6 ms·
Hunting two PDP-1 photos (which are not what they seem)
- mokedglass 6y agoMy guess is it was a figure in this article: https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/1988/04/man1988040277/13rRUxZRbrm https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/1988/04/man1988040... Edit: Confirmed, kind of. A similar but different picture is figure 9: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Historical-Overview-of-Computer-Architecture-Smith/753330481b1ede5733f48ddda3e616707a796cdb/figure/10 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Historical-Overview-... It looks like the picture slated for figure 11, that made it to the CHM archives, didn't actually end up in the article.
- EvanAnderson 6y agoThis photo, also in the CHM archive but not digitized, is probably of the same layout / computer: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102757910 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10275791...
- masswerk 6y agoThe title attribution poses another riddle: "PDP-1/B and miniature model railroad at University of Massachusetts". The PDP-1B was the production prototype of the PDP-1 and there were only 2, we know of. The first one (white) was intended for LLNL, but the order got delayed and it went to BBN instead, the second one (blue) became the actual LLNL machine. Update: Curiously, the this page [1] also mentions a "PDP-lB" [sic!]: [1] https://www.cics.umass.edu/about/history-school-computer-science https://www.cics.umass.edu/about/history-school-computer-sci... Anyway, this seems to confirm the Amherst link already suggested by Steve Russell.
- peapicker 6y agoGood article... it points out that J.A.N. Lee was appointed Program Head of the new CS program at UMassAmherst in September of 1964. And that is the same person whom the 2nd photo was from in the thread’s main article.
- driverdan 6y agoThat does look correct, great find. Unless things have changed it would be unusual to refer to the University of Massachusetts as UM. I grew up in MA and have only ever heard it called UMass. It's possible it used to be called UM before they expanded it beyond Amherst and Boston.
- masswerk 6y agoThank you very much, I will update the article accordingly! Edit: Updated! – Now a legit HN success story. :-)
- ncmncm 6y agoThe article, without the paywall: https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.1988.10039 https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/MAHC.1988.10039 It downloads very slowly, for me. Be patient. UPDATE: literally 56KB/s, and 34 megabytes. The fastest modems used to be 8x slower that that!
- meddlepal 6y agoI keep eyeballing the railroad track but that feels like HO and not O guage. The track spacing doesn’t look right for O, also in 1961 im not sure two rail O gauge would be common... O usually has a third rail. Could also be OO gauge, but that is rare in the US.
- TacticalCoder 6y agoIf that's the model railroad from the MIT ain't it a completely custom railroad, unique to the MIT? So it could even be none of those?
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago"Model railroad" would suggest a [scale] model of some extent railway, otherwise isn't it just railway/railroad without the "model" designation. If it's not modelled on something isn't it properly a toy or miniature railway. /pedantry
- masswerk 6y agoHere is a Wired article (2014) on the TMRC with photos of the actual layout: https://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-railroad-club/ https://www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-railroad-club/
- masswerk 6y agoOO is just a slightly bigger scale (1:76) at H0 track. Since UK loading diameter is slightly narrower than on other standard gauge railways (which is the reason for there being OO at all, as H0 motors wouldn't fit models of UK locomotives), there wouldn't be much of a noticeable difference. To me, this looks bigger than H0, but there are other scales and gauges, as well. Admittedly, my knowledge about these is pretty limited.
- jacquesm 6y agoDefinitely not O, HO stands for 'half O', and OO is/was pretty rare outside of the UK, I'd bet on HO.
- raldi 6y agoWhat is a grade student?
- alricb 6y agoa grad student with an e added to the grad, I think.
- masswerk 6y agoMeanwhile, something dutifully corrected. :-)
- atdrummond 6y agoDelivered is misspelled as well, if you’re looking for typos. Thanks for the interesting piece.
- masswerk 6y agoA well, not a native speaker, sleepless night… but I do apologize for this being interesting! ;-)
- wombatmobile 6y agoCORRECTIONS TO ARTICLE: 1. In the first sentence of the section Timeline, "delvired" should be "delivered". 2. The URL to this HN discussion at the end of the article is incorrectly syntaxed and gives 404.
- masswerk 6y agoThanks, corrected.
- mseepgood 6y agoWhy did grown men play with model trains back then?
- walshemj 6y agoThey still do and these clubs are very well known in the history of tech.
- masswerk 6y agohttp://tmrc.mit.edu http://tmrc.mit.edu
- gumby 6y agoWell for one thing grown people play with all sorts of things. Boats are also quite popular, not just real ones but model ones. Also there were more "group" activities in those days (consider Moose and Elk lodges and other societies, of which only a few really survive any more). As far as trains specifically: For a long time trains were the definitional high tech artifacts; my dad bought me a train set (I was born in the early 60s) and though I thought it was merely OK, he, being from the 1930s, remembered trains as super exciting. Plus it's one of those activities with a gajillion degrees of freedom (mechanical, artistic, electrical, mathematical) which encourages groups of people to work together on the pieces that appeal to them.
- breakingcups 6y agoWhy shouldn't they?
- wdb 6y agoI have the say the computers in these photos look awesome. Much nicer than today's day designs. Looks quite modern again :)