4 10 106 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/25b3c3b328793a717472dd7d5316d5f1.jpg 2d5774d0296fde8d574be2062409283e hardware A computer (or a calculator), its components and peripherals (displays, printers, pointing devices, modems, external storage devices, etc). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rapid Data Rapidman 801 calculator Subject The topic of the resource hardware: electronic calculator Description An account of the resource Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) In the early 1970s, the consumer electronics market was going through one of the hottest periods in its history. Advancements in microelectronics, especially in integrated circuit technologies, had made it possible to offer inexpensive desktop and, soon after, hand-held digital electronic calculators. In 1971, the promise of a calculator power at your finger tips (pledged by Bowmar Instrument, Cannon, and, soon after, by scores of other calculator manufacturers) was rapidly gaining social acceptance. It was the idea of a personal, inexpensive, powerful electronic calculating device for your own unrestricted use, always in your pocket, in your briefcase, or on your desk that made the pocket calculator one of the most desired electronic gadgets of the first half of the 1970s. Commodore Business Machines (founded in 1958 in Toronto) and Rapid Data Systems and Equipment Ltd. (incorporated in 1962 in Toronto) were the earliest Canadian companies that offered their own electronic desktop and pocket-sized calculators. Rapid Data's first calculator--the Rapidman 800--was introduced in February 1972 at the time when intense competition put immense pricing pressure to offer hand-held calculators for under $100 and the stores across North America were racing to be the first to sell them. In early 1972, to win the race, Alexander's--New York's iconic department store chain--ordered 20,000 Rapidman 800s to be sold at $99.99. In a short succession, the Rapidman 800 was followed by the 801 (introduced in 1973), 802, 804, 812, and 824 hand-helds. In his 2005 recollections written for York University Computer Museum, Henry Dasko--a former European Sales Manager at Rapid Data--describes the company's corporate history and his involvement with Rapid Data in the following way. "The year was 1971, late Spring. I had been in Canada for just over a year and was looking for a job. Ideally it would be something in exports. But most of Canada's exports were raw materials and commodities and I had no experience and no feel for that. Finally, I found an ad that seemed to give me a chance. An electronics company was looking for someone with languages. I applied and soon got a phone call. "You say you speak Russian," the voice said. "I do." "How many years did you study Russian?" "Fourteen." "OK, come for an interview." I did, to a modern, low building near the Toronto airport. "We make calculators," a well groomed, silver haired man told me. I had no idea what a calculator was. "A Soviet trade delegation is coming to see us. They would like to buy our technology. We are not going to sell it to them, but we will talk to them. Let’s see how well you do." I did well enough. The Russians left and I was told to return the following day. I had a low level job in the International Marketing Department. My boss was to be one Rick Denda, whom I hadn't met - he was travelling in Europe, but his silver Ferrari 330 and his white Mercedes sedan were sitting in the company lot. I liked him already. He returned soon and we got along fine. I familiarized myself with the product line and was told to gather as much information about competitive products as possible. Our most popular model was a pocket calculator named Rapidman 800. It had 8-digit [display] capacity and could perform four basic functions. Hang tab keys were molded into the case. Decimal point was fixed at 2. Individual LEDs were hand inserted into the PCB. It was difficult to align them, and they were almost always crooked. The unit was made on an electronics assembly line in London, Ontario. It sold for $100. Our biggest export market was in the US, where we had our own branch in Detroit. I had nothing to do with it. My responsibility was the secondary markets, where we dealt with export agents and distributors. We communicated via telex, which I learned to use. Selling was not a problem. We just could not get enough product. Everyone wanted it. Sometimes the requests were outrageous. "I am calling you from the cabinet of the president of Chile," Leslie Sebastian, a Hungarian expatriate yelled at me. "I want 100,000 calculators and I want them now. Every schoolchild in Chile is going to have his own machine. Chile will be the first in the world." Soon we had several competitors - American companies Texas Instruments and Bowmar, and the Japanese giant Sharp, which offered an elegant brushed aluminum box with large, glowing, diffused LEDs. There was also a Canadian competitor named Commodore. Its president was Jack Tramiel who, like me, was a Polish Jew. In Polish, his real name was Trzmiel, pronounced "Chmiel", which in Polish means "hornet". He was an Auschwitz survivor with a number tattooed on his forearm. A bear of a man. He started a typewriter service shop in the Polish area of Toronto. The president of our company, Clive Raymond, was very different. He was born in India, where his father was a British colonial officer. In Canada he ran an office equipment company named Roneo Vickers, which specialized in spirit duplicator machines. He was a portly, elegant man with commanding presence. I met our design engineers, who were responsible for technology development. Their names were Joe Kelly and Joe Tari and they both came from an academic background. Raymond gave them a long term contract and shares in Rapid Data. Soon our product line expanded. We added model 801 with a floating decimal point and a model 812 with 12-digit capacity and full memory. Rapidman 824 was one of the first to perform complex scientific calculations. We also made desktop calculators, powered by the mains. A 12-digits Rapidman 1212 and even more sophisticated Rapidman 1220, both using orange coloured gas discharge Panaplex displays we bought from Burroughs Corporation in New Jersey. We also made printing calculators, which recorded calculations on a paper ribbon. The printing heads came from Seiko Corporation in Japan. Most of our chips except for the small Rapidman 800 came from an aerospace company in California, named Rockwell International. Financing for our company came from the Eaton's Pension Fund, where Raymond knew people. Even though there weren't enough calculators to fill the orders, prices were plummeting. I understood it to be the rule in electronics. The same phenomenon had happened previously with transistor radios. I was doing well. Soon I was promoted to European Sales Manager and transferred to Shannon, Southern Ireland, where we had a distribution facility in a tax-free economic zone. But the company was not doing well. In printers, which were the most profitable product, we have fallen behind technology curve. Printing heads had a spinning roller, which in the first generation model emitted annoying buzz. Seiko subsequently developed a silent printer, but would only sell it to Japanese calculator makers. I understood then that it wasn't how many products you sold, but how much profit you made - a principle which stayed with me throughout my professional life. Rapid Data was losing money. Soon Rockwell and Eaton's demanded payments which we couldn't make. Even though we all worked very hard and the spirit of the company was fantastic, Rapid Data had to close down in the largest Canadian bankruptcy in Canadian history. We all lost our jobs. For me personally it was a very sad moment, but I have learned a lot and was confident of the future. I wasn't wrong - I had gained experience in electronics, and electronics was the name of the game. Within three months I had another job." Rapidman 801 features: <ul> <li>four functions (+, -, x, ÷), mixed calculations, chain division and multiplication, constant calculations in all four functions,</li> <li>decimal system: full floating or selectable decimal placement (from 0 to 7 places),</li> <li>automatic constant for repetitive operations,</li> <li>single key entry correction and cleaning,</li> <li>negative sign and overflow indication,</li> <li>power on indication,</li> <li>low battery indication.</li> </ul> Hardware specification: <ul> <li>display: 8-digit display,</li> <li>registers: two (1 numeric and 1 constant),</li> <li>CPU: Rockwell 15332PC,</li> <li>keyboard: 19-key including on/off, select, and clear keys,</li> <li>indicators: negative sign, and overflow,</li> <li>power supply: 9V battery or AC adapter.</li> </ul> Museum holdings <ul> <li>The museum has: Rapidman 801, serial number 15 134126,</li> <li>Operaing Instructions for your Rapidman 801 Calculator, Rapid Data, 1973. </li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid Data Systems & Equipment Ltd. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant world, 1970s https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/cc6b4ccf5377d0e92176fcfe7cf4bdec.jpg 711f87bf5b6014304ff0b897e183c2ca hardware A computer (or a calculator), its components and peripherals (displays, printers, pointing devices, modems, external storage devices, etc). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rapid Data Rapidman 802 calculator Subject The topic of the resource hardware: electronic calculator Description An account of the resource Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) In the early 1970s, the consumer electronics market was going through one of the hottest periods in its history. Advancements in microelectronics, especially in integrated circuit technologies, had made it possible to offer inexpensive desktop and, soon after, hand-held digital electronic calculators. In 1971, the promise of a calculator power at your finger tips (pledged by Bowmar Instrument, Cannon, and, soon after, by scores of other calculator manufacturers) was rapidly gaining social acceptance. It was the idea of a personal, inexpensive, powerful electronic calculating device for your own unrestricted use, always in your pocket, in your briefcase, or on your desk that made the pocket calculator one of the most desired electronic gadgets of the first half of the 1970s. Commodore Business Machines (founded in 1958 in Toronto) and Rapid Data Systems and Equipment Ltd. (incorporated in 1962 in Toronto) were the earliest Canadian companies that offered their own electronic desktop and pocket-sized calculators. Rapid Data's first calculator--the Rapidman 800--was introduced in February 1972 at the time when intense competition put immense pricing pressure to offer hand-held calculators for under $100 and the stores across North America were racing to be the first to sell them. In early 1972, to win the race, Alexander's--New York's iconic department store chain--ordered 20,000 Rapidman 800s to be sold at $99.99. In a short succession, the Rapidman 800 was followed by the 801, 802 (introduced in 1973), 804, 812, and 824 hand-helds. In his 2005 recollections written for York University Computer Museum, Henry Dasko--a former European Sales Manager at Rapid Data--describes the company's corporate history and his involvement with Rapid Data in the following way. "The year was 1971, late Spring. I had been in Canada for just over a year and was looking for a job. Ideally it would be something in exports. But most of Canada's exports were raw materials and commodities and I had no experience and no feel for that. Finally, I found an ad that seemed to give me a chance. An electronics company was looking for someone with languages. I applied and soon got a phone call. "You say you speak Russian," the voice said. "I do." "How many years did you study Russian?" "Fourteen." "OK, come for an interview." I did, to a modern, low building near the Toronto airport. "We make calculators," a well groomed, silver haired man told me. I had no idea what a calculator was. "A Soviet trade delegation is coming to see us. They would like to buy our technology. We are not going to sell it to them, but we will talk to them. Let’s see how well you do." I did well enough. The Russians left and I was told to return the following day. I had a low level job in the International Marketing Department. My boss was to be one Rick Denda, whom I hadn't met - he was travelling in Europe, but his silver Ferrari 330 and his white Mercedes sedan were sitting in the company lot. I liked him already. He returned soon and we got along fine. I familiarized myself with the product line and was told to gather as much information about competitive products as possible. Our most popular model was a pocket calculator named Rapidman 800. It had 8-digit [display] capacity and could perform four basic functions. Hang tab keys were molded into the case. Decimal point was fixed at 2. Individual LEDs were hand inserted into the PCB. It was difficult to align them, and they were almost always crooked. The unit was made on an electronics assembly line in London, Ontario. It sold for $100. Our biggest export market was in the US, where we had our own branch in Detroit. I had nothing to do with it. My responsibility was the secondary markets, where we dealt with export agents and distributors. We communicated via telex, which I learned to use. Selling was not a problem. We just could not get enough product. Everyone wanted it. Sometimes the requests were outrageous. "I am calling you from the cabinet of the president of Chile," Leslie Sebastian, a Hungarian expatriate yelled at me. "I want 100,000 calculators and I want them now. Every schoolchild in Chile is going to have his own machine. Chile will be the first in the world." Soon we had several competitors - American companies Texas Instruments and Bowmar, and the Japanese giant Sharp, which offered an elegant brushed aluminum box with large, glowing, diffused LEDs. There was also a Canadian competitor named Commodore. Its president was Jack Tramiel who, like me, was a Polish Jew. In Polish, his real name was Trzmiel, pronounced "Chmiel", which in Polish means "hornet". He was an Auschwitz survivor with a number tattooed on his forearm. A bear of a man. He started a typewriter service shop in the Polish area of Toronto. The president of our company, Clive Raymond, was very different. He was born in India, where his father was a British colonial officer. In Canada he ran an office equipment company named Roneo Vickers, which specialized in spirit duplicator machines. He was a portly, elegant man with commanding presence. I met our design engineers, who were responsible for technology development. Their names were Joe Kelly and Joe Tari and they both came from an academic background. Raymond gave them a long term contract and shares in Rapid Data. Soon our product line expanded. We added model 801 with a floating decimal point and a model 812 with 12-digit capacity and full memory. Rapidman 824 was one of the first to perform complex scientific calculations. We also made desktop calculators, powered by the mains. A 12-digits Rapidman 1212 and even more sophisticated Rapidman 1220, both using orange coloured gas discharge Panaplex displays we bought from Burroughs Corporation in New Jersey. We also made printing calculators, which recorded calculations on a paper ribbon. The printing heads came from Seiko Corporation in Japan. Most of our chips except for the small Rapidman 800 came from an aerospace company in California, named Rockwell International. Financing for our company came from the Eaton's Pension Fund, where Raymond knew people. Even though there weren't enough calculators to fill the orders, prices were plummeting. I understood it to be the rule in electronics. The same phenomenon had happened previously with transistor radios. I was doing well. Soon I was promoted to European Sales Manager and transferred to Shannon, Southern Ireland, where we had a distribution facility in a tax-free economic zone. But the company was not doing well. In printers, which were the most profitable product, we have fallen behind technology curve. Printing heads had a spinning roller, which in the first generation model emitted annoying buzz. Seiko subsequently developed a silent printer, but would only sell it to Japanese calculator makers. I understood then that it wasn't how many products you sold, but how much profit you made - a principle which stayed with me throughout my professional life. Rapid Data was losing money. Soon Rockwell and Eaton's demanded payments which we couldn't make. Even though we all worked very hard and the spirit of the company was fantastic, Rapid Data had to close down in the largest Canadian bankruptcy in Canadian history. We all lost our jobs. For me personally it was a very sad moment, but I have learned a lot and was confident of the future. I wasn't wrong - I had gained experience in electronics, and electronics was the name of the game. Within three months I had another job." Rapidman 802 features: <ul> <li>four functions (+, -, x, ÷), mixed calculations, chain division and multiplication, constant calculations in all four functions,</li> <li>decimal system: full floating or selectable decimal placement (from 0 to 7 places),</li> <li>automatic constant for repetitive operations,</li> <li>single key entry correction and cleaning,</li> <li>negative sign and overflow indication,</li> <li>power on indication,</li> <li>low battery indication.</li> </ul> Hardware specification: <ul> <li>display: 8-digit display,</li> <li>registers: two (1 numeric and 1 constant),</li> <li>CPU: Rockwell 15332PC,</li> <li>keyboard: 19-key including on/off, select, and clear keys,</li> <li>indicators: negative sign, and overflow,</li> <li>power supply: 9V battery or AC adapter.</li> </ul> Museum holdings <ul> <li>The museum has: Rapidman 802, serial number 15 134126,</li> <li>Operaing Instructions for your Rapidman 801 Calculator, Rapid Data, 1973. </li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid Data Systems & Equipment Ltd. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource released in 1973 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant world, 1873- https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/6a98576df8b8c74451e0c110eb019e29.jpg b9cab33caa5e6717bd86b30e2c8e43be Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rapid Data Rapidman 1208LC calculator Subject The topic of the resource calculator: desktop digital calculator Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rapid Data Systems & Equipment Ltd. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource released in 1974(?) Description An account of the resource Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) In the early 1970s, the consumer electronics market was going through one of the hottest periods in its history. Advancements in microelectronics, especially in integrated circuit technologies, had made it possible to offer inexpensive desktop and, soon after, hand-held digital electronic calculators. In 1971, the promise of a calculator power at your finger tips (pledged by Bowmar Instrument, Cannon, and, soon after, by scores of other calculator manufacturers) was rapidly gaining social acceptance. It was the idea of a personal, inexpensive, powerful electronic calculating device for your own unrestricted use, always in your pocket, in your briefcase, or on your desk that made the pocket calculator one of the most desired electronic gadgets of the first half of the 1970s. Commodore Business Machines (founded in 1958 in Toronto) and Rapid Data Systems and Equipment Ltd. (incorporated in 1962 in Toronto) were the earliest Canadian companies that offered their own electronic desktop and pocket-sized calculators. Rapid Data's first calculator--the Rapidman 800--was introduced in February 1972 at the time when intense competition put immense pricing pressure to offer hand-held calculators for under $100 and the stores across North America were racing to be the first to sell them. In early 1972, to win the race, Alexander's--New York's iconic department store chain--ordered 20,000 Rapidman 800s to be sold at $99.99. In a short succession, the Rapidman 800 was followed by the 801, 802, 804, 812, and 824 hand-helds as well as 1208 (introduced in 1973), 1212, 1220, 2000, and 2001 desktop calculators. In his 2005 recollections written for York University Computer Museum, Henry Dasko--a former European Sales Manager at Rapid Data--describes the company's corporate history and his involvement with Rapid Data in the following way. "The year was 1971, late Spring. I had been in Canada for just over a year and was looking for a job. Ideally it would be something in exports. But most of Canada's exports were raw materials and commodities and I had no experience and no feel for that. Finally, I found an ad that seemed to give me a chance. An electronics company was looking for someone with languages. I applied and soon got a phone call. "You say you speak Russian," the voice said. "I do." "How many years did you study Russian?" "Fourteen." "OK, come for an interview." I did, to a modern, low building near the Toronto airport. "We make calculators," a well groomed, silver haired man told me. I had no idea what a calculator was. "A Soviet trade delegation is coming to see us. They would like to buy our technology. We are not going to sell it to them, but we will talk to them. Let’s see how well you do." I did well enough. The Russians left and I was told to return the following day. I had a low level job in the International Marketing Department. My boss was to be one Rick Denda, whom I hadn't met - he was travelling in Europe, but his silver Ferrari 330 and his white Mercedes sedan were sitting in the company lot. I liked him already. He returned soon and we got along fine. I familiarized myself with the product line and was told to gather as much information about competitive products as possible. Our most popular model was a pocket calculator named Rapidman 800. It had 8-digit [display] capacity and could perform four basic functions. Hang tab keys were molded into the case. Decimal point was fixed at 2. Individual LEDs were hand inserted into the PCB. It was difficult to align them, and they were almost always crooked. The unit was made on an electronics assembly line in London, Ontario. It sold for $100. Our biggest export market was in the US, where we had our own branch in Detroit. I had nothing to do with it. My responsibility was the secondary markets, where we dealt with export agents and distributors. We communicated via telex, which I learned to use. Selling was not a problem. We just could not get enough product. Everyone wanted it. Sometimes the requests were outrageous. "I am calling you from the cabinet of the president of Chile," Leslie Sebastian, a Hungarian expatriate yelled at me. "I want 100,000 calculators and I want them now. Every schoolchild in Chile is going to have his own machine. Chile will be the first in the world." Soon we had several competitors - American companies Texas Instruments and Bowmar, and the Japanese giant Sharp, which offered an elegant brushed aluminum box with large, glowing, diffused LEDs. There was also a Canadian competitor named Commodore. Its president was Jack Tramiel who, like me, was a Polish Jew. In Polish, his real name was Trzmiel, pronounced "Chmiel", which in Polish means "hornet". He was an Auschwitz survivor with a number tattooed on his forearm. A bear of a man. He started a typewriter service shop in the Polish area of Toronto. The president of our company, Clive Raymond, was very different. He was born in India, where his father was a British colonial officer. In Canada he ran an office equipment company named Roneo Vickers, which specialized in spirit duplicator machines. He was a portly, elegant man with commanding presence. I met our design engineers, who were responsible for technology development. Their names were Joe Kelly and Joe Tari and they both came from an academic background. Raymond gave them a long term contract and shares in Rapid Data. Soon our product line expanded. We added model 801 with a floating decimal point and a model 812 with 12-digit capacity and full memory. Rapidman 824 was one of the first to perform complex scientific calculations. We also made desktop calculators, powered by the mains. A 12-digits Rapidman 1212 and even more sophisticated Rapidman 1220, both using orange coloured gas discharge Panaplex displays we bought from Burroughs Corporation in New Jersey. We also made printing calculators, which recorded calculations on a paper ribbon. The printing heads came from Seiko Corporation in Japan. Most of our chips except for the small Rapidman 800 came from an aerospace company in California, named Rockwell International. Financing for our company came from the Eaton's Pension Fund, where Raymond knew people. Even though there weren't enough calculators to fill the orders, prices were plummeting. I understood it to be the rule in electronics. The same phenomenon had happened previously with transistor radios. I was doing well. Soon I was promoted to European Sales Manager and transferred to Shannon, Southern Ireland, where we had a distribution facility in a tax-free economic zone. But the company was not doing well. In printers, which were the most profitable product, we have fallen behind technology curve. Printing heads had a spinning roller, which in the first generation model emitted annoying buzz. Seiko subsequently developed a silent printer, but would only sell it to Japanese calculator makers. I understood then that it wasn't how many products you sold, but how much profit you made - a principle which stayed with me throughout my professional life. Rapid Data was losing money. Soon Rockwell and Eaton's demanded payments which we couldn't make. Even though we all worked very hard and the spirit of the company was fantastic, Rapid Data had to close down in the largest Canadian bankruptcy in Canadian history. We all lost our jobs. For me personally it was a very sad moment, but I have learned a lot and was confident of the future. I wasn't wrong - I had gained experience in electronics, and electronics was the name of the game. Within three months I had another job." Rapidman 1208 features <ul> <li>four functions (+, -, x, ÷), chain of mixed multiplication and division, constant calculations in all four functions,</li> <li>decimal system: full floating or selectable decimal placement (from 0 to 5 places),</li> <li>negative sign and overflow indication,</li> <li>power on indication.</li> </ul> Hardware specification <ul> <li>display: 8-digit LCD (liquid cristal display) plus 1 sign position and 1 overflow error indicator,</li> <li>display circuits: Rockwell 10417</li> <li>CPU: Rockwell 15311,</li> <li>keyboard: 18-key including percet and clear keys,</li> <li>indicators: negative sign, and overflow.</li> </ul> Museum holdings <ul> <li>Rapidman 1208LC, serial number  45120. </li> </ul> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant world, 1974(?)- https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/00cef3d05da2d151e6d158ecfdf79359.JPG f69e37864c5bbd3d1d810dc389067f82 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The PRO-80 Computer Subject The topic of the resource Hardware: single-board computer Description An account of the resource Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) PROTEC Microsystems Inc. (or PROTEC) was founded 1981 and incorporated in January 1982 in Point Clair, Quebec. The company's first products were single-board microcomputer kits. The PRO-80 kit was offered in 1981, the PRO-83 in 1984, and the Multi-Lab in 1984. All these computers were designed for the educational and computer hobby markets. In 1986, PROTEC switched its focus from single board computers to smart sharers -- devices that allowed computers to share peripherals. In the 2nd half of the 1990s, the company addressed the growing popularity of local area networks and the Internet by introducing its new generation of intelligent device sharers, including the WebShare, SOHOLink, and WebBeetle, to provide a shared access to these services. An extensive distribution networks in North America and Europe positioned PROTEC as a provider of choice for such devices. The WebShare was launched in 1996 at COMDEX/Fall in Las Vegas. It allowed two or three PCs to simultaneously access the Internet using a single modem, a single telephone line, and a single Internet account. The second version of this sherer, more compact and with optional integrated modem was announced during the PC Expo trade show in New York in June 1997. The SOHOLink was designed to meet the connectivity needs of a small business or a home office operating with multiple computing platforms. It integrated all the features of the WebShare but offered Ethernet ports for networking of up to six computers. Finally, the WebBeetle was developed to address the demand for Internet and fax access in a local network environment were the demand for such access was high across the network. The sherer was launch during COMDEX/Fall held in Las Vegas in 1998 PRO-80 Microcomputer The PRO-80 single-board computer kit was PROTEC's first product. Offered in 1981, it was distributed by, among other companies General Electronics of Willowdale, Ontario. According to the PRO-80 assembly manual, the computer was designed to be    a truly economical and educational system that meets the needs of students, teachers,  experiments or anyone who wishes to know   or evaluate at a reasonable price the performance of the wonderful machine, the Z-80 [microprocessor].   [from The PRO-80 Assembly and Operations Manual] The computer was designed around the popular Zilog Z80 microprocessor and the S-100 bus that allowed the user to expand the system with a variety of S-100 boards available on the market. Hardware specification <ul> <li>CPU: Zilog Z80A,</li> <li>RAM: 1Kb expandable to 2 Kb,</li> <li>EPROM: 1Kb containing the monitor software,</li> <li>ports/interfaces: 2 parallel I/O ports, audio cassette interface,</li> <li>keyboard: 16-key Hex with 8 additional keys,</li> <li>display: 6-position Hex.</li> </ul> PROTEC also offered the PRO-VIDEO expansion card for the PRO-80 that provided: <ul> <li>video controller for a standard color or B/W TV,</li> <li>Eprom programmer,</li> <li>up to 22 Kb of RAM.</li> </ul> The card was supported with an 8 Kb editor/assembler. In April 1983, the computer was priced at $169 while its expansion card at $249. Software and documentation <ul> <li>The PRO-80 Assembly and Operations Manual, PROTEC, 1981,</li> <li>monitor (1Kb),</li> <li>editor/assembler (8Kb).</li> </ul> Museum holdings <ul> <li>PRO-80 single board computer,</li> <li>The PRO-80 Assembly and Operations Manual, PROTEC, 1981.</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Protec Microsystems Inc. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Canada, early 1980s microcomputer https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/32811645e684a067d1e7d42dfb250fea.png 37b44fa7b8a26f6b2ba7d83a6148c422 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/4c9bd8f1076244ce624ba0f1e4f1828e.jpeg d26168a3eea05013726b0d91d6689db3 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/91b04dee86f47d29a884ded2627399e1.jpeg f461214f54b2d4a0f999bf7f82cedca7 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/32ff0036ab19add54d262adb0295a671.png 47c0c375a855b9e388915fe18260141a https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/baba9f3b23ffe96aaa3015fc57c04f08.jpg d11a0e6d0395e30b8808af64168e1c84 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/59c4b3b1feab439b68044d1d32afe0aa.jpg 1c75a654071ae52e6c16818ff6447698 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/5ab92903b6a5931956c1a7c7ef8a6c38.jpg 635b019fa8e1e47fbb55e925ec379b55 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/e0334731d6cff4e9852d9c54be29509c.jpg b207b66d1e65d1ef77d4b95eb5aa2694 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/09ccc5e59045ad59cb2c1f1635783a32.jpg 0b3eca0173b8b6bcf4eb233b1a157699 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/95b876b2685feca0d11c030f78bd9047.jpg 57f8ec3d9594ad98d7cbcaecd48b98f5 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/30e315f1ca44cf6508af75cf7fac2ef4.jpg a01e7a5b6c7aa0c86d49dab2acddeb38 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/6faebab09f2660c6dbd9ae3549c46049.jpg 4a53941946205ef29d70cd728c348b50 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/0f7fd325969b5b70bc3ad1bced2ef2d2.jpg df840a419713bc1408fd16d71b2fb74d https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/9a4a857cbd0e2ac1ba1c1289b3b46583.jpg e14c746a399a253cae7255372e2e0198 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/bc594bd0180fd1d7e0bff27f7f767148.jpg 70c1cdf9fec17e96057d3386844ba790 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/10dfe0d4689364303f7b81bfad30b769.jpg 9c17ef588fd126e50fecc37b7b9df77e https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/1ee27ee88eea23cbb7dbcffabdb753db.jpg 8f4cef6478b0e5620006942592bb3d45 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/fb251ab835899a4a97a9c6febb5d2933.jpg fa23f4e9b2801c57956c65bce39f6154 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/cd8f0d0826bc9f3220b017f2881cedef.jpg 87b30d0c9b412d774cdfcbba9bd3c41b https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/studentkeypunchroomjan73_da05e4d98a.jpeg 1b49d17272bf4ea94b0a64bcbc0b20a1 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/4a222b15e0c718145c4504e910c1297a.jpeg e57db6a6b561efce521d8a771e4718c9 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/af5f2b23ed47d709999ebe5dd53af6ce.jpeg 957e4da810d38945c579e6b1f7b8b5b7 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/6ca740b4424f4edd95972c9934245ce4.jpeg cdacd538ceff03f596d319ea3ae49aca Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Early Computing at York University -- Photographs Subject The topic of the resource computing infrastructure: photographs Description An account of the resource Historical context: Academic computing in Canada started to develop in the early 1950s. The first commercial digital electronic computer—a Ferranti Mark I (nicknamed FERRUT)—was installed at the University of Toronto in 1952. For several years, FERRUT was the only digital electronic computer operated by a Canadian university. In 1957, the University of British Columbia installed its first computer—the ALWWAC III-E—and the University of Alberta its LGP-30 computer. York University was established in 1959 at a time when there were just 40 electronic digital computers working in the entire Canada. However, it was not until October 1966 when York installed its first computer—the IBM System \360 Model 30—and established its Computation Center. The computer was replaced by a more powerful IBM System/360 Model 40, and then by Model 50 in the following two years. In 1971, York installed an IBM System/370 Model 155 — a computer from a new line of IBM mainframes. This computer, in turn, was replaced by a high-end Model 158 in the mid 1970s. The photographs in this collection were taken in the early to mid 1970s. They depict the computing room of York's Computation Center as well as students'  keypunch room. Identity of photographers not currently known. The photograph descriptions from top to bottom, left to right: <ul> <li>IBM System/370 with an IBM 3215 Console Printer-Keyboard at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM System/370 with an IBM 3215 Console Printer-Keyboard at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>Memorex 660 Disk Drive storage at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 3420 tape drive systems at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 1403 printer (foreground), IBM 3705A communications controller (background left) and IBM 3420 tape drives (background front) at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>HP 2000 computer operator at York's Computer Center; on the right, an HP 2000 computer (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM System/370 Model 158 operator at computer's terminal at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM System/370 Model 158 operator at computer's terminal at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 3420 tape drives at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 3333 disk drive storage units at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?)</li> <li>IBM 3333 disk drive storage units at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>Backup disk storage at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 3705A communications controller at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>HP 2000 Data System at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?)</li> <li>IBM 3213 console printer and Datacom 100 teleprinter at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>IBM 2741 terminal at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>modems at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>Vucom I display terminal at York's Computer Center (mid 1970s?),</li> <li>students' keypunch room at York University (1972?),</li> <li>students in keypunch room at York University (1972?); the person on the right is Enio Presutto, one of the promoters of the APL programming language at York University,</li> <li> IBM 2741 APL terminal in student's keypunch room at York University (1972?),</li> <li>IBM 29 punch card terminal in students' keypunch room at York University (1972?).</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource photographer unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 (?) Relation A related resource York University Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource digital image of photographs Type The nature or genre of the resource digital image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant York University, Toronto, 1972-1973 Contribution Form The set of elements containing metadata from the Contribution form. Online Submission Indicates whether or not this Item has been contributed from a front-end contribution form. No York University https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/1b79c82960a8dde2aa22c42008becbcc.png 44dcaaa44f7a6f584b9c845915f4653c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource SBC6809 Lab-mate computer Subject The topic of the resource computer hardware Description An account of the resource Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) In April 1972, Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, CA, announced its first 8-bit microprocessor, the 8008. Shortly after, the company introduced the 8008-powered SIM8-01 single-board computer designed as a trainer and a software development system for the 8008-based applications. The introduction of this novel hardware marked more than just a leap in microprogrammable controller technology. Within months, prototypes of the first general-purpose computers powered by the 8008 chip were operational on-site at the French company Réalisations et Études Électroniques located in the suburbs of Paris and at Micro Computer Machines with headquarters situated on the outskirts of Toronto. The SIM8-01 board generated the first wave of computer hobby activities in North America. It also became an educational tool that enabled electrical engineering students to gain a deep understanding and appreciation of this new microprocessor technology. In 1973, the SIM8-01 board became the primary hardware at the newly established digital design labs at the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. These labs broadened the digital system design curriculum, introducing students to microprocessor technology recognized as a crucial component in computer engineering education. Other universities opted for various microprocessor development and demonstration systems, such as the Motorola MEK6800 single-board computer introduced in 1975, or developed and constructed their own hardware to support their microprocessor laboratories. The SBC 6809 Lab-mate The SBC 6809 Lab-mate single-board computer was designed by Peter Bubonja, research associate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto (U of T), between 1984 and 85. The computer was designed and developed at the U of T Power Group computer applications lab to enhance the capabilities of the U of T M6809  single-board computer designed at the university in 1979 and sold by Exceltronix Components and Computing of Toronto. The Lab-mate was used in digital electronics labs at, among other places, the University of Toronto and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. One of the main differences between the U of T Board and the Lab-mate was that the latter was designed around the STD bus allowing a range of off-the-shelf STD cards to be directly used with the computer. This provided an effective way to expand and tailor the system towards the user's needs. Technical Specifications: CPU - Motorola MC6809, 8-bit RAM - up to 48K using six memory slots ROM - 16K ports and interfaces: <ul> <li>two STD bus expansion ports,</li> <li>STD bus I/O port,</li> <li>two parallel I/O ports (MOS Technology 6522 Versatile Interface Adapter)</li> <li>programmable parallel peripheral interface (Intel 8255)</li> <li>universal interrupt controller (Advanced Micro Devices AM9519A)</li> <li>two serial ports (MOS Technology 6551 Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter)</li> <li>programmable timer (Motorola MC6840)</li> <li>counter/timer peripheral (Advanced Micro Devices 9513A)</li> <li>cassette tape interface</li> </ul> Software - monitor, editor, and assembler in ROM Documentation - extensive documentation including SBC6808 Operating Manual by Peter Bubonja, 1986. The museum has two Lab-mate computers (serial numbers 18 and 19) used at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in the second half of the 1980s. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Peter Bubonja Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1986 6809 University of Toronto https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/2041ed6c41b03f082e238b1121d630b1.jpg c79c51a5671117b93007cd531512746b hardware A computer (or a calculator), its components and peripherals (displays, printers, pointing devices, modems, external storage devices, etc). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Commodore C108 calculator Subject The topic of the resource hardware: electronic desktop calculator Description An account of the resource Historical context Commodore International Ltd. (or Commodore) was one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronic hand-held calculators as well as home, educational, and business microcomputers. It was best known for its popular personal computers including the PET line of personal desktops as well as the VIC-20, Commodore 64, and the Amiga computers. It was founded on October 10, 1958 as Commodore Portable Typewriter Company Limited in Toronto, Ontario. Two years later, the company incorporated its Commodore Business Machines subsidiary in New York. In 1976, Commodore reorganized its corporate structure as Commodore International Ltd. and moved its financial headquarters to the Bahamas and the operations headquarters to Pennsylvania. The restructured company encompassed several entities world-wide including Commodore Business Machines Ltd., Canada. In 1947, the company's founder—Jack Tramiel—emigrated from Poland to the US. During his US army service (1948-51) he gained considerable experience in repairing office equipment which he turned into business in his civilian life, first in Bronx, New York, and later in Toronto, Canada, where he moved in 1955. His Toronto business was initially focused on repairs and selling licensed typewriters, adding machines, and other office equipment. Initially located at 2 Toronto Street, in the city's downtown core, a short distance from the IBM Toronto Downtown Office, the company relocated several times before establishing its headquarters at 946 Warden Ave, Scarborough, Ont. During the 1960s the scope of Commodore's business expanded to office furniture as well as to electric and eventually electronic calculators. The first Commodore-branded adding machine was the model C mechanical calculator manufactured by a Czechoslovakian company Nisa and sold by Commodore around 1960. The first exclusive Commodore adding machine—the 202—was announced in 1967. The following year, the company began to turn its focus toward electronic desktop and, soon after, hand-held calculators. Commodore entered the market of hand-held electronic calculators in late 1970s with its CBM 110 device. Within months, the company introduced what would become a popular series of Minuteman calculators. That series, in turn, was followed by the "SR" and "SF" line of scientific and financial hand-held calculators. By the mid-1970s, Commodore was selling a wide range of electronic calculators, becoming one of the largest American manufacturers of these devices. Commodore's entry into microcomputer market was, to a large degree, the result of fierce price war in the calculator market that started in late 1973, and the decision of Texas Instruments—one of the main suppliers of calculator chips—to enter the calculator market and to compete with its clients. To stay competitive and independent of third parties for the chips and displays that went into its products, Commodore purchased MOS Technology in 1976. With the acquisition came not only MOS integrated circuits (most notably the 6502 microprocessor) but also Chuck Peddle's—the 6502's chief designer's—considerable technical expertise and impeccable sense of changing trends in electronics market. While at MOS, he built the KIM-1 single-board computer that quickly became popular among computer hobbyists. Peddle urged Commodore not to underestimate the market potential for mass-manufactured microcomputers and his team got permission to go ahead with a project of designing a desktop computer around the 6502 processor. The all-in-one Commodore PET (or Personal Electronic Transactor) was introduced in 1977. It was successfully marked world-wide, which opened the door into the consumer electronics market for the company's next best sellers: the VIC-20 introduced in 1980, and the Commodore 64 unveiled in 1982. By 1983, in just 25 years, a small downtown Toronto typewriter sales and repair shop was transformed into one of the most revered personal computer companies in the world, shipping more units world-wide than any other computer company. However, the departure of Tramiel from Commodore in 1984 marked the beginning of the company's downfall. Commodore was loosing grounds to the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh platforms. The purchase of Amiga and the sales of its aging fleet of 8-bit computers sustained the company for a while but eventually, in 1994, Commodore began its liquidation. Commodore C108 description The Commodore C108 was a four-function low-cost electronic calculator designed by Omron Tateishi Electronic Co. and offered by Commodore in 1971. It was sold in North America and Europe. <ul> <li>operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division,</li> <li>display: 8 digits, green vacuum-fluorescent tubes,</li> <li>keyboard: 17 keys including "clear",</li> <li>chipset: Omron ALPHA1, ALPHA2, and ALPHA3,</li> <li>power: AC only.</li> </ul> Museum holdings <ul> <li>Commodore C108 calculator, serial nr. 824667.</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Omron Tateishi Electronic Co. and Commodore Business Machines Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant North America, Europe, 1970s calculator https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/f544f96adcea4c09ffaa728f52ed7cc9.jpg 543b26803662e8820e1b18d1e7f616f2 https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/a999107d96187d6b43781aa414870204.jpg b6f63ebac12a0d23fd9e4f2dd9434062 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Northern Electric—Nortel Networks Collection Subject The topic of the resource <img src="http://museum1.eecs.yorku.ca/www_decorations/Nortel_Logo.png" alt="Nortel_logo" width="25%" height="25%" border="0" /> The collection is dedicated to the corporate history of  Northern Electric and Manufacturing, Northern Electric, Northern Telecom, Bell-Northern Research, and Nortel Networks. Description An account of the resource Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1895. It's main business was the manufacturing of telephone equipment for Bell Telephone Company of Canada. In 1914, the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company merged with the Imperial Wire and Cable Company of Montreal to form the Northern Electric Company.  Although the new company's main business continued to be telecommunication equipment, Northern Electric also ventured into consumer electronics market manufacturing radios, television sets, console radio-phonographs, hi-fi amplifiers, and so on. In 1971, Northern Electric and Bell Canada formed Bell-Northern Research (BNR) — an Ottawa-based telecommunications research and development company. Around the same time, Northern Electric introduced its first electronic  PBX (Private Branch Exchange — a private telephone network used within a company or organization) named the SG-1. Four years later, BNR introduced the  SL-1 PBX  which was the world's first all-digital PBX aimed at medium-sized businesses.  In 1976, Northern Electric Company changed its name to Northern Telecom Limited and the company focused its operations exclusively on fully digital telecommunications products.  Northern Telecom was the first company in its industry to deliver a complete line of fully digital telecommunications products. Its SL-1 became the world’s most successful PBX and, by 1991, the company  was the world’s largest PBX supplier offering its Meridian communication systems line. In 1998, the company's name was changed to Nortel Networks to emphasize its focus on networking solutions for telecommunication over the Internet and other communications networks. In 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy protection. Abbreviations: <ul> <li>BNR: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.</li> <li>WC: W. Clipsham</li> <li>NT: Northern Telecom</li> <li>NOR: Nortel Networks</li> <li>WEC: Western Electric Company</li> <li>WB: items donated by Walter Banks</li> <li>KB: items donated by Keith Brickman</li> <li>HB: items donated by Henry Wiebe</li> <li>GR: items donated by Greg Reynolds</li> <li>ZS: items donated by Zbigniew Stachniak</li> <li>JM: items donated by John Morden</li> <li>RR: donated by Robert Roden</li> <li>SC: items donated by Stanley Chow</li> <li>DC: items donated by David Cuddy</li> </ul> HARDWARE <ul> <li>Digital Multiplex Switching System DMS-100 schematic diagram, Northern Telecom, 1979-1980 [SC]</li> <li>BNR XMS (eXtended Multicomputer System) workstation with two built-in 8" floppy drives [SC]</li> <li>BNR XMS workstation (prototype?)</li> <li>Two external 8" floppy diskette drives for the BNR XMS workstation[SC]</li> <li>Northern Telecom/Nortel Passport 50 DS1 MVPE module, [GR]</li> <li>Nortel Networks Passport 50 E3A FP module, [GR]</li> <li>Nortel Networks Passport 50 OC3S FP module, [GR]</li> <li>Nortel Networks Passport 50 CP module, [GR]</li> <li>Nortel's 1 MEG Modem, NTEX35AA, [ZS]</li> <li>Nortel Display Phone</li> <li>Northern Electric paper calculator, 1973 [JM]</li> <li>Dual NAND silicon microcircuit, Northern Electric, 1960s? [RR]</li> <li>Northern Telecom Alex videotex terminal, 1988</li> <li>Northern Telecom Displayphone telephone and data terminal, 1981</li> <li>Northern Telecom Displayphone 220 telephone and data terminal, 1987</li> <li>Nortel Europa smartphone [DC]</li> </ul> Corporate Documents <ul> <li>Northern Electric Company incorporation documents (original), 1914. [Nortel]</li> <li>Northern Telecom worldwide senior management structure, May 1983, [KB]</li> <li>Northern Telecom Inc., Major Business Units, May 1, 1985, [KB]</li> <li>Northern Electric Organization structure, September 1972. [KB]</li> <li>A file of Northern Telecom and BNR Human Resources publications and documents, 1979-1988</li> </ul> NEWSLETTERS and MAGAZINES <ul> <li>Northern Circuit, Northern Electric, Spring 1965. [KB]</li> <li>Northern News, Northern Electric, vol. 44, no. 7 (1969). [JM]</li> <li>The Networks, Northern Electric, September 1973. [JM]</li> <li>telesis, BNR issues: vol. 3, no. 2 (1973) [WB]; vol. 4, no. 3 (1975); vol 4., no. 1 (1976) [WC]; vol. 5, no. 2 (1977) and no. 9 (1978) [WB]; vol. 6, no. 1 (1979) [WB]; vol. 8, no. 4 (1981); vol. 12, no. 1 and 2 (1985) [WC, DC]; issues 92, 93 (1991), 98 (1994). [WC]</li> <li>the, Northern Electric, Ottawa, issue 2 (1969), 4, 5 (1970). [WC]</li> <li>Miscellany, BNR, vol. 2, 3 (1987), 4, 5 (1988), 6, 7 (1989). [WC]</li> <li>Printed Circuit, Northern Telecom at Bramalea vol. 18, no. 7 (1991). [JM]</li> <li>Lachine Journal, Northern Telecom at Lachine, no. 5 (1992). [JM]</li> <li>Network news, Northern Telecom, May 1992. [JM]</li> <li>Between-Us, Northern Telecom at Lachine and Laurentian no. 4 (1993). [JM]</li> <li>Protel Technical Notes, BNR, Language Development Group; issues: vol. 1, nr. 1--7, 1980.</li> <li>Data Packet, Data Networks Division, Northern Telecom, vol. 2, issue 3 )198?) [WC]</li> </ul> MANUALS, USER GUIDES, REPORTS, PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL 1940-1949 <ul> <li>No. 1 Crossbar Dial Telephone System, Photographs, Educational Bulletin No. 2.5, WEC, December 1947. [HW]</li> </ul> 1950-1959 <ul> <li>No. 5 Crossbar Dial Telephone System, Completion of a Call, Educational Bulletin No. 2.5 B-1, WEC, April 1954. [HW]</li> <li>The Step-By-Step Dial Telephone System, Telephone System Training, Lesson No. 3, No. 2.5 B-1, WEC, June 1954. [HW]</li> </ul> 1960-1969 <ul> <li>E.H. Lanham, A Brief Story of the Growth, Evolution, and Expansion of Telephone Systems from the Magneto Era to the Present, Technical Memorandum TM 8161-2-64, Northern Electric, December 31st, 1964.</li> <li>Toronto Works, Telephone Directory, Northern Electric Company, Switching Division, 1 November 1966 [WBr] 1 Nov. 1966. [HB] Preliminary Version, IPSA (29 November, 1970) [WK].</li> </ul> 1970-1979 <ul> <li>Time to switch... SP-1 electronic switching systems, Northern Electric, October 1973. [JM]</li> <li>Datapac: Standard Network Access Protocol, Trans-Canada Telephone System, 30 November, 1974. [WC]</li> <li>Datapac: Overview, Trans-Canada Telephone System, 1974? [WC]</li> <li>Datapac: Four papers presented to the Third International Conference on Computer Communications, Toronto, Canada (August 1976). [WC]</li> <li>An Introduction to GRAPPLE Programming, ver. 4.21, BNR 13490, July 1974. [WB]</li> <li>GRAPPLE Console Users Manual, ver. 1.0, BNR(?), 18 June, 1975. [WB]</li> <li>GRAPPLE Language Reference Manual, ver. 5.10, BNR 13500, June 1975. [WB]</li> <li>Datapac: Standard Network Access Protocol Specification, Trans-Canada Telephone System, 1976. [WC]</li> <li>Datapac: Four papers presented to the Third International Conference on Computer Communications, Toronto, August 1976, Trans-Canada Telephone System, 1976. [WC]</li> <li>W. Clipsham, SL10 Data Network Processor: General Description, BNR, Issue 1, September 1976. [WC]</li> <li>D. Drynan, SL10 Data Network Processor: Trunk System, BNR, February 1977. [WC]</li> <li>Integrated Software Engineering System: Cost-Benefit Analysis, BNR, November 1978. [WC]</li> <li>Integrated Software Engineering System: Overview, BNR, November 1979. [WC]</li> <li>Integrated Software Engineering System: System Requirements Specification, BNR, November 1979. [WC]</li> </ul> 1980-1989 <ul> <li>Introducing a major advancement in the evolution of the telephone: Displayphone, promotional brochure, Northern Telecom, April 1981 [DC]</li> <li>Does your telecommunications system give you access to your internal database? Displayphone promotional brochure, Northern Telecom, 198? [DC]</li> <li>SL-1 Displayphone promotional brochure, Northern Telecom, 198? [DC]</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, February 1982 [ZS]</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, issue 3 [ZS]</li> <li>Displayphone 220 User Guide, Northern Telecom, 1987 [ZS]</li> <li>ALEX Installation Guide, Northern Telecom, issue 1 [ZS]</li> <li>DMS-100 System Description, BNR, 1986. [SC]</li> <li>Writing Handbook, BNR, 1987. [WC]</li> <li>DPN: Data Networking System Reference Handbook, Northern Telecom, 1986. [WC]</li> <li>DMS-100/200 NT-40 Instruction Set, BNR, 1987. [SC]</li> <li>H. Johnson, Object-Oriented Programming in PROTEL (draft), BNR, 1988. [SC]</li> <li>H. Johnson, An Object-Oriented Language Based on PROTEL (draft), BNR, 1989. [SC]</li> <li>DPN-100: Data Networking Reference Handbook, Northern Telecom, 1988. [WC]</li> <li>B. Baker, Multiprocessing Core for DMS, BNR, 1989. [SC]</li> <li>Telephony, BNR, Technical Educational Department, 198?</li> <li>Meridian M4020 Integrated Terminal: Bringing integrated data and voice to the desktop, Northern Telecom, 1985. [DC]</li> </ul> 1990- <ul> <li>DPN-100/500: Data Networking General Description, Release 1.0, BNR, February 11, 1990. [WC]</li> <li>DPN: Data Networking System, BNR, October 1990. [WC]</li> <li>Advaced Telephone Terminals Design: Driving the Development of Next-Generation Terminals, Nortel-Northern Telecom, July 1997. [DC]</li> </ul> PAPERS and OTHER PUBLICATIONS <ul> <li>W.A. Depp and W.H.T. Holden, Circuits for Cold Cathode Glow Tubes, Bell Telephone System Technical Publications, Monograph B-1685, compliments of Northern Electric, 1949. Originally published in Electrical Manufacturing, vol. 44, pp. 92-97 (1949).</li> <li>J.H. Felker, Typical block diagram for a digital computer, Bell Telephone System Technical Publications, Monograph 2046, compliments of Northern Electric, 1952. Originally published in Transactions of American Institute of Electrical Engineers, vol. 71, part 1 (1952), pp. 175-182.</li> <li>Datapac and the SL-10 Packet Switching System: Selected Published Papers, 1976-79, BNR.</li> <li>M. Fridrich and W. Older, Helix: The Architecture of the XMS Distributed File System, reprint with the permission from IEEE Software (May 1985). [SC]</li> <li>N. Gammage and L. Casey, XMS: A Rendezvous-Based Distributed System Software Architecture, reprint with the permission from IEEE Software (May 1985). [SC]</li> <li>Northern Telecom: The Anatomy of Transformation, 1985--1995, Nortel/Northern Telecom (November 1996). [WC]</li> <li>H. Johnson, PROTEL A programming Language for Large Real-Time Applications, publisher: ? (1984).</li> <li>SINC Network Description, SINC Technical Document, Bell/BNR SINC Design Team (October 31, 1974). [WC]</li> <li>DPN Technical Papers 1985-1986, BNR. [WC]</li> <li>W.W. Clipsham, F.E. Glave, and M.L. Narraway, Datapac Network Overview, Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer Communication, P.K. Verma (ed), Toronto. 3-6 August 1976; the material includes memos and slides prepared for the presentation. [WC]</li> <li>The BNR Network (197?) [WC]</li> <li>I. Cunningham, Host to Network Protocol for the Bell-Northern Research Network, version 1.2, BNR (October 1973). [WC]</li> <li>B. Clipsham et al, First Level Protocol for a Data Switch, version V, August 14, 1972, CASE: R3777. [WC]</li> <li>C.C. Martel, I.M. Cunningham, and M.S. Grushcow, The BNR Network: A Canadian Experience with Packet Switching Technology, BNR. [WC]</li> <li>N. Dam, D. Schenkel, and W.Prater, Micro-SNAP - An X.25 Microcomputer System, MSNAP-BNR (197?) [WC]</li> <li>B. Hobbs, Chrysalis: Transforming The Way We Do Business, Northern Telecom S321 (September 19, 1991). [JM]</li> <li>32 photographs of the Northern Telecom constructions at 8200 Dixie Rd. taken between February 23 and December 8, 1987. [JM]</li> <li>Four photographs of the Northern Electric Calgary Cable Plant, 19?? [JM]</li> <li>Various promotional Nortel Networks brochures, 1995--2003. [ZS]</li> </ul> hardware A computer (or a calculator), its components and peripherals (displays, printers, pointing devices, modems, external storage devices, etc). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Northern Telecom Displayphone Description An account of the resource Historical context By Z. Stachniak with input from D. Cuddy In February 1981, telecommunications giant Northern Telecom announced the Displayphone – a landmark office automation product designed to integrate voice and data in a convenient, easy-to-use desktop unit. The January 1988 Datapro Research Corporation's report described the Displayphone as a device that:    opened up the integrated voice/data terminal market [...] The first    commercially available device of this kind, the Displayphone [...]    attracted a great deal of attention in the computer industry, particularly    among workstation vendors. Many vendors were interested in    bringing their products to executive desks; thus the Displayphone    was a factor in the emergence of a new class of equipment  –    executive/professional workstation. The Displayphone was developed by Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa and manufactured by Northern Telecom. Its first model–the NT6K00–was a small desktop terminal with a handset, speakerphone,  an integrated 300 bps modem, built-in 7-inch monochrome display, dial and screen pad, and five soft keys. A retractable QWERTY-style keyboard was stored within the unit's base. The device could operate with two independent phone lines for simultaneously handling voice and data calls which allowed users to talk on the phone while accessing and viewing information from remote dial-up data services. In addition, the unit could be used as a data terminal connected to a local computer via the RS 232C port. It could also access database services via an external modem and drive a printer through a parallel I/O interface. The Displayphone featured a 90-number telephone directory, on-hook as well as automatic and hands-free dialing, last number redial, a recall work list and call hold. Other features available were a continuous day/date clock, a telephone call timer,  and a reminder service that brought messages to the user's attention. The user interace was designed for ease of use, with context-sensitive prompts displayed on the screen and soft keys that led the user from one operation to another. Between 1981 and 1986, Northern Telecom released several models of and upgrades to the Displayphones, including the PLUS (released in 1984) and the 220 (offered in October 1986). Another variant, the SL-1 Displayphone, when designed to access the voice and data capabilities of Northern Telecom's popular SL-1 PBX. By the mid-1980s, Northern Telecom had already faced competition from other vendors including AT&T, Davox, InteCom/Wang, and Rolm. Nevertheless, the Displayphone continued to have the largest installed bases of any of the competing products, which, according to the 1988 Datapro Research report, was at around 50,000 in 1987. Following the success of the Displayphone in the enterprise market, NT proceeded to develop its successor–the Meridian M4020 Integrated Terminal–which was released in 1985. Instead of a pair of analog telephone interfaces, the M4029 connected to the network over an integrated 2.56Mbps digital interface. Displayphone NT6K00 technical specifications <ul> <li>CPU: Intel 8085, 8-bit,</li> <li>ROM: 40KB with Displayphone firmware,</li> <li>keyboard: QWERTY, retractable, stored within the unit's base,</li> <li>dial and screen pad: built-in, containing 12 dial keys, 5 softkeys, and 12 programmed keys,</li> <li>display: 7in, 24 lines, 40 or 80 characters/line, with the 25th line used for labeling of softkeys,</li> <li>voice ports: two analog PSTN phone lines, integrated Bell 103-type modem,</li> <li>data ports: RS 232C (connection to a local computer or external, modem), parallel I/O port (for printer),</li> <li>transmission rates: from 75 to 1200 baud for RS 232C and from 65 to 300 boud for dialup,</li> <li>peripherals: Displayjet printer.</li> </ul> Museum's holdings <ul> <li>Displayphone NT6K00 AA (1982),</li> <li>Displayphone NT1K00 AA, serial number 1271004601 (1982),</li> <li>Displayphone NT6K90 AC, serial number 29E0004529 (1984),</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, June 1981,</li> <li>Displayphone, The integrated voice and data telephone concept from Bell Canada, Bell Canada, 198?</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, February 1982,</li> </ul> Sources <ul> <li>Datapro Report C25-662-102 (Terminals), Datapro Research Corp., January 1988,</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, June 1981,</li> <li>Displayphone User Guide, Northern Telecom, February 1982.</li> </ul> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Northern Telecom Subject The topic of the resource hardware: displayphone Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant North America, 1980s. Contribution Form The set of elements containing metadata from the Contribution form. Online Submission Indicates whether or not this Item has been contributed from a front-end contribution form. No displayphone Nortel Northern Telecom https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/09_953965e9c6.jpg 6786f2dc6cb033966d0086cbb4fefdcb hardware A computer (or a calculator), its components and peripherals (displays, printers, pointing devices, modems, external storage devices, etc). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource NDS-1000 Word Processor Subject The topic of the resource hardware: word processor Description An account of the resource The NDS-1000 (also know as the Pancake) was a microprocessor-based word processor and communication system designed and manufactured by Network Data Systems between 1978 and 1985. The NDS-1000 consisted of a CPU unit (built around the Zilog Z80 microprocessor), Olivetti electric typewriter (Olivetti)), monitor, and  diskette drives (5.25 inch). The museum has an NDS-1000, model 1000, serial number 00202-01. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Network Data Systems (NDS) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977-1985 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Hardware Type The nature or genre of the resource Hardware Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context H.30 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1977-1985 Contribution Form The set of elements containing metadata from the Contribution form. Online Submission Indicates whether or not this Item has been contributed from a front-end contribution form. No Canadian communication systems digital microprocessor NDS NDS-1000 NDS-1201 Network Data Systems Pancake wordprocessor https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/files/original/64f7a130ab28c0b92c9e207e416deef4.jpg c73b90d716eb6383fd2f664470ac2d08 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelma Persona Subject The topic of the resource hardware: desktop computer Description An account of the resource Historical Context: Nelma Data Corporation was a desktop computer manufacturer based in Mississauga Ontario. In 1982, the company announced its Persona desktop computer (the NDC 100 Persona). In Fall 1983, the computer was shown at computer expo trade show COMDEX'83 held in Las Vegas, and advertised as "the professional small business computer." The Persona was distributed through ComputerLand which, at that time, was possibly the world’s largest computer retail chain. Since its introduction in August 1981, the IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly referred to as the IBM PC) had been rapidly gaining in popularity despite the fact that it operated under little known DOS operating system from Microsoft instead of the popular  CP/M operating system from Digital Research.  The main idea behind the Persona's development was to offer an affordable desktop computer with capabilities (and appearance) similar to that of the IBM PC but running CP/M instead of DOS. Later, to deal with the popularity of the IBM PC and rapidly expanding IBM PC clone market, Nelma offered a hardware kit to turn the Persona into an  IBM PC compatible computer. The Nelma Persona was designed by Jose Laraya -- the same engineer who in the early 1970s was leading the design of the MCM/70 personal computer at Micro Computer Machines of Toronto. Technical specifications: <ul> <li>CPU: Zilog Z80A</li> <li>RAM: 64Kb</li> <li>external storage: two  180Kb floppy drives</li> <li>ports: serial and parallel</li> <li>keyboard: QWERTY-style, detachable, with keypad and 11 program function keys</li> <li>display: a stand alone 12 inch CRT, monochrome (green)</li> </ul> Nelma offered a range of optional hardware for Persona including: <ul> <li>Intel 8086 processor kit</li> <li>360Kb floppy diskette drives</li> <li>10Mb Winchester hard drive</li> <li>additional 64Kb or 128Kb RAM</li> <li>high resolution color graphics</li> </ul> Software: <ul> <li>CP/M operating system version 2.2, Digital Research</li> <li>WordStar word processor, MicroPro</li> <li>MailMerge mailing list handler, MicroPro</li> <li>CalcStar spreadsheet, MicroPro</li> <li>InfoStar database, MicroPro</li> <li>SpellStar spelling checker, MicroPro</li> <li>MBasic, Microsoft</li> <li>Persona communications package, Nelma</li> <li>Persona Professional Accounting, Nelma</li> </ul> The museum has a NDC 100 Persona (serial number 8300321) with a keyboard and monitor. It was manufactured in March 1983. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nelma Data Corporation Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant North America