Personal Collection

Personal collection of links for the Burroughs 205 Datatron

This unique computer curriculum offers 3 different environments of graduated complexity: a programmable RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) calculator, an Intel 8051 microprocessor that is programmed using assembly language, and finally the high-level C and C++ languages. Each of these 3 languages comes complete with an integrated development environment (IDE) that provides an editor, compiler, and debugger. You get fully explained solutions to fun programming projects such as a scrolling electronic signboard, a robotic mouse in a maze, an audio peak detector using an LED bar graph, and the Breakout video game. All of these example programs have been designed to be highly visual, audible, and fun. In addition to the introduction to assembly language programming and the introduction to C and C++, this curriculum offers an introduction to Windows programming and graphical user interfaces. You can find screen shots and further description of each of these programs on the Catalog page. How did I choose to teach assembly, C, and C++? These 3 languages are used in 89 % of the embedded devices (i.e., laser printers, camcorders, MP3 players, etc.) in your home and car. In contrast, Java is employed in only 3 % of embedded devices due to its poor performance. This curriculum has been used and praised by degreed engineers who are already working in industry. It is also being used in universities, high schools, charter schools, and home schools (minimal computer savvy is required on the part of the homeschool parents!). A magazine that reviews educational software for children asked a computer systems administrator to evaluate the software and he concluded it was "brilliantly" done. Another review appeared in Jack Ganssle's column for the Nov 2005 issue of the Embedded Systems Design journal, a magazine for engineering professionals. In short, he loved it but you can read the full review for yourself here.

Site for the Museum of Computing in Swindon

Univac memories - quotes

Searchable (ASCII character rather than image) version of the 393 page document "A Fourth Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems" Report No. 1227, January 1964 by Martin H. Weik, published by Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

The computers of the late 1940s were all one-of-a-kind special projects done at research laboratories or companies closely tied to government funding. In 1946 J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly started a company which had the goal of producing computers to be offered for sale in the commercial marketplace. They, too, were dependent on government funding to get started, but they wanted to reach customers in the larger business community, not just those involved in defense or other government work. After many years of struggle, they produced the UNIVAC I computer, which was delivered to its first customer (the U.S. Census Bureau) in 1951. Eventually, 46 UNIVAC I computers were built. Soon, other computers would be manufactured in much larger quantities, but from the perspective of the 1950s, this was mass production.

They were a most unlikely pair. They met at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania. My future husband, John Mauchly, was 34, had a Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University and had just completed eight years as head of the Physics Department at Ursinus College. J. Presper Eckert, 22, had just graduated from Moore School and had stayed on as an electronics lab instructor while beginning work on his master's degree. Before they left Moore in 1946, they had designed and built the world's first electronic computer, ENIAC, and laid the basic design for all future electronic computers.

Information about the history of computing, assembled by Mike Muuss for your information and edification. Documents from the home of the ENIAC -- The U. S. Army Research Lab .

The Core Memory Projecrt's website provides links to : 1) a discussion of various National Cash Register (NCR) computers between 1976 to 1979, 2) a gallery of images of computers from 1953 to 1999, an NCR 390 Computer Simulator, an NCR 390 Computer, electronic boards, osciolloscopes, 353-3 CRAM (Card Random Access Memory, "the first massive storage device") of NCR computers, coding forms/programming worksheets, flow charting tools, the 1968 launching of the Century Series of computers, a 1969 NCR Open House, mid-twentieth century advertisements and posters, photographs, postcards, shares, bonds and certificates, 3) a history of the NCR Century and Critierion series of computers, 4) a history of NCRY Servers and PCs, 5) an NCR History Timeline, 6) the "NCR Mosaics" links provides histories of the 0-4-0 Fireless Cooker, Enigma, NCR war production, NCRY RAM Chip, NCR's 6 core memory computer, the NCR Pipe Band, the Century Point Club, the NCR Schoolhouse and Organ, images of NCR test notes,and a poem about NCR written in 1920, 7) an archive of NCR primary source documents, testimonies, videos, images, and software and hardware manuals

Several narrative & link sites about histories of specific machines and software.