A collection of old IBM and military computers.
CDC 5601 Minicomputer Here’s a “modern” (last maintenance on our device is dated 1977’s, that’s late for our collection) mini-computer from CDC (Control Data Corporation), one of the early leaders in computers. In particular, ours is labelled as an “input/output controller”, released by the “Aerospace Division” of CDC. Bitsavers has pictures that look just like ours as well as the hardware…
B-29 Fire Control computer #2 OK, I know, I know! I already have one of these wonderful fire-control computers ! But, since a B-29 had five of these (one for each sighting location, all tuned slightly different), it seems only right that the my museum has several. And, I just can't resist this great 1940-ish technology.
Ford Mark 1 Dummy Director
Bendix PB-20 (Boeing 707 Autopilot) This is the autopilot used on the first major commercial jet aircraft: the Boeing 707. It was also used on the many models and derivatives of the 707 (such as the Boeing 720) and the many derivative military versions: the Boeing E-3, C-137, KC-135, the Northrup Grumman E-6 and E-8, and others. A derivative of the PB-20 was also used in the first major…
EAI 180 Analog Computer I truly love analog computers! And, my site has lots of them including the specialized military devices. If you want to know more about analog computers (including their history), how they work, or why they are still useful, I highly recommend the book sitting on the slide-out tray of connectors: "Analog Computing: 2nd edition" Bernd Ulmann. See this reference manual .
IBM 3890 Control Panel
IBM Harvest Tape Cartridge
Various New Items
Sperry Ballast Computer Here is a "ballast computer" from a submarine.
K4 Bombing Computer Here is one of my favorite devices: a “K-4” bombing computer. It’s a favorite because: --It is old (current device has 1954 markings) --It computes using electric-mechanical analog mechanisms --It is very complicated, likely impossible to us to reverse engineer --It is for the military --It is very unknown! About the unknown... I can find almost nothing about this device. The…
AMF 662/D Computer
Sperry/Ford Mark-6 Fire Control Computer World War II gave rise to some amazing electromechanical computers used by the military. The most impressive was the Navy's Mark I and Mark 1A fire control computers . used on battleships. A great reference to this device and many similar electromechanical fire control devices can be found at this site . Most of the complex fire control equipment, including…
The IBM System/32: The Second IBM Personal Computer Announced in early 1975, the IBM System/32 was the lowest cost IBM offering (at the time) and became very popular. It was a small single-user business-oriented computer that was less expensive than the System/3 Model 6 (some models leased for less than $1,000 per month. The System/32 was designed for business applications (e.g., billing,…
The IBM System/3 Model 6: The "Real" First IBM Personal Computer The IBM System/3 family was a very successful line of small business-oriented computers in the 1970's. The first member, the Model 10, shipped in mid-1969 and was a card-based batch-oriented system intended to replace unit-record (punched card) commercial applications: billing, inventory control, accounts receivable, sales analysis,…
Sperry S-1 Bombsight It turns out that the famous Norden bombsight was not only U.S. bombsight of World War II. The first bombsight accepted by the Government was the Sperry S-1 that was developed in the 1930's. It was designated as "standard" equipment in March 1941 and was used in some U.S. Army Air Forces bombers early in World War II, primarily B-24 Liberators . However, all contracts for…
Navcor Analog Computer
Sperry P-4 (Gunsight) Computer Here is a extremely rare device, an electromechanical Sperry P-4 (Gunsight) Computer. The only good information I could find about this device can be found in this very interesting article describing another museum's (a real one) P4 . Briefly, the background is that the P-4 was originally designed as part of a central fire control system for the remote control of…
IBM 705 Console & Components The museum has a control console from a IBM 705 computer . I believe this to be very rare item since the 705 was first shipped in late 1954 and was withdrawn in early 1960. That's a long time ago and there can't have been many shipped during that short period (but I haven't found credible numbers for the total shipped). Also, the 705 was quite expensive: about $590,000…
Zentronik Drum Memory Before there were discs, magnetic drum memory was the state-of-the-art storage device. In fact, earlier computers like the IBM 650 had no other memory device (no core memory, for example) other than its drum. Here is an example of an early drum memory made behind the Iron Curtain by (I believe) Zentronik Works in East Germany (GDR) sometime in the 1960's. The Zentronik…
IBM & RAND JOSS terminal JOSS (JOHNNIAC Open Shop System) was a new computer language, which together with new remote terminals, attached to RAND's JOHNNIAC mainframe computer , comprised one of the first time sharing computer systems. This RAND document from RAND contains more information about the language and using the JOSS system. Of particular interest to us is the special console designed…
IBM Card Equipment Programming Plugboards I love IBM card equipment! Until the early '60s, most business applications were done on standalone card processing units (called by IBM unit record equipment by IBM) like the ones in our collection (shown following this topic). Even when computers started to be used, most programming was done on punched cards and all computers had punched card input and…
Farrand Y-7 Bombsight This is another massive optical bombsight made by Farrand. Figure 1 shows the whole 80 pound beast compared to a soda can. The only reference I can find to it is from the Air Force Systems Command, Historical Publication Series, Development of Airborne Armament, 1910-1961: The vertical periscopes did not remain immune to the continuing drive for improvement. First, Farrand…
A-4 "Gun Bomb Rocket" Sight This is the sighting element and the computing element of the gun/bomb/rocket aiming sight used on F-84 Thunderjet and F-86 Sabrejet fighters. Figures 1-3 show the computing element, and Figures 4-9 shows the separate sighting element. Figures 10 and 11 show information about the A-4 from from an F-86 flight manual.
IBM System/360 Read-Only Storage (ROS) Extensive microcode allowed the System/360 to provide a compatible instruction architecture and compatible I/O across many models having significantly different performance. Among the original offerings, the Model 30, 40 and 50 all had hardware significantly less powerful than the System/360 instruction architecture and implemented the instructions via…
Unknown Farrand Sighting Mechanism