🚀 go-pugleaf

Given the recent messages about the Computer Museum in Boston, I
thought this newsgroup might be interested in the attached report I
wrote a few months ago about their Walk Through Computer Exhibit. I
would also point out that there are a large number of interactive
exhibits elsewhere in the Musem, especially in the Graphics and the
Robotics Galleries. Over recent years, admittedly, throught the
development of these galleries, the museum's coverage of historical
machines has been reduced - however a further major new gallery is
planned for next year which should remedy this situation.

The actual task of keeping or getting (very) early machines
operational is very difficult. However the Science Museum in London
now has a very active programme of computer restoration, and are
working , with the help of a large number of volunteers, to get
several machines dating from the 1950s working again. (Anybody
interested in participating should contact Mr. A.J. Sale, Computer
Conservation Project, Science Museum, London SW7 2DD.)

Brian Randell
--------

             TRIP REPORT, COMPUTER MUSEUM, 21 JUNE 1990

During my recent trip to the States I attended the official opening of
the Walk Through Computer Exhibit, at the Computer Museum in Boston.
Here is a short report I've written on it.

The exhibit is fantastic. It is a 50 times real size desk top
computer, using two floors of the building, and weighs about eight
tons! It has a keyboard whose function keys work, and a
fully-functional tracker ball (the ball is 48 inches in diameter) and
108 sq ft colour monitor (implemented by back projection, under
control of a MAC actually inside the tracker ball mounting). There is
a hard disk (with rotating disks - claimed to be travelling at 30mph
at their outer edges), a power supply (including fan), and the
largest power plug in the world.  Flashing lights are used to give the
impression of data passing along wires set into the floor (the mother
board) and along giant ribbon cables.

It runs one demo program, which initially shows a rotating globe, and
then a map of the world on the monitor. You can then use function keys
to select a region of the world and then the tracker ball to select
two cities. The display then shows a tree search to find a route
between the cities, then repeats the route directly, while showing an
inset photo of each city visited in turn on the journey.

You can then go inside the computer, walking on the mother board and
between the ICs. There are numerous colour CRT displays set into the
surface of various ICs These displays show how various aspects of the
simulated demo actually work. For example, the screen set in the
replica Intel 486 can show simple animated pictorial representations
of what is going supposed to be going on, down to shots taken from a
scanning electron microscope showing an actual 486 in operation.

When you exit the computer you find yourself in an area where there is
a set of MACs running various excellent interactive demonstration
programs, closely keyed to the Walk Through Computer, explaining how
computers are built and work.  There is for example a very neat
program showing an excellent colour perspective drawing of the WTC,
complete with rotating globe on its monitor. This demo invites you to
assemble your own computer, i.e.  choose the processor, memory size,
and video card - each time your choice appropriately affects both the
listed price of the machine, and the quality and speed of rotation of
the globe you see on its monitor. Another fascinating demo describes
at various levels of detail what is involved in binary addition (I
hope that these demo programs will be made available by the Museum.)

Finally, there is a small cinema showing a specially made video,
involving both animation and live action, explaining some of the
Pascal constituting the demonstration program.  This is very good,
though it is rather a pity that two excessively nerd-like actors were
used to portray the programmers!

A video of the whole exhibit is being made for those who cannot visit
it in person. This is being sponsored by Intel to the tune of over
$100k - the whole exhibit has cost something in excess of 1M dollars.
It has received a huge amount of media coverage, not just in the
States.  (Here in the UK the Daily Telegraph, the Times and the
Guardian have all carried quite large articles on it. However these
don't really prepare you for the actual experience of walking through
the WTC.)

It is of course particularly intended for (and has been alpha-tested
already by) school children, but kids of all ages should enjoy it -
and the rest of this splendid Museum. (I guess I should declare an
interest, being a Trustee of the Computer Museum, but hope this has
not unduly coloured my reactions!)



-- 
Brian Randell, Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
EMAIL =	Brian....@newcastle.ac.uk
PHONE =	+44 91 222 7923    FAX = +44 91 222 8232