MUSEUM "WAALSDORP"

Historic tale: "Papertape, Punch cards and Virtual Network"

Most photographs on subsequent TNO-FEL pages can be enlarged by clicking them.

TNO-FEL's computer history index in Dutch 

• Period till 1974: "The first computers"
  (DICON, SIMREK, Ferranti FM 1600B, CDC 3200, CDC 1700)
• The early computer history of the Physics Laboratory TNO
• The early computer history of the LEOK
• LEOK's own computer centre: the Ferranti FM 1600B
• Period 1974 - 1978: "Punch cards and 110 Baud"
  (CDC 6400, NOS/BE, DEC PDP 11/45, DEC PDP 11/60, Digigraphic, Tektronix 4010, SC//MP)
• The simulated FUCAS radar
• The CDC 6400: the punch card period
• The CDC 6400 (part 2)
• Data communication and interactivity: the first start
• Graphical processing
• SC//MP microcomputers
• Period 1978 - 1983: "The simulations expand"
• The CDC CYBER 74
• The CDC CYBER 74 (part 2)
• CDC CYBER 74 performance problems
• Graphical Services
• Datacommunication
• Other stories and anecdotes
• Period 1983 - 1986: "Increased reliability"
  • The Control Data CYBER 170-835
  • Dual-state use with NOS/VE
  • Computerised Laboratory Administration
  • Personal Computing: FEL-TV
  • Organisation of management and support
  • New computer Room; end of the punch card era
  • Datacommunication: the FEL-LAN and Wargames on the move
• Period 1986 - 1990: "From fixed towards virtual memory"
  • The Control Data CYBER 840A
  • From batch to virtual processing
  • Data communication and PCLAN
  • Graphical services: GX4000 and I2S
  • Expanding administrative processing (FELBIS)
  • Electronic and mechanical computer aided designs
  • The DEC systems
  • The Control Data CYBER 930-11
• The period 1989 - 1994: "Supertime and decentralisation"
  • ETA and CONVEX: between -40 C and +40 C
  • The CONVEX C230
  • Computer families at TNO-FEL
  • Datacommunication developments
  • Graphical services
  • ECAE- and MCAD-systems
  • The DEC systems
  • Explosive use of workstations and PC’s
  • CDC 4380 Unix Server
  • Distributed Interactive Simulations

Tables and other information

• Time line of computer systems at TNO-FEL
• Relative computational speed (old) systems we worked with
• Relative performance Cyber systems
• CDC Cyber systems (architecture, NOS/BE, NOS/VE)
• CDC Cyber peripheral equipment
• CDC System 17/Cyber 18 peripheral equipment
• DEC peripheral equipment
• Ferranti 1600B equipment
• SC//MP microcomputer
• What is a punch card... and who to do with it?
• The history of 90-column punch cards by reming Rand
  (courtesy Oliver J. Jones)

Links to other Computer Musea

MuseumWaalsdorp@tno.nl