[NJARC] MARCH Vintage Computer Show

[John Ruccolo]

Hi NJARC Folks,

I wanted to give everybody a quick update on the MARCH show, which I attended today. 

In short, I thought it was excellent. Keep in mind, this is an *exhibit* --not a swap meet. But the exhibits were fascinating, and the MARCH club table did have a certain amount of vintage computer junk for sale. (I already have a TI-99, thanks).

I attended the lecture by Bill Mauchly, son of John Mauchly, who together with Presper Eckert designed and built ENIAC and later founded UNIVAC.

The talk was superb, centering on the first true general-purpose ELECTRONIC (NOT mechanical) digital computer -- ENIAC. It had 18,000 vacuum tubes, and fit in a room 15 feet by 30 feet. An audience member asked "was there a problem with heat?" Huh??? Does a bear poop in the woods?

I also had the honor and pleasure of showing off the NJARC museum to Bill Mauchly and his wife. They really enjoyed our museum.

My favorite exhibit was for SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), which was a vacuum-tube based computer system contracted by the Air Force to manage their Cold War defense against the Soviets. It ran from 1958 to 1983. Each system used 55,000 tubes (their were *two* systems per site) and 24 sites! Your tax dollars at work. Each site required 3 *mega* watts of power. Now it could probably all be done on a laptop, who knows. Fascinating stuff.

There was also a *working* DEC PDP-8, IMSAI 8080, vintage Apples, and also the infamous Mattel Aquarius home computer (a flop built for only 4 months).

If you have even a casual interest in vintage computing technology, I encourage you to attend this show next year.


Regards,

John