The museum is incomplete; it was last updated on 11/03/09.
In the Centaur lobby we have two of my fovorites: the control panel from a rare IBM 9020 system
(a cluster of five System/360 computers used by the FAA for air traffic control up through 1989),
and a very high-end (it cost $50,000 in 1964) and fully functional
Systron-Donner Model 80 analog computer from the 1960's.
Further down the hall are an IBM 3420 tape drive,
an IBM 029 and 026 Keypunch,
an IBM 514 Reproducing Punch,
an IBM 577 Alphabetic Interpreter-Printer,
and an IBM 083 Sorter.
This is my personal collection of old computer stuff. It focuses on stuff that I particularly like:
old processors,
old IBM stuff,
old military computers,
old encryption devices,
and miscellaneous technical stuff.
The collection long ago overgrew my home office and now lives at Centaur Technology Inc.
(where I work) and where it can be see by visitors.
Most of it is in a museum room, but some is overflowing into the Centaur lobby as shown here.
Some of the stuff I have (plus a lot more) can be
found in the many real computer museums (such as here), but some of my
items—especially old military things—seem to be rare.
Some logistics: all the pictures are taken here at Centaur (you can tell from the poor lighting) and all document pages shown come from documents that I have.
Three levels of image detail are provided: a small thumbnail on the page, a medium size "popup" picture (mouse over the thumbnail),
and a full size picture (click on the thumbnail).(Not all thumbnails have the popup pictures yet).
The full size images are quite large in order to show the detail of the devices.
My categories are somewhat arbitrary: some items logically go into multiple categories, some don't fit well into any that I chose.
They are organized such that each item appears in only one category. I've also provided an index to allow direct access to most items.
I don't known the function or usage of the items, so I'd appreciate any data you might have.
Feel free to write me here if you have comments, questions, etc.
My personal favorite. Pre-transistor (1940-1950) special-purpose electro-mechanical bombsights, gunsights, fire-control computers, navigation computers, air data computers, etc.
Some of these are quite sophisticated. They represent lost computing technologies.
Transistor-based bombsights, gunsights, fire-control computers, navigation computers, etc.
Less visually impressive then the earlier mechanical versions, but the multiplicity of designs is impressive.
I worked at IBM from 1967 through 1988. Here is old IBM stuff of particular interest to me; mainly components.
(Note: IBM military stuff is in the military categories.)
Programmable analog computers (1950-2000) & some random components. (These are of special interest to me since I worked on a large analog computer in 1967.)
Even though this is a "computer" museum, we have few complete computers: I'm more interested in the "insides" of computers.
Here is our collection of miscellaneous control panels, memories, boards, etc.
(If the component is from IBM, it lives in the IBM collection.)
At Centaur, we have a special interest in security features within the processor.
Here are a few security processors (not much here, but one is especially interesting).
In the Centaur lobby we have two of my fovorites: the control panel from a rare IBM 9020 system
(a cluster of five System/360 computers used by the FAA for air traffic control up through 1989),
and a very high-end (it cost $50,000 in 1964) and fully functional
Systron-Donner Model 80 analog computer from the 1960's.
Further down the hall are an IBM 3420 tape drive,
an IBM 029 and 026 Keypunch,
an IBM 514 Reproducing Punch,
an IBM 577 Alphabetic Interpreter-Printer,
and an IBM 083 Sorter.
