Browsing by Subject "Computer industry -- Europe -- History"
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Oral history interview with Arthur L. C. Humphreys(Charles Babbage Institute, 1981-02-28) Humphreys, Arthur L. C.Humphreys, a former managing director of International Computers, Limited (ICL), reviews the history of the British computer industry. Topics include: the termination in 1949 of the trade agreement between IBM and the British Tabulating Machine Company, the merger in 1959 of British Tabulating and the Powers Samas Company into International Computers and Tabulators, Ltd. (ICT), and the merger in 1968 of English Electric Computers Limited and ICT into ICL. Humphreys explains how the last merger was enacted by the government to establish a single national computer company. He recalls the government's pride, as expressed by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, in maintaining a position in the international computer industry. Humphreys also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the British computer industry, and compares the management of the British and American computer industries. He mentions the European Economic Community's efforts to establish Unidata, a multinational computer company, and the problems associated with conducting business across Europe's linguistic and cultural boundaries.Item Oral history interview with Carl Hammer(Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-04-15) Hammer, Carl, 1914-2004Hammer reviews his career in the computing industry, including his work for RCA, Sperry, and Sylvania. He begins with his entry into data processing at the Columbia University T. J. Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory and his work under Paul Lazarsfeld as a research associate at the Bureau of Applied Social Research. He turns next to his employment beginning in l950 at the Franklin Institute. He discusses the industrial applications of computers, and collaborations between the Franklin Institute and the government. From 1955 through 1957 Hammer headed the European Univac Computing Center. He discusses interactions with U.S. computer professionals, the peculiarities of installing computers in Europe, and the differing effect of computers on institutions in Europe and the U.S. He reviews Sperry's merger with Remington Rand and the changes in marketing and other operations after the merger. He cites these changes as his reason for leaving Sperry to work for Sylvania on his return from Europe in 1957. Sylvania's MOBIDIC computer and the ballistic missile early warning system are described in detail. In 1959 Hammer joined the Surface Communication Division of RCA. He discusses the in-fighting at RCA after John L. Hammer became president in 1960, the resulting demise of RCA's computer operations, and his own return to Univac in 1962.Item Oral history interview with Heinz Zemanek(Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-02) Zemanek, HeinzZemanek, an Austrian computer scientist, begins by describing his early life in Vienna, Austria and experiences in Nazi-occupied Austria. He discusses his engineering education and work in radar technology during World War II. Zemanek then focuses on the development of computers in Austria. Topics include: magnetic drums and magnetic memory, the MAILUFTERL computer (which Zemanek designed and built), the LOGALGOL and other compilers, the University of Vienna where Zemanek worked on his computer, the subsequent sponsorship of the project by International Business Machines Europe, and ALGOL and PL/I language standards development. The interview concludes with Zemanek offering a brief overview of the computer industry in Europe from the end of World War II to the 1980.Item Oral history interview with Ross Anderson(Charles Babbage Institute, 2015-05-21) Anderson, RossComputer security pioneer Ross Anderson discusses his education and early career as a computer security consultant (serving banks and other companies) before returning to school to complete a Ph.D. working under Roger Needham at the University of Cambridge. The bulk of the interview focuses on his academic career in the computer security field at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge. Among the topics discussed are cryptography, computer security education, and Anderson’s leadership role in launching and providing a substantial infrastructure for the development of the field of computer security economics—including the annual Workshop on the Economics of Information Security (WEIS), which Anderson co-founded in 2002. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”