3 Jun
2018
3 Jun
'18
11:42 p.m.
The ENIAC went to the Smithsonian. It was on display for hears in the History and
Technology Museum (now American History). Some of the guys you probably knew moved that
down there (Don Merritt was one of
them). They said they actually brought it up and running after it moved.
For years, we knew that room as the BRLESC room, which was the computer that superseded
the ENIAC. Pieces of the BRLESC were still there when we were using that room. I have
some of the power supply parts still. I remember there was a big circuit breaker marked
"FILAMENTS." It's been a long time since we had computers with filaments.
The BRLESC had one of the first machine-independent languages. FORAST was a locally
developed language which ran on both machines (the BRLESC and the ORDVAC, such great
computer names back then). Irv Chidsey (who you might have met as well), used to lament
of the days they had to switch from FORAST to FORTRAN.
A small plaque on the post in that room compared the ENIAC compute power to then then
current HP65 programmable caluculator. The room also had one of the earliest raised
floors that I was aware of (though they carpeted over it when they turned it into
offices).
While Mike and I still shared an office in 394, the ENIAC room was where the IMP 29 on the
ARPANET was and a PDP-11/40 system that ran a terminal server called ANTS (ArpaNet
Terminal Server) complete with little ants silkscreened on the rack tops. When the
ARPANET went to long leaders, Mike replaced that software with a UNIX host giving the BRL
their real first HOST on the Arpanet. Years later I recycled those racks (discarding the
11/40) to hold BRL Gateways (retaining the ants). Subsequently the Honeywell IMP was
replaced with C-30's and located to the computer room downstairs which contained the
last CDC 7600 ever built. That ran until right about the time I left the BRL in 1987.
Oddly enough a lot of the junk (timeplexors, etc...) associated with the 7600 ended up
on my hand receipt. The staff was not amused when I put a turn-in tag (a way to get rid
of surplus equipment) on the 7600 itself after it was scheduled to be decommissioned.
We had already removed the HEP and replaced it with the Patton Cray XMP. Supercomputer
UNIX was there to stay.
--
Around 1991 or so, four of us, including Mike Muuss who is mentioned
here from time to time, used the old Ballistic Research Lab ENIAC room
(small cavern!) as our office. Some old ENIAC plans were even found in
an old closet and given to the museum. Chunks of the computer are still
on display.