Browsing by Subject "Harvard University. -- Computation Laboratory"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Oral history interview with Antonín Svoboda
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1979-11-15) Svoboda, Antonín
    Svoboda describes his research on computing in Czechoslovakia, France, and the United States. He begins by discussing his early career: his electrical engineering education in Prague, the differential analyzer he built for the French during World War II for fire control, and his work in New York for the ABAX Corporation on Bofort anti-aircraft guns. He explains how MIT became interested in his work on linkage computers for aiming guns automatically and describes the two-part linkage computer system he built for them, the OMAR and the Mark 56. On his return to Czechoslovakia in 1948, the Research Institute of Mathematics asked Svoboda to develop computing machines, and funded his visits to major digital computer projects. He recounts visits to Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1951 he began work on Czechoslovakia's first (electromechanical) digital computer, the SAPO, and its successful completion despite interference from the Communist government. He also mentions the EPOS computer he built in Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s. Svoboda describes his escape to the U.S. in 1964 and his appointment at UCLA. He concludes by assessing his greatest contributions: the use of graphical and mechanical means to teach logical design, the solution of multiple output optimization, and the Boolean analyzer (a parallel processing unit on Boolean algebra).
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    Oral history interview with Richard M. Bloch
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1984-02-22) Bloch, Richard M. (Richard Milton)
    This interview describes Bloch's work at the Harvard Computation Laboratory and his subsequent career in computing. Bloch begins with his early life through his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Harvard. He entered the Navy in 1943 and recounts how he first met Howard Aiken while giving him a tour of the Naval Research Laboratory. Aiken had him transferred back to Harvard just as the Mark I was being shipped from IBM, where Bloch was involved with programming and maintenance of the machine. He describes the architecture and operation of the Mark I, including a discussion of the improvements made after the machine arrived at Harvard. He also discusses a number of the problems solved on Mark I, including one for von Neumann on spherical shock waves in an atomic implosion. He also describes Aiken's personality and attitude toward computer commercialization. In 1947 Bloch left Harvard for Raytheon, eventually heading their computer division. He discusses the government RAYDAC and commercial RAYCOM computers, as well as his own contributions to the development of parity checking. Raytheon sold its computer division to Honeywell in 1955, and Bloch became director of computer product development there. He describes the 200, 400, and 800 series of Honeywell computers, the development of an error detection machine which he claims opened the field of fault tolerant computing, and competition in this period between IBM and Honeywell. In 1968 Bloch joined General Electric as division general manager to develop large computer systems to compete with IBM. When GE left the computer field, Bloch moved into private work on venture capital, acquisition-divestiture, and high-level corporate consulting in the computer industry. He recounts how he became chief executive officer of Artificial Intelligence Corporation, a company developing a product to use natural English to query databases.
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    Oral history interview with Robert Hawkins
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1984-02-20) Hawkins, Robert L.
    Hawkins discusses the computer projects he worked on at Harvard University as a technician. In 1940 he joined the Mark I project, a collaboration between Harvard and IBM. When the Mark I was placed in operation in 1943, Hawkins assumed a leading role in its maintenance. He describes the method for locating problems with the Mark I relays and identifies improvements made in the relay contacts enabling the machine to be run more reliably. He mentions project director Howard Aiken's dissatisfaction with the off-the-shelf components, counters, relays, card keys, and card punches, supplied by IBM. Hawkins also discusses the personality of Howard Aiken and his expectations of his staff.
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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 William F. Miller
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1979-05-22) Miller, William F. (William Frederick)
    Miller reviews his early career, including his work on the Argonne National Laboratory computer and teaching at the University of Chicago Institute for Computer Research. He then focuses on George Forsythe and his role in establishing a computer science program at Stanford University. Miller joined the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the Stanford mathematics department in 1964 and the computer science department at its formation in 1965. Miller contrasts what happened at Stanford with what happened at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, where other early computer science programs were started. Miller explains the relations of the computer science department to the computer center and the mathematics and electrical engineering departments, and how these relationships strengthened the university's computer science program. Miller also provides some details about the early funding of the department by the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation.