The best small computer in the world (1968) [pdf]

http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Data_General/DGC.Nova.1968.102646102.pdf

by mjbellantoni • 12 years ago

25 15 12 years ago

archive.computerhistory.org

sengstrom• 12 years ago

Nothing like having Don Draper make promo shots for your new computer.

waterlesscloud• 12 years ago

That photo of Herbert J Richman is a pure classic.

mjbellantoni2• 12 years ago

This actually does remind me of classic Oglivy work.

johnohara• 12 years ago

Before "The Soul of a New Machine."

mjbellantoni2• 12 years ago

I actually just finish reading that and it's what lead me to this!

greenyoda2• 12 years ago

Here's a picture of the Eclipse MV/8000 "Eagle", the machine they were building in the book:

http://www.foxdata.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Data-...

"The Soul of a New Machine" is a great book, by the way, even if the technology in it is a bit old at this point. Hackers of hardware and/or software should definitely read it.

Another interesting book about the creation of a large system is "Show-stopper", by G. P. Zachary, which describes the building of Windows NT.

e3pi• 12 years ago

Silently and spastically splaying taut fingers to get you the fuck out of his office and stop interrupting a man who works for a living, the great Tom West past 19 May 2011:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_West

watmough• 12 years ago

What would be the typical use of a machine like this? I'd assume basic roll-up accounting, with programs written on a custom basis per client.

Anyone with practical experience?

jonjacky• 12 years ago

They were marketed for embedded control and data acquisition in laboratories and factories. See the text on page 5, in "The hardware", where it tells how you can send your program on paper tape to DG and they send you back a read-only memory you can plug in - so your program begins running on power-up without help from an operator.

I recall seeing a Nova used in an experimental psychology lab. The first production medical CT scanner included a Nova, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography.

jejones3141• 12 years ago

Wow... my first exposure to a computer was a Supernova, set up with four ASR-33 Teletypes and running Data General BASIC, for about eight or nine evenings in the spring of 1971. Changed my life--the next year, without a computer to use, I wrote programs in a notebook which I wish I had kept. Thanks, Data General, NSF, and thanks to Dr. Richard V. Andree.

muyuu• 12 years ago

I find it quite amusing that the photo-models are the president and the vice president looking manly.

awor• 12 years ago

and smoking!

The best small computer in the world (1968) [pdf]

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