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Behold the Computer Revolution

By PETER T. WHITE National Geographic Staff
Illustrations by National Geographic Photographers BRUCE DALE and EMORY KRISTOF

MY WIFE IS MAD AT COMPUTERS. “Those awful machines,” she calls them. “How they mess up our credit card accounts! Imagine sending a bill for $232.24 every month for four months after you’ve paid it!”

But I’m not mad. That mixup was settled after five months; and we never did feel as computer-harassed as some Americans, notably the Kansan repeatedly reminded that his department store bill was “overdue in the amount of $00.00.” At last he too managed to pacify the computer— with a check for $00.00.
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Cartridge Tape System Is Fast, Compact

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Employing a new cartridge-loading technique, IBM Hypertape eliminates the need for threading and, when used in the IBM 7090 computer system, it has the ability to “read” and “write” information at twice the speed of the conventional magnetic tape system. Hypertape currently can be used as an auxiliary storage system, increasing the computer’s capability to utilize internal computing power.
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The Brain Builders

“At last I came under a huge archway and beheld the Grand Lunar exalted on his throne in a blaze of incandescent blue . . . The quintessential brain looked very much like an opaque, featureless bladder with dim, undulating ghosts of convolutions writhing visibly within . . . Tiers of attendants were busy spraying that great brain with a cooling spray, and patting and sustaining it . . .”

—H. G. Wells,
The First Men in the Moon

Last week, in a pastel blue and grey room on the fifth floor of a St. Louis office building, the newest Wellsian brain in the earthly world was enthroned. This quintessential brain looked like nothing more than a collection of filing cases, stretching in a 60-ft. semicircle about the room. From within the grey metal cases came a faint humming sound; along the light-studded metallic face were scores of twinkling orange sparks, rippling like waves of thought. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember: You haven’t lived until your home computer says “hello” and asks you to “please enter a number.”

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Three new home computers that teach themselves – and teach you how to use them

They’re smart, they come ready to work, and one of them even talks to you

By BILL HAWKINS
PHOTOS BY ORLANDO GUERRA

Only two years ago, home computers were for the hobbyist: a jumble of wires, transistors, and circuit boards that came in a kit. And once the kit was assembled, there was complicated programming to master. Things have really changed since then.

Recently I’ve been trying three of the newest home units from APF, Atari, and Texas Instruments (first reported on in PS, Nov. ‘79). They’re no more complicated to hook up than a video game. The programming can be learned in just a few evenings. External pieces, such as a printer for making permanent records, are as easy to plug in as a toaster. Best of all, the computers can teach themselves.
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wanted: sales engineers to sell electronic computers

WELL ESTABLISHED MANUFACTURER IN GROWTH INDUSTRY NOW FORMING TECHNICAL SALES GROUP. The ElectroData Corporation, a subsidiary of Consolidated Engineering Corporation, one of America’s leading makers of electronic analytical instruments, needs qualified sales personnel to establish commercial applications and close sales for electronic data-processing systems. ElectroData Corporation was formerly the Electronic Computer Division of Consolidated Engineering Corporation, one of the leading designers and marketers of high quality instrumentation for science and industry, whose mass-spectrometers and recording oscillographs are the recognized standard of quality throughout the world. ElectroData Corporation will benefit from Consolidated’s 17 years of experience in technical application knowledge and management skill.
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ONE OF THE GREAT MISCALCULATIONS IN IBM HISTORY

In the early 1950’s, we took a hard look at the future for business computer systems.

Our best estimate, at the time, was a potential of 50 new customers.
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BIZMAC at Bat—”Brain” Predicts 1957 Averages

Early in March, when the Army Ordnance Command’s BIZMAC computer was demonstrated publicly for the first time, the operators used it to predict batting averages for the 1957 season. Twelve of the leading major league baseball players were “analyzed” by the computer, which based its predictions on the players’ averages for the past five years.
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Public Key Cryptography

An introduction to a powerful cryptographic system for use on microcomputers.

John Smith
21505 Evalyn Ave.
Torrance, CA 90503

Cryptography, the art of concealing the meaning of messages, has been practiced for at least 3000 years. In the past few centuries, it has become an indispensable tool in the military affairs, diplomacy, and commerce of most major nations. During that time there have been many innovations, and cryptography has changed and grown to accommodate the increasingly complex needs of its users. Present techniques are very sophisticated and provide excellent message protection. Current developments in computer technology and information theory, however, are on the verge of revolutionizing cryptography. New kinds of cryptographic systems are emerging that have incredible properties, which appear to eliminate completely some problems that have plagued cryptography users for centuries. One of these new systems is public key cryptography.
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Navy Brain Answers with Pictures

By George H. Waltz, Jr.
PS PHOTOS BY HUBERT LUCKETT

COMPLEX problems can now be reduced to three-dimensional, easy-to-understand answers by “Typhoon,” the latest thing in electronic brains. Built by the RCA Laboratories for the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, the new computer is showing naval experts just how theoretical guided missiles will react in actual flight.

Up until the completion of the new $1,400,000 calculator a few months ago, the men whose job it is to create new and better guided missiles had to spend thousands of hours at complicated computations and many months at building full-size $100,000 test models. And when they were finished, there was no guarantee that the new missile would perform as expected.
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ENGINEERS… RCA IS NOW CREATING TOMORROW’S MOST ADVANCED, COMPREHENSIVE ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS!

Past-moving computer advances at RCA call for many more computer engineers. If you have a BS or advanced degree and at least 2 years’ design and development experience … this is your opportunity to team up with RCA scientists whose far-reaching new systems concepts utilize the latest digital techniques to broaden the scope of the electronic data processing field.
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Safety Computer Forecasts Atomic Fall-out Pattern

How “safe” is it to test an atom bomb ? Will wind-blown radioactive dust or charged rain clouds endanger life or crops in inhabited regions?

The National Bureau of Standards recently developed a “portable” analog computer to assist in predicting radioactive fall-out from a nuclear explosion. The fall-out pattern appears instantly on oscilloscope (left of photo) after weather data and the size and type of bomb are “told to” the computer by setting dials. As computers go, “portable” means that it will fit into a truck.

Wind-carried fall-out even from “small” atomic tests has traveled as far as Paris and Tokyo when caught in the “jet stream” of the upper atmosphere.

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Apple Announces the Lisa 2

by Gregg Williams

When several of us at BYTE saw the Macintosh, we were seriously concerned about the fate of the Lisa in the face of the Macintosh, a machine that is one-third its price and clearly superior in some areas. Apple has answered these concerns by announcing two versions of the Lisa 2, along with the Macintosh, at its annual stockholders’ meeting on January 24.
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