Why the retro-computers are so important in the modern culture of the movement maker.
For a few months in ‘sphere of social networks and other media used by those who identify with the culture maker is increasingly evident the growing interest towards the so-called retro-computer, or those machines to eight bits that have made the history of computing from from the 70s onwards.
A computer that has marked a ‘era: the Commodore 64
Undoubtedly widespread products such as domestic Specrtum Sinclair ZX and Commodore 64 have deeply influenced a generation of future IT professionals, who like me, children of economic boom of the ’60s, they moved on those toys the first steps in the world of programming and then undertake technical studies that led to the strong growth of the ICT sector Roman and Milanese 90s.
However, the charm that shines from articles and posts that relate to the topic seems to come from something more than just nostalgic memory of the computer juvenile period. As I thumbed through the issue of Make the December / January, traditionally devoted almost entirely to the state of the most traditional and inflated topic maker: 3D printing, suddenly appear on page 92 I see the picture of an object that I thought I had forgotten but instead I immediately brought me back emotionally familiar result in high school: the ‘ Altair 8800 .
The cover of the” Popular Electronics “which speaks of the Altair 8800 (1975)
Mind you, the article referred to the output of the January 1975 Popular Electronics where it was launched the famous mount kit intended to “ launch the future technological revolution ” (words of the title of Make), in January 1975 and I had just turned 10 years, However, the Altair 8800 represented in the early 80s still a possible option to purchase the electronic hobbyists who wanted to experience the programming of 8-bit microprocessors and electronics magazines were often informative articles which referred to this “mini-computer “.
The article on Make is very interesting especially because it does not dwell on the technical characteristics of the Altair 8800, but tells the story of young Paul Allen that, after seeing in the newsstand cover of Popular Electronics with the claim that it referred to the low cost of the kit, including that shortly thereafter the computer would enter the homes and which as everyone knows computers to be useful in need of language and programs (l ‘ Altair was planning to binary using the switches and LEDs on the front panel).
Allen bought a copy of the issue of Popular Electronics and ran into the dormitory at Harvard where he lived his friend Bill Gates . The two contacted Ed Roberts , the founder of the MITS , the company that had developed the kit, and proposed their brand new product: a Basic language interpreter based on the microprocessor 8080, just one of the Altair 8800.
That day had two cornerstones of the future ICT revolution: the personal computer and account managers who sell software products before they have made.
The BASIC interpreter Allen and Gates, in fact, had not yet been developed. After getting their first job right from MITS founded Micro-Soft later became Microsoft and wrote the Altair Basic then become Microsoft Basic. The rest is known to all.
All of this has led me to make an observation about the way we usually presents the history of the computer. Almost always it is a chronological overview that lists the various technologies gradually appeared on the market, with lots of references to symbols, models and sub-models of various computers, from mainframes to modern iPad. In cases mortally most tedious part is even the Universal Turing Machine dilungandosi about the differences between this and the architecture of Von Neumann.
From enthusiastic culture maker struck me the words of Forrest M. Mims III, ‘author of the article on the pages of Make, who, after having shown the photo of the cover of Popular Electronics introduces his narrative of the history of the Altair with this sentence: “ MITS and Popular Electronics come to mind every time you flip through the magazine Make. One day or the other will emerge from these pages something as revolutionary as the Altair8800 . “
Forrest M. Mims III has missed the point: some retro-computer embody well the spirit that animates the movement maker.
At this point it would be worthwhile to rewrite the history of the development of the computer from the technical point of view but from the point of view of the impact that some creations, inventions before it, have had on the collective and social aspects.
Not all products have in fact had the same value in terms of social push towards innovation for an entire generation of technicians and professionals.
For example, the first commercial computer to use the architecture of the Intel microprocessor was the Busicom 141-PF in 1971. But today nobody remembers him, did not leave a mark on the collective memory. The true founder was the Altair 8800 in 1975.
So I thought to draw my own emotional history of the personal computer and I reflected on what are in my opinion the milestones that not you can ignore.
I can not place the year zero to 1964, a little ‘because it is my birth year, a little’ because it is the year in which you started industrial production of Programma 101 .
A vintage advertising Olivetti Program 101. Credits: marcogaleotti.com
Today is very popular among Italian commentators dealing innovation quote the program 101 as the first personal computer in history. And ‘no doubt that it is. Italian Pride, product denoting great vision, ahead of its time, binomial and technology as if it was made by Steve Jobs (when I showed the photos that I was preparing for this article to the least of my children, eight years, pointed out to me maybe I was wrong chronological order since the calculator Olivetti was clearly a product made today, I could tell by design!).
In fact, I decided to place it at the beginning of the story following a precise episode of my youth. In the early years in high school I had the hobby of electronics and I was keen to programming of the first microprocessor chip.
When I finally managed to buy a programmable calculator of Texas Instrument (home computers did not exist yet) showed it to My father, surveyor and project construction, as an example of object technologically advanced. The answer was unexpected:
– “ ah, is small! ”
– “N or, Dad, is programmable. “
-” This is nothing new, years ago we already had in the office Perottina , making noise but it was like this, and in most printed tape results Calculations of concrete. “
So, without a doubt programming without owning a mainframe invented Ing. Pier Giorgio Perotto with its program 101 and I would have to fly very to the office of my father to recover the old Perottina that surely was still poor to take on a few tables before it ended definitively abandoned and lost in time, rather than dabble with electronic gingillino not remember even more marked with.
In second place can only be the Apollo Guidance Computer.
It was not a personal computer , you say, but my story is emotional, and absolutely no one can deny that the idea that the conquest of the Moon was only possible “thanks to the computer” is a concept well imprinted in the minds of every computer when deciding to be a computer.
I do not want to overdo it, but perhaps one becomes a computer to go to the moon because it served the computer and the syllogism is very simple, is directly derived from the culture of the ’30s science fiction -40: equal future conquest of space, space conquest same computer, computer equal future .
So no computer to conquer the Moon there were throngs of geeks on home computers in the 80s.
No one would have felt cool to be part of a cultural movement that would have as its ultimate goal the automation of national social security system or the interbank system. Instead, were planning our home computer, connected to UHF channel 36 on the portable TV in our room, with the subtle satisfaction of knowing deeply the technological secrets of an object much more powerful computer that supported the Apollo missions.
I do not want to disappoint any of you but this story that the computer of the Apollo missions was less powerful than a programmable calculator is absolutely false as I found documenting in recent times.
You know how it was done Computer Apollo ? I guess not, because for years remained top secret, and when finally the new millennium documents have become accessible myth predominated on reality and no one ever wanted to learn things really, except some absurd enthusiast.
And who could be an absurd passionate if not a maker? Just a maker American named John Pultorak, has seen fit to recover most of the schemes and projects to achieve constructive in his garage a replica made by hand, with no components of the time but still vintage, the first model of the Apollo Guidance Computer. Its replication works perfectly and is able to run the machine code of the original programs of the Apollo project. The whole project is publicly available in a set of PDF files called “The Pultorak’s PDF.”
John Pultorak with its replica of AGC. Photo: Carmel Zucker
Unfortunately, his is the replica of the oldest AGC prototype that never flew in space in manned missions.
Version installed on board of missions moon was higher and more compact.
Fortunately we meet another open source project , where a hundred inveterate geek followed a genius named Ronald Burkey that after being fascinated from the scene of the movie Apollo 13 where the astronaut was on the ground turn on your computer in the Apollo simulator to find the operating sequence that will allow the crew in orbit to return home despite the many technical problems in the mission, has decided to develop a software simulator of the legendary computer and recover all the listed original source of the releases used in the Apollo missions.
He has developed a complete system emulation and software development, and together with the various volunteers who joined the project were clinched hand all listed creating ASCII files from hard copy originals.
The Apollo Guidance Computer. Photo: Wikipedia
Today you can program again the Apollo Guidance Computer and interactively use the original programs or programs that we developed through the feature user interface called DSKY (pronounced dis-kei) . Forget monitor and keyboard, we are in 1969!
The project is Burkey history information as Jurassic Park is to prehistoric times.
There are no working models of ‘Apollo Guidance Computer on our planet. They were built only 57, for each mission was a new version hardware. One specimen was installed in the simulator on the ground, as seen in the movie Apollo 13, a specimen was aboard the command module and a unit identical was aboard the lander in the part that was left on our satellite. When you consider the habit of dismantling the technologies used after missions, even for purposes of confidentiality, we can say that the only real collection pieces of the Apollo Guidance Computer are still on the Moon, while here on earth some findings bulk was recently auctioned at prices to Van Gogh painting.
However, thanks to the fact that the software is replicable such as DNA, the Apollo Guidance Computer is with us again. I’ll define everything at the end of this article I will show you when the project we have in mind to Fablab Rome Makers.
Before we continue our history, where the third place we find just the Altair 8800 which inspired this article and of which we have already thoroughly discussed.
The Altair was a reference object but not practically affordable by a high school student of Italian early 80s , so after have for a while ‘grappled with the very first programmable calculators came the two eternal rivals: the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
Indeed, my first home computer was the Commodore Vic 20 while some of my friends had already bought a ZX80 or ZX81, however it was cars that have had a commercial life too short to really leave a mark in the emerging culture 8-bit.
Commodore 64 Vs Spectrum. Credits: Stefano Capezzone
On the Commodore 64, the best-selling computer in history, and the most economical of the rival British Sinclair has formed a generation of video game programmers. Many of us have continued to plan on these home computers in the early years of the university before succumbing to the purchase of an IBM XT compatible to the needs of thesis or work.
In years ’90 began the current monoculture of the personal computer.
Today in my house, on the table of the room should be a living, but that is used as a study, stands a modern iMac flanked on holidays from occasional MacBook open to attend to some business work.
They are fantastic objects, connecting to the Internet, you can upload photos and videos, Photoshop runs smoothly and fast, if by that we mean creativity of sound arts, visual or graphic are the ideal support tool and, in theory, you can also schedule, but we have to download complicated IDEs, full of windows and small buttons, with the editor that colors differently words while writing and advises that he knows more than you about the syntax of the programming language that you expect to use.
Playing the starting phase of the Commodore 64. Credits : Stefano Capezzone
However, if you feel a little ‘an inventor , and you still feel that the true ultimate purpose of the computer is to send spacecraft into space, then Perhaps all those layers of software and windows and mouse and trackpad, between you and the motherboard hidden in cabinet design with trendy are not really a source of inspiration for this type of noble mission to which mankind should be called.
Let’s face it, when we lit the Commodore and appeared on the TV screen the fateful voyage of bluish bluish clearer with the inscription “64 RAM SYSTEM 38911 BYTES FREE” square one “READY.” And even under the cursor, square , flashing, we did not feel called to something bigger?
you turned on the computer and … voila, you could just write a program. In BASIC , the same BASIC derived from what Bill had developed for the Altair before arguing with the MITS and then sell it to IBM and monoculturizzare years to come.
That cursor was not stimulus and source of inspiration for great programs that would help humans to colonize the universe?
Personally when it appeared that screen always there remained a few seconds to reflect if he should write something that in years to come would be considered a milestone in computing, then, in most cases, my work was limited to the statement in BASIC LOAD to load a video game from the audiotape, deserved rest during pause during the study between a substance and the other, but it was the intention and spirit of those who mattered.
I found that kind of spirit only a few years ago, when after decades of industrial computing I discovered Arduino.
There is no doubt that the spirit of technological innovation that hovered in the 80s is still present, developed and strengthened, in the movement maker today. So I think the legacy of what we now call the back-computer must be grown.
‘significant what he tells in his book Eben Upton , the creator of the Raspberry Pi , about the motivations that led him to develop his project. We live in an era where the computer is pervasive, we define our children digital natives, we are surrounded by software applications developed by many programmers trained in the 80s.
Our children use computers but generally are not interested to program it. Why should they? The computers or smartphones are already all they have to do without having to be programmed. Upton as a good professor of computer science was concerned fall in tertiary enrollments in computer science. It was not a problem of economic crisis, there have never been so many software applications than they are today on any type of device, programmers need, are still very much in demand by the UK market. The problem in his opinion was due to the fact that during the new millennium has exhausted the impetus motivational born in the 80s. I have to add that we are no longer went to the moon, and until a few years ago seemed not motivated to go to Mars. There are more important issues and land to deal with, it is true.
The Raspberry Pi was created to stimulate the interest of young people towards programming. It ‘an updated version of the home computer 80. It’s called Raspberry because in the 80s many computers had names of fruit in imitation of Apple, has the Python standard (hence the “Pi” in the name) but it is also a modern PC with a lot of desktop and Internet browser, however, in ‘windowing environment, always standard, is the beautiful visual language Scratch, born at MIT in Boston to teach programming to children.
It connects to your TV just like the Commodore 64 and Spectrum. It ‘was one of the biggest commercial successes of all time, they are producing 100,000 a month. He has a good success as a computer for the very young, but the biggest market segment consists of the maker. Upton he seems surprised, but if you had the patience to follow me so far, the reason appears obvious.
The “Raspberry Pi”. Photo: cl.cam.ac.uk
For about a month on the table of what should have been my living room, in front of the iMac stands another monitor of comparable size. It ‘a screen with very high resolution of Samsung, which via HDMI is connected Raspberry Pi model B +, enclosed in fun container rainbow with transparent top PiBow of Pimoroni with mouse and keyboard recovered in a closet.
This is the computer of my son, the youngest, to eight years. He’s learning to program simple games, like the old Asteroids, with Scratch.
I could not wait to program a sprite from the times of the two years of university. In the breaks sometimes play Minecraft, standard on the Raspberry Pi. Discovered on the Internet on the community site of Scratch that there is one who has developed a version of Minecraft with Scratch. And ‘fascinated dall’astronautica and owns several models of the Apollo Saturn V rocket and course.
I decided to recover the 8-bit technology and computers than I have here referred to as the true history of home computers.
After a long research on the Internet we are good to go. Soon we will program the Fablab Makers Rome , a series of meetings on computers that have made history. It will be a serious thing, and never done before.
Are ready simulators software program 101, the Apollo Guidance Computer which we also have the compiler assembler that as in the original run on another computer, the Altair 8800 and two copies of the old Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum 48K. We also have a copy of the scans of the original manuals of all these machines, and not simulated, and abundant listed in ASCII file format and scanning originals in Listings of the Apollo project.
For the Altair 8800 in choice can be program in machine language directly in binary switches (“ real programmers do not need keyboard “) or through a terminal console by running the CP / M or the original Altair Basic.
During the inauguration ceremony of the Maker Faire 2014 Rome I gave on behalf of our Italian astronaut Fablab Samanta Cristoforetti the logo of his mission, named Futura, printed in 3D. That the red ribbon of the Maker Faire was cut right from astronaut obviously not a case, now we understand, as it is no accident that you hear more and more about the Mars mission. Need a new renaissance after the dark years of decline, especially in Italy, serves social innovation, digital innovation applied to social work. We must recover the enthusiasm of the culture 8-bit. The conquest of space is not actually the real end, is the metaphor of our need for cultural and economic growth.
Have you ever thought of being able to program the program 101 or the Apollo Guidance Computer? In the age of the maker this is not only possible but necessary.
STEFANO CAPEZZONE *
Rome, March 7, 2015
(* this post is a reblog Stefano Capezzone, electrical engineer, and entrepreneur startuppers ICT)
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