ajwdct's blog

CHM Event Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Sun Micro’s SPARC Microprocessor

Submitted by ajwdct on Wed, 11/21/2012 - 20:31

On November 1, 2012, a panel of Sun Micro luminaries discussed how the company “bet the ranch” on the SPARC microprocessor at an early and critical stage of the company’s development.    The panel was expertly moderated by my Northeastern University MSEE classmate Dave House. CHM CEO/Prez John Hollar did a great job introducing and closing the program.

The rationale for developing SPARC was that Sun Micro needed higher performance than was then available from Intel, Motorola, Zilog, microprocessors for their next gen workstations. SPARC was designed by Anant Agrawal as a higher performance RISC microprocessor using gate array technology rather than traditional stored program machine.

Doomsday Scenarios-Big Science Discussion @ Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mt View, CA on October 27, 2012

Submitted by ajwdct on Sun, 10/28/2012 - 21:24

Several very provocative doomsday scenarios were discussed, but then refuted by subject matter experts called up to the stage to engage in conversation with the program hosts- an astro-physicist and a science writer.

Oct 25, 2012 was a Banner Day at Computer History Museum!

Submitted by ajwdct on Sat, 10/27/2012 - 10:56

This Thursday, Oct 25th was a huge event day at the CHM in Mt View, CA.  The week included a number of important events and milestones:

1. There were 5 different venue rental events on Oct 25th, including Day One of the Rusnano Conference; Day Two of the Internet Identify Conference; a Symantec theme party; a K&L Gates meeting, and the University of Texas.

2. There was also a Quarterly CHM Board of Trustees meeting.

3. Thursday is a "open to the public" day for the CHM's flagship Revolution exhibit.  There were over 1,100 visitors were at the museum- quite a bit for a work day.

Exciting Happenings at Computer History Museum: New Blog, Social Media, Digital Repository, Exhibits & Events!

Submitted by ajwdct on Wed, 10/10/2012 - 10:57

1. The venerable Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mt View, CA recently launched a multimedia blog, with contributors from their seasoned staff of curators and subject matter experts.

CHM Prez John Hollar told me, ”This has been one of the most important initiatives CHM has taken in the area of digital content and distribution. It is and will continue to be a window into the museum’s work by publishing different types of content on a variety of interesting topics.”

@CHM is the blog name. Check it our here: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/

More info at: http://www.computerhistory.org/bloginfo/

You can subscribe to this blog as a RSS feed to get updates which are published once or more per week (I like Google Reader for that purpose).

CHM-7/31 Event Summary: Ken Segall on "The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success"

Submitted by ajwdct on Wed, 08/01/2012 - 18:29

A Sell Out/SRO crowd of over 400 people attended an outstanding Computer History Museum (CHM) talk by Ken Segall, author of the book, Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success. Mr. Segall was interviewed by Harry McCracken of Time magazine about his his experiences with Steve Jobs and other executivess at Apple.

Segal named the iMAC personal computer, which gave rise to all the other Apple iXYZ products (iPOD, iPAD, iPhone, etc). He worked with Steve Jobs for over 12 years while he was with an advertising agency. Segall saw all sides of the mercurial Jobs, acknowledging that Jobs could be controlling, unkind and petulant, but could also stroke egos and incite inspiration. www.KenSegall.com

Computer History Museum Event Summary: "The Idea Factory" - Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation-Jon Gertner

Submitted by ajwdct on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 18:47

Introduction

On March 28, 2012, author Jon Gertner was interviewed at the Computer History Museum (CHM) by KQED's Dave Iverson about his new book, "The Idea Factory...," which chronicles the history of AT&T Bell Labs. Mr. Gertner told this author he had spent three solid years researching and gathering information for the book.

Total Recall and e-memory Revolution are coming: Gordon Bell and Jim Gemmell at the Computer History Museum

Submitted by ajwdct on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 20:30

To commemorate their new book - Total Recall - the Computer History museum recently hosted a lecture and "fireside chat" on the subject of e-Memory and its ability to reshape our lives. This article is an account of that lecture and discussion, as well as a personal perspective on the subject matter.

Silicon Engine exhibit at the Computer History Museum in Mt View, CA

Submitted by ajwdct on Sat, 08/08/2009 - 16:02

by Alan J. Weissberger

On July 1st, the Computer History Museum (CHM) launched the Silicon Engine exhibit, which traces the history of semiconductors that led to the design of the first microprocessor- the Intel 4004. Very impressive artifacts from the CHM collection are displayed in a glass enclosed panel. The artifacts illustrate: early transistors, Jean Hoerni’s first planar transistor (the planar process of semiconductor manufacturing was a key enabler of producing ICs), the genesis of the integrated circuit, the first transistor radio, IBM SLT manufacturing process, a semiconductor based computer circuit board, a 1965 calculator, and other early computing devices. Jack Kilby’s TI engineering notebook pages on the design of the integrated circuit are particularly impressive.

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