The ENIAC by J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly Computer History Museum 2022-06-10 | The First International Research Conference on the History of Computing was a milestone in the history of computing, drawing a global elite of computer pioneers from the first generation of electronic digital computing. Most talks are approximately 45 minutes in duration and feature a lecture with a brief question and answer period afterwards.This lecture is part of a paper by the lead ENIAC electronics and systems designer Presper Eckert (who could not attend) as read by colleague John Mauchly. Eckert’s paper provides fascinating background on the technical and political aspects of the ENIAC project, from discussing control logic of the giant proposed machine with von Neumann to carefully adding the w “integrator” to the name to appeal to potential funders. One of ENIAC’s most impressive feats was to prove that a large-scale computing system could be built form relatively unreliable vacuum tubes – 18,000 of them in ENIAC’s case. Eckert discusses how this was achieved, with commentary by Mauchly on this point as well.This lecture’s transcript was included in the edited volume from the conference, viz. Eckert, J.P., “The ENIAC,” in Metropolis, N., and Howlett, J., Rota, Gian-Carlo, A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century, New York: Academic Press, 1980, pp. 525 – 539.Catalog Number: 102639639
Sketchpad Computer History Museum 2024-10-16 | [Recorded in 1961 circa]This is a video showing Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad system. Running on Lincoln Lab's TX-2 (Transistor eXperiment-2), Dr. Sutherland demonstrates several of the abilities of his early Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system. The original film is silent with voice-over giving technical descriptions throughout. Catalog number: 102706673
Oral History of Jim Keller Computer History Museum 2024-10-14 | Interviewed by Douglas Fairbairn on 2024-07-08 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumJim Keller is a legendary computer architect. He has designed or impacted virtually every major computer architecture from the 1970’s through 2024. Jim was born in 1958 in Pennsylvania as the son of a mechanical engineer. He was dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until the end of the third grade, but later became a voracious reader. He went on to Penn State because a girl he liked was enrolled there and majored in EE with a minor in philosophy.Upon graduation he went to work at Harris Semiconductor in Florida, which seemed attractive in that he could live on the beach and surf. That job turned out to be a dead end, so he found an ad for a job at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) and quickly found a far more interesting position. It was here that he got an introduction to computer architecture, working on the VAX 8800 along with Bob Stewart, a senior architect on several generations of DEC computers. Jim ended up staying at DEC for 15 years, working on mid-range systems, high end systems, DEC’s Western Research Labs, and eventually joining the semiconductor group where he worked on the Alpha chip.When his time played out at DEC, he moved to the west coast to work at AMD, on the K7 and K8 chips, both X86 compatible architectures competing with Intel. After three years at AMD, he spent a short time at a startup, but quickly moved on to SiByte, where an old colleague from DEC was CEO. The project there was to build a networking processor that attracted the interest of Broadcom, which later bought the company. After some time at Broadcom, he joined another startup to focus on the PowerPC architecture. That company, P.A. Semi, was in turn purchased by Apple. Jim spent four years at Apple before first returning to AMD, then on to Tesla, Intel and finally Tenstorrent. As of 2024, Jim was CEO of Tenstorrent, a company building a massively parallel compute chip aimed at the solving the AI computation bottleneck.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102809019Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102809020Acquisition Number: 2024.0071
1994 Trailer for the Internet 🎥 Computer History Museum 2024-10-11 | It’s 1994 and you’re hearing about the internet for the first time ever. How has it changed since then?Imagery credits: Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)#blastfromthepast #nostalgia #90saesthetic
CHM Live | The Geography of Hope: Using GIS to Change the World Computer History Museum 2024-10-09 | [Recorded October 8, 2024]From Prague to Berkeley to Nairobi to Kyiv, location data is being collected and analyzed through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to map a better future. It's a powerful tool that can be applied to environmental conservation, healthcare, law enforcement, and educational innovation.Join us as Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and former National Audubon Society CEO David Yarnold discusses his groundbreaking book, The Geography of Hope: Real-Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Better World.Don't miss inspiring stories of individuals and organizations leveraging tech to create positive change.What You’ll Experience -A fireside chat with David Yarnold, exploring themes from his new book.-Real-life stories from around the world of people using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to improve their communities.-Plus, an opportunity for a Q&A with the author.Featured ParticipantsSpeakerDavid YarnoldAuthor, The Geography of Hope: Real-Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Brighter FutureDavid Yarnold is the author and primary photographer of The Geography of Hope: Real-Life Stories of Optimists Mapping a Brighter Future. He led the National Audubon Society, helped the Environmental Defense Fund teach China carbon trading, and was executive editor at the San Jose Mercury News. Yarnold is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor, a Pulitzer finalist for editorial writing, and an award-winning photojournalist and designer.ModeratorDawn GarciaDirector, John S. Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellowships, Stanford UniversityDawn Garcia is director of the John S. Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University, a program that coaches and supports diverse journalists from around the world who are creating innovative solutions to journalism’s most urgent problems. A former JSK Fellow herself, Garcia began her career as a reporter and editor at West Coast newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has served on a number of nonprofit journalism boards, including KQED Public Media, the Journalism and Women Symposium, and OpenNews.Catalog Number: 102809043Acquisition Number: 2024.0171
Oral History of Wendell Sander Computer History Museum 2024-10-07 | Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2024-05-30 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumWendell Sander is an American electrical engineer and personal computing pioneer. In this oral history, Sander recounts his growing up in rural Iowa and attending Iowa State University to study electrical engineering. On graduation, he soon joined Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in California and worked on the Symbol and Illiac IV memory (PEM) projects, the latter being the first large-scale use of semiconductor memory in a computer. Sander also developed several important memory products during his years at Fairchild. Sander then joined Apple Computer, Inc., then a two-man company based in Steve Jobs’ garage in Los Altos, California. While at Apple, Sander developed a host of commercially successful add-on cards for the Apple II computer and led design for the Apple III personal computer and many other key Apple products as well. Eventually leaving Apple, he founded The Engineering Company, a contract electrical engineering firm, then joined General Magic, ChipScale, Tropian and Amalfi, the latter two companies designing specialized radio frequency products. Sander also discusses working with his son Brian at Apple and elsewhere, an unusual lifelong partnership between father and son.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792711Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102809005Acquisition Number: 2024.0060
Oral History of Steven Mayer Computer History Museum 2024-10-07 | Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2024-02-22 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumSteven Mayer was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1944, and grew up in Chicago until age 9 and subsequently Redwood City, California. He became a ham radio operator in sixth grade. Mayer attended UC Berkeley studying Engineering Science beginning in 1962, gradually becoming more politically active in the fair housing movement and making documentaries about the anti-war movement for PBS radio, and subsequently dropped out to become a TV producer at the KCSM TV station in San Mateo, California. Mayer discovered he preferred to make tools for content creators rather than be one himself, and got a job at the analog video company Ampex in 1966 as a technician in the videofile R&D department, becoming project manager for a fingerprint retrieval database for law enforcement, working alongside Bob Miner, that became the basis for Oracle. It was at Ampex that Mayer met Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney, Al Alcorn, and Larry Emmons. Tiring of living in Silicon Valley, Mayer and Emmons decided to start Cyan Engineering in rural Grass Valley, California, in the Sierra foothills as an engineering consulting business, initially making video tape-based disc technology. Not finding huge success, Mayer and Emmons decided to merge Cyan into Bushnell’s fledgling company Atari, becoming its advanced R&D group. With Al Alcorn having already pushed Atari into consumer games with home Pong using custom chips, the idea for a microprocessor-based console with games programmed on ROMs led to the Atari VCS. Mayer and Ron Milner did the prototype design of VCS, and handed off the design to Joe Decuir and Jay Miner in Al Alcorn’s engineering team to develop to production. Mayer also designed many of the VCS’s first games, including Combat. The same team also developed the Atari 8-bit home computers, the 400 and 800, which began as evolutions of the VCS but became computers to compete with Apple. Mayer’s Grass Valley group also created the animatronics for Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theater. Mayer later started Warner Labs in New York as a central R&D group for all of Warner. When the video game crash hit, Mayer spun out Digital F/X out of Warner Labs to focus on creating desktop video production tools, which won an Emmy.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102809016Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102809017Acquisition Number: 2024.0069
POV: Bank of America unveils ERMA Computer History Museum 2024-09-30 | ERMA, the Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting, was a groundbreaking computer system introduced by Bank of America in the late 1950s. It revolutionized the banking industry by automating the processing of millions of checks and transactions and setting the foundation for modern electronic banking systems.Imagery credits: Aurora Tucker, Bank of America Corporate Archives#retrotech #oldtech #vintagetech
Fei-Fei Lis AI Journey Computer History Museum 2024-09-26 | Last week, we had the honor of hosting Stanford Professor Fei-Fei Li at the Museum. While artificial intelligence has been making headlines lately, Li has been at the forefront of the field for over two decades. She shared her thoughts on what brought us to today’s current revolution in AI, and where she thinks the future is headed. #CHM #tech #technology #ai
CHM Live | Fei-Fei Lis AI Journey Computer History Museum 2024-09-19 | [Recorded September 17, 2024]Artificial intelligence has been dominating the headlines recently, but Stanford Professor Fei-Fei Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field.Li shares her inspiring journey—chronicled in her new book, The Worlds I See—from her early struggles as a Chinese immigrant in the US to one of the leading figures shaping the future of technology.Here's what you'll experience:-Learn how Li, the creator of ImageNet, sees a path for technology to improve the human condition.-Hear how her curiosity and determination led her to become an AI expert.SpeakerFei-Fei LiSequoia Professor of Computer Science, Stanford UniversityDenning Family Co-Director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), Stanford UniversityFei-Fei Li is the Sequoia Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and Denning Co-Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). Before founding HAI in 2019, she served as the director of Stanford’s AI Lab. She was a VP at Google and chief scientist of AI/ML at Google Cloud during her Stanford sabbatical in 2017–2018. Dr. Li serves on the National AI Research Resource Task Force commissioned by the Congress and White House, and is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.ModeratorTom KalilCEO, Renaissance PhilanthropyTom Kalil is the CEO of Renaissance Philanthropy. He served presidents Obama and Clinton and designed and launched dozens of White House science and technology initiatives, including the $40 billion National Nanotechnology Initiative, The BRAIN Initiative, The Next Generation Internet initiative, and initiatives in advanced materials, robotics, smallsats, data science, and educational technology. Catalog Number: 102809038Acquisition Number: 2024.0149
Oral History of Christos Karamanolis Computer History Museum 2024-09-09 | Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2024-02-22 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumChristos Karamanolis was born in Kavala, Greece and graduated in engineering from the University of Patras, Greece. While a student, he worked as a system administrator on DEC VAX clusters running Unix and VMS. After working for a year, in 1992 he applied to Imperial College, London for graduate school, completing his PhD in four years.As is required of all Greek men, he returned up on graduation to serve in the Greek Armed Forces for 18 months, but then returned to Imperial College in 1998 as a research fellow. Karamanolis moved to Silicon Valley in 2000, starting work at HP Labs where he worked on distributed software-based storage systems. In 2005, he moved to VMWare to work on code development of the company’s core technology: the hypervisor kernel. He has contributed to multiple VMWare products and services since that time including the blockbuster vSAN product and assisting in the acquisition of Daltrium, a maker of cloud-based disaster recovery services; and Nicira, a company focused on software-defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization. Following the acquisition of VMWare by Broadcom in 2023, he is now a Broadcom Fellow. In a career spanning three decades focused on distributed systems, fault tolerance, storage, and storage management. Karamanolis holds over 100 patents.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808973Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808974Acquisition Number: 2024.0021
Celebration of Life: C. Gordon Bell Computer History Museum 2024-08-29 | [Recorded August 24, 2024]CHESTER GORDON BELLAugust 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024Celebration of LifeSaturday August 24, 2024 at 1:00pm PDTComputer History Museum1401 N Shoreline BoulevardMountain View, CA 94043In lieu of flowers or gifts, Gordon asked for donations to one of the following non-profit organizations:Computer History Museumcomputerhistory.orgSF Jazzsfjazz.orgJazz 91 KCSMkcsm.orgFoundation for Fighting Blindnessfightingblindness.orgYour Local SPCA or ASPCACatalog Number: 102644053Acquisition Number: 2024.0130
DAC-1: IBM and General Motors Computer History Museum 2024-08-20 | In the late 1950s, IBM and General Motors teamed up to develop DAC-1, an early computer-aided design system completed in 1964. This system, based on an IBM 7090 mainframe and a specialized graphics terminal, enabled users to draw and manipulate images with a light pen, advancing the field of automobile design. 🚗Imagery credits: Fred Krull, General Motors Corporation, GM Research Laboratories, Gwen Bell#cardesign #automotivetechnology #retrotech
Massively parallel supercomputing: introduction to the Connection Machine (CM-2) Computer History Museum 2024-08-09 | [Recorded in 1990]Lecture by Daniel Hillis of Thinking Machines Corp. Contrasts Von Newmann machines with data parallel machines. Tells why Amdahl's law does not seem to hurt parallel machines. Discusses the major design issues he faced in building the Connection Machine: balancing processing, communication and I/O. Followed by a Q&A session.Catalog number: 102622077
WAIS Project: Wide Area Information Servers Computer History Museum 2024-08-08 | [Recorded in 1991]This video describes the main characteristics of the WAIS Project: Wide Area Information Server. The video contains a short news segment about parallel computers designed by Thinking Machine and short demo of WAIS running on an Apple computer. Catalog number: 102695430
Big Data, Big Transition, Big Trouble Computer History Museum 2024-08-08 | [Recorded in 1996]Brief Lecture produced by Silicon Graphics about big data. According to the label found on the tape, "this video helps you understand the complexities and difficulties ahead for many vendors and what they mean for the computing industry for the next few years."Catalog number: 102639168
Fairchild Integrated Circuits Computer History Museum 2024-08-02 | This clip from a 1967 promotional film by Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation featured Dr. Harry Sello and Dr. Jim Angell describing integrated circuit design and development. Fairchild fabricated its first planar integrated circuit, comprising just four transistors and five resistors, in 1960, kicking off the integrated circuit revolution.To view the full film, search “Fairchild Briefing on Integrated Circuits” on our YouTube channel. #Fairchild #IntegratedCircuit #RetroTech
CHM Live | Predicting the President: Origins of Computer Forecasting Computer History Museum 2024-07-25 | [Recorded July 23, 2024]Every election night, millions of Americans hit refresh on their browsers and social media and tune into the news for the latest predictions on who’s going to win.But what’s the technology that makes these predictions possible? Join CHM for a riveting story at the intersection of technology and democracy as journalist, professor emeritus, and author Ira Chinoy shares insights from his book, Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting. What to Expect-Learn about the birth of computational methods in predicting election results.-Hear the untold story of the legendary 1952 election night and its surprising star.-Learn about the enduring legacy of early computer forecasting on contemporary election reporting.Catalog Number: 102809027Acquisition Number: 2024.0078
Mary Allen Wilkes Oral History, part 2 of 2 Computer History Museum 2024-07-22 | Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2022-07-06 in Cambridge, MA© Computer History MuseumIn the second part of her oral history, Mary Allen Wilkes continues her discussion of the LINC computer development, and in particular the system software that she created. She recounts the evolution of the work of the group around Wesley Clark at Washington University St. Louis, particularly the Macromodule project supported by ARPA. She recounts her efforts in the patenting and copyrighting of software, and a visit to China by US computer professionals in 1972. Wilkes describes starting at Harvard Law School in 1972, and then her forty year legal career in civil, criminal, and corporate law. The interview concludes with a discussion of Wilkes’ interest in opera, travel, and history.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792711Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792712Acquisition Number: X9522.2021
Oral History of Mary Allen Wilkes, part 1 of 2 Computer History Museum 2024-07-22 | Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2021-07-28 in Cambridge, MA© Computer History MuseumIn the first part of her oral history, Mary Allen Wilkes begins with a discussion of her family background and youth. She describes her experiences as a high school student at Baltimore Friends School, from which she graduated in 1955. She recounts her desire to be a lawyer and her affinity for mathematics and logic as she began her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College, from which she graduated in 1959 as a philosophy major. Following the suggestion of an Eighth-grade teacher that she might enjoy computer programming, Wilkes applied for programming jobs at MIT immediately after graduation. She quickly secured a job at the Lincoln Laboratory, working for Oliver Selfridge and Ben Gold. After a year studying in Vienna, she returned to the Lincoln Lab in 1961 where she joined Wesley Clark’s group. There she participated in the effort to build the LINC computer from the earliest days. The majority of the oral history is devoted to Wilkes’ experiences in the LINC effort through 1965, where she led the development of its system software.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792262Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792263Acquisition Number: X9522.2021
Ralph Baer & Odyssey Computer History Museum 2024-07-15 | Using a TV to play games? You can, in part, credit Ralph Baer for coming up with that idea in 1951. In 1966, he built the first prototype for a home gaming console that could play games without a computer, microprocessor, or software.In 1972, he licensed it to Magnavox, who released the Odyssey game system in which players attached plastic overlays to the TV screen for a game background.Imagery credits: Mark Richards, Ralph Baer#RetroTech #Gaming #RetroGame
Will Wrights Lessons in Game Design 🕹️ Computer History Museum 2024-07-15 | In his November 2003 lecture, Will Wright, cofounder of SimCity and The Sims, explored key aspects of gaming such as AI, simulation, and the future of the industry. Continue watching on our YouTube channel 🎥
CHM Live | Making News: How Tech Shapes Journalism and Society Computer History Museum 2024-06-28 | [Recorded June 27, 2024]Today, journalism, technology, and political polarization are profoundly changing one another—and us. But this is far from the first time these forces have collided. What lessons does history hold? Before the rise of the web and social media, cable television introduced a profit-driven news industry with dramatic consequences for the partisan divide. But earlier technological revolutions, from the rise of the postal service to the telegraph, enabled mass communication and changed journalism. With the hindsight of history, we'll explore today's challenges and opportunities. Join CHM as we decode technology's continuing impact on news, partisanship, and society with Kathryn Cramer Brownell, Richard R. John and Alexis Madrigal. What You’ll Experience -Explore contemporary concerns and historical context about tech and the news with historians and journalists.-Learn more about technology's impacts on journalism and political polarization. -Gain insights into today's journalism and information environment.Catalog Number: 102809018Acquisition Number: 2024.0070
IBMs Man & Computer (1967) Computer History Museum 2024-06-26 | Check out this clip from “Man & Computer” (1967) by IBM UK, providing a basic understanding of computer operations 🎥 From these early simulations to today's seamless interactions, it's incredible how far we've come in integrating computers into our daily lives. #IBM #Computing #EarlyComputing #Technology
Dialed In: The Prehistory of Social Media Computer History Museum 2024-06-25 | Long before online forums and communities like Reddit and Discord, and even before the World Wide Web, bulletin board systems (BBSs) reigned supreme. During their heyday in the 1980s and '90s, people dialed their modems into more than 100,000 BBSs, and their impact can still be felt in today's digital world.In our recent CHM Live event, experts danah boyd and Kevin Driscoll discuss this prehistory of social media. Watch the full conversation on YouTube. #SocialMediaEvolution #TechHistory #DigitalCommunities
CHM Live | The Chinese Computer Computer History Museum 2024-06-21 | [Recorded June 18th, 2024]How can Chinese—a language with tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet—be input on a QWERTY keyboard with only a few dozen keys?In his new book, The Chinese Computer, Stanford professor Thomas Mullaney dissects the history and evolution of Chinese language computing technology and explores the fascinating story of software programs that enable Chinese characters to be produced using alphanumeric symbols.Join us for a fireside chat with Mullaney as he discusses:-The profound impact this software had on the way Chinese is written. -How these advances helped computers gain traction in Asian countries.-The way culture informs computing and how computing, in turn, shapes culture.We would like to thank the Bin Lin and Daisy Liu Family Foundation for their generous support of this program. Acquisition Number: 2024.0068Catalog Number: 102809012
InsantInsanity AI Puzzle Computer History Museum 2024-06-17 | What did artificial intelligence look like 50 years ago? In 1971, a groundbreaking experiment at Stanford's AI Lab demonstrated early computer vision as it solved the Instant Insanity puzzle.How does this compare to what you expected from AI back then? Surprised or underwhelmed? We’d love to hear your thoughts below. Imagery credits: Stanford University #AI #ComputerVision #TechHistory
CHM Live | Indias Digital Revolution: Innovating Civic Technology Computer History Museum 2024-05-31 | [Recorded May 30, 2024]From launching a digital identity system used by 1.3 billion people, to evolving from a primarily cash-based society to the country with the highest volume of digital payments in the world, India's digital transformation is a remarkable success story. A set of public sector digital technologies known as the "India Stack," that includes layers for proving identity, handling digital payments, and sharing data, has enabled profound societal impacts.Now street vendors in India can accept instant digital payments even if they don't have WiFi or electricity. Wait times at borders have been cut from days to minutes. Digital identity and e-sign technologies have enabled billions of transactions.Join CHM to find out from Pramod Varma, former chief architect of the digital identity system Aadhaar and numerous India Stack technologies, how it all works.What to Expect-Hear about India's transformative new approach to solving societal problems using digital public infrastructure.-Learn about key elements of the public civic technologies.-Discover lessons for the rest of the world on how civic investments in technology can improve societal welfare.Catalog Number: 102809008Acquisition Number: 2024.0066
Oral History of Robin Matlock Computer History Museum 2024-05-30 | Interviewed by Douglas Fairbairn on 2024-02-07 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumRobin Matlock was born in 1965 and raised in Arizona. In high school she participated in a wide variety of sports. She attended Rice University on a music scholarship. Although she majored in music, that was not her long-term career path. In fact, she didn’t have a clear direction, so took a number of economics courses figuring business might be her career direction.A lucky opportunity took her to the San Francisco Bay Area living with relatives where she found a job in sales working for ADP. Over the next few years, she moved through several tech companies and expanding her responsibilities to include not only sales, but business development and product marketing. Among other lessons, these experiences taught her to think like a customer, a perspective that served her well throughout her career. After a job at a company called Imperva didn’t work out, she thought strategically about her next step and found an opportunity to be VP of Corporate Marketing at VMware. This was a big step and brought her into a job in which she didn’t have any direct experience. However, with her willingness to learn from others and hard work, she made a success of that position. This success led to higher level and more diverse responsibilities until she was named Chief Marketing Officer in 2013. In this oral history, she outlines many of the marketing challenges faced by a high growth tech company, which was actually largely owned by EMC and/or Dell throughout her tenure.Robin held that position until 2020, deciding that she could continue to grow her career and give back by joining the boards of a select group of companies. She is currently serving on six different boards, both public and private. The most meaningful of those is the George Mark Children’s House, which is a pediatric palliative care house focused on serving children with incurable diseases and their families.She maintains her interest in sports and fitness, working out almost every day, playing tennis and running for several miles on a regular basis.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808965Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808966Acquisition Number: 2024.0016
Oral History of Keith Diefendorff Computer History Museum 2024-05-21 | Interviewed by Douglas Fairbairn on 2022-08-24 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumKeith Diefendorff had a remarkable career as the lead architect for multiple microprocessors, including the Motorola 88110, the PowerPC, and a version of the MIPS processor. He played a leading role in the design of other microprocessors as well, including TI’s Lisp machine, the MicroExplorer. Keith grew up in Ohio where he attended Kent State and the University of Akron where he earned a Masters in EE. He went to work for Texas Instruments where he spent 13 years designing computer peripherals, and a variety of microprocessors from the TI 9900 family to the Explorer family of Lisp machines. Keith then moved on to Motorola where he was asked to architect the next generation of the 88K family of microprocessors, the 88110. That project was eventually cancelled when Motorola, Apple, and IBM decided to collaborate on the design of the PowerPC family of chips. Diefendorff was the lead architect for Motorola.After 7 years at Motorola, he moved to Silicon Valley and went to work for NexGen Microsystems, where he played a critical role in convincing the company to make their X86 processor compatible with Intel’s X86 family. After AMD’s purchase of NexGen, he moved onto Apple where he again got to play the role of lead architect for the PowerPC, but this time from Apple’s perspective. His major contribution in this role was to get the AltiVec Vector processing instructions added to the architecture. He later served stints as the editor-in-chief of the Microprocessor Report, CTO at ARC Cores, chief architect of MIPS’ proposed Sony Playstation processor, architect at Montalvo Systems, and finally back to Apple, from which he retired in 2011. Upon retirement, he moved back to Texas where he has a 100-acre ranch, cattle, horses, etc. and two houses – one for he and his wife, and one for his son and his family.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792764Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792765Acquisition Number: 2022.0125
Oral History of Jim Morehouse Computer History Museum 2024-05-21 | Interviewed by Dal Allan and Bruno Marchon on 2023-09-20 in Pagosa Springs, CO© Computer History MuseumJim Morehouse patented a remarkable number of innovations, and is best known for resurrecting the method of head loading used for removable media disk drives and applying it to fixed media disk drives. The technique of dynamic head loading is still in use today. Patent #4,933,785 has been referred to as the 'How to Build a Disk Drive' guide, it not only described how to load/unload disk heads when all was well, it also defined how to unload them after power loss by using the back electrical current from the slowing motor. From the monstrous StorageTek 4-stack Superdisk of 1975 to the tiny PrairieTek 2.5" disk of 1988, Jim led the way to small form factors. In 1988, the Compaq SLT/286 had a 3.5" disk drive and weighed 14 pounds, a year later the LTE/286 had a 2.5" 40 MB drive and weighed 6.7 pounds.The 2.5" drive took the laptop mainstream, manufacturers could not build enough to satisfy the demand.Three years later Jim was key to the 1.8" disk drive introduced by Integral Peripherals, which found its niche in the laptop market as a portable removable device. Disk drives small, but not everything else, Jim retired to a ranch where he raises large horses.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792904Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792905Acquisition Number: 2023.0161
CHM Live | NOVA Secrets in Your Data Computer History Museum 2024-05-17 | [Recorded May 16, 2024]Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy—even your safety. At the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields like medicine. In NOVA's Secrets in Your Data, host Alok Patel explores these issues on a quest to understand what happens to all the data we’re shedding and explores the latest efforts to maximize benefits—without compromising personal privacy.Join the Computer History Museum for a screening of selected clips from Secrets in Your Data paired with a panel discussion featuring experts from the film.NOVA's Secrets in Your Data premieres Wednesday May 15 at 9/8c on PBS. Check local listings for details. It is also available for streaming online via the PBS video app or the link below.youtu.be/ih_GGQX_zmM?si=0ui4qAfOP5Ou6RRTCatalog Number: 102808999Acquisition Number: 2024.0061
Oral History of Bruce Daniels Computer History Museum 2024-05-16 | Interviewed by Hansen Hsu on 2023-08-01 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumBruce Daniels was born in Houston, Texas, on January 10th, 1949, and grew up in Oklahoma. He majored in physics initially at MIT but switched to computer science in his junior year, and continued on at MIT for his Ph.D. work on the APL language. While there, Daniels became involved in programming the original version of the text adventure game Zork, and would later be contracted to write the Apple II version for Infocom. Daniels decided to leave his Ph.D. to join John Couch’s group at Hewlett-Packard, working on programming languages and tools for the HP 3000 minicomputer. After Couch joined Apple, Daniels would eventually follow him there in 1979. Although Daniels was originally on the Apple III project, he happened to join Couch, Steve Jobs, and others who were working on the Lisa to visit Xerox PARC in 1979, where they were introduced to the graphical user interface. Daniels would be recruited by Jobs to help manage the Lisa software group a few months later to help turn the Lisa into a GUI-based computer. In addition to managing and helping run user testing, Daniels also wrote a mouse-based graphical text editor that was used for software development on the Lisa.At one point there was a plan to release a product for software development that was a Lisa with only developer tools instead of office applications, and Daniels led the project. When this was canceled sometime in 1982, Daniels moved to the Macintosh development team for six to nine months, influencing them in adopting the Lisa’s graphical user interface. Daniels was supposed to work on a word processor for the Macintosh, but balked when Jobs insisted he write it in 3 months, when he knew it would take 2 years. Daniels rejoined the Lisa group and Randy Wigginton replaced him on what would become MacWrite.Once back in the Lisa group, Daniels worked on optimizing the system’s performance, helping the team track and fix bugs, and began to do public demos and other PR work for the Lisa, through its announcement date in January 1983. Daniels also helped create the MacWorks Macintosh emulation environment for the Lisa. After the Lisa shipped in the summer of ’83, Daniels began to do PR work for the upcoming Macintosh.Daniels left Apple in 1984 to create a startup, Singular Software, to make a Macintosh database application. This was sold to Borland in 1986. After leaving Borland in 1987, Daniels joined Sun Microsystems, helping develop standards for software development inside the company, and standard user interfaces for internal applications. In between stints at Sun, Daniels helped create a cross-platform application toolkit at Oracle. During the late 1980s, Daniels was also called to testify in Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft and HP over the similarity in the look and feel of the Macintosh and Windows’ graphical user interfaces.After rejoining Sun in 1992, Daniels worked in research, developing a high level language, DASL, that would generate Java code for graphical applications. This work would later be applied to the cloud. In 1999, Daniels was asked by the governor of California to join the Regional Water Quality Control Board for the central California coast. After Sun’s acquisition by Oracle, Daniels decided to pursue a Ph.D. in hydroclimatology at UC Santa Cruz, studying the effects of climate change on local water supplies. Daniels developed a system to model variations in local water supplies and helped the Soquel Creek Water District build a system to replenish ground water with treated wastewater.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792890Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792891Acquisition Number: 2023.0133
Oral History of Judy Estrin, part 3 of 3 Computer History Museum 2024-05-10 | Interviewed by David C. Brock and and Marc Weber on 2023-03-15 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this third segment of her three part oral history, networking pioneer and entrepreneur Judy Estrin first talks about her son David's company Evntlive, which offered live concert streaming with social features before being acquired by Yahoo in 2013. She then discusses her ongoing work and mentoring around innovation and policy. In 2008 she had published Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy. Estrin served on the boards of a number of major companies including FedEx Corporation, Sun Microsystems, and on the board of the Walt Disney Company for 15 years.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792822Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792823Acquisition Number: X9156.2020
Oral History of Judy Estrin, part 2 of 3 Computer History Museum 2024-05-10 | Interviewed by David C. Brock and and Marc Weber on 2020-02-05 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this second segment of her three part oral history interview, networking pioneer and entrepreneur Judy Estrin discusses her time managing Bridge Communications, the networking company she cofounded with her then-husband Bill Carrico. She tells the story of taking Bridge public in the mid 1980s, and then various acquisitions by Bridge. That leads into the story of how Bridge was acquired by 3Com, the company cofounded by Ethernet co-inventor Bob Metcalfe. At 3Com, Estrin assumed the role of director of marketing and sales while Bill Carrico focused on administration. She describes the initial honeymoon period, and then the conflicts that arose over strategy and Bridge's role within 3Com, and between Bill Carrico and 3Com CEO Bill Krause. Estrin and Carrico left the company after nine months. In 1988, they joined the founding team of Network Computing Devices (NCD). Estrin's leadership at NCD led her from executive vice president to president and CEO by 1993.In 1995, six months after leaving NCD, Estrin co-founded Precept Software, Inc., a company specializing in networking software. Under her guidance as president and CEO, Precept Software experienced notable success, culminating in its acquisition by Cisco Systems in 1998. Following the acquisition, Estrin served as Cisco's chief technology officer until 2000. In 1995, six months after leaving NCD, Estrin co-founded Precept Software, Inc., which developed networking software. Under her guidance as president and CEO, Precept Software experienced notable success, culminating in its acquisition by Cisco Systems in 1998. Following the acquisition, Estrin served as Cisco's chief technology officer until 2000. Estrin was listed as one of the "50 most powerful businesswomen in the United States" by Fortune in 1998. In 2000, Estrin and Carrico co-founded Packet Design, LLC, a networking technology company with $24 million in funding. Packet Design later spun out three venture-backed startups. During this time, she divorced Carrico. She served as CEO of Packet Design, LLC, until it was dissolved, distributing its assets to investors in late 2007. After Packet Design, she created JLABS, LLC, which she considered a way to pursue her interests in innovation and leadership. She became the CEO of Evntlive, a tech company founded by her son David Carrico, in 2013.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792008Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792009Acquisition Number: X9156.2020
Oral History of Judy Estrin, part 1 of 3 Computer History Museum 2024-05-10 | Interviewed by David C. Brock and and Marc Weber on 2019-09-20 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this first segment of her three part oral history interview, networking pioneer and entrepreneur Judy Estrin discusses her youth, education, and early career. She begins by reviewing the stories of her parents, early computing contributors Drs. Thelma and Gerard Estrin. Judy Estrin was born in Israel when her parents were creating WEIZAC, the first electronic digital computer there. Her family then moved to Los Angeles, where her parents became faculty at UCLA. Estrin recollects growing up on the UCLA campus, the character of her parents and household, and her exposure to computing. She reviews her undergraduate studies at UCLA, and her decision to pursue a master’s at Stanford in computing in the group of her father’s former student, Vint Cerf. At Stanford, Estrin describes her involvement with networking technology, particularly the Transfer Control Protocol, TCP, within Cerf’s group. She discusses her decision to join Zilog, and its efforts in Ethernet and local area networking, as well as the connections between Zilog and Xerox PARC. Estrin reviews her activities at Zilog, the development of its networking efforts, and the trajectory of the firm overall. She discusses her early association with Bill Carrico at Zilog, who would become her professional and personal partner. Estrin details the spin-off of the networking company Ungermann-Bass from Zilog, and her subsequent brief tenure with the firm. She discusses her path to the formation of the networking start-up Bridge Communications with Carrico, and the general context for networking technology at the time. The interview concludes with Estrin’s discussion of the early organization, technology, strategy, and customers for Bridge.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102795139Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102795140Acquisition Number: X9156.2020
Oral History of Robert Garner, part 2 of 2 Computer History Museum 2024-05-04 | Interviewed by Roy Ogus on 2019-05-17 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this two-part oral history interview, Robert Garner recounts his 1977-2018 Silicon Valley career in computer, networking and storage architecture, working both engineering and management roles in both product development and research at Xerox’s Systems Development Division (SDD) and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Sun Microsystems, Brocade Communications, and IBM Almaden Research (ARC). Beginning in 1977 with an MSEE from Stanford University, Bob Metcalfe recruited him into Xerox’s System Development Division (SDD) in Palo Alto that had been established to commercialize PARC's groundbreaking Alto personal computer. There he co-designed the Xerox STAR Professional Workstation and its 10-Mbps Ethernet interface, announced ahead of its time in 1981. That same year, he joined Lynn Conway’s pioneering VLSI design group at Xerox PARC. In 1984, he left PARC to join the start-up Sun Microsystems as the lead architect of SPARC, its Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), working closely with UCB’s Dave Patterson and Sun’s cofounder Bill Joy. There he also co-designed the Sun-4/200 workstation using the first SPARC chips. In 1989, he transitioned into management to lead the I/O-subsystem ASIC team for Sun’s flagship UNIX multi-processor system, the SPARCcenter-2000. After managing an endeavor to design a gallium-arsenide based SPARC microprocessor, in 1991 he became manager of the UltraSPARC-I microprocessor front-end architecture and logic design team, growing it to 80 engineers. In 1994, he became the SPARC unit’s director of advanced development for microprocessor architecture, performance, compilers and CAD. In 1995 he managed the development of a new instruction-set and graphics-oriented microprocessor called MAJC, the first multi-threaded microprocessor. In 1997, he managed a Java distributed computing software project at Sun called JINI. He left Sun in 1998 to join start-up Brocade Communications as its director of hardware engineering, responsible for designing its FibreChannel switch products. In 2001, he joined the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose where he co-designed an innovative 3D, liquid-cooled scalable server called IceCube, inventing its surface-based capacitive couplers. The project culminated in an operational 3x3x3-node prototype. In 2007, he was asked to manage a small team that designed and supported a million-lines-of-code, high-performance, software-based storage controller deployed world-wide in supercomputers called GPFS Native RAID (GNR). He later spearheaded a preconfigured system product based on it called the IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS). From 2004 to the present, he's led a team of volunteers that have restored two 1960’s IBM 1401 mainframes to full operation, exhibited weekly at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102781303Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 1102781304Acquisition Number: X8869.2019
Oral History of Robert Garner, part 1 of 2 Computer History Museum 2024-05-04 | Interviewed by Roy Ogus on 2018-12-06 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this two-part oral history interview, Robert Garner recounts his 1977-2018 Silicon Valley career in computer, networking and storage architecture, working both engineering and management roles in both product development and research at Xerox’s Systems Development Division (SDD) and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Sun Microsystems, Brocade Communications, and IBM Almaden Research (ARC). Beginning in 1977 with an MSEE from Stanford University, Bob Metcalfe recruited him into Xerox’s System Development Division (SDD) in Palo Alto that had been established to commercialize PARC's groundbreaking Alto personal computer. There he co-designed the Xerox STAR Professional Workstation and its 10-Mbps Ethernet interface, announced ahead of its time in 1981. That same year, he joined Lynn Conway’s pioneering VLSI design group at Xerox PARC. In 1984, he left PARC to join the start-up Sun Microsystems as the lead architect of SPARC, its Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC), working closely with UCB’s Dave Patterson and Sun’s cofounder Bill Joy. There he also co-designed the Sun-4/200 workstation using the first SPARC chips. In 1989, he transitioned into management to lead the I/O-subsystem ASIC team for Sun’s flagship UNIX multi-processor system, the SPARCcenter-2000. After managing an endeavor to design a gallium-arsenide based SPARC microprocessor, in 1991 he became manager of the UltraSPARC-I microprocessor front-end architecture and logic design team, growing it to 80 engineers. In 1994, he became the SPARC unit’s director of advanced development for microprocessor architecture, performance, compilers and CAD. In 1995 he managed the development of a new instruction-set and graphics-oriented microprocessor called MAJC, the first multi-threaded microprocessor. In 1997, he managed a Java distributed computing software project at Sun called JINI. He left Sun in 1998 to join start-up Brocade Communications as its director of hardware engineering, responsible for designing its FibreChannel switch products. In 2001, he joined the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose where he co-designed an innovative 3D, liquid-cooled scalable server called IceCube, inventing its surface-based capacitive couplers. The project culminated in an operational 3x3x3-node prototype. In 2007, he was asked to manage a small team that designed and supported a million-lines-of-code, high-performance, software-based storage controller deployed world-wide in supercomputers called GPFS Native RAID (GNR). He later spearheaded a preconfigured system product based on it called the IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS). From 2004 to the present, he's led a team of volunteers that have restored two 1960’s IBM 1401 mainframes to full operation, exhibited weekly at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102740476Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102740477Acquisition Number: X8869.2019
Oral History of Judea Pearl Computer History Museum 2024-05-01 | Interviewed by David C. Brock on 2022-07-26 in Encino, CA© Computer History MuseumIn this interview, Judea Pearl discusses his life and long career. He begins by recounting his family background, and then his youth and education in Israel. Next, Pearl discusses his army service, experience of a kibbutz, and his technical education as an undergraduate at the Technion. He also discusses his wife, the software developer Ruth Pearl, whom he met at the Technion. Pearl then recounts the couple’s move to the United States, where Pearl studied electrical engineering while working. He discusses his work at RCA’s Sarnoff Laboratory and his PhD, both in superconducting electronics, at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Pearl then recounts the couple’s move to California in the mid 1960s, with Ruth Pearl working at TRW and he at Electronic Memories. With the rise of semiconductor electronics, Pearl decided to move into software and secured a faculty position at UCLA, where he has remained ever since. He recounts his moves into statistics and artificial intelligence at UCLA, and details his route to the development of Bayesian Networks. Pearl details his work on Bayesian Networks, and the trajectory of his work on causal reasoning. The interview concludes with Pearl’s reflections on his work, the state of artificial intelligence research, and his involvements with the Daniel Pearl Foundation and issues related to Israel.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102792724Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102792725Acquisition Number: 2022.0101
CHM Live | Dialed In: The Prehistory of Social Media Computer History Museum 2024-04-29 | [Recorded April 25, 2024]Long before online forums and communities like Reddit and Discord, and even before the World Wide Web, bulletin board systems (BBSs) reigned supreme. During their heyday in the 1980s and '90s, millions of people dialed their modems into more than 100,000 BBSs, and their impact can still be felt in today's digital world.Join us to hear Kevin Driscoll, author of the award-winning book The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media, and technology and society expert danah boyd discuss the innovative world of BBSs and how they shaped the ongoing evolution of social media and the internet.What You'll Experience:-Hear untold stories of regional and general-interest BBSs, and those for groups like HIV/AIDS activists and ham radio users.-Learn how BBS operators and users developed early forms of community moderation, governance, and commercialization.-Reflect on the evolution of social media and consider lessons for a more inclusive future.Catalog Number: 102808990Acquisition Number: 2024.0058
Oral History of Steve Herrod Computer History Museum 2024-04-15 | Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2023-11-13 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumThis interview begins with Herrod’s early formative years in Texas as an early computer hobbyist with broad interests in science and the humanities. Graduating from the University of Texas, he drove out to California for graduate studies in computer science at Stanford University. His advisor, Mendel Rosenblum, was leading research into virtualization on consumer PC hardware. Rosenblum later cofounded VMWare. The interview takes some time to explain what virtualization is, from the desktop to the datacenter, as well as the various other forms of virtualization beyond compute, such as storage and networking. Additionally, Herrod describes in depth his evangelist role within and outside the company as VMWare grew into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The role of CTO and how the innovation process unfolds in real time and is managed is discussed in detail. There is also some discussion of the various acquisitions VMWare has undergone over the years and its prospects for the future.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808935Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808936Acquisition Number: 2023.0191
Oral History of Young Sohn Computer History Museum 2024-04-12 | Interviewed by Douglas Fairbairn on 2023-09-28 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumYoung Sohn has had a distinguished and diverse career in the semiconductor and IT industries, serving as an executive, investor, and/or advisor at major companies like Intel and Samsung as well as near-startups in need of strong leadership and direction. Mr. Sohn was born in Korea, but was brought to the US by his mother at the age of 15 after his father was killed in an accident. He attended high school in the Washington DC area and later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979, earning a BSEE. While in college, he joined the fencing team, became it’s captain, and won the NCAA championship in 1979. Sohn’s first job was at the Avondale division of Hewlett Packard. He spent two years there, coming to appreciate the HP culture and how a successful company operated. His next step was to enter the Sloan School at MIT with a goal of combining his technical skills with management science. While still at MIT, he started his own company, Tektra, to create a database product for the burgeoning PC market. He quickly learned the challenges of entrepreneurship and taking new products to an international market, and after two years decided to focus on his full-time job. After graduating from MIT, he joined Intel and became product manager for their new Ethernet controller chip. However, in late 1984, he got a call from Andy Grove, then Intel’s President, asking Sohn to join Grove in a series of meetings at Samsung in Korea with the goal of setting up a strategic partnership whereby Samsung would manufacture Intel’s memory chips. Sohn was then asked to head the new joint venture, growing the office from 0 to 200 people in four years. He later returned to the US to startup Intel’s chipset business, but found he missed the responsibility and independence which came from running his own operation overseas. A call from a headhunter convinced him to join Quantum as president of Asia, where he had the responsibility to again establish a new Asian operation, including manufacturing capabilities. He later became president of Quantum’s whole disk drive operation, learning first-hand the strategies and challenges of running a fast-cycle-time high tech business, where new products had to appear every 9 months. He continued his varied and successful career, serving as CEO of Oak Technologies, president of Agilent’s semiconductor business, CEO of Inphi and Cymer, and eventually serving for almost a decade back with Samsung as president of their Strategy and M&A business group. Along the way he has served on multiple boards and volunteered for two years working with Nicholas Negroponte promoting his “One Laptop per Child” program. Young Sohn retired from Samsung in 2021 and became a cofounder of a new venture firm, Walden Catalyst. He continues to maintain a work/life balance, exercising vigorously every morning for an hour and enjoying his passion for kitesurfing. He is married and has three accomplished children, two of whom work with him part-time in the family investing business.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808914Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808915Acquisition Number: 2023.0159
Oral History of Kit Colbert Computer History Museum 2024-04-09 | Interviewed by Dag Spicer on 2024-02-12 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumKit Colbert is an American technologist who was CTO of VMWare from 2021-2023. In this oral history, he describes his early years growing up in Oklahoma, college at Brown University -- where he majored in computer science – to his first (and only) job, at VMWare, initially as an intern. This interview describes, from a high-level perspective, VMWare’s history, products, and people as it grew from a research project at Stanford University to a multi-billion dollar company. It also traces the evolution of VMWare’s increasing presence in information technology in three phases, from compute virtualization to storage, network and application virtualization to cloud-based solutions that incorporate its vision of the virtual data center.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808969Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808970Acquisition Number: 2024.0018
Oral History of Caroline Rose Computer History Museum 2024-03-29 | Interviewed by Hansen Hsu and Marc Weber on 2023-11-28 in Mountain View, CA© Computer History MuseumCaroline Rose, née Rufolo, was born (1947) and raised in Queens, New York. She suffered rheumatic fever as a child and alternated between home school and Catholic schools. She graduated with a mathematics degree from Queens College in 1967.Caroline moved to California in 1967 and became a technical writer at Tymshare. From 1969 to 1976, she became a programmer before returning to technical writing, all while working at Tymshare.Caroline joined Apple in 1982 to write the award-winning Inside Macintosh, the technical documentation for the Macintosh Toolbox APIs. She followed Steve Jobs to NeXT to become its documentation manager in 1986, but left Iin 1991 after suffering a repetitive strain injury. She then rejoined Apple in its Tech Support group to take over develop, Apple’s award-winning technical journal. Leaving Apple in 1997 after Jobs returned, Caroline started her own freelance consultancy, with clients including Apple, Adobe, Genentech, Netscape, and Sony.* Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102808938Visit computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories for more information about the Computer History Museum's Oral History Collection.Catalog Number: 102808939Acquisition Number: 2023.0198
A trailbazing woman in tech: Evelyn Berezin 🌟 #womenintech #womenshistorymonth Computer History Museum 2024-03-27 | ...
The Osborne Survival Kit Computer History Museum 2024-03-13 | [Recorded in 1987]Video illustrating how to repair the Osborne computer.Catalog number: 102651494Acquisition number: X4071.2007
Homebrew Computer Club Computer History Museum 2024-03-03 | On March 3, 1975, the Homebrew Computer Club had their first meeting in a garage in Menlo Park, California. CHM co-founder Len Shustek was one of the 30 people at that first meeting of microcomputer hobbyists. The group would grow quickly and soon have to meet in the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center auditorium, which then emerged as Ground Zero of the personal computing revolution.Imagery credits: Amateur Computer Users Group, Lee Felsenstein, Len Shustek, photo of Steve Jobs and SteveWozniak courtesy of Joe Melena, photo of Paul Allen and Bill Gates courtesy of Microsoft Corporate Archive, Steven K. Roberts#homebrewcomputer #computerclub #stevejobs #stevewozniak
Chris Espinosa shares Apples original marketing principles Computer History Museum 2024-02-26 | From CHM Live's “Insanely Great: The Apple Mac at 40,” Chris Espinosa takes us through the foundational “Apple Marketing Principles” published in 1978. He revisits the core values of empathy, focus, and impute, emphasizing how these principles guide Apple's strategy and operations to this day. #AppleMac40 #CHMLive #TechHistory
Former Apple Marketing Manager on the controversial 1984 Super Bowl ad Computer History Museum 2024-02-21 | In a candid moment from a recent CHM event, Mike Murray, former Apple Computer marketing manager, shares an unforgettable board meeting experience before the Super Bowl.It’s the final week to visit "Hello: The Apple Mac at 40," a mini pop-up featuring rare Macintosh prototypes and memorabilia. Hope to see you here. 🍎#SuperBowlAd #AppleHistory #Marketing
Eddie Dinel Interview Computer History Museum 2024-02-16 | Interviewed by Kristin Morris on 2023-10-20© Computer History MuseumThis interview covers Eddie Dinel's career path at VMware, his contributions to VMware innovation, and his reflections on VMware's contributions to the technology sector. Eddie is Product Management Leader, Kubernetes.Catalog number: 102808929Acquisition number: 2023.0137
