1983/07/01 by Chris Evans · 1 citation
Computer Science · #History of Computing Technologies #Advanced Data Storage Technologies #Conversation #Corporation #Management #Mile #Vice president #Principal (computer security) #Key (lock) #Library science #Computer science #Telecommunications #Sociology #Law #Political science #Operating system
paper · doi:10.1109/mahc.1983.10081
openalex publication_date 1983/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
In 1972, when I was principal investigator for the Smithsonian-AFIPS Computer History Project, I asked Robert R. Everett, president of the Mitre Corporation, to host a gathering of key people from Project Whirlwind. The group, which included Jay W. Forrester, engaged in a freewheeling discussion about some of the major mile-stones that occurred during the evolution of that important first-generation computer. One of the topics I was most anxious to explore was the development of coincident-current magnetic-core memory, the advent of which -changed computer memory from the least reliable component in a computer to the most reliable. The discussion was lively but did not adequately portray what had happened in the magnetic-core-memory development. In 1975, when Christopher Evans recorded the tape we are excerpting here (with some editing), Jay Forrester related the history of the path leading to his technological breakthrough. -Henry S. Tropp