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Browsing by Subject "Burroughs Corporation"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    Burroughs B 5000 Conference
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1985-09-06) Waychoff, Richard; Turner, Lloyd; Rosin, Robert F.; Pearson, Ralph W.; Oliphint, G. Clark; MacKenzie, F. Brad; MacDonald, Ray W.; MacDonald, Duncan N.; Lonergan, William D.; Kreuder, Norman L.; King, Paul D.; Hootman, Joseph T.; Hauck, Erwin A.; Hale, John E.; Galler, Bernard A., 1928-; Ford, James; Eppert, Ray R., 1902-; Dent, Benjamin A.; Dahm, David M.; Creech, Bobby A.; Collins, George A.; Berce, Henri; Barton, Robert S.
    The Burroughs 5000 computer series is discussed by individuals responsible for its development and marketing from 1957 through the 1960s in a conference sponsored by AFIPS and Burroughs Corporation. In the first session the technical aspects of the B 5000 and 5500 are discussed by a group of managers, engineers, and consultants. Topics include: the state of the industry in the late 1950s; the 5000's predecessors, particularly the ElectroData 101 and 201, B 205, and B 220; factors influencing the decision to produce the B 5000; reasons for designing the machine for ALGOL rather than FORTRAN and the effect of this decision on the computer's development and sales. The group reviews the MCP operating system, PERM, Polish notation, descriptors, stacks, the BALGOL compiler, and other innovations of the computer. In the second session, the same group discusses the development of the B 5000 into a product, including the effect of the administrative organization on the project; the relations between hardware and software engineers; the interaction of project personnel and upper-level management, field marketing, and customers; the COBOL processor, the head protract disk system; the operating system; ALGOL; and documentation of the computer. In the third session managers, sales personnel, and customers of the B 5000 discuss Burroughs' product line before the 200 and 5000 series computers; sales training and market reaction to the B 5000; acceptance of B 5000s at Ohio Oil Company and Stanford University; its rejection by the University of Michigan; reasons why the B 5000 was not marketed overseas; and Burroughs' presidents Raymond Eppert and Ray MacDonald. Technical session participants included: Robert S. Barton, Bobby A. Creech, David M. Dahm, Benjamin A. Dent, Bernard A. Galler, John E. S. Hale, Erwin A. Hauck, Paul D. King, Norman Kreuder, William Lonergan, Duncan MacDonald, F. Brad MacKenzie, G. Clark Oliphint, Robert F. Rosin, Lloyd Turner, and Richard Waychoff. Marketing session participants included: Henri Berce, George A. Collins, James Ford, Bernard A. Galler, John E. S. Hale, Joseph T. Hootman, Paul D. King, F. Brad MacKenzie, Ralph W. Pearson, and Robert F. Rosin.
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    Oral history interview with Arnold Spielberg
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-06-23) Spielberg, Arnold
    Spielberg, an electronics engineer and manager in Product Technology Operations for Unisys, discusses product development in the computer industry. He describes his work with RCA and General Electric Computer Dept. in the 1950s; IBM, Scientific Data Systems, and Electronic Arrays in the 1960s; and his work with Burroughs (and later Unisys) after 1973. Subjects discussed include: point-of-sale equipment; product development and marketing; GE 225; IBM computers; Burroughs computers; Scientific Data System's SIGMA series; and GP2000 (a cooperative graphics product of Burroughs and Superset).
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    Oral history interview with Barbara Jani
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-01-12) Jani, Barbara
    Barbara Jani graduated in 1967 from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia (where she studied with fellow interviewee Kathy Detrano) with a math degree. Her first exposure to computing was at Burroughs Corporation’s Great Valley Labs in the Philadelphia area, working on government funded research using the JOVIAL programming language and a reservation system for TWA. For experience with IBM computers, she moved to Washington, DC, and worked for a small company doing government work and then a larger company, Planning Research Corporation, doing military work; and then Boeing Corporation helping run a computing services center. At American Airlines — initially in Tulsa, OK, and later in Dallas, TX — she worked as a project leader on computing systems for personnel and retirement, scheduling, reservations and ticketing. At SABRE (American’s computer division) she managed InterAAct, an early company-wide networking scheme; a test center; and company-wide computer security. She discusses changing prospects for women supervisors at American Airlines. She retired from American in 2000. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Bobby A. Creech
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-06-27) Creech, Bobby A.
    Creech, manager of Product Technology Operations at Unisys' Pasadena plant at the time of the interview, discusses his career at the Burroughs Corporation since 1962. Subjects discussed include: his management of software and programming on the B 6500; coding for data communications on the B 5500; his responsibilities as the Terminal Systems Group director; and his management of the Medium Systems Group at Pasadena.
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    Oral history interview with Edward Feigenbaum
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1979-06-12) Feigenbaum, Edward A.
    Feigenbaum discusses the formation and growth of the Stanford University Computer Science Department and its acquisition of facilities. He recalls how IBM and Control Data Corporation replaced Burroughs as the university's computer vendor because of the need for large-scale computing. He explains his effort as head of the Computation Center to centralize all university computing activities, and the failure of that effort in the l970s with the introduction of minicomputers on campus. Feigenbaum also details the department's financing, including government support (ARPA, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research), equipment donations from industry (IBM especially), and faculty salaries. Feigenbaum credits George Forsythe for the department's initial success in key areas such as numerical analysis, systems, and artificial intelligence, and hiring talented faculty such as John McCarthy.
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    Oral history interview with Isaac Levin Auerbach
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1992-10) Auerbach, Isaac L. (Isaac Levin), 1921-1992
    Auerbach begins by discussing friction between himself and J. Presper Eckert and his reasons for leaving Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. He recounts the circumstances leading to his employment from 1949-1957 with the Burroughs Corporation, his relations with Irven Travis, who headed the computer department at Burroughs, and the formation of the Burroughs Research Laboratory. He describes a number of projects he managed at Burroughs, including computer equipment for the SAGE project, BEAM I computer, the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System, a magnetic core encryption communications system, and a missile guidance computer used for the Atlas missile. Auerbach comments on his management of the Defense, Space and Special Products Division, the general management of Burroughs, and his decision to leave the company. Auerbach outlines the establishment of Auerbach Electronics (later Auerbach Associates), one of the first computer consulting firms, and describes his initial contacts with RCA (for the BMEWS system), Honeywell, Leeds and Northrup, and Hot Shoppes (Marriott). He describes the growth of the company and other ventures such as Standard Computer Corporation (computer leasing), International Systems (data processing system for parimutuel betting developed with George Skakel of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation), and Auerbach Publishers, a successful venture that became known for its computer product reviews. He describes his concern with military and government contracts, the sale of Auerbach Associates in 1976 to the Calculon Corporation, and his subsequent consulting activity. He concludes with a discussion of his work with the International Federation for Information Processing, the American Federation of Information Processing Societies, and his philanthropic work primarily in the Philadelphia area and Israel.
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    Oral history interview with Jack Bonnell Dennis
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1989-10-31) Dennis, Jack B. (Jack Bonnell); O'Neill, Judy E.
    Dennis describes his educational background and work in time-sharing computer systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The interview focuses on time-sharing. Dennis discusses the TX0 computer at MIT, the work of John McCarthy on time-sharing, and the influence of the Information Processing Techniques Office of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (later the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) on the development of time-sharing. Dennis also recalls the competition between various firms, including Digital Equipment Corporation, General Electric, Burroughs, and International Business Machines, to manufacture time-sharing systems. He describes the development of MULTICS at General Electric.
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    Oral history interview with John Day
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2010-10-22) Day, John
    John Day describes his computer science education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including vignettes of student life in the late 1960s and early 1970s and campus protests over work on the ILLIAC IV computer. A second portion of the interview gives highlights of his work on network standards-setting, including Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model and American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
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    Oral history interview with Leroy R. Guck
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-06-25) Guck, LeRoy R.
    Guck discusses his career with Burroughs Corporation. He describes his start with the ElectroData Division in 1957 and his subsequent advancement. Guck discusses the differences between working on hardware and software and his work on a FORTRAN compiler for the B 5000, a COBOL compiler for the B 6500, DMS 1, DMS II, and DDrive.
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    Oral history interview with Nancy Gunther
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-12-02) Gunther, Nancy
    Nancy Gunther grew up in Mason City, Iowa, attended the local community college then majored in mathematics (including computing) at the University of Iowa. In 1966 she went to work for Sperry Rand Univac in St. Paul. She worked as a programmer initially in Advanced Tactical Systems using assembly language and Compiler Monitor System for 18 bit computers. She describes and compares working conditions and company culture in St. Paul and also, from 1967 forward, at the Navy Systems department (Eagan MN) as well as in Montreal (1984-1987). Her technical work focused on operating systems and command-and-control systems for navy ships and submarines. She describes the culture changes with the merger between Sperry and Burroughs to create Unisys. This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”
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    Oral history interview with Ovid M. Smith
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1985-11-07) Smith, Ovid M.
    Smith reviews his 46 1/2 year career at Burroughs Adding Machine Company (later Burroughs Corporation). Subjects include: Burroughs calculators and accounting machines; Burroughs competitors, especially Moon-Hopkins and Felt & Tarrant; the Comptometer; Burroughs' marketing strategies; and the work environment at Burroughs.
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    Oral history interview with Robert V. D. Campbell
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1984-02-22) Campbell, Robert V. D.
    Campbell discusses his work at the Harvard Computation Laboratory and his subsequent career in computing. The interview begins with a description of Campbell's early life, through his graduate education in physics at Columbia and Harvard. He recounts how Howard Aiken chose him to work with IBM on the latter stages of design of the Mark I calculator while Aiken was on active duty in the Navy in Virginia. Campbell describes what he learned from Aiken about the plans for the Mark I in the late 1930s and the arrangement reached with IBM to build the computer. He assesses the relative contributions of Harvard and IBM to the Mark I project based on his own experience at IBM's research facility at Endicott, NY. He then describes the formation of the Harvard Computation Laboratory, the operation of the Mark I there, and the work beginning in 1945 on the Mark II calculator for Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground. Topics covered include the controversy between Aiken and IBM, Aiken's personality, Aiken as an educator, and Aiken's attitude toward the computer industry. The second half of the interview covers Campbell's later career at Raytheon (1947-1949), especially the search for adequate storage devices and RAYDAC installation at Point Mugu, CA; at Burroughs (1949-1966) in his position as director of research and in a staff position for program planning; and at MITRE (1966-1984) on long-range planning with the Air Force, and project work on a data processing system for the state of Massachusetts and the city of Newton, MA.
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    Oral history interview with Simon E. Gluck, Hans B. Marx, Douglas C. Wendell, Lyle G. Thompson, and J. Jay Wolf
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1986-07-25) Wolf, J. Jay; Wendell, Douglas C.; Thompson, Lyle G.; Marx, Hans B.; Gluck, Simon E.
    Gluck, Marx, Thompson, Wendell, and Wolf discuss the growth of research and development within the Burroughs Corporation. Subjects include: the establishment and growth of the Paoli research and development facility; research on electronic equipment for banks; research on general and special purpose computers; and the integration of Burroughs acquisitions--ElectroData Corporation and System Development Corporation--into Burroughs research and development.