Tuesday | 6 January, 2009
CIO

Features

Slideshow -- Tech of Yesteryear: Where Old Computers Find Their Final Resting Place
Max Burnet has turned his home in the leafy suburbs of Sydney into arguably Australia’s largest private computer museum. Since retiring as director of Digital Equipment Corporation a decade ago, Burnet has converted his interest in the computing industry into an invaluable snapshot of computer history. Every available space from his basement to the top floor of his two-storey home is covered with relics from the past. His collection is vast, from a 1920s Julius Totalisator, the first UNIX PDP-7, a classic DEC PDP-8, the original IBM PC, Apple’s Lisa, MITS Altair 8800, numerous punch cards and over 6000 computer reference books. And more. He happily opened his doors for CIO to take a look.
Howard Dahdah 24 November, 2008 12:44:00
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The famous console of the IBM S/370-145 mainframe of mid 1970’s
The famous console of the IBM S/370-145 mainframe of mid 1970’s
The famous console of the IBM S/370-145 mainframe of mid 1970’s Information Electronics of Canberra made this IE33 terminal for Ansett Airlines in 1972. It was the reason for all imported terminals paying duty for years and years Burnet’s entrance way to his home is filled with an assortment of machines including the EIA 180, IBM’s 360/30 mainframe and DEC PDP-8/e The console of the IBM’s 360/30 mainframe of mid 1960’s A DEC VT100 terminal and ASR-33 teletype of 1978. Common work stations for mini-computers A DEC PDP-8/e The first floppy disk was 8 inches in diameter and very “floppy” A colourful selection of computer consoles from the 1970’s This mini-computer program on paper tape took 15 minutes to load via a Teletype Australia led the world in the manufacture of racecourse totalisators. This shaft adder was part of the Mechanical Totalisator and built by Australia Automatic Totalisators in the mid 1920s. ATL sold its totes around the world Burnet's Computing Art Gallery -- made from boards and circuitry from old machines. Micro-computers including a Spectrum ZX81, Commodore C64, TI99, Apple IIc, and VZ200 – all still working after 27 years The famous Commodore C64 Micro-computer An assortment of old computers used for media conversion A variety of magnetic tape drives from the 1970’s including the famous DECtapes An extended shot of the previous slide, this time with the front plate of a DEC PDP-11 The intricate back-plane wiring of a PDP-8/I computer of 1972. Such complexity is now in the silicon chip tracks Symmetrical heat sinks on this Fujitsu mainframe module – mid 80’s The CPU module from a Pr1me mini-computer – early 80’s. It contained 8 Z80 chips The huge CPU module of the ELXSI computer – mid 1980’s Even the mundane power supply from a DECwriter terminal makes an attractive piece of artwork Max Burnet standing besides his collection of 6000 computer books The IBM PS2 Model 60 PC of 1987 and the original IBM PC of 1982 A collection of mini computers including the Radio Shack TRS-80, also unfortunately known as the "Trash-80" A time line of valves to silicon chips Early modular components allowed for plug-in replacements More computer art. This time a collection of silicon wafers and core memory. The centre image is 1024 bits of core memory from 1965 A variety of early memory technologies Silicon chips IBM PS/2 Model 70. Also known as the ‘Lunch Box Portable’ running Windows V3.1 The Australian made Dulmont Magnum came with a 16-bit Intel 80186 processor. Circa 1984 The Altair 8800 on which Bill Gates ran his first BASIC compiler. World’s first Micro-computer The famous PDP-11/20 console A bunch of punch cards A classic card punch from the 1960’s A variety of punch cards A patient punch card from a Brisbane hospital. Stewed prunes anyone? A punch card for the Jacquard Loom. The centuries-old Jacquard Loom is the first machine to use punch cards to control a sequence of operations. In this case it is a fleur-de-lys pattern for a Persian rug. Burnet has a range of computers used to transfer information on magnetic and paper tape to modern format. He says this process can be lengthy because of the variety of early formats. For example, every manufacturer had a different format for their 5 inch floppies Every Australian insurance company had a Swiss Millionair calculator in the 1920’s Before core memory this Ultra-sonic delay line was used for storage And IBM System 360 print buffer A display of silicon chips from 1971 to the present. Intel, Motorola, Zilog etc A room full of 1960’s computing artifacts. Dozens of them! The first Anita electronic calculator cost the same as a Holden car The famous Apple Lisa computer from the early 80's The Classic Apple Macintosh More early Apple machines. This batch sits under a model train set Max Burnet standing by his computer art A working PDP-11 plays ADVENTURE and DUNGEON, the earliest computer games. 16 Megabytes of Fortran and plain text – no graphics. Sitting in a darkened computer room late at night and being told “there are slight rustling noises in the dark behind you” was much more hair raising than today’s garish graphics The DUNGEON map. Without this map there would be no way to play the game. How game playing has changed! Max Burnet worked at Digital Equipment Corporation from 1967-1998. His last role was as director of the company's Australia operations
Do you have any collectable PC memorabilia in your home? Send us your photos with a caption (including details of when you acquired it, what you paid and if it still works) so we can share it with other readers.



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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II
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