Peoples Republic of South Devon

The Old Men of Computing

June 27th, 2008

The weekly technology column from those good people at Plymouth’s
Orange Crate

Being accustomed to our compact desktop computers and even smaller laptops (and even smaller pdas), it’s easy to forget how it all began. Forget Charles Babbage and his complex 19th century tinkerings for a second – as important as they were, we’re going to bypass them and move forward a few years to something (a little) more recognizable…

In March 1951 the United States Census Bureau received a 13 ton consignment from Messrs Eckert and Mauchly, and the modern age of computing was officially born. The brilliantly old-school-sci-fi sounding Univac 1 is widely considered to be the first ever digital computer, and the beginning of an industry that was to become one of the biggest in the world.

For over five years it was the best large-scale data processing computer, capable of storing and manipulating both programs and data in the same memory space – a system on which all following computers have founded their basic architecture. The entire structure took over 35.5 square metres of floor space, and initially cost $159,000. A total of 46 of these beasts were eventually delivered to various US institutions and businesses, and due to increasing popularity the price eventually rose to around $1,500,000. Not only were these the pinnacle in technology at the time, private ownership of one would have amply shown off any enterprise’s power and wealth.

Fast forward 25 years to another defining moment in IT history… Steve Wozniak, an employee of Hewlett-Packard, desperately wanted to build his own personal computer but was restricted by budgetary constraints. Eventually he and his associate Steve Jobs built a custom computer and decided to sell it under the name ‘Apple-1′ through their new company, Apple. We all know that they went on to become pioneers in computer technology (and still are today), but the ground-breaking attributes of the Apple-1 were that not only did it make use of a keyboard, it was also one of the first personal computers to be sold fully assembled and not as a kit.

The Apple-1 sold for $666.66 at the time, a one-third markup on the $500 Apple sold it to retailers for (and because Wozniak liked repeating digits, so the history books say).

Fast forward another 20 years and it becomes obvious how fast the IT world had changed. By 1995 companies such as Intel and Microsoft had enveloped large portions of the various industry quarters, making it extremely difficult for original, rival ideas to be successfully. One such example comes from the relative failure of Be Inc. A new company founded by the ex-manager of Apple’s French subsidiary, they developed a fairly advanced machine that didn’t run on one of the mainstream Windows or Mac OS systems. Aimed mainly at software developers, it was designed to be a primary alternative to the big boys of the time.

Sadly, due mainly to it’s lack of compatibility with anything else of the time, it was largely rejected and fewer than 2000 machines were manufactured over a brief two-year period. By 2001 Be Inc. had sold their intellectual rights and gone out of business. Long gone seemed the days where Bill Gates started an empire from his garage, or Wozniak and Jobs hand built their computers one by one and ended up as billionaires.

This is only an extremely small clipping from the history of computers, an area which is really a lot more interesting than you may think. With grand ideas, meteoric rises, and huge failures, there’s a hundred stories and sub-stories to be told. Perhaps the greatest thing is that the majority of these pioneers are still alive and well and plying their trade.

For more information, check out the Old Computers site. Even if you’re really not interested, the antiquated pictures might supply some cheap laughs!

————————————————————————————
Has this information been useful?

Entry Filed under: Society, technology