Visiting the Living Computers Museum

Walking through the Living Computers Museum in Seattle was a trip down memory lane. I saw a number of old machines, from mainframes and supercomputers to PCs, many of which brought back fond memories.

Executive Director Lath Carlson explained that what makes the Living Computers Museum different from others—such every bit the excellent Calculator History Museum in California—is that the bulk of the "Living Computers" are not only on display, but are working, and in many cases are available to the public. Carlson said the museum is based on a drove of computers that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started near 15 years ago, and was opened to the public about 4 years ago.

DEC PDP 10

Not surprisingly, the museum highlights a number of machines that were important to Allen's career, and that of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. It has a December PDP-10 that has been running for 12 years—the same model that Allen and Gates used to learn programming in high school. Allen later used a PDP-10 from Harvard in 1975 to write the code that became Microsoft's outset software product. (When I was in high school, we used a Teletype terminal to communicate with a PDP-10 used in timesharing, and that's how I learned to program BASIC. Just I never was every bit good a developer every bit Allen or Gates.)

Traf-O-Data

Later, I saw the car that Allen and Gates used to create Traf-o-Data, the pair'due south get-go software product, which the ii fabricated when they were both still in loftier school. The museum also has Dec PDP-7, PDP-8, and PDP-12 models, amidst the earliest machines used in timesharing systems.

IBM 360

Of course, at that place are many other machines from that era. The museum has an IBM 360 Model 91 (shown is the control panel). This brought back memories of waiting in line to utilize a slightly earlier model when I was an undergraduate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Found. Some of the memories are skilful, just some—boxes of cards, JCL, late nights waiting to find out if your program fifty-fifty ran—are still traumatic. Still, about of the programmers of my generation learned on IBM or Dec systems.

Cray 1 Living

1 of the highlights of the museum is a Cray 1 that came from the University of Minnesota. The museum also has a number of before machines designed past Seymour Cray when he was with Control Data Corp, including a CDC 6500 that the museum recently finished restoring.

Altair 8800

I beloved early PCs, and noted that the museum has a working Altair 8800, the auto that arguably started the personal calculating revolution when it ran on the cover of Ziff Davis'southward Popular Electronics in January 1975 (which inspired Gates and Allen to kickoff Microsoft). In improver, there are a number of slightly earlier machines such as the Kenbak-i and the Intel Intellec 4/40.

TRS-80 Model 1

The museum does a good task of presenting the range of early PCs, including an IMSAI 8800, Processor Technology Sol-20, Cromenco Z-80, Commodore Pet, and Tandy Radio Shack TRS-fourscore. I had played with well-nigh of these at i betoken or another, but it was the TRS-fourscore Model one (above) that brought back the most memories—it was my first PC. There were many other machines that brought back fond memories, from the Apple tree Two to the original IBM PC.

Jobs' Apple 1

The museum's most recent exhibit is focused on Apple, and a highlight is Steve Jobs's original Apple I, modified with an EPROM loaded with Steve Wozniak'due south Integer Basic, which allowed Jobs to demonstrate the car without loading BASIC from an external cassette drive. The museum says Jobs kept this in his office throughout his first tenure at Apple tree, until his 1985 resignation.

The museum besides has what may be the just working version of the Apple one that is open up to the public, and I took the opportunity to run a piffling BASIC on it. (See the photo at the top of this post.) While I did employ an Apple 2 too equally later machines from the company, like well-nigh people, I had never used an Apple i. The showroom includes a variety of Apple machines, from the early years up to relatively current models.

Xerox Alto

I was intrigued by the Xerox Alto, the early on workstation on which many of the concepts we now accept for granted—including a graphical user interface, object-oriented programming, and the mouse—were created. The museum is also helping to create an Alto simulator for modern PCs, known every bit ContrAlto.

Overall, I found the Living Computers Museum to be a not bad deal of fun. It's a bit off the beaten path, only anyone with an involvement in computers and how they developed will find it's well worth a visit.

Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this web log for PCMag.com to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any fourth dimension invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.