Another ~1960 computer kit - Philips?

From: D. Peschel <dpeschel_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Thu Dec 17 17:47:01 1998

> A mechanical von Neumann machine? I'm not sure I know of any machine, toy
> or not, that can claim that (and that's mostly due to my ignorance of the
> early relay-based machines, probably). But there are certainly electronic
> von Neumann toys, such as the Science Fair Microprocessor Trainer I
> mentioned earlier.

True. They're essentially small SBC's, right? (And an SBC is a small
computer which happens to be on a single board.) Electronics don't have the
twisted amusement of moving rods and rolling marbles, unfortunately.

> OK, I'll spill the beans somewhat. Normally, the only reason I don't
> spill beans is because I hope to find an instance of the machine myself
> before it becomes well-known and "valuable," but I have little hope of
> finding this one.

You could build one! I don't think you will find one either.

> The first kit was called SIMON (in honor of Simple Simon). I don't have
> all the details yet, but I believe it was relay based, and could be
> programmed via paper tape! I have a picture of it which I'll scan and
> publish someday soon.

It is a very nice machine, though I wouldn't call it a computer in the
strict sense. Berkeley wrote some books (and there may have been some
Scientific American articles) too.

Of course, I could be underestimating the power of Berkeley's machines.

Berkeley also wrote a nice book about LISP (which may be the only reason why
you can run PDP-1 LISP on your PDP-1 emulator -- the source is published in
the book and it would be VERY hard to find otherwise). But I digress.

> Sutherland wrote a division routine for it on paper tape, and also created
> a storage unit for it called MAGDUM (for Magnetic Drum). I have a copy of
> the MAGDUM plans which I'll also be web-publishing. I also have an early
> Berkeley Enterprises catalog, including info about SIMON, MAGDUM, GENIAC,
> and the early robots.

I heard about the division routine somewhere but not MAGDUM.

> I dunno know about you, but when I learned of this, I was dumbfounded.
> A personal computer made in 1950 created by one of the early pioneers and
> which heavily influenced one of the most influential computer scientists
> of our time!

Actually, it is amazing, isn't it? I shouldn't be disappointed even if it
turns out to be a "not-quite-a-computer" class machine.

-- Derek
Received on Thu Dec 17 1998 - 17:47:01 GMT