4 ms·

“Becoming Steve Jobs” is a much better book than Isaacson’s lazy effort. I wish someone would write more about Univacy, CDC, and Cray big iron. “A Few Good Men

“Becoming Steve Jobs” is a much better book than Isaacson’s lazy effort. I wish someone would write more about Univacy, CDC, and Cray big iron. “A Few Good Men From Univac” and “Supermen” are fine books, but not exactly comprehensive the way the IBM 360/370 books are.

kens 4y ago
You might like the book "When computers went to sea", which discusses the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) in detail. Univac plays a big part in this and Cray has a smaller part. The NTDS was a huge project in the 1950s and 1960s to build shipboard computers for command and control, networked between ships to provide a unified view of the battlefield. Despite its success, NTDS is pretty much forgotten now. If anyone else is interested in the IBM books you mentioned, they are (I presume) "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems", both extremely detailed.
- detourdog 4y ago
  Along these lines. I collect Autonetics artifacts which contain a large number of first principal equations for inertial guidance. Here is a link to some RECOMP-III which is a repurposed ICBM guidance computer being used as a general interactive computer. https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_autoneticstingMan1963_21561232 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_autoneticstingMan1963_... I need to get my act together and get this collection on-line but here is a link that has images pre-microprocessor computers. There are 3 images of books one has some a picture of a "Typical Midcourse Navigation-Guidance Profile" https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YGI9HKKGuamw1 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YGI9HKKGuamw1
pinewurst 4y ago
As another interested party, there's almost enough CDC info out there to write a technical history - documents, interviews, software and even emulator(s). Sadly, the CDC generation is beginning to pass away, though. It's a fascinating story, really. How CDC rose to dreaded IBM rival in only a few years, then spent the next two decades failing. Even after a single decade (1974ish) it was pretty obvious where it was going - if not for the peripherals business keeping them somewhat relevant for a while longer.

kens 4y ago

You might like the book "When computers went to sea", which discusses the Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) in detail. Univac plays a big part in this and Cray has a smaller part. The NTDS was a huge project in the 1950s and 1960s to build shipboard computers for command and control, networked between ships to provide a unified view of the battlefield. Despite its success, NTDS is pretty much forgotten now. If anyone else is interested in the IBM books you mentioned, they are (I presume) "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems", both extremely detailed.

detourdog 4y ago
Along these lines. I collect Autonetics artifacts which contain a large number of first principal equations for inertial guidance. Here is a link to some RECOMP-III which is a repurposed ICBM guidance computer being used as a general interactive computer. https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_autoneticstingMan1963_21561232 https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_autoneticstingMan1963_... I need to get my act together and get this collection on-line but here is a link that has images pre-microprocessor computers. There are 3 images of books one has some a picture of a "Typical Midcourse Navigation-Guidance Profile" https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YGI9HKKGuamw1 https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YGI9HKKGuamw1

pinewurst 4y ago

As another interested party, there's almost enough CDC info out there to write a technical history - documents, interviews, software and even emulator(s). Sadly, the CDC generation is beginning to pass away, though. It's a fascinating story, really. How CDC rose to dreaded IBM rival in only a few years, then spent the next two decades failing. Even after a single decade (1974ish) it was pretty obvious where it was going - if not for the peripherals business keeping them somewhat relevant for a while longer.