Toward a history of (personal) workstations

ABSTRACT

I originally accepted this keynote honor for five reasons: to respond to Alan Perlis' request (he told me I could present anything from a new taxonomy to personal reminiscences); second, to identify the important artifacts that should be preserved in The Computer Museum; third, to posit a framework of the history of workstations that can be written in the next century (we're all too close to create it); fourth, to summarize my own involvement on interactive computing including timesharing and large personal computers (both styles of use led to personal workstations); finally, to record my work on Digital's VAX Homogeneous Computing Environment that was totally announced last year. I led the architecture for this environment over the decade from 1973 to 1982 and was strongly influenced by the personal workstation computing movement including Ethernet. This work hasn't been described outside of product brochures.

References

1. Bell, C.G., "The Multi: A New Class of Multlprocessor Computers", Science Vol 228, No. 4698, 26 April 1985, 462-467.]]
2. Bell, C.G., H.Burkhardt, S.Emmerich, A.Anzelmo, R.Moore, D.Schanin, l.Nassi, and C.Rupp, "The Encore Continuum: A Complete Distributed workstatlon-Multprocessor Computing Enviroment", AFIPS Conference Proceeding, 1985, Vol 54, 147-155.]]
3. Bell, C.G., G.Fujlsaki, J.M.Heinz, A.S.Stevens, and A.S.House, "Reduction of Speech Spectra by Analysis-by-Synthesis Techniques", The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol 33, No. 12, 1961, pp1725-1736.]]
4. Bell, C.G., J.C.Mudge, and J.E.MeNamara, Computer Engineering, Digital Press, Bedford, Massachusetts, 1978.]]
5. Bell, C.G. and A.Newell, Computer Structures: Readings and Examples McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971]]
6. Burger, R.M., R.K.Caving, W.C.Holton, and L.W. Sumney, "The Impact of ICs on Computer Technology", Computer, Vol. 10, No. 10. October 1984, 88-96.]]
7. Clark, W.A. and C.E.Molnar, "The LINC: A Description of the Laboratory Instrument Computer", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 115, July 1964, 653-668.]]
8. Metropolis, N., J.Howlett, and R.Gian-Carlo, editors, "History of Computing in the Twentieth Century" Academic Press, New York, 1980.]]
9. Pake, G.E., "Research at Xerox PARC: A Founder's Assessment", IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 22, No. 10, October 1985, 54-61.]]
10. Perry, T.S., and P.Wallich, "Inside the PARC: The Information Architects", IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 22, No. 10, October 1985, 62-76.]]
11. Ralston, A. (Editor) and E.D.Reilly (Assoc. Editor), Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Engineering, Second Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1983, New York.]]
12. Redmond, K.C. and T.M.Smith, Project Whirlwind: A History of a Pioneer Computer I Digital Press, Bedford, Mass., 1980.]]
13. Roberts, L.G., "Computer Network Development to Achieve Resource Sharing", AFIPS Conference Proceeedlngs, SJCC, Vol 36, 1970, 543-549.]]
14. Siewiorek, D.S., C.G.Beli, and A.Newell, Computer Structures, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1982.]]
15. Wexelblat, R.L., editor, History of Programming Languages, Academic Press, New York, 1981.]]

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Physical sciences and engineering

    • Engineering

• Hardware

  • Communication hardware, interfaces and storage

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

• Networks

  • Network architectures

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • History of computing

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • Development frameworks and environments