Customer comments on this selection.
 Great coffee table book
It's a great book for it's price. Really great photos that lie somewhere between technical and art. There is text but not too much. If you are looking for a complete history this would not be it.
 A beautiful book, but....
The book is very pretty, and has some *outstanding* photographs of classic machines. If only the selection of machines and printing (at least on my copy) matched the quality of the photos, this would be on my "must by" list.
Newer photo-books like this rely on some special printing techniques to make their images stand out, such as printing a glossy image, with the non-printed portion paper treated to make it flat and bright white. It makes for a stunning presentation when it is done properly.
My book has several pages where the glossy images are scratched, and others where the pages are covered with scratches and dirt. I don't know if my pages sat on the top of a pallet or the presses were just dirty, but it clearly happened before binding, as in some cases, page 64 on the left hand side is very dirty, page 65 on the right is totally clean. The beautiful dust jacket is also badly scuffed up--a book like this should have been shrink wrapped--and the cover dinged. This Chinese-printed book would have been considered a "hurt" at my local press.
On this sort of book, that totally shatters the beauty of it all, and I think I will end up returning it. I considered asking for a replacement, but I am further disappointed by the selection of machines.
There are major companies of the era not even represented here. Not a single Data General machine...I would have expected the "70's photogenic" Nova, or a later machine like a S/150. No Burroughs, no DEC-20...the entire history of DEC reduced to two photos and one closeup of a pdp8 and a glimpse of the boot console panel from a DEC-10.
VAX? What's a VAX? No mention of a VAX here, but the TRS-80 I and 100 get four pages. I *loved* my Model 100, but this is not the place for it.
With a title like "core memory" and a pdp8 on the cover, I expected more early machines, yet the book dedicates six pages to the Apple I/II and four to the Commodore 64.
There is more coverage of the Commodore 64 PC than the entire history of Digital Equipment Corporation. Control Data is limited to a photo of the CDC6600 console, a photo of backplane wiring and two images of a boot switch panel.
Home PC's should really be their own book. But if they wanted to cover home PCs up to 1983, they should have hit "visually iconic" machines like the IMSAI or the Ohio Scientific PCs. How about some classic rare peripherals; the Atari 815 dual disk drive is a 9x9x12" box with nine LEDs in three colors, surely some unique peripherals like this deserve inclusion more than a two-page closeup of the Commodore 64's keyboard.
Now, I would like to mention the wonderful photos of SAGE and Johnniac. Had it not been that the photo of the SAGE light gun was covered with scratches, I would have kept it for SAGE alone. But as I said, in a photo book, damaged photos ruin the whole point.
I spotted a few factual errors and typos in my quick scan of the book, but the major errors are really errors of omission.
Conclusion: If yours is printed correctly and clean, it is a beautiful book and a bargain at the Amazon sale price. But if you are expecting a book primarily about machines running core memory, or minicomputers/mainframes from the 1970s as would be inferred from the cover and the name, you will be disappointed. I am.
 Waiting For a Book of this Photo Quality For A Very Long Time
A book such as this; holds my attention and shows what others have helped create in science labs, garages or universities-with a stunning pictorial collection of rare vintage computers.
The Allies bombed the 1941 German 'Z3' computer (with a memory of 63 words!) in 1944 Berlin, the world's FIRST programmable electromagnetic computer ...has been beautifully re-imaged for this collection of vintage computers. Full Page Color Photos. Indexed well.
The 1954 Johnniac, the Univac 1 of 1951(with it's 20K memory in a mercury delay line), the NEAC of 1960 (Nippon Electric Company NEC); the Philco 212 of 1962, the Illiac of 1975 or the Osborne 1 of 1981. The Cray 1 of 1976 had memory of 4MW Semiconductor and speed of 160 MFlops; compared to the 1993 Cray 3 with it's 2GW Semiconductor of memory and speed of 15Gflops!
Stunning large format, but not too large-158 Pages. Tech notes are narrative -not overly burdensome. You will recognize the photos from computers on TV, your high school lab, or your first office job.
(Make, Year Created, Make, Cost, Memory on each page with space under each subtitle for comparisons)... minimized story and notes. Best shots of early Apple computers I have ever seen. The Commodore 64 of 1982 with its 64k and rare beauties (they really are ART) like the Kitchen Computer (Honeywell H316 MiniComputer of 1969 for $10, 600. The ad copy ran in '62, "...if only she can cook as well as Honeywell can compute." It was certainly modish and came with a 2 week programming course. It was laughable. Despite some thought have gone into the facade, the interface was simply lights and switches-good for setting the mood for a "Lost In Space" style TV dinner but not for a newbie programmer or cook.
The photo quality, the color and designs (or 'Appearance' as Apple would latter coin)-clever image work, mico-shots of vintage equipment, colored wire bundles, vacuum tubes, outer cases and much more-- are illustrated as a feast of color, detail, and even wonderment to the eye...
I must admit, the 1962 Minuteman 1 Guidance Computer that would navigate ICBM Nukes from underground missile silos to find it's 'destination' even when the atmosphere through which it is flying has been disrupted by atomic explosions, 'quite scary', the book seems to have the Google view of "Do No Evil" with its tight ad control.
Take a look at the: Google First Production Server in 1996 with its 128k of Ram. This book will impress your friends, and teach your kids. I once asked my friend who worked as a gifted engineer for Hughes, as well as being present at Cape Kennedy-what type of computers were aboard the Apollo space missions?
Well, now I have a clear answer. In 1965 -The Apollo Guidance Computer by MIT/Ratheon.
(Each NASA Mission used two of them-one for the Command Module and one for the Lunar Module aka LEM)
The extreme close up color photos--> enlarged to full page size flow with all of the "vintage computers" -the detail and clarity with abit of the old understanding.
This computer used: the newly developed 'integrated circuit' (IC) which was small and light weight. MIT went with just one type of chip, although it used 5,000 of them. Memory? 4K of Ram, 24K from core rope.
The chip would later power, 'calculators' like the HP-35 by the millions.
This is just a small sample of the book contents. I have waited since seeing data processing computers in Grade 9 of high school-to all those blinking lights on my childhood television programs, wondering what was a computer really good for....or who made them, and what did they really look like?
This is simply one of the best photography books, -on this subject---I have yet to see...
A timeless book.) MS
Extremely cool book
This book is exactly what I hoped for. I bought it as a Christmas gift for a friend who appreciates things that are vintage and a little odd. The photos are huge and of great quality. It looks like they found the cleanest, best kept examples of each machine. Didn't have a chance to read the text, but the pictures alone were enough to make it worthwhile.
Mixed feelings about this book, but I am glad I own it.
The book is a great overview of the history of commerical/military computer development in the last 60+ years. Hits most of the major models, and mentions why they're in the book. Each one was a special devleopment in it's time for one reason or another.
But after reading it, I wish it was about 2x the size, physically. It's a large book alredy, but it should be art-sized. And it could EASILY be several hundreds of pages. I know it's more of an overview book, but it would be great if each model had it's own chapter, including design diagrams, pictures of the installations, programmers, builders, etc.
On it's own it's a great book, and well worth the money. But the computer-nerd in me sees the potential of this content...
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