IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

Competitors of IBM at the beginning of the 1980s, Sperry and Burroughs found it increasingly difficult to match IBM's market power and depth of product line. The two companies merged to form Unisys in 1986. Burdened by heavy debt, battered by the 1991 recession, Unisys persisted and went on to develop new business strategies to meet the needs of server-based computing. View full abstract»

Alan Kay is referred to as the "father of the personal computer" because his 1969 doctoral thesis described an early prototype of personal computing. Kay's ideas contributed to the transformation of the computer from a calculating machine to a communication medium. This article focuses on Kay's vision for personal computing. View full abstract»

Douglas Engelbart's achievements are widely acknowledged, but Engelbart's background is not nearly so well known. This article, in exploring the connections between Vannevar Bush and Engelbart on hypertext's concept and implementation, argues that the history of hypertext and hypermedia systems (largely assumed to be correct) misreads the relationship between Bush and Engelbart. View full abstract»

The computer science discipline was born in the early 1960s. Important conferences analyzed the nature of CS, the pros and cons of what the new discipline should encompass, and whether universities should offer CS programs. The culmination of these efforts was the ACM Curriculum 68, a series of reports and recommendations that ultimately influenced CS programs worldwide. View full abstract»

By 1965, having successfully combined work--at EMCC, Burroughs, and Philco--with the task of raising a family when such a combination was still somewhat of a rarity, the author went on to become a consultant in the Boston area. In this last installment of her memoirs, she describes working with different data management systems, culminating with her employment at Harvard University for 27 years. View full abstract»

Computer History Museum Update; Pioneers of Soviet Computing; Obituary: Hiroshi Wada; Obituary: Zen-iti Kiyasu; Computer History Museum Bits; History of Programming Languages (HOPL-III) View full abstract»

Within a year of the introduction of Intel's first 8-bit CPU chip, the 8008, in April 1972, the author was working on the design specification for a faster and more capable CPU chip, the 8080. Here, the author describes the development of the 8080 chip that helped launch the personal computer industry. The author also addresses two common complaints about the 8080's architecture - its lack of regi... View full abstract»

The "Local Area Networking" column continues with a tour of the rich computer heritage of the "Oxford - Cambridge Arc" north of London. View full abstract»

Peter Eckstein recounts major biographical events, background influences, education, professional experience, and achievements in the life of Control Data Corp.'s founder William C. Norris. View full abstract»

Early microcomputing culture was characterized by a proliferation of other machine-oriented platforms, often aimed at home users. Contemporaneously with Apple, the established electronics firms Commodore and Tandy Radio Shack introduced formulations of the personal computer that long endured, sustained by enthusiastic user communities and vigorous software development cultures. This culture is oft... View full abstract»