About Us

The IT History Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of knowledge about the people, products, and companies that together comprise the field of computing.

Since 1978 our organization, and its hundreds of members, have worked toward this goal, and we invite you to contribute your own knowledge and memories on this website! (read more)

2014 Year End Review: IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee

The IEEE SV Tech History committee fulfilled its mandate by holding four technical meetings in 2014. It was a close call as three of those meetings occured in the last three months of the year. Our committee’s charter is to have at least four technical meetings per year that will educate, inform and raise the level of awareness of technology...

IEEE Milestone: The First Transpacific Cable System (TPC-1) in 1964

Introduction: IEEE Silicon Valley Technology History committee co-chair Tom Coughlin attended the dedication of an IEEE Milestone in Hawaii for the first Transpacific Cable System (TPC-1) in 1964. ........................................................................................................ Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance: The first transpacific undersea coaxial telephone cable linking Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. mainland was completed in 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson and...

Gordon Bell: Information on the old The Computer Museum in Boston, MA

Note: This blog post was authored by Gordon Bell and edited by Alan J Weissberger. The Computer Museum website is a place to view all the extensive material of The Computer Museum (which was relocated to Mt. View, CA in 116/97), whereby one can go immediately to an exhibit, event, etc. and 350+ files (10K pages) of computer history. For...

London Science Museum

The London Science Museum is opening its new Information Age Gallery on 24 th October 2014 in the presence of the Queen and Prince Phillip.

Computer History Museum: Celebrating 35 Years: Sept 26,2014

Introduction: The Computer History Museum (CHM) marked its 35th birthday on September 24, 2014. Visitors from around the world see an impressive set of exhibits, artifacts and come for the conversations, panel sessions and lectures. One such panel took place on Sept 26th, with CHM co-founders Gordon Bell (Marlboro, MA 1975) and Len Shustek (Mt View, CA in 1996) presenting...

Ted Hoff: Significant Omissions from Malone's Intel Trinity Book

Written by Ted Hoff, PhD and edited by Alan J. Weissberger Please refer to earlier post on Errors and Corrections to Malone's book . General omission: Malone omits why I was hired at Intel as I was not a chip designer. The reason was Bob Noyce's view that LSI circuits were moving in the direction of systems on a chip,...

Author Michael Malone at the Commonwealth Club: The Story Behind Intel

On August 6, 2014, Michael Malone, Author of The Intel Trinity , spoke at the Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley . The program was held in the upper galleries of the Tech Museum in San Jose, CA. Similar to his earlier speech at the Computer History Museum , Mr. Malone emphasized the evolution, leaders, and current direction of Silicon Valley...

The Evolution of the Desk

A group of students at the Harvard Innovation Lab have created a time-lapsed visualization of the impact of computers, IT, and technology on our lives. The video provides a historical review of the office desk , beginning from the 1980s all the way to present day. The opening scene introduces a desk cluttered with what are now seemingly archaic items...

Bloodless Beige Boxes | The Story of an Artist and a Thinking Machine

When was the last time you walked into a data center and were stopped dead in your tracks by the beauty of a computer? Right, probably never. That is why you will most likely never see a computer in any art history books...but there is one that may well change that. Even though there is amazing beauty in the intricate...

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