Mines Technology Museum
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HP thermal printer 82162AAn accessory to the programmable calculators, this HP thermal printer prints on command and can be used to trace work and program execution. The HP thermal printer 82162A also features both printing and plotting functions. These still sell on ebay for up to $100 and up.
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HP-67Described as "a major leap forward in fully-programmable personal calculators, the HP-67 is the most powerful personal calculators HP has ever made." Features include: fully merged keycodes, more memory (224 merged program steps and 26 memories), program merging, subroutine nesting, etc. Adjusted for inflation, its $450 price in 1976 equates to $1,720 2011 dollars.
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TI-1250 SR-11The TI-1250 was considered a "fully-loaded" four-function calculator in 1975 operating on 9V batteries. The calculator is accurate up to 8 digits and features a red LED display. Originally it was manufactured in the United States, but production was soon shifted to Hong Kong. New display designs in conjunction with additional memory of the later TI-1250 calculators increased sales. Prices for these similar TI calculators saw a drastic decrease in price with the TI-1250 being $24.99, compared to $119 for four function TI calculators like the SR-11 to the right, just 3 years prior.
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HP-55The HP-55 programmable calculator came out a year after the HP-67 for a much lower price. It only had 49 lines of program memory (as compared to the HP-67's 224 lines). It did however offer twice as many storage registers, more pre-programmed functions, and a quartz-controlled timer. Today's price (2011) adjusted for inflation, would still be formidable $1,420.
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HP-75CThe HP-75C was HP's first portable computer. It ran BASIC and came with 16K of RAM with an expansion port for additional RAM and 48K of ROM with 3 ROM expansion ports. Adjusted for inflation using the consumer price Index, it would have cost $2,250 in 2011 dollars.
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Compucorp 322G ScientistThis programmable calculator holds one program up to 80 steps and is precise up to 13 digits. It operates using both algebraic and Trigonometric functions and was originally marketed as having a "groovy" orange plasma flourescent display. Cost was $795.00. In 2011 dollars, this would cost $4,140.
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HP-41CVThe HP41C series programmable calculators offered the first alphanumeric capabilities and featured ports for memory expansion. The HP-41CV calculator offered 4 ports for memory expansion and ultimately provided 5 times the memory of the first HP-41C model.
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Hard disk drive (destroyed)Hard disk drives are non-volatile, random access devices for digital data. They are comprised of rotating rigid plates or motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. An example of a complete hard disk drive is nearby. Because destruction of data on hard disk drives is largely ineffective by merely overwriting the data, they must be shredded before recycling. This is what is left after shredding. Mines periodically shreds old drives to ensure data security and privacy.
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Magnetic tapeMagnetic tape, first used for data storage on the UNIVAC I computer in 1951, was the de facto standard used for large computer systems through the 1980s. The large 8-inch open reels were gradually replaced with cartridge tape systems. The major advantage of tape was its relatively low cost and the fact that the media could be swapped, for virtually unlimited amount of storage. The main disadvantage is that tape is a serial access media, slowing access to any individual bit of data. Tape can still be a viable storage media for large systems. As of 2011, the highest capacity tape cartridges can store up to 5TB of data.
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Intel 80386 processorAlso known as the i386, this was a 32 bit processor chip introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit (CPU) of many workstations and high end personal computers of the time. As the original implementation of 32-bit extension of the 8086 architecture, the 80386 instruction set, programming model, and binary encoding are still the common denominator for all 32-bit x86 processors. The first PC to make use of the 80386 was designed and manufactured by Compaq Computer. This was the first time an x86 innovation was introduced by a company other than IBM.
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Iomega zip 100The Iomega Zip 100 is designed for PCs, and provides 100 MB of parallel port external storage. This allows for 100 MB of data to be transported on removable media and uses a disk resembling a thicker floppy disk. Its popularity was relatively short-lived as it was soon replaced by inexpensive CD writers.
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Thacher's calculating instrumentInvented by Edwin Thacher, an American bridge engineer. Patented in 1881, production of this 20-scale cylindrical slide rule was assumed by Keuffel and Esser Co. of New York by 1897. This unit dates to approximately 1920, serial #3499. The 20 scales provide an effective length of 30 feet with an accuracy of 4 to 5 digits. Scales for square roots are also included.
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Punch cardsFirst used in 1725 for textile looms in France, punch cards contain digit information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Now considered an obsolete recording system, punch cards were widely used throughout the 19th century for controlling textile looms and in the 20th century in unit record machines for input, processing, and storing data. Early digital computers used punch cards as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data. Another common application of punch cards was in voting machines.
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General ceramics ferrite core memoryMagnetic-core memory is an early form of random-access computer memory. It uses tiny magnetic rings, the cores, through which wires are threaded to write and read information. Each core represents one bit of information. The cores can be magnetically polarized in two different ways and that bit stored in a core is zero or one depending on that core's polarity. The wires are arranged to allow an individual core to be set to either polarity, and for its polarity to be sensed, by sending appropriate current pulses through selected wires. This represents 100 bits, and was originally contracted for use in early IBM computers.
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IBM Port-A-PunchIBM's Supplies Division introduced the Port-A-Punch in 1958 as a fast accurate means of manually punching holes in specially scored IBM punched cards. Designed to fit in the pocket, Port-A-Punch made it possible to create punched card documents anywhere. The product was intended for "on-the-spot" recording operations -- such as physical inventories, job tickets and statistical surveys -- because it eliminated the need for preliminary writing or typing of source documents.
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Punched paper tapeIn 1846, Alexander Bain (the inventor of the electric clock) was the first to use punched tape to send telegrams. Paper tapes are now a largely obsolete form of data storage, must like the punch cards consisting of systematic hole punches within rows and columns. These hole punches created the annoying problem of disposing of paper "chads" and the incomplete punching of holes also posed problems for data interpretation. These so-called "hanging-chads" were the subject of the highly contentious 2000 U.S. Presidential race with incompletely punched voting ballots.
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Floppy disk storageA floppy disk is made up of a thin piece of magnetic media sealed in a square or rectangular plastic carrier. Capacities varied from 180 KB to 1.44 MB. Contrary to logic, the capacity increased as the size decreased. Floppy disks were invented by IBM and were the most popular form of data storage and exchange during the 80s and 90s. Eventually, file and program sizes exceeded the floppy's capacity, and they were replaced with CDs, USB keys, and other removable media. The most popular sizes were the 8 inch, 5 1/4 inch, and finally the 3 1/2 inch.
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NeXTstep object oriented softwareNeXT was founded in 1985 by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Sales of the NeXT computers were relatively limited, with estimates of about 50,000 units shipped in total. Nevertheless, its innovative object-oriented Nextstep operating system and development environment were highly influential. It had a 25MHz CPU, 330 or 660 MB hard drive, and up to 4 MB of RAM. The original price of $6,500 equals $12,000 in 2011 dollars, using the consumer price index.
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Osborne 1The Osborne Computer Corporation was founded in 1980 with an emphasis placed on portable computers. The Osborne 1 debuted a year later and became the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, featuring a 5-inch (127 mm) 52-column display, two floppy-disk drives, a Z80 microprocessor, and 64KB of RAM. The Osborne 1 ran the then-popular CP/M 2.2 operating system. The computer was shipped with a large bundle of software that was almost equivalent in value to the machine itself, a practice adopted by other CP/M computer vendors. In 2011 dollars, $1,795 = $4,300.
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Colby Systems Corporation WalkmacThe Colby Systems Walkmac SE-30 is essentially the Macintosh SE/30 repackaged in a portable 16-pound case. It features a 9-inch backlit LCD screen, 20 or 40 MB hard drive disk, 16 MHz processor, and 256 KB of RAM. This was a quite expensive alternative to a desktop Mac. Today's price would be $11,300.