 | LEARNING FROM THE PAST | | | | | What an amazing Journey so far ... | Posted by Andrew Spencer on 21/12/2011 @ 22:02 |
Working as a volunteer Tour Guide at The National Museum of Computing over the last 18 months has been a revelation. I am paid to think about the future and implement the technology of the present in my day job but there is so much to learn from what has gone before in the short 70-year history of electronic computers.
 did you know that computers used to have valves?
The speed of development in all areas of computer technology has always been breathtaking and demonstrates that there is so much more to come and in a timeframe that we will find difficult to comprehend. So let's talk about some of the highlights for me of what is to be found at the Museum ...
Before I started there I had never heard of analogue computers. We are all used to using digital machines. Why did analogue computing exist in the 60s and 70s? They existed because scientists and engineers found digital computers too slow to handle the work they needed to do. One good example from the 60s is the design of Concorde's flight simulator, done on an analogue computer because exploring all the variables on a digital computer of the era would have taken too long.
Having said that, the speed of development of digital computer technology in the 60s was amazing. At the beginning of the decade the number of computers in the whole of the UK was in the low hundreds, but by the end of the decade it grew to thousands, spreading throughout business, research, education and defence. At the beginning of the decade the transition from valves to transistors was underway, albeit starting with very crude transistor based machines. By the end of the decade integrated circuits were making an appearance and machines had shrunk dramatically.
As well as big changes in processing, storage options were developing rapidly. Solid core storage became commonplace and hard drives, as we know them today, started to appear. One of the earliest hard drives in the Museum is over one metre across and too heavy to lift. It dates from the mid 60s. Moore's Law of computing is very evident in this area as drives shrank in size and increased in capacity very rapidly and this process is well illustrated in the Large Systems gallery. Of course we are going round in a circle as the trend is more towards solid storage today.
One exhibit illustrates for me that there are many things we assume are relatively recent developments that actually have their roots way back in time. This exhibit is the pair of air traffic control desks from the West Drayton air traffic control centre. They went live in the early 70s and have a number of features that make you stop and think. The first is the tracker ball mouse now 40 years old! The mouse was invented in the mid 60s by Xerox (some dispute this and say the mouse dates from the 50s) but they were rare until the Mac was launched in 1984. One reason had to be cost - the tracker ball mouse on the ATC desk cost 1000 in the early 70s and that is not stated in today's money! Also on these desks are touch sensitive controls for changing the display - a real surprise for me. I had assumed touch screen action dated from the 90s and many assume it is more recent than that. Finally the screens, which are cathode ray tubes, are large and they are flat. Nothing amazing there you may think in an era of ever bigger flat screen TVs, but back in the 70s TVs were curved and didn't get remotely flat until the 80s. You have to see the technology that delivered a flat screen in the early 70s to believe it - and the cost was astronomical!
So what is new today? Not a lot really. The Museum gives an incredible view of the development of computing development that is evolution rather than revolution though very rapid. It is mostly a question of degrees of development and cost.
The fall in costs of computing is just as spectacular as the speed of development. Instead of spending 1000 on a mouse I have just bought a wireless mouse compatible in all respects with Windows and MAC OS for 6! And you have to see and use the 52 inch touch table exhibiting the Domesday Project ...
If you'd like to visit The Museum of Computing over the holidays then visit www.tnmoc.org and I'd love to show you around.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Until next time ... 
ANDREW SPENCER
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 | During Andrews extensive business career he has worked in a wide cross section of companies, specialising in the creation of contact centres and business systems, software development, telecommunications and project management. Andrews key skills are:
Business planning and strategy
Matching technology to business needs
Project management
Software development and implementation
Designing and implementing business systems
His work has included sourcing and implementing a new integrated telecoms system for National Energy Services, designing and project managing a new IT and telephony structure for the Greyhound Racing Association, and directing technology development for Wembley plc.
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