Information Technology Pioneers

Retirees of UNISYS, Lockheed Martin, et al.
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1. Documents Introduction
First on this page are links to all of our  'Articles for the Month' stories. 
      Second are books, most found in various libraries which also contain tidbits about the ERA to UNIVAC to UNISYS or to LMCO heritage.
      Third are the submitted magazine and journal articles which contain bits or bytes of the ERA to UNISYS or ERA to LMCO history.  
You may need to download and install the *.pdf readers for these documents.

 On this page, scroll to:

  1.  Documents Introduction
  2.  Articles for the Month
  3.  Published Books
  4.  Magazine Articles


 Introduction continued:

The Legacy Committee welcomes inputs of other books and/or magazine articles which mention computers or systems developed by ERA, UNIVAC, UNISYS, etc. especially with Twin Cities content.  [LABenson]

2. Articles for the Month
Month WhatMonthWhat
Sept. '10    Aug. '10

 History of NSA General Purpose Electronic Digital Computers by Samuel S. Snyder, 1964.  This document chronicles all of the National Security Agency’s computers through 1963 including the ERA ATLAS I, ATLAS II, BOGART, the UNIVAC 1224A (CRSPI), and UNIVAC 490. 

July '10  

Legacy Display at the University of Minnesota - 2010 summer session by Lowell A. Benson  

 June '10 

 200 Nanosecond Memory edited by Lowell Benson with text inputs from Curt Hogenson, Dick Erdrich, Don Mager, Ken Pearson, et al.

May '10 

ERA 1102 Computer, edited by Lowell Benson with technical text extracted from an unpublished Blue Bell book and experiences written by Warren Burrell - Project Engineer.

  Apr '10

 Drum Prototype Design, a re-print of a re-print of a 1947 article written by ERA’s J.M. Coombs with prologue and content comments by Lowell A. Benson.   

Mar '10 

"'Legacy' at the University of Minnesota" by Lowell Benson. An artifact and document exhibit in Walter Library. 

 Feb '10 

"The almost Silicon Valley" by Tom Webb.  Used with permission, originally published in the Sunday 1-2-2010 St. Paul Pioneer Press.

 Jan '10

 'Our Winnipeg Story' by Glen Johnson with an addendum by Dave Saxerud. 

 Dec '09 

Vern Sandusky has provided us with two 1972 Field Service reports describing the repair actions taken on Johnston Atoll after hurricane Celeste caused some devastation.  The first is an initial analysis of damage, the second about the repairs to bring the systems back on line. 

Nov '09 

 'A History of Automated Design, Computer Aided Design, Design Automation, etc.' 

Written by Earl Vraa with inputs from a plethora of others who were part of the story. 

 Oct '09 

Reprint of  A PROGRESS REPORT ON COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN COMPUTER DESIGN

by S. R. Cray and R. N. Kisch

 - circa 1954, provided by E.M. Vraa.

Sept '09 

Computer Aided Design - What is Worthwhile by Earl M. Vraa et al.  from 1972 

 Aug 'o9 

A System Through Hardware Design Methodology by Larry D. Anderson and Earl M. Vraa - circa 1986

 Jul '09

The Minuteman Program Parts Control History by Larry d. Bolton 

 Jun '09 

A Letter to the Editor from Norm Palzer about the DRUM prototype donation to the Minnesota Historical Society. 

May '09 

When Burroughs bought Sperry, Mr. Blumenthal wrote to the Secretary of Defense.  Letter image donated by Vern Sandusky.

 Apr '09 

About our 1950 period drums by Larry Bolton

Mar '09 

The 40 Years of Excellence booklet from the U of MN's  Computer Science and Engineering Department relates a beginning with the ERA Atlas/1103 computer.  Posted with permission from the CSE department head, Dr. Vadim Kumar.

 Feb '09 

It's A Wrap - A project report about our Sesquicentennial Team activities by Lowell A. Benson 

Jan '09 

The BEA reservation system by Michael Knight. 

 Dec '08 

Two Serial Input Output papers from Marc Shoquist, a technology doublet

Nov '08 

The UNIVAC 7901000-series of Integrated Circuits by Larry Bolton plus Ralph Kerler's 1965 IC Development symposium paper

 Oct '08 

A History of UNIVAC Magnetic Tape Plating Facility

by Douglas C. Wendall Jr.  

Sept. 08 

SNERT by Ken Graber, Larry Bolton, and Jeff Parker

  Aug. 08

Environmental Test Laboratory by Paul Welshinger and Bob Keenan 

July 08 

Another Computer Was Born by Curt Christensen. 

 June 08 

Jack Sater's ATC overview slides from LMCO Brown Bag presentation on May 7th. 

May 08

Canadian Patrol Frigate by Dennis Abbott 

 April 08 

Plated Wire Memory Usage on the UNIVAC Minuteman Weapon System Computer by Larry D. Bolton, Clinton D. Crosby, and James A. Howe  

March 08

A Gaggle of Geeks by James P. Lenfestey, prologue by Lowell Benson 

 Feb. 08 

Carbon Heat Trapping:  Merely a Bit Player in Global Warming by Dick Petschauer  

Jan. 08

Glen Hambleton's World Wide Career  

 Dec. 07 

Dick Lundgren's European Business articles from the 2007 VIP Club newsletters

Nov. 07

Harvey Taipale explains Legacy 

 Oct. 07 

Larry Bolton's Vendor Surveilance Notebook 

Sept. 07

The Fred Hargesheimer Story by Ed Nelson, et al.  

 Aug. 07 

Networking by John Nemanich  

July 07

David Andersen's 'Invention of Voice Mail

 
 June 07 

CPF, UYK-43, & UYK-44 contract wins 

May 07

Sperry Military Computers by George Gray 

  April 07

Apollo Computers from Don Mager 


3. Published Books
Each of the following books mentions ERA or UNIVAC or Sperry while discussing computer history aspects.
 YearTitleAuthor PublisherNotes
1950

High Speed Computing Devices

Engineering Research Associates, Inc.

 McGraw-Hill

1983 Reprint Series for the History of Computing by Tomash Publishers 

1960 A History of Sperry Rand Corporation  StaffSperry Rand Publications Department 
1964

Case Study of the Development of the Naval Tactical Data Systems

 R. W. Graf, Research Associate

United Research Inc., Cambridge, MA

 

1979

From Dits to Bits

Herman Lukoff

Robotics Press

 

1986

 

Engineering Research Associates, The wellspring of Minnesota's computer industry 

Communications Department, St. Paul Minnesota 

 Sperry

In commemoration of ERA's 40th anniversary

1987

 A Few Good Men from UNIVAC 

David E. Lundstrom 

MIT Press; Cambridge, MA 

1997 re-print by  Replica Books; Bridgewater, NJ

1987

When Computers Went to Sea - The Digitization of the United States Navy

Capt. David L. Boslaugh

IEEE Press Order #BP00024

 
1996

Computer: A History of the Information Machine 

Martin Cambell-Kelly and William Aspray  Basic Books 
 2005 

Computers and Commerce: A study of Technology and Management at Eckert Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946-1957  

 

Dr. A. L. Norberg, Retired CBI Director   

 MIT Press 
2008

A History of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering 1888-2008

Edited by James R. Leger

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 3rd edition Pages 182 through 189 discuss  ERA and computer pioneering.
 2008

 Unisys Computers: An Introductory History

You may order this book at http://www.lulu.com/content/2735927 .

 
George T. Gray and Ronald Q. Smith
 
 

 The companies that are encompassed within Unisys were among the pioneers in the field. They rank just behind IBM in the impact they had in the early years of the computer industry. Unisys was formed in 1986 by the merger of Burroughs and Sperry, two companies that had themselves grown through acquisitions and mergers. The first two U.S. companies to build a computer, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and Engineering Research Associates, were both acquired by Remington Rand Corporation (in 1950 and 1951) which, in turn, merged with Sperry in 1956 to become Sperry Rand Corporation.

 
 2009

"The Cello Maker" and other stories of the working man.

 David P. Anderson

 Chandelle Press, second edition

The sixteenth short story in this book is "The Invention of Voice Mail", Our July 2007 Article for the Month.


4. Magazine Articles
  •  IEEE Annals of the History of computing, Volume 29 Number 4 October-December 2007 - Arthur Norberg, the Charles Babbage Institute, and the History of Computing.
  •  IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 28 Number 3 July-September 2006 - MESM and the Beginning of the Computer Era in the Soviet Union and Strela-1, the First Soviet Computer: Political Success and Technological Failure.  {Editor's note: Their first stored program computer went into service in December, 1951 - designed by Lebedev from Kiev.
  • IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 25, Number 2, April – June 2003 - Before the Burroughs B5000,
  • IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 23, No. 1, January-March 2001 - Sperry Rand’s Third-Generation Computers,
  • IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 20, No. 3, Sperry Rand’s Transistor Computers, July-September 1998 
  •  Minnesota Monthly as “Original Geeks”, with text by Jim Lenfestey and Photos by Erik More, July 2005  
  •  From "The Link", Bulletin of the National Cryptologic Museum Foundation, Inc. Volume 4, Number 1 - Spring 2001  ATLAS AND THE EARLY DAYS OF COMPUTERS  By Harlan Snyder, LCDR USNR, Ret. [submitted by Don Weidenbach]

     


     VIP Club page 81 modified on Saturday, July 31, 2010