I do remember reading that lot of British computers were quite superior
to the rest of the world, but sold for inland use only. The reason
given was that we couldn't figure out ow to make them leak oil!
cheers,
Nigel
On 2024-01-31 14:05, Martin Bishop via cctalk wrote:
<<A related question would be how much work was done outside the USA and UK.
>>
One standard work is "The First Computers : History and Architectures"
Ed Rojas, et al
MIT Press; 2002; ISBN 0-262-68137-4
US : 5 sections
Germany : 7 sections
UK : 5 sections
Japan : 2 sections
as an indication of activity
<<similar questions could be asked about the amount of documentation preserved from
various countries. >>
In the UK context, where there is on-line documentation of the ICL 2900 series
is a question I don't know the answer to
There is of course an operational ICL 2966 at TNMoC, Bletchley Park
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Koning via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: 31 January 2024 18:53
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: Wouter de Waal <w...@dw.co.za>; Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: VCF SoCal
On Jan 31, 2024, at 1:39 PM, Wouter de Waal via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org>
wrote:
I have found that computers are much like motorcycles: many of the most
interesting were never available in the US.
Computers are much like motorcycles: many of the most interesting ones were
TERRIBLE!
I wonder what fraction of early (before, say, 1955) computer work was done in
the USA. A substantial fraction no doubt, but perhaps not as large as one
might guess. A related question would be how much work was done outside the
USA and UK.
For that matter, similar questions could be asked about the amount of
documentation preserved from various countries. One difficulty, I think, is
that resources like bitsavers have a large proportion of US material. Maybe
because of the predominance of the work, maybe in part because of the
distribution of collectors. To pick one example, material -- even just a
passing reference -- about the Philips PR8000 is very nearly nonexistent. And
I see no trace of any other Dutch computer at all on Bitsavers. True, some
stuff can be found in places like the CWI archive, though searching that can be
rather painful.
paul
--
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype: TILBURY2591
