Computer History on the Move

Transcription

1 Computer History on the Move A Historical Tour of Compu8ng in Melbourne Graham Farr Faculty of Informa8on Technology Monash University Graham.Farr@infotech.monash.edu.au! Joint work with Barbara Ainsworth, Chris Avram, Judy Sheard

2 Computer history growing interest, and recogni8on of importance Museums: Computer History Museum, Mountain View, Ca. Deutches Museum, Munich Bletchley Park Australian Computer Museum Society Monash Museum of Compu8ng History virtual museums

3 Inspira8on Jill Vincent (then MCEGGS, now U of Melbourne): Mathema8cs tour along St Kilda Road and Swanston Street aimed at secondary students emphasis on geometry Why not have a compu8ng tour of Melbourne? emphasis on history

4 Compu8ng in Melbourne: A Historical Tour Sites: a subset of Monash Museum of Compu8ng History Silicon Mile (St Kilda Road) Old Melbourne Observatory Victoria Barracks St Paul s Cathedral State Library of Victoria ICI House (now Orica House) Melbourne Museum: CSIRAC Physics Museum, University of Melbourne Old Physics, University of Melbourne: former CSIRAC loca8on

5 Compu8ng in Melbourne: A Historical Tour Takes about eight hours, including lunch and café stops First tour: Sat 16 August 2008 Seven organised tours so far, more planned for 2010 Can be done in self- guided mode Walking, tram travel Free (apart from tram 8cket, cafés) Par8cipants: mix of Monash staff, p/g and u/g students, alumni members of the public, especially since The Age ar8cle (14 May 2009) including computer industry veterans - > good info for our research age, gender, culture

6 The tour shows changes to technology business methods business community applica8ons society Links to undergraduate curriculum: how CSIRAC works illustrates basic computer architecture Architecture!

7 Benefits building academic community broadens educa8on of students aerac8ve to interna8onal students good publicity useful research contacts with computer industry veterans more value in Monash connec8on for some alumni

8 Other computer history tours? From the web: How to Tour Silicon Valley Silicon Valley & San Jose Sightseeing Tours A Nerd's Tour of Silicon Valley etc and many tours of museums

9 Conjecture: our computer history tour is the first one outside Silicon Valley; for organised groups that s free; using walking and public transport only

10 Monash Museum of Compu8ng History, Caulfield campus: calculators

11 Monash Museum of Compu8ng History: A Digital Evolu8on

12 Monash Museum of Computing History: Monash s first computer: Ferranti Sirius, 1962, an early commercial transistor computer

13 Ferran8 Sirius

14 First Computer History Tour group, 16 August 2008

15 Stanhill 34 Queens Road, Melbourne (near Albert Park); Ferran8 office, 1960s. Monash s first computer bought here

16 Stanhill

17 Stanhill

18 Stanhill

19 Old Melbourne Observatory Williamstown, 1853; moved to present site, 1863 oldest con8nuously opera8ng observatory in Australia site of Melbourne s first computer room

20 Old Melbourne Observatory

21 Melbourne s first Computer Room, 1863

22 Melbourne s first Computer Room, 1863

23 Victoria Barracks: site of Australia s first supercomputer

24 St Paul s Cathedral

25 St Paul s - > Macartney Chapel - > List of Deans of Melbourne: Stuart Barton Babbage, great- great- grandson of Charles Babbage

26 Na8onal Mutual: first commercial use of Smalltalk- 80 in Australia, 1987; and of OOP? 1985

27 Melbourne Museum

28 CSIR Mark I (Sydney, 1949) CSIRAC (U of Melbourne, 1956) CSIRO Automa8c Computer

29 CSIRAC Australia s first computer Fourth programmable, general purpose, stored- program computer in the world Oldest surviving intact computer in the world

30 Looking behind CSIRAC

31 CSIRAC s desktop

32 CSIRAC

33 Looking behind CSIRAC (from other side): Main memory: mercury delay lines (centre foreground) Registers, also mercury delay line (top centre)

34 Barbara Ainsworth, Judy Sheard, Chris Avram

35 Further informa8on: Thanks to: Jim Breen, for informa8on on Albert Park Barracks and the Lonsdale Exchange; Ron Bird and Max Burnet, for informa8on about computer companies in St Kilda Rd; Rev Dr Mark Burton, Canon Barry Smith and the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne for assistance with visits to St Paul's Cathedral; Don Schauder, for informa8on on Vicnet and Pictoria at the State Library of Victoria; Gary Hardy, Graeme Johanson and Derek Whitehead, for informa8on on Vicnet; Anne Beaumont and Olga Tsara, of the SLV, for informa8on on Pictoria; David Demant and Melbourne Museum, for assistance with visits to CSIRAC; Nick Nicola and the School of Physics, University of Melbourne, for assistance with visits to the Physics Museum; John Sheehan, for recollec8ons of the protests at Honeywell; Peter Thorne, for informa8on on CSIRAC. Some references: A B Ainsworth, Monash University's First Computer: The Ferran8 Sirius computer at Monash University, 30pp, August hep:// computer- at- monash- university- v4.pdf A B Ainsworth, J Sheard and C Avram, The Monash Museum of Compu8ng History: Part 1, ACM SIGCSE Bulle0n inroads 40 (2) (June 2008) A B Ainsworth, J Sheard and C Avram, The Monash Museum of Compu8ng History: Part 2, ACM SIGCSE Bulle0n inroads, 40 (4) (December 2008) R W Home, The Physical Tourist: Physics in Melbourne, Physics in Perspec0ve 7 (2005) D McCann and P Thorne, The Last of the First: CSIRAC: Australia's First Computer, Department of Computer Science and Sorware Engineering, University of Melbourne, S Rood, From Ferran0 to Faculty: Informa0on Technology at Monash University, , Monash University epress, J Vincent, Shrine to University: A Geometry journey along St. Kilda Road and Swanston Street, Mathema8cal Associa8on of Victoria, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia, A later edi8on is at hep://