Readings on old computers from 2019 (Ferranti, VIPER, Bendix, handhelds, Shannon, Czechoslovakia)

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I notice the papers from 2019 HISTELCON are online and open access. Including

A short history of the VIPER microprocessor, designed in the 1980’s with the aim of achieving a formal verification for the correctness of its design, for use in security and safety critical applications. Whilst arguably technically successful, it wasn’t commercially, and this led to legal action over the extent to which the formal verification had been achieved. The action required the establishment of a legal definition of ‘mathematical proof’

Ferranti had great experience in computers large and small. In the mid-70s they produced the F100-L, which was Europe’s first 16-bit microprocessor and one of the first in the world. The device enjoyed some success in military applications, enough for there to be a successor, but was never produced in high volume. We describe the technology and architecture of this unique microprocessor: bit-serial on the inside, with a parallel system bus connecting to coprocessor chips, and fabricated in Ferranti’s CDI technology, well-suited to military application.

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Digital Signal Processors (DSP) are high-speed dedicated processors designed to perform arithmetic operations on their input signal, and then output the processed signals. They are currently used in many applications, such as telecommunications, video and audio signal processing, flight control systems, spacecraft, missiles, etc. DSP processors have evolved through several generations over the last few decades. This paper outlines the evolution of some of the DSP processors from early days of 1970s to the present.

Pocket computers are a category of personal computer. A complete computer system in a small battery powered package that slips in your pocket, it has all the elements needed for writing and running programs. They are reliable, affordable and useable by persons with minimum knowledge. Applications benefit from quick, on the spot data gathering, validation, analysis. Learning to program was simple and easy with the manuals supplied with them.

Nine Ferranti Mark I and Mark I* computers were delivered between 1951 and 1957. Three of these went to UK defence establishments. These installations are described, with particular focus on the computer which went to GCHQ Cheltenham. Keywords: Ferranti Mark I, GCHQ, Aldermaston, Fort Halstead.

The article deals with a little-known chapter in the history of computing. It describes the history of the Research Institute of Mathematical Machines and the development of computers in the former Czechoslovakia from 1947 to 1993.

Claude Shannon is renowned for his master’s thesis in which he applied George Boole’s binary logic to electrical switching networks, establishing the mathematical basis for digital circuit design. Far less publicized is his contribution to the innovation of a personal digital computer some 20 years later. Between 1954 and 1961, while working at AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories and teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he designed and built an embodiment of a programmable, digital switching network of electromechanical relays and licensed its techniques to two entrepreneurs, Edmund Berkeley and Oliver Garfield, for sale as a home computer. The GENIAC, BRAINIAC, and MINIVAC represented iterations of Shannon’s work at Bell Labs and sowed interest in digital computing with young people in the United States and in parts of Europe, well over ten years before electronic digital computers equipped with microprocessors reached a much bigger audience.

Harry D. Huskey was a real, living person. He was also a mathematician who became a pioneer in the emerging field of computer science. Due to war-time secrecy surrounding development of high-speed computing machines during WW2, experience with such machines was limited to only a few people. Huskey, being one of those fortunate few, obtained the requisite experience through various rotating assignments; that experience put him in demand. As a result of being in demand, his advice was frequently sought in the 1950s by others; particularly as related to general-purpose electronic computer facilities. In spite of his early celebrity, today few people remember him or his accomplishments. Politics intruded rudely into his life and career on 3 occasions; each time taking a toll on him. He took positive actions to deal with disruptions and returned to a constructive role. Some consider his G-15 as the first “personal computer,” others regard the G-15 as being physically too large or expensive (or both) to be considered “personal.” During the mid-1950s, the main thrust of his work began changing from pioneering to teaching. He died in 2017 at 101-years of age as an esteemed mentor to his many followers. All of this is described from the perspective of an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley in the early 1960s. During this time Huskey was jointly Professor of Electrical Engineering and History at UCB. The main body of this narrative history is portrayed in a “classic” manner while appendices and sidebars are treated in a more revisionist style.

(As mentioned in A trip report: three days in Glasgow)

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