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: CPU: Zilog Z80A RAM: 64Kb external storage: two 180Kb floppy drives ports: serial and parallel keyboard: QWERTY-style, detachable, with keypad and 11 program function keys display: a stand alone 12 inch CRT, monochrome (green) Nelma offered a range of optional hardware for Persona including: Intel 8086 processor kit 360Kb floppy diskette drives 10Mb Winchester hard drive additional 64Kb or 128Kb RAM high resolution color graphics Software: CP/M operating system version 2.2, Digital Research WordStar word processor, MicroPro MailMerge mailing list handler, MicroPro CalcStar spreadsheet, MicroPro InfoStar database, MicroPro SpellStar spelling checker, MicroPro MBasic, Microsoft Persona communications package, Nelma Persona Professional Accounting, Nelma The museum has a NDC 100 Persona (serial number 8300321) with a keyboard and monitor. It was manufactured in March 1983.
Historical context: Microprocessor-based computers (microcomputers) were built at educational institutions as soon as the first 8-bit microprocessors became commercially available. They were initially constructed as educational aids, as microprocessor trainers, and even as digital laboratory workstations set up at some universities to expose students to the principles of the emerging discipline of microprocessor systems design. These early educational microcomputers were built around microprocessor demonstration boards offered by semiconductor companies as a low cost hardware aid to assist systems engineers in programming microprocessor-based devices. In 1973, Intel offered its SIM-8 demonstration board. Soon after other semiconductor companies offered their demonstration boards to support their microprocessors: Microsystems International Ltd. introduced its MOD-8 demonstrator in 1974, Motorola released its MEK 6800 in 1976 and so did MOS Technology and NEC which offered their demonstrators (the KIM-1 and the TK-80, respectively) in the same year. In the 1970s, these demonstrators were popular with computer hobbyists. The Ryerson 6800 microcomputer was designed and constructed in the late 1970s at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University) to support its digital electronics course. According to a former Ryerson professor Peter Hiscocks. "The unit was put together to support the teaching of microprocessors when that was brand new in the EE curriculum at Ryerson. The person that put the unit together was Augustine [Lee], I believe." The course was coordinated by Jack Miller and taught by, among other instructors, Augustine Lee and Doug Hawkes. The Ryerson 6800 was built around the Motorola MEK 6800D2 demonstration board. It was one of several single-board microcomputers used by students of Ryerson's Electrical Technology Department. Technical Specifications (for the MEK 6800D2): CPU - Motorola 6800, 8-bit RAM - 1KB (4 x MCM 6810AP) ROM - SCM44520L with JBUG Monitor PORTS - asynchronous serial RS232, parallel I/O, audio cassette tape interface keypad - hexadecimal: 16 keys for data entry section and 8 function keys display - 6 hex digit LED display. Software: Motorola 6800 JBUG Monitor
Motorola and Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
computer hardware: video display terminal
Historical Context: Multiflex Technology Inc. was one of the companies of the Exceltronix group controlled by Eugen Hutka. In 1979, Hutka founded Exceltronix with its retail office at 319 College Street in Toronto. In the early 1980s, Multiflex was developing complete computer systems based on the Zilog Z80, Motorola 68000, and Intel 8086 processors together with a variety of peripheral and expansion cards. The company also manufactured stand-alone intelligent terminals, video display kits, as well as a range of other electronic products including peripheral and expansion cards for the Apple ][ computer. In 1984, Multiflex designed its first in the line of BEST computers compatible with the IBM PC and AT desktops, making Exceltronix one of the largest Canadian manufacturers of microcomputers of the 1980s. Multiflex Video Display Terminal Kit -- technical description (from the Exceltronix Catalogue Supplement, Spring 1983): The video display terminal is "originally designed as a low cost access unit for our [Exceltronix] soon to be operational computerized mail-ordering and bulletin board system." The terminal "is controlled by a Z80A microprocessor and a 6845 CRT controller chip. The keyboard is fully ASCII encoded and the character generator contains the full 128-character set as well as a 128-character alternate set both of which are in 5x7 dot matrix format. The screen display is 80 characters by 24 lines if the unit is hooked to an external monitor or 64 by 24 if run through an RF modulator to a TV. There are 3 software selectable attributes (dim, reverse video, and alternate character set) which can be chosen one at a time for the whole screen... Also included are 2 RS232 ports: one for a modem and one so that a printer can be attached to the terminal... The MULTIFLEX Video Display Terminal has provisions for an on board modem freeing a serial port." The Multiflex Video Display Terminal Kit was offered in 1982 and sold by Exceltronix. The museum has a complete Multiflex Video Display Terminal Kit as well a Multiflex Video Display board (without a built-in keyboard) and a keyboard in a separate enclosure. For more information on the Multiflex Video Display Terminal Kit visit this GitHub link.
Volker-Craig VC204 Video Display Terminal
Historical Context: In the 1950s, the operators of mainframe computers used dedicated consoles, hardcopy terminals (such as teletypes and modified electric typewriters), and a variety of cathode ray tube (CRT) displays to run and control data processing tasks. Computer consoles typically featured rows of switches and associated lights that allowed operators to run and control the execution of programs, analyze data stored in memory, and to control other hardware interfaced with computers. Hardcopy terminals were used to print on roles of paper information such as operator's commands, computer responses, and other console messages. Finally, CRTs were used to displaying information (e.g. memory contents) in a rudimentary graphical form. The "glass teletype" that appeared in the mid-1960s was the first attempt at providing a single device allowing computer operators to run their systems having all the essential control and data processing information displayed on a screen. However, it was not until the early 1970s, when the first "dumb" video display terminals, featuring limited editing capabilities, were introduced (one of the earliest such terminals was the 7700A Interactive Display Terminal introduced by Lear Siegler Inc. in 1973). All these terminals shared the same basic keyboard-display-interface design: each featured a keyboard, a CRT screen that could display full sets of alphanumeric characters, and each had the capability to send and receive data via communication lines to a remote host computer. By the mid-1970s, video terminals became the most effective human-computer interface devices and they remain so until the mid-1980s, when they were displaced by microcomputers that could be interfaced with mainframes and minicomputers to perform terminal jobs in addition to microcomputing tasks, when PC monitors had become a common occurrence worldwide. In Canada, the design and manufacturing of computer display terminals began in the early 1970s. Comterm Inc. (Montreal), Cybernex Ltd. (Ottawa), Electrohome (Kitchener), Lektromedia (Pointe Claire), NORPAK (Kanata), TIL Systems Ltd (Toronto), and Volker-Craig (Waterloo) were some of the pioneering companies. Volker-Craig Ltd. was a Canadian manufacturer of video terminals, founded in 1973 by Michael C. Volker and Ronald G. Craig, both graduates from University of Waterloo. The company's early objective was to manufacture inexpensive video terminals. In a 2020 interview by Steven Forth for Ibbaka market blog, Volker recollects that "In those days... video displays were very, very expensive and being a student, I thought, this [video terminal manufacturing] needs to be done in a way that is economical for students." Volker's fourth-year engineering project to design an electronic circuitry for a video terminal that would allow the presentation of characters on the screen of a rudimentary television set was an entrepreneurial trigger. By the end of the 1970s, Volker-Craig was selling its terminals around the world through its offices and distributors in, among other countries, Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, and US. In January 1982, Volker-Craig merged with five other companies to form NABU Manufacturing Ltd. with headquarters in Ottawa, and continued to develop video terminals including the popular VC4404. In 1984, as a result of NABU's restructuring, Volker-Craig became once again a fully independent company renamed as Volker-Craig Technologies Ltd. The VC204 video display terminal was one of the earliest products offered by Volker-Craig. It was an alphanumeric terminal designed to operate with an external monitor. It was implemented using TTL technology and offered both ASCII and APL language character sets. Technical specifications: not available The museum has a VC204 video display terminal without documentation.
software: 3D animation and visual effects software
Historical Context Since the 1950s, computer operators had used a variety of cathode ray tube (CRT) terminals for displaying information in a rudimentary graphical form during the execution of data processing tasks. Some computer users went further and, in their spare time, experimented with the use of computers and CRTs for entertainment. In 1958, an American physicist William Higinbotham created Tennis — possibly the first video game. As rudimentary as it was, it attracted much attention during visits to Brookhaven National Lab where Higinbotham was employed as an engineer in charge of instrumentation design. Then came more sophisticated video games such as Spacewar! developed in 1962 at MIT by Steve Russell in collaboration with other MIT students, as well as the first experimentation with computers for the purpose of art creation and animation. By the early 1970s, these experiments resulted in the first generation of commercial-grade computer image editing systems (such as Richard Shoup's SuperPaint, 1973) and animation programs (such as National Research Council Canada's computer animation program, 1971). These developments were possible in large part due to the advancements in computer and semiconductor industries, such as the arrival of affordable minicomputers and the introduction of semiconductor memories. Computer animation in Canada began in 1971 when the National Research Council Canada (NRC) scientists Nestor Burtnyk and Marceli Wein offered their animation software that greatly simplified a traditional and labor-intensive frame-by-frame animation process, requiring animation artists to draw every single frame. Instead, their program required an artist to draw only key frames leaving the generation of frames linking the key ones entirely to the computer. Peter Foldès was the first artist to use NRC's animation software. His 1973 film Hunger won, among other distinctions, a Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1974, the Best Animated Film award at the 1975 British Academy of Film & Television Awards, and an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Academy) nomination in 1974 in the Best Animated Short Film category. In 1996, Burtnyk and Wein were presented with an Academy award for "for their pioneering work in the development of software techniques for Computer Assisted Key Framing for Character Animation." Burtnyk’s and Wein’s work was just the beginning of what would become one of the most innovative and impactful sectors in the Canadian software industry. Toronto-based Alias Systems Corporation founded in 1984, Softimage established in Montreal in 1986, and Side Effects Software incorporated in Toronto in 1987 quickly established themselves at the forefront in the development of tools supporting ever growing needs of digital artists and animators. Maya The work on Maya 3D animation and visual effects software started in 1993 at Alias Systems Corporation — the company founded a decade earlier as Alias Research by Stephen Bingham, Susan McKenna, Nigel McGrath, and David Springer. The company's early objective was to produce a practical software package for the creation of realistic 3D video animations and to support computer-aided design. Alias' first products—the Alias/1 (1985) and Alias/2 (1986) 3D software packages—were acquired by several automotive companies and employed in the production of special effects in blockbuster feature films including The Abyss — a science fiction movie awarded the Academy's Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1989. Alias' new 3D animation software—the PowerAnimator introduced in 1990—was even more successful. It was used in the production of special effects in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Jurassic Park (1993), earning both movies Oscars in the Best Visual Effects category. In 1994, six blockbuster films employed PowerAnimator-generated special effects: Forrest Gump, The Mask, Speed, The Flintstones, True Lies, and Star Trek: The Next Generation—A Final Unity with the Oscar awarded to Forrest Gump. The growing competition from other 3D companies as well as continuous pressure exerted by the entertainment and gaming industries upon 3D companies to deliver tools for even more realistic and sophisticated animation stimulated Alias to begin evolving its PowerAnimator into the next generation 3D animation software, Maya. In 1995, under the umbrella of Silicon Graphics, Alias merged with Santa Barbara, California-based Wavefront—another successful computer graphics company—to form Alias|Wavefront with headquarters in Toronto. This merger opened the door to an even more sophisticated world of 3D animation. In January 1998, the company released Maya Versio 1.0 — its new 3D animation software package. The software was primarily based on Alias' PowerAnimator and Wavefront's successful Advanced Visualizer. In the subsequent years, Alias|Wavefront was continuously upgrading and expanding Maya beginning with the release of Maya Builder, Maya Complete, and Maya Unlimited in 1999. "Maya Unlimited extends the realm of possibility for digital artists who want to shape the frontier of advanced 3D technology," stated Alias|Wavefront in its corporate history published by the company in 2004. And indeed, it did. Maya quickly became the 3D modelling and animation software of choice for the animation and gaming industries. Since 1999, it has been used for the creation of special effects in numerous popular movies including Matrix (1999, Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category), Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999, Oscar nomination in the Best Visual Effects category), Stuart Little (1999, Oscar nomination in the Best Visual Effects category), Dinosaur (2000, the fifth highest-grossing film of that year), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Shrek (2001, Oscar in the Best Animated Feature category), The Birds (2001, Oscar in the Best Animated Short Film category), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002, Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category), Spider-Man (2002, Oscar nomination in the Best Visual Effects category), Ice Age (2002, Oscar in the Animated Feature Film category), The ChubbChubbs! (2002, Oscar in the Animated Short Film category), Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002, Oscar nomination in the Best Visual Effects category), The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King (2003, Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category), and many others. In 2002, Alias|Wavefront, was awarded an Oscar in the Technical Achievement category for its development of Maya. While this was Alias|Wavefront's first time to receive an Oscar, several employees had been honoured by the Academy previously for their achievements in the Scientific and Technical Awards categories. These Academy recognitions would continue to be bestowed upon the company's employees in the following years. In July 2003, the company changed its name to Alias. In October 2005, it was acquired by Autodesk of San Rafael, California. Since then, Autodesk has continued to develop Maya and other Alias' popular software packages including StudioTools, ImageStudio, and PortfolioWall — Alias' key solutions for design and visualization. Maya major releases: Maya version 1.0 (Alias|Wavefront, January 1998) Maya Complete (Alias|Wavefront, 1999) Maya Unlimited (Alias|Wavefront, 1999) Maya 3 (Alias|Wavefront, June 2000) Maya 4.5 (Alias|Wavefront, June 2002) Maya 5 (Alias|Wavefront, April 2003) Maya 6 (Alias, 2004) Maya 6.5 (Alias, January 2005) Maya 7 (Alias, August 2005) Maya 8 (Autodesk, 2006) Maya 8.5 (Autodesk, 2007) Autodesk Maya 2009 (Autodesk, 2008) Autodesk Maya 2010 (Autodesk, 2009) Autodesk Maya 2011 (Autodesk, 2010) ...... Autodesk Maya 2023 (Autodesk, 2022) The museum has: - Maya 1.0, (box set), Alias|Wavefront, January 1998; the box set includes: * Learning Maya Version 1.0, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using Maya Modelling, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Maya 1.0 Release Notes, Alias|Wavefront, February 1998 * Maya 1.0 Developer's Kit Release Notes, Alias|Wavefront, February 1998 * Maya 1.0 Installing & Licensing, Alias|Wavefront, 1998 * Maya 1.0 F/X, Artisan, and Developer's Kit (DVD-ROM), Alias|Wavefront, 1998 * Using Maya Version 1.0, Basics, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using Maya Version 1.0, Animation, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using Maya Version 1.0, Dynamics, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using Maya Version 1.0, HyperGraph, Sets & Expressions, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using Maya Version 1.0, Rendering, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * VIZPAINT 2D User's Guide 3.3, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Using MEL, ver. 1.0, Alias|Wavefront, January 1998 * Discover Maya (DVD-ROM), Alias|Wavefront, 1998 * Composer 4.5M (DVD-ROM), Alias|Wavefront, 1998 * several promotional and reference brochures, 1998 - Character Animation in Maya, Alias|Wavefront, January 1999; the front cover has a stamp "Property of Lucas Arts Entertainment Company Art Department" - Learning Maya 5, Foundation, Alias|Wavefront, 2003; includes DVD-ROM - Learning Autodesk Maya 8, Foundation (DVD-ROM), Autodesk, 2006 - G. Maestri and M. Larkins, Maya 8 at a Glance, Wiley Publishing Inc., 2006; includes DVD-ROM - Autodesk Maya 8.5, (DVD-ROM), Autodesk, 2007 - Learning Autodesk Maya 2009, The Special Effects Handbook, Autodesk, 2008 - Eric Keller, Mastering Maya 2009, Wiley Publishing Inc., 2009; includes DVD-ROM - Silicon Graphics Indigo^2 workstation, model nr. CMNB007BF195, with PowerAnimator installed.
Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) The MCS-8 microcomputer set was announced by Intel in late 1971. Everyone in systems engineering has been waiting for the under \$100 computer. Today it's here! [the alternative, Intel, 1971] The set consisted of a single-chip CPU—the 8-bit 8008 microprocessor—and standard semiconductor ROM's, RAM's, and shift registers. It was the MCS-8 and, in particular, its first implementation in Intel's SIM8-01 prototyping system that generated the first wave of design activities aimed at the development of microprocessor based architectures for general purpose programmable computers. In just a few months, the prototypes of such computers powered by the 8008 chip were already working on site at the French company Réalisations et Études Électroniques located in the suburbs of Paris and at Micro Computer Machines (MCM) with headquarters situated on the outskirts of Toronto. These firms fully recognized, articulated, and acted upon the immense potential of the budding microprocessor technology for the development of a new generation of cost effective computing systems. However, it was MCM which built the first microprocessor-based computer designed specifically for personal use — the MCM/70, the first PC. The SIM8-01 was marketed as a complete prototyping system for the development of MCS-8 applications. It was offered in April 1972 and, at that time, its schematic diagram included in the premiere edition of the 8008 8-Bit Parallel Central Processor Unit manual was the only published design of an 8-bit computer with a single-chip CPU. It was inevitable that MCM would use the SIM8-01 to attempt at implementing the core features of the company's future PC. In mid-1972 MCM’s chief hardware engineer Jose Laraya built the first prototype of the MCM/70. His computer utilized an Intel SIM8-01 simulation board as well as an Intel MP7-02 Eprom programmer which was used by MCM's software engineer Gord Ramer during the development of the MCM/APL interpreter that the production model of the MCM/70 would feature. Although the SIM8-01 architecture proved inadequate to achieve MCM’s design objectives, this first prototype confirmed that building a versatile microprocessor-based computer was feasible. The official announcement of the MCM/70 came on September 25, 1973, in Toronto. Its manufacturing commenced in mid 1974. Recommended readings: Stachniak, Z. Inventing the PC: the MCM/70 Story , McGill-Queen's University Press (2011). Stachniak, Z. Intel SIM8-01: A proto-PC IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, January-March 2007 (vol. 29 no. 1), pp. 34—48.
Wang 320SE calculator at York University
Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) The commercialization of the transistor in the first half of the 1950s had a dramatic impact on the decade-old computer industry. The all-transistor computers were offered as early as 1953 and, by the end of the 1950s, all major computer manufacturers were building transistorized machines. Similar shift to solid-state technology was made across consumer electronics industry (for example, in the mid-1950s, all-transistor radios quickly began to replace large and bulky vacuum tubes-based radio sets). Despite clear advantages that solid-state electronics had to offer to calculator manufacturers (if built, transistor-based calculators would be smaller, quieter, more versatile, and virtually maintenance free when compared with the traditional desktop electro-mechanical calculators), the calculator industry was much slower in adopting the new technology. Calculator manufacturers were quite reluctant to venture into electronics when no competitors, even those with electronics divisions (such as Olivetti, Burroughs, Sony, and Canon), were putting any electronic calculators on the market. They were simply unwilling to go against their main core products that still delivered corporate wealth and prestige, they had no desire to invest substantial resources into concurrent divisions of electronic calculators that would internally compete with their best-performing divisions of electro-mechanical calculators. It was not until the early 1960s that the first solid-state calculators appeared on the consumer market and almost instantly gained consumer acceptance. While most of the early electronic calculators supported only rudimentary arithmetic operations with, in some cases, one or two memory registers for storing intermediate results, several firms introduced calculators with functionality that went far beyond that. The execution of short sequences of instructions (programs) was the most notable of these new features. Programs for such calculators could be keyed-in by an operator or read from an external storage media (such as punch cards) and, then executed as many times as desired by a single press of a key. In 1964, Massachusetts-based companies Mathatronics Inc. and Wang Laboratories Inc. introduced their first programmable calculators: the Mathatron and the LOCI-2, respectively. The following year, an Italian manufacturer of office equipment Olivetti introduced its Programma 101. All these programmable calculators were positioned to bridge the gap between ordinary desk-top calculators that offered instantaneous, personal, and easy to use operations but no substantial information processing capabilities, and the large and complex mainframe computers that required high-degree of training and long waiting times to perform users' computational tasks. Some of these calculators could be interfaced with a range of peripherals including printers, plotters, and external storage. Libraries of ready to run programs were also offered. Wang announced its new 300 Series programmable calculator in 1967. The calculator's more advanced models in the 300 series were offered in 1968. In their basic configuration, all these systems consisted of the central processing unit (CPU, referred to as "electronic package" in Wang's literature) and of up to four keyboard consoles remotely connected to the CPU. Using a standard keyboard console (model "K") a user could execute programs composed in terms of rudimentary arithmetic operations as well as square root, logarithmic and exponential functions. Programs of up to 80 steps were stored on dedicated punch cards and could be executed by reading them using an optional CP-1 Card Programmer interfaced with the calculator. Using a trigonometric keyboard unit (model "KT") a user could include trigonometric functions in programs. The calculator also offered random access storage (in up to four random access registers) and automatic summation of products, multipliers, and/or entries. Wang published a library of applications programs in areas ranging from engineering to finance. Wang 320SE at York University In the mid-1960s, York was rapidly growing and establishing new key departments. In 1965, Ralph W. Nicholls joined York University from the University of Western Ontario to form a new Department of Physics. In the same year, he became founding director of York's Centre for Research in Experimental Space Science (CRESS, later renamed the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science) that quickly gained prominence in North America. Unfortunately, York's first computer--the IBM System/360 Model 30--was only installed in November 1966 and, until then, CRESS members had to rely on calculators and computer resources offered by the University of Toronto. In 1968, the Department of Physics moved into a newly constructed Petrie Science Building by which time a new IBM System/360 Model 40 was operational. In order to reduce the access to the new shared computer in cases that did not require full computational power of a mainframe computer, CRESS installed a Wong 320SE system in Petrie building. The 320SE system simulatneously supported four keyboard terminals. The calculator's CPU was located in one of the utility rooms. Each of the four terminal keyboards was placed in the hall of each floor. The calculator was decommissioned in the early 1990s. Museum's holdings Hardware: Wang 320SE central processing unit, Wang 320K conventional keyboard terminals (3 units), Wang 320KT trigonometric keyboard terminal. Manuals and promotional literature: 300 Series WANG Electronic Calculators -- Instruction Manual, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1967, 300 Series Program Library, vol. 1, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1967, 300 Series electronic calculator -- instruction manual, vol. 1, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1968, 370 Series Programmable Calculating System, promotional brochure, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1968, 370 System Reference Manual, vol. 1, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1968, 370 Calculating System Program Library, vol. 1, Wang Laboratories Inc., 1968.
Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) The rapid development of computer technologies and applications in the 1950s and 1960s created demand for sharing data and resources by connecting computers and computer equipment together over short as well as long distances. A pair of dedicated hardware devices called modems (MOdulator/DEModulators) were used to encode digital information originated at one end of the communications link and to decode such information using the second modem on the other end without degradation in accuracy of transferred data. By the end of the 1960s, there were over 2,000 digital computers installed in Canada and the number of new installations was steadily increasing in the following years. This advancement as well as the trend towards distributed processing and on-line remote access to data processing resources provided an opportunity to supply these new installations with made in Canada modems and other electronic data transmission devices. ESE Ltd. of Toronto and Gandalf Technologies Ltd. of Nepean were among the earliest and best known Canadian manufacturers of such products. Gandalf Technologies In April 1971, Desmond Cunningham and Colin Patterson incorporated Gandalf Data Communications Ltd. (later renamed as Gandalf Technologies, Inc.) with headquarters in Manotick, Ontario (later moved to Nepean). Gandalf's first product was the LDS 100 asynchronous modem (called Local Data Set or LDS). It's competitive price relative to the rental of modems offered by phone companies resulted in lucrative sales to major Canadian corporations and institutions including the federal government's Communication Research Centre, McGill University, Bell Northern Research, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Atomic Energy of Canada. The following year, Gandalf offerd the synchronous version of its modem -- the LDS 200. The success of these products led to the name 'Gandalf box' being adopted as a generic term for these and future Gandalf modems. The PACX data switch (Private Automatic Computer eXchange) introduced in late 1972, was Gandalf's first product that put the company on the international map. The device allowed multiple user terminals to access any one of a number of available computers. Each terminal was connected to a Gandalf LDS 126 data set which, in turn communicated with a PACX switch. The data set had two thumb wheels on the front panel. To access a specific computer connected to a PACX switch, the user rolled the wheels to the two-digit number assigned to the selected computer. The PACX switch quickly found world-wide acceptance and made Gandalf one of the world's most innovative companies in the data communications industry of the 1970s. Throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, Gandalf offered successive generations of modems (including the SAM 201), multiplexers, and PACX switches with enhanced performance features. These new products were manufactured and distributed through Gandalf manufacturing and sales facilities in Nepean as well as through newly established Gandalf Sales Inc. in Chicago, and Gandalf Digital Communications Ltd. located in Warrington UK. Gandalf's clients included some of the world's largest organizations such as British Steel, the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and Shell in the UK alone. Although by 1981 annual revenues had reached $40 million, the company decided to go public in order to stay competitive in the data communications market which by then was already crowded with companies ranging from small enterprises such as Develcom of Saskatoon to large corporations including 3COM, AT&T, Northern Telecom, and British Telecom. By 1985, the company had grown into a multinational corporation with annual sales of approx. $85 million and subsidiaries in the US, UK, France, and the Netherlands. Despite a wide range of innovative hardware and software products introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, including end-to-end network management system--Gandalf Passport--and the StarMaster local and wide area digital networking system (designed to carry a variety of traffic types such as video, data, voice, fax, LAN), the company could not sustain intense competition from companies such as Cisco Systems and Cabletron Systems in the rapidly developing remote access market. Financial losses incurred by the company in the 1990s forced Gandalf into bankruptcy in 1997. Gandalf SAM 201 technical specifications and product information year of introduction: the early 1980s, price: $1,300-$1,450, data rate: 1200, 2400 bps, modulation method: DPSK, transmission mode: full duplex, synchronization: asynch/synch, calling mode: orig/auto answer, diagnostics: analog, digital loopback, features: Bell 201 C and CCITT compatible; V.26 compatible. Museum holdings Gandalf SAM 201 modem, Gandalf Access Series 24S modem, Gandalf LDM 408 modem, Gandalf TTS 400C, modem, Gandalf 1980-81 Catalogue.
Historical context (by Z. Stachniak) The industrial revolution of the 19th century brought new manufacturing methods and with them the ability to produce high quality precision instruments and mechanical devices in large quantities. The first typewriters appeared in the early 19th century and the first wave of useful calculators soon after in Europe and a few decades later in America. America entered the age of mechanical calculators in late 19th century, much later than Europe. When major European countries were undergoing extensive industrialization, the United States was still primarily involved in agriculture while Canada was not even on the map as a country. The Civil War of 1861-1865 did not help with the industrialization either, delaying the effects of the industrial revolution on the North American continent for a decade. It was not until after the Civil War when new forms of manufacturing (steam-powered) allowed the American industry to grow and spread across the nation. It was at that time, when a vibrant office equipment industry was created with calculator manufacturing centers in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and Philadelphia. Large businesses, agencies, and institutions were expanding fast, putting more and more people into their offices. It quickly became evident that ever increasing number of calculation tasks could not be handled cost-effectively without appropriate calculating aids. While American institutions were looking for efficient ways for conducting their business, inventors and entrepreneurs were determined to supply them with all sorts of office gadgets. Two individuals—Dorr E. Felt and William S. Burroughs—played a key role in establishing the calculator industry. Both were determined to provide businesses with just the right kind of calculators: fast, accurate, easy to operate and, in the case of Burroughs' calulators, with printing capabilities. In the end, they created calculator empires that dominated the American calculator market well into the next century. When William S. Burroughs was working as a bank clerk, he envisioned the process of tedious arithmetic operations mechanized to such a degree that the results would also be automatically printed on paper. In the end, Burroughs not only designed such a machine—the Arithmometer (1884)—but also co-founded American Arithmometer Company in St. Louis to manufacture it. By the end of the 1800s, his company was successfully selling several hundred machines a year. In 1917, Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Detroit (formerly American Arithmometer Company of St. Louis) opened its Canadian subsidiary in Windsor, Ontario. Three years later, the Canadian branch moved to the newly constructed facility in Windsor at the corner of McDougall St. and Elliott St. Over the years, the Canadian subsidiary manufactured several calculators including motor-driven adding and listing Bookkeeping Machine and a range of portable adding machines. Burroughs Bookkeeping Machines The Burroughs Bookkeeping Machines were some of the most impressive adding machines made. Although they were large and heavy, their bevelled glass walls on three sides allowed viewing of their internal mechanical operations during calculations, certainly aimed at creating a "WOW" effect with a machine priced at between $615 to $715. The calculators offered between 6 to 17 columns of keys, a numeric display, and a printing mechanism with a wide carriage featuring a paper length setting and an end of page bell. These calculator could perform addition only. The multiplication could be done by repeated additions. Apart from numeric keys, Burroughs Bookkeeping Machines offered several "function" keys. A column could be cleared by pressing the red key at the top of that column. Other keys were designed to clear the entire keyboard, to perform repeated additions for multiplication, to calculate total and subtotal results as well as other functions depending on the calculator's model. Several options were provided including electric drive that eliminated manual use of a crank handle to perform calculations. This option offered a tabular steel frame with the motor and gearbox mounted underneath. Museum holdings Burroughs Bookkeeping Machine (17 columns, electric), model/serial number C2-1286030, manufactured by Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Canada, Windsor, Ontario, Burroughs Portable Adding Machine, model/serial number 03-370060, manufactured by Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Canada (?)
Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Canada
The calculator was donated by Unisys Canada Inc. in 2016
Nortel Europa (description courtesy of Mobile Phone Museum) The Nortel One (also known as the Europa handset) was an early instance of what’s come to be known as a ‘smartphone’, developed to show off the future that Nortel envisioned as a product family it called the Orbitor. Work on the Orbitor vision started at Bell-Northern Research (Nortel’s R&D subsidiary) in the early 1990s with a series of concept models focusing on what a handheld personal communicator could be like. Once this proof-of-concept was validated through extensive user and chooser research, the design for Nortel One started apace in early 1995. It used the GSM radio and physical interface module from theNortel 92x/1920 phones with a digital signal processor (DSP) core for speech recognition and added an ARM processor module that interfaced with the touchscreen and powered the screen user interface. The first working units, of which 80 were made, were delivered at the end of February 1998 in time for the GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. The development of the Nortel One device was primarily a skunk works project undertaken at Nortel's Bell-Northern Research (BNR). It required the incorporation of many new technologies, overcoming internal corporate process challenges at Nortel, and managing a variety of logistics issues that the team working on the product had to address. The project largely flew under the radar at Nortel but succeeded thanks to a dedicated multi-disciplinary design team drawing on broad expertise at BNR (Ottawa, Canada) and AEG Mobile Communication (Ulm, Germany), then part of Matra-Nortel. Initially, the prototype devices were going to be manufactured at an AEG factory in Berlin, but the manufacturing was moved to an SCI factory in Bordeaux, France where the final units were built. When it was originally conceived, the Nortel Orbitor was envisaged as being a “highly featured, pocket-sized wireless device” that would use advanced voice-recognition technology and a touch-sensitive screen to deliver voice, messaging and graphical notes in “one convenient, easy-to-use mobile communications devices.” The team working on the device boldly claimed they were “creating a new vision of personal communications for this decade [the 1990s] and into the next century.” They made it clear that the Orbitor was not a telephone, pager or a personal digital assistant (PDA) but that it was “something new, different and unique.” They preferred to describe it as being part of “a new category of personal communications management products that would put the user in control of emerging services and applications.” The original idea for the Orbitor was to be a compact, lightweight personal device, about the size of a wallet, that would be attached to a person’s clothing or easily fit in a pocket or handbag. The early design ideas centred on users being able to “dial” a number by simply speaking a number or a person’s name – a concept, that at the time, seemed like science fiction. Early concept models also included a detachable speaker that was designed to fit over a user’s ear “for handsfree operation and private conversations” – akin to a detachable Bluetooth headset that would come in later years. Nortel also envisaged that the Orbitor would support multimedia capabilities allowing users to communicate in different ways. For example, sending written messages to one person while having a call with another at the same time – yet another example of a use-case that is now taken for granted. Another revolutionary feature of the Orbitor was the use of animation in the user interface rather than plain text and static graphics – a capability that was only just starting to emerge on PCs at that time. The graphics on the Orbitor were animated offering an early example of skeuomorphic design – which mimics real-world experiences in the user interface. For example, when a message was received, an envelope moved onto the Orbitor’s screen and when the user selected it, the envelope unfolded to reveal the message. When the user deleted the message, the paper crumpled up and dropped off the bottom of the screen. The designers believed these “real-world images would make the Orbitor extremely easy to use by attracting user’s attention to the action being performed in a clear, unambiguous and memorable fashion.” A further example, that is also taken for granted these days, was when the Orbitor played a voice message an animated slider on a bar moved across the display. Users could use the touch screen to stop the message and play back portions of it by touching the bar at the appropriate position. Another innovation was offering “canned messages” such as “leave a voice msg.” or “call back to reschedule” so users could respond discreetly to calls when they were in a meeting or otherwise occupied. The early concepts of the Orbitor were validated starting in late 1992, using industrial design models in videos where various users were seen using the Orbitor in real-life situations. This was a smart approach as it avoided the costly and time-consuming process of building working prototypes. Screen simulations were super-imposed onto the devices used in the video which were so realistic at the time that some viewers thought the Orbitor models being used were real products. More details of the Orbitor concepts and underlying research can be found in the article that featured in the BNR in-house magazine, Telesis, Issue 97, December 1993. The first reveal of a functioning Orbitor device occurred in the BNR Futures Room at Nortel’s booth at Telecom’95 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a fully featured device with a GSM radio, large 320 x 160-pixel eight-shade greyscale touch-sensitive screen and a graphical user interface, combined with advanced voice dialling and personal hands-free capabilities that had been pioneered on the Nortel 922 mobile phone. The prototype was powered by General Magic's MagicCap OS. This demo garnered intense interest and was successful enough to give Nortel the confidence to progress down the road towards a commercial product. The Orbitor concept became the Europa device, which was eventually branded commercially as the Nortel One. By 1997, the design team decided to replace the MagicCap OS with Microware’s OS-9 combined with P-Java (a.k.a. Personal Java). The use of Java pioneered the notion of downloadable applications (today known as “apps”) to further personalize the user experience. The Nortel One worked in conjunction with the “Nortel One Server” which these days would be described as a “cloud platform”, or perhaps even an “app store". This allowed operators to provide customised data and services to users, including personalised menus and home screens, as well as being able to deliver apps in the form of Java applets. Users could back up their phones to the server. Nortel believed that typical applications that would be offered on the Nortel One could include timetables and schedules, restaurant guides, stock prices, sports results, road and traffic information, ticketing, work scheduling and more. All types of content that are commonplace today. The phone had a range of features including text entry using the stylus either via character recognition or a soft keyboard, a “business card style directory”, a rudimentary browser with virtual buttons (tiles) that allowed users to access content and PIM (personal information manager) capabilities. The handset had a range of features including text entry using the stylus either via character recognition or a soft keyboard, a “business card style directory”, a rudimentary browser with virtual buttons (tiles) that allowed users to access content and PIM (personal information manager) capabilities, integrated speech recognition for voice-activated dialling, and a personal speakerphone. A novel sliding keypad preserved the familiar 3-by-4 cellphone keypad with SEND and END buttons— when slid open the large touch-sensitive display was revealed. The first 80 pre-production handsets were manufactured in February 1998 to be showcased at the GSM World Congress trade show that month in Cannes, France by members of the Nortel team, including Ken Blakeslee. The Nortel One appeared again at the CeBIT fair in Hannover, Germany in March 1998. Initially, Nortel had planned to showcase the device as a major feature on its exhibition stand. However, the decision was taken to move the prototype devices to a back room away from public view. They were demoed by invitation to a few selected customers and industry personnel (including Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki) who were hugely impressed by the device with its futuristic capabilities such as weather data on a greyscale map with real-time data being transferred over SMS. Nortel was also secretly working with the UK’s BT Cellnet to deploy the Nortel One offering a complete end-to-end solution combining the handset and a server solution hosting Java applications that could be downloaded onto the device. The team at BT Cellnet comprised several individuals including Simon Robinson, Tony Eales, Brian Greasley and others. The trial was destined to take place following GSM World Congress in 1998 with a goal of launching in the summer of 1998. The device and service portfolio was also shown to a number of retailers including Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone. Sadly, the BT Cellnet trial never came to fruition when John Roth, the then CEO of Nortel, abruptly ended the project. He felt that Nortel lacked the expertise required to be successful in consumer electronics devices and would not be able to hit the price points needed to be successful. Ultimately, this meant the future commercial iteration of the phone never came to market, but it has become a notable (albeit little-known) device in the history of the smartphone. Interestingly the patents and prior art that Nortel created around the Orbitor project have gone on to feature in several court cases concerning intellectual property in mobile phones, reflecting what a ground-breaking device it was for its time. Addendum: Nortel Europa — historical context (by Z. Stachniak) Integration of different, often disparate, functionalities within a single personal device, as exemplified by the smartphone, is not a new concept. In the 16th century, crucifix dials served as instruments to determine the time of day. These were small boxes in the shape of a crucifix typically crafted from brass and engraved with hour numbers and religious scenes. A built-in magnetic compass was used primarily, though not exclusively, to orient the instrument. It also aided in determining directions while traveling. Some of these dials incorporated other functionalities such as the conversion of "Italian hours" (24 hours of a day and night) into "common hours" (1 to 12 day hours) and vice versa carried on using built-in rulers. Thus, the dial addressed temporal and spiritual needs, provided secular guidance and helped to contemplate things eternal. 16th century crucifix dial made by Melchior Reichle. Source: The British Museum, museum number 1874,0727.3. The rapid advancements in microelectronics during the 1970s and 1980s enabled the integration of multiple information management functionalities into single handheld devices, such as electronic organizers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The Psion Organizer, released in 1984, offered users an electronic diary, searchable address database, flat-file database, calculator, and clock, as well as the execution of application programs and limited programmability. The Psion Organizer, 1984. Source: York University Computer Museum. In the same year, Motorola introduced the DynaTAC 8000X phone, recognized as the first commercially available portable handheld cell phone. It offered approximately 30 minutes of talk time on full charge and limited call management features. The immediate social acceptance of PDAs and cell phones contributed to the popularization of the concept of personal, portable communication and information management devices. It was inevitable that sooner or later, a new generation of personal electronic devices combining PDA-like functionality with mobile telephony into a single device would emerge, and several companies began to work on such projects, including IBM (the Simon smartphone launched in 1994), Nokia (the Communicator released in 1996), and Alcatel (the One Touch Com introduced in 1998). Notably, BNR began its work on its vision for such a device (known as the Orbitor) in 1992. Comprehensive market research was conducted to identify the types of products and services that would address crucial user needs through the use of such devices, as well as key user values for personal communications and data management. The Orbitor project was initiated by the BNR's Corporate Design Group which aimed at defining and implementing a new vision for personal communications. Initially, the device was envisaged as compact, lightweight, personal device—the size of the wallet—that would attach to a person's clothing or fit easily into a packet or purse. Offering voice, messaging, and graphical notes capabilities, Orbitor would be operated via voice-recognition capabilities and a touch-sensitive screen. Users could "dial" a telephone number simply by speaking a number or a person's name (provided that name has been entered in the personal directory) into the Orbitor's microphone. Orbitor would be designed with a detachable speaker that would fit comfortably over a user's ear for hands-free operation and private conversation. Orbitor would also be equipped with a detachable stylus to enable users to write messages, destined for other users, directly on the screen. As envisaged, Orbitor would also incorporate a multimedia capability that would let users communicate in different ways with more than one party at a time -- sending written messages to one person, while carrying on a voice conversation with another, for example. [1] One of the Orbitor's concept designs. Source: [1]. The concept was first visualized in 1992 through videos produced by BNR as part of their extensive behavioural research. A variety of potential communication services were demonstrated by simulating them on a non-operational mock-up of the device. During the following three years, the Orbitor's design progressed to a state where its main features could be showcased in a working prototype. “We’ve been talking about and working with this concept for some time now, and we wanted to show our customers that its market implementation is not that far away," explained Arlan Anderson, manager of BNR's Portable Terminals Platform Development, in a press release from 1995 [2]. "We decided the best way to do that was to develop an operational prototype that could be demonstrated on a real switch.” In October 1995, such a technology demo was prepared for the Telecom ’95 trade show held in Geneva, Switzerland. "I was recruited/tasked to create a tiger team to create a working demo that could be put on display at T’95," recollected David Cuddy, former director of Nortel's Advanced Terminals Technologies group [3]. "This wasn’t a prototype of a product. It was a technology demo, or more accurately perhaps, a concept demo. What we built wasn’t based on Java - that design decision came later - but used the Magic Cap platform created by General Magic. [...] Given the positive response from prospective NT customers and trade journalists who saw our T’95 Orbitor demo, a decision was subsequently made to launch a product development program." The Orbitor's demonstration—among four special presentations featured at the BNR Futures Room at Nortel’s Telecom ’95 booth—showcased simultaneous voice and data communications through the DMS GSM system at Nortel's booth. “We demonstrated new audio and acoustic values that we call “Personal Handsfree,” which allow you to conduct a high-quality telephone conversation without having to hold the handset to your head," Arlan added [2]. "We also demonstrated several different types of messaging – handwritten messages, voice mail, and text messaging – accessed through the handset display.” During the 10-day event, the Orbitor demo was shown to over 800 customers and key government officials. According to Arlan, feedback was overwhelmingly positive: There is a lot of excitement around personal communications services in general, and people were very enthusiastic about what they saw and heard. The need for the types of user values exhibited by the Orbitor prototype was clearly acknowledged. In particular, the service providers noted the potential of Orbitor as a new wireless communications format that can help them evolve their business and differentiate themselves from competitors, Des Ryan, senior product design manager, Corporate Design Group, concurred. “The prototype enabled our customers to experience a future of their business where high-value services will be very easy to use, and showed that this future is within reach today.” [2] In the following two years, the Orbitor's design foundations underwent major transformation driven by many factors, most notably the commercialization of the Internet and the introduction of Sun Microsystems' Java. In 1986, NSF created its NSFNET network which soon became the primary Internet backbone. However, the network's mandate limited its usage exclusively to research and educational support endeavors. The "privatization of the Internet" culminating in NSF's retirement of its network in 1995, widely expanded Internet accessibility and paved the way for a wide range of new services from personal and corporate websites to e-commerce platforms. The release of Java 1.0 software in 1996 marked another pivotal factor impacting Orbitor's development. The BNR design team promptly recognized the significance of Sun's platform as an enabler of a vast array of sophisticated communications services. Consequently, in the same year, BNR decided to implement Orbitor as a Java-enabled device code-named "Europa" — the first personal communications device of this kind. In an article for Talking Business magazine back in 1996, Ken Blakeslee, former head of the Business Development team at Nortel's Wireless Networks UK office, observed, "People understand what they want to do with mobile phones. It's only now that the technology arrived to enable it." The Europa handset, later rebranded as “Nortel One” [5], was officially unveiled during the 1998 GSM World Congress in Cannes in February 1998 and, a month later demonstrated at the CeBIT'98 International Trade Fair that took place in Hanover. The device had evolved into a full Java-enabled smartphone, running Microware OS-9 as the core operating system. It offered an advanced touch-sensitive graphical user interface, speech recognition, personal handsfree, and other advanced features. In addition, thanks to the Java underpinnings, it supported downloadable ‘apps’ as part of a client-server architecture. Sadly, as part of Nortel corporate refocusing, the Orbitor/Europa project was abruptly terminated in 1998. Nortel subsequently withdrew from the telephone handset market, divesting its portfolio of GSM, wireless, enterprise and landline telephones. The Advanced Terminal Technologies group was dismissed in 2000, and the following year, Nortel shut down the entire Corporate Design Group. Several groups within Nortel/BNR and outside companies participated in the Orbitor/Europa project including: Corporate Design Group, Nortel, Advanced Terminal Technologies Group, Nortel, Nortel Wireless Networks, UK, Marta Communication Cellular Terminals, France, AEG Mobile Communications, Germany, Sun Microsystems, USA. In 1997, over 50 contributors from various BNR/Nortel groups and departments involved in the R&D project signed a commemorative Europa poster. Nortel Europa poster, 1997. Source: York University Computer Museum. References [1] Brown, M., Fairless, J., French-St.George, M., Lindsay, M., Roberts, T., and Ryan, D.,"Orbitor: a new personal communications concept," Telesis 97 (1993), pp. 5--13. [2] Orbitor, Nortel press release(?) (1995). [3] David Cuddy, private communication (2024). [4] Talking Business Magazine, Sun Microsystems (1996). [5] Nortel One: Nortel's Multimedia & Service Delivery Solution, promotional brochure, Nortel (1998) . Nortel Europa main features and technical specifications (as of 1998) Main features: Java-powered cellular handset: Java enabled secure access to data from both the Internet and local Intranets, touch screen graphical user interface with handwriting character recognition and animated graphics (operated via touch, stylus, and keypad) business card style directory, ink notes: set-to-set ink messaging, allowing to send electronic hand written notes, diagrams, etc. from one device to another, text editor, built in help facility, Personal Information Manager (PIM) functions, integrated message center including SMS, voice, fax, e-mail, as well as notification and voice-mail interface, Internet browsing: Inpact browser, voice activated dialing, hands-free operation. Hardware specifications: motherboard: based on the Nortel 920 and 922 handsets, daughter card (the Europa Daughter Card, a.k.a. the EDC) containing: CPU, RAM, Intel Flash, and other components, CPU: Digital Equipment Corp. StrongARM SA-1100, RAM: 524,288 x 8-bit, implemented using eight Mitsubishi M5M5408ATP static RAM chips, flash memory: several types including Intel StrataFlash T28F800 and boot sector flash memory AMD AM29LV002B, SIM card: micro SIM, wireless network protocol: GSM, TI Gemini processor(?), keyboard: sliding, 20 keys (12 alphanumeric and 8 direction, phone, and function keys), display: 320x160 pixels touch screen, back-lit, 8-shade grey scale, controlled by the National Semiconductor COP472-3 liquid crystal display controller, audio-analog front end: Philips UCB 1200 (aka Betty), dimensions: 166x64x30, weight: 300g. Software: operating system: Microware OS-9, Personal Java platform, compliant with Java Telephony Application Programming Interface (JTAPI) ver. 1.2, GUI written in Java, variety of planned downloadable user applications, including: timetables/schedules, work scheduling, What's-on-Guide, restaurant guides, ticketing, stock prices, e-commerce, sports results, road and traffic information. Museum holdings Nortel Europa 900, SN 004900 01 015129 0, Telesis, Nortel, issues 93, (December 1993) and 103 (July 1997), Nortel One: Nortel's Multimedia & Service Delivery Solution, promotional brochure, Nortel (1998), other Orbitor related holdings can be reviewed in the museum's Nortel archive, A 1997 commemorative Europa poster.