Home — Glenn's Computer Museum

In the Centaur lobby we displayed two of my favorite pieces: the control panel from a rare IBM 9020 system (a cluster of five System/360 computers used by the FAA for air traffic control up through 1989), and a very high-end (it cost $50,000 in 1964) and fully functional Systron-Donner Model 80 analog computer from the 1960's.

I'm Back! New Stuff Coming...

It's been almost 10 years since I added anything to this site due to work pressures, a move, new grandchildren, a new job, too many hobbies, etc. But I didn't stop collecting! So, I am slowly going to start adding my favorite "new" items to the site. To make it easy for now, I'm putting all the newly added items in the New category. Also, they will first appear primarily as pictures with text to follow.

This is my personal collection of old computer stuff. It focuses on stuff that I particularly like: old processors, old IBM stuff, old military computers, old encryption devices, and miscellaneous technically interesting stuff.

Most of the stuff I have can be found in the many real computer museums, but some of my items—especially old military things—seem to be rare.

I don't known the function or usage of some of the items, so I'd appreciate any data you might have. Feel free to write me here if you have comments, questions, etc.

Thanks for visiting!

B-29 Bomber Central Station Fire Control Computer

Old Military Computers

This is my favorite category: pre-transistor era (1940-1960) special-purpose electro-mechanical "computers" (almost all military devices). These are bombsights, gunsights, fire-control computers, navigation computers, air-data computers, and so forth. Some of these are quite sophisticated. They all represent lost computing technologies.

More Recent Military Computers

Similar to the above category, but transistor-based: bombsights, gunsights, fire-control computers, navigation computers, etc. Less visually impressive then the earlier mechanical versions, but the multiplicity of designs is impressive.

IBM Stuff

I first programmed on IBM computers in 1963 and I worked at IBM from 1967 through 1988. Here is old (pre-PC) IBM stuff of particular interest to me: some rare consoles, card equipment, and lots of components (tubes, boards, chips, etc.). (Note: IBM military stuff is in the military categories.)

IBM System/3 Model 6

This particular IBM system is special to me since (1) my first management job in IBM (1969) was developing BASIC software for the Model 6, and (2) I met my wife (then, an IBM programmer) while working on this product. Accordingly, I have given it a "top-level" category in the museum.

IBM System/32

This particular IBM system is also special to me since I worked on the software design in 1971-1974. Accordingly, I have given it a "top-level" category in the museum.

Complete and working Systron-Donner 80 Analog Computer

General-Purpose Analog Computers

Analog computers are of special interest to me since I had some experience using an analog computer in 1966-1967. In addition, they were very important in the evolution of computing. Up until about 1970, digital computers were too slow to solve the complex differential equations of motion, so analog computers were heavily used in applications such as designing airplanes, calculating rocket trajectories, doing real-time control, etc.
Our collection is small, but contains a very rare and powerful (and working) example.

B61 Nuclear Bomb

Okay, I don't have a bomb, but I do have a "preflight controller" from either a B61 nuclear bomb or a B61 training device. I'm giving this item a major focus in my museum partly because it's rare and also because I have a great interest in the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons: the arming, firing, and "surety" (safety, security, and reliability) mechanisms. I hope someday to use this section to expand on this topics, but for now all you get is a description of the preflight controller.

Encryption

I have a special interest in security features within the processor. Here are a few security processors (not much here, but one is especially interesting).

Components

Even though this is a "computer" museum, we actually have few complete computers: I'm more interested in the "insides" of computers. Here is our collection of miscellaneous control panels, memories, boards, etc. (If the component is from IBM, it lives in the IBM collection.)

Miscellaneous

What's left over... interesting technology things that don't easily fit into the other categories.