Browsing by Subject "IBM 602A (Computer)"

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    Oral history interview with Neal R. Amundson
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1995-06-01) Amundson, Neal Russell, 1916-
    Amundson, a leading member of the University of Minnesota’s Chemical Engineering Department, discusses the transformation of chemical engineering beginning in the 1950s into a mathematics-based engineering science and his role in its evolution at Minnesota. Comparisons with other leading departments, observations on relations with local industry, descriptions of hiring faculty in Mathematics, and the building up of Chemical Engineering. Description of early computers in chemical engineering, including IBM 602A punch, REAC analog computer, UNIVAC 1103, Control Data 1604. Interview includes comments by Leon Green and Donald Aronson, both faculty members in Mathematics.
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    Oral history interview with Richard Vincent
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1983-03-08) Vincent, Richard, 1930-
    Vincent reviews his involvement with computing from 1949 to the early 1970s. He relates how he first learned about computers in Air Force punch card operator school and ran IBM punched card machines during the Korean War. Vincent joined International Harvester after the war, operating an IBM 602A and later one of the first IBM 705 computers. He discusses the problems with the 705 and the field support offered by IBM. In 1959 Vincent joined Montgomery Ward, where he operated an early drum computer, the IBM 650. Vincent describes the difficulties of operating a drum computer. In 1961 Vincent joined Pillsbury, where he converted the company from an IBM punched card system to a General Electric 225 computer. He describes subsequent computer acquisitions at Pillsbury, including the 1965 acquisition of a GE 625, one of the early multi-processing computers. In 1969 Vincent joined Standard Computer Corporation, founded by engineers from the Call-A-Computer Division of Pillsbury, where he worked with Lazlo Rocozi on an IBM 7090 take-off, the IC 7000. In 1971 Vincent returned to Pillsbury and programmed the GE 635 in Cobol. Vincent discusses the problems of integrating different computer systems both within Pillsbury and with other companies. He concludes by discussing why Pillsbury uses GE (now Honeywell) instead of IBM computers.