10, 1982, The Computer Museum opened its doors for the first time: we had 50 Founders, 200 members and 3,000 square feet of dedicated exhibit space. Our goals were to develop an international collection, create exciting exhibitions, sponsor educational programs, and attract a worldwide membership. On June 24, 1984, at the end of our Founding period, we will boast 504 individuals and corporate Founders. I am glad to extend special thanks to the individuals listed on the front cover and the corporations listed on the back cover helping to found the Museum.

The Second Opening

On Wednesday, November 14, 1984 at 11:00 a.m., the Museum will formally open its doors a second time to the public. This time we will have 16,000 square feet of exhibitions of both historic computers and state-of-the-art interactive displays; another 8,000 square feet of exhibit space and 4,000 square feet for library/study collections will be developed later. As we approach our opening we can be pleased that we have by far the largest exhibition area devoted to computing and information processing at any museum.

Let me give you a brief tour of our plans for the exhibitions: After rising to the Museum on a large, glass-enclosed elevator overlooking downtown Boston, the visitor is confronted by the Whirlwind, a vacuum tube computer that seems to go on forever.

Going around the corner, the visitor enters the SAGE computer room. Here the major components of the world's largest and longest lived computer simulate their installed environment. The visitor can "start" the console and see its banks of lights cycle-up. Beside each component, such as the 30-foot-long accumulator, today's equivalent chip (or part of a chip) has been placed for comparison. This arrangement reinforces an awareness of decreasing size and power and increasing programming capabilities.

For the history buff, a year-by-year timeline from 1950 to 1970 shows the fundamental inventions, the major computers, major software developments and benchmark applications.

The CW Communications "See It Then" theater shows films of operational computers, starting in the 1920's and ending in the 1960's with the IBM Stretch. The films are complemented by a 1965 IBM 1401 computer room, where the visitor can punch cards, and an operating PDP-89, the classic (but now very slow) minicomputer.

The evolution of Seymour Cray's work illustrates a single hardware contributor and his philosophy. The story begins with the NTDS-17 that he built for the Navy at UNIVAC in Minneapolis, which Greg Mellen, who is still at Sperry Univac, helped the Museum acquire; after that Cray built the Little Character, his first machine at CDC, presented by Control Data Corporation; then to the 6600, Serial Number 1, presented by Lawrence Livermore Laboratories; and finally to components of a Cray I, presented by the Cray Corporation. We have two videotapes of Seymour Cray, one from Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and another given to us by Joe Clarke, a former employee of CDC, who bought a two inch video tape player at a company sale and found on it a tape of Seymour Cray.

The next gallery focuses on chips and their place in the computer revolution, and the process of manufacturing computers. The inside of the "black box" is revealed, and an important, hidden part of the process is illustrated.

This collection of personal computers goes back to the very first one, the 1962 LINC, and extends to the latest models. The ring of live machines, each showing off an aspect of its special input/output, include DECTALK, a touch sensitive screen HP 150 and others.

The final gallery, is devoted to "the computer and the image." Here, the visitor will be able to explore image processing by computer, such as evaluation of landsat data, and image creation by computer, such as computer-aided design. Without much trouble, the visitor could spend two hours in this room experimenting and viewing.

The exhibits are only the tip of the iceberg of our collection of artifacts, working machines, software, documentation, photographs and films. The listing in this report represents one year's accumulation and the collection is rapidly growing.

The Evolving Board of Directors

At the first meeting of the board of directors in 1982, two decisions were made: one was to have non-renewable four-year terms and the other was to limit the number to 24 people. This year five directors retired, I was made an ex-officio director, and five new directors were elected.

The five retiring directors each played a significant role in our growth to date: Charles Bachman served as chairman of the executive committee through our critical first two years; Andrew Knowles provided our initial space in Marlboro; Robert Noyce was key in starting our semiconductor collection and gave a wonderful lecture at our pre-preview party; Michael Spock, director of the Children's Museum, had the idea of our move to the Wharf and continues to counsel us on a day-to-day basis as our closest neighbor; and the Honorable Paul Tsongas helped bring us recognition at a national level.

The new directors bring a new set of talents. Bill Poduska, the new chairman of the board, is chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Apollo Computer, Inc. which he founded in 1980. He came to MIT as an undergraduate and stayed through a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, which he taught for four years. Then he went on to become the director of the Honeywell Information Science Center before founding Prime Computer and Apollo Computer.

Mitch Kapor, president and co-founder of Lotus Development Corporation, looks at the role of computers from the point of view of a non-technical user. A pyschology major from Yale with what he calls "three-quarters of a masters degree" from MIT's Sloan School of Management, he developed VisiPlot and VisiTrend for VisiCorp before working on " 1-2-3," the business applications program for personal computers, that became the basis for Lotus. Mitch has expressed his concern for the end user, saying, "When we stop listening we will cease to be viable." This is equally true for the Museum when we open our doors to the public.

Dr. Koji Kobayashi, chairman and chief executive officer of NEC Corporation, began his life-long career with them in 1929. NEC preserved Japan's first transistor business computer the NEAC 2201 which they agreed to give to the Museum. This represents an important acquisition in our goal to develop an international collection. Dr. Kobayashi is also interested in the current technology, especially communications and computers, and will provide an important link to Japan.

Dr. Arthur P Molella is chairman of the history of science and technology department at The National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution. Specialized museums, such as ours, have an important symbiotic relationship with the Smithsonian. We can focus on a single subject, collect, carry out research and prepare exhibitions. At the Smithsonian, Arthur has to trade off all aspects of science and technology and allocate appropriate space and personnel.

We intend to help each other, the Smithsonian has already loaned several important pieces from their collection for our opening exhibition. And when the new Smithsonian exhibit on computing opens, we will help them.

Dr. An Wang, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Wang Laboratories, Inc., is one of the computer pioneers. He invented the magnetic pulse controlling device for the Harvard Mark IV which will be on display in the timeline planned for our opening exhibition. Wang not ony founded Wang Laboratories, Inc. but also the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies in 1979.

Since 1982, the course of The Computer Museum has changed in ways that I would never have predicted, but new directions that, in retrospect, always made sense. This distinguished new class of directors will help the Museum become a strong institution as it opens to the public.

Gwen Bell

-by Brenda A. Erie

When the Museum opens at its new quarters in downtown Boston on November 14th, 1984 an Apple I board will be part of the Museum's Personal Computer exhibit. Surrounded by a ring of state-of-the-art operational machines, the Apple I board will be exhibited with other personal computer ancestors such as the Altair and the Xerox Alto.

It is too difficult to put a price tag on the Apple I's current value because "only 210 to 220 Apple I's were ever manufactured," according to Stacey Farmer, of Apple Computer, Inc. This reliable microcomputer, which needed little assembly, was built in 1975 by Apple cofounders Steven P Jobs and Stephen G. Wozniak. Primarily bought by computer experimenters and home computer novices the Apple I could be used for developing programs, playing games or running BASIC.

When the Apple I was inaugurated into the marketplace, the "two Steve's," (as they were nicknamed by their employees) had already established a design philosophy that still exists today at Apple - dedication to making their computers easy to use, understandable and inexpensive. They also recognized the need to incorporate suggestions from Apple I users to improve the production and sales of the machine.

The home computer market liked the Apple I because it was easy to assemble unlike some of the kits that were around in the mid-1970's. Rich Travis, a sales representative at the Sunshine Computer Company in Southern California did not directly promote the Apple I in 1977, but made the machine "easy to buy" for his customers because they were "looking for a complete, ready-to-run system that was inexpensive."

The Apple I was sold at computer stores throughout the United States. In 1977, Kilobaud Magazine ran an article by Sheila Clarke a computer hobbyist writer who found that owning the Apple I did not "require you to be either an electronics buff or a millionaire."

For instance if you had walked into the Byte Computer Store in San Jose, California to purchase an Apple I in 1977, you would have gotten a fullyguaranteed computer kit for $666.66 that included: a printed circuit board with video terminal electronics, 8K bytes of RAM, 4 regulated power supplies, a keyboard interface and a hex monitor in PROM.

However, other purchases were also required in order to get your Apple I operating. These totaled $122.00 and included: an ASCII keyboard, a video monitor (if you didn't use your own TV set), and two transformers. If you did use your own television, a simple modification was required like a Pixe-verter or switch box and an rf modulator. In order to store programs, a two inch high cassette interface (ACI) was also available which came fully assembled and burned- in with a tape of APPLE BASIC for $75.00. Jobs and Wozniak both agreed that BASIC at this time was the language of the people because it was easy to use.

In 1977, Apple I advertisements claimed that, "unlike many other cassette boards on the marketplace, ours works every time." So if you also bought a tape recorder you were in luck because the Apple I worked reliably with almost any inexpensive audio-grade cassette recorder. Your total cost for the machine, $903.66.

Relatively few Apple I's were sold compared to personal computers on the market today. However, the Apple I gained enough popularity because it was essentially "hassle free" and could be purchased for under $1, 000. Hobbyists, home computing novices and the computer store dealers themselves applauded its reliability.

It was this microcomputer, the Apple I that enabled Apple Computer, Inc. to quicky turn from a small, single product private company to the multiproduct, multi-national, public company that it is today. As the Apple I's sales increased in 1977, Jobs and Wozniak began to spend much time perfecting the design of the Apple I and their future product the Apple II. But as the company bloomed, it was necessary for Jobs and Wozniak to go to the outside for help.

They recruited A.C. Markkula who had been marketing manager at Intel. He was fascinated with what both Jobs and Wozniak had already accomplished. To show his confidence in the duo he put up $91, 000, secured a credit line, and then found $600,000 from other venture capitalists to help put Apple Computer Company on its feet. Shortly after, in May 1977, Markkula became chairman of the board, and Michael Scott, who took a 50 percent pay cut to join Apple from National Semiconductor became the company's first president.

This Apple 1 board will be part of the Museum's Personal Computer exhibit opening November 14, 1984. Apple Computer, Inc. co-founders Steven P. Jobs and Stephen G. Wozniak designed the Apple 1 in 1975 to meet the requirements of computer hobbyists. Priced at $666.66, it met their needs as an easy-to-use computer system that was inexpensive.