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Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers
An unprecedented combination of computer history and striking images, Core Memory reveals modern technology's evolution through the world's most renowned computer collection, the Computer History Museum in the Silicon Valley. Vivid photos capture these historically important machines including the Eniac, Crays 1 3, Apple I and II while authoritative text profiles each, telling the stories of their innovations and peculiarities. Thirty-five machines are profiled in over 100 extraordinary color photographs, making Core Memory a surprising addition to the library of photography collectors and the ultimate geek-chic gift.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published May 10, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 30, 2022
I am such a nerd: when I saw the photograph of the TRS-80, the first home computer of my childhood, a tear came to my eye.
Actually, this book provokes all sorts of funny feelings for me. The very existence of "vintage computers" -- collections of them, coffee table books about them, etc. -- proves that the rampant technofuturism that's outlined my entire adult life, aka The Computer Era, is now something we look back on fondly, like a high school yearbook. The Computer Era is over now, or at least we're over computers now. Finally. I just hope I can make the leap to whatever is next.
These photos document the birth of that era, and a visual aesthetic that came with it: an unconscious sense of "computers are modern, and modern looks like this!" It's amazing to see how far back certain design cliches began.
The other gorgeous thing about this book is, the earliest computers were entirely hand-made -- they're dripping with that gorgeous, elusive quality objects have when they've been the result of hard work. The photos of early core memory, for instance: a net of copper wire strung through with tiny ferrite beads, all by hand, looks like the work of a street-jeweler or an aged fisherman. I can't get enough of that sort of stuff. And yet this hand-made-ness was completely in conflict with the desired future-chic, so they hid it all away behind blinking lights and smooth, modern skin.
(I'm using "modern" in the sense of "modernism" here, not just in the sense of "new". Of course it's only in retrospect that we can begin to see the difference.)
The epic wiring, the smooth cabinetry and the carefully milled plastic labels on the knobs and buttons ... it all represents an immense amount of precise human labor, and the humans doing that labor, back in the day, were not third-world factory workers but engineers and students realizing their dreams, inventing and building strange, awkward new machines as if they were steam trains to the future.
Actually, this book provokes all sorts of funny feelings for me. The very existence of "vintage computers" -- collections of them, coffee table books about them, etc. -- proves that the rampant technofuturism that's outlined my entire adult life, aka The Computer Era, is now something we look back on fondly, like a high school yearbook. The Computer Era is over now, or at least we're over computers now. Finally. I just hope I can make the leap to whatever is next.
These photos document the birth of that era, and a visual aesthetic that came with it: an unconscious sense of "computers are modern, and modern looks like this!" It's amazing to see how far back certain design cliches began.
The other gorgeous thing about this book is, the earliest computers were entirely hand-made -- they're dripping with that gorgeous, elusive quality objects have when they've been the result of hard work. The photos of early core memory, for instance: a net of copper wire strung through with tiny ferrite beads, all by hand, looks like the work of a street-jeweler or an aged fisherman. I can't get enough of that sort of stuff. And yet this hand-made-ness was completely in conflict with the desired future-chic, so they hid it all away behind blinking lights and smooth, modern skin.
(I'm using "modern" in the sense of "modernism" here, not just in the sense of "new". Of course it's only in retrospect that we can begin to see the difference.)
The epic wiring, the smooth cabinetry and the carefully milled plastic labels on the knobs and buttons ... it all represents an immense amount of precise human labor, and the humans doing that labor, back in the day, were not third-world factory workers but engineers and students realizing their dreams, inventing and building strange, awkward new machines as if they were steam trains to the future.
October 21, 2019
About: Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers is a coffee-table book about some of the most important computers ever made. Overall, nice to have as source-book for geeky computer scientists.
The book presents 32 'computers' (actually, entries on core memory and the ARPANET/BBN IMP shouldn't count). Each item is described from a historical and computing perspective, in brief chapters. Where the book shines is the set of high-quality photographs of each item, made by photographer Mark Richards after objects now preserved by the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, USA.
What's nice? Besides everything if you're a computer fan like me, you might want to see: a reconstruction of the Zuse I adder (bombed by the Allies, the Zuse computers have been lost), the UNIVAC I (first commercial computer, so successful it made its builders need to sell their company), some awesome photos of a SAGE computer (FN/AQ-7, I believe) and implements (the ray gun), the IBM System/360, an Apollo Guidance Computer, a DEC PDP-8, a CDC 6600 (supercomputing much? then, you might want to learn our history), a part of an ILLIAC IV, a Cray-1, and the Commodore 64 (my childhood dream, not fulfilled but what an inspiration!), etc.
Ok, ok, just in case you had to ask: yes, there are also entries for Apple, Apple ][, and Macintosh. There's even one for a Minitel terminal, so there you have it.
The book presents 32 'computers' (actually, entries on core memory and the ARPANET/BBN IMP shouldn't count). Each item is described from a historical and computing perspective, in brief chapters. Where the book shines is the set of high-quality photographs of each item, made by photographer Mark Richards after objects now preserved by the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, USA.
What's nice? Besides everything if you're a computer fan like me, you might want to see: a reconstruction of the Zuse I adder (bombed by the Allies, the Zuse computers have been lost), the UNIVAC I (first commercial computer, so successful it made its builders need to sell their company), some awesome photos of a SAGE computer (FN/AQ-7, I believe) and implements (the ray gun), the IBM System/360, an Apollo Guidance Computer, a DEC PDP-8, a CDC 6600 (supercomputing much? then, you might want to learn our history), a part of an ILLIAC IV, a Cray-1, and the Commodore 64 (my childhood dream, not fulfilled but what an inspiration!), etc.
Ok, ok, just in case you had to ask: yes, there are also entries for Apple, Apple ][, and Macintosh. There's even one for a Minitel terminal, so there you have it.
June 27, 2021
This book is filled with beautiful, modern photographs of early-era computers, inside and out. The essays, while somewhat niche, do provide some intriguing snapshots of the context surrounding some of the earliest computing machines.
While I have no complaints about the clean and clever book design, I would have loved even more of this photography at different angles and greater depth, to communicate even more of the intriguing industrial design happening in that era.
But I guess it’s a compliment to say that I wish the book was longer, and that there was more of it.
While I have no complaints about the clean and clever book design, I would have loved even more of this photography at different angles and greater depth, to communicate even more of the intriguing industrial design happening in that era.
But I guess it’s a compliment to say that I wish the book was longer, and that there was more of it.
August 5, 2017
This was a fun and easy read. There were lots of pictures, and they were fun to look at.
January 26, 2019
A spartan coffee table book that whets the appetite for a trip to Mountainview.
September 10, 2019
Fun for people working in IT, at least for those who care about hardware. The stuff here all looks so quaint, being 30 or 40 years in the past.
June 15, 2009
This is unadulterated, shameless vintage techie porn, at it's best. The epitome of a coffee table photo book. Beautiful high res photography of the inner workings and schematic topography of mostly PC computing systems, mainframes, switch relays and tape machines- pre intergrated circuits. Very future retro ala THX 1138, and even more beautiful than a good bit of the technology we have today, processes no where near as quick, but far more elegant. This book relays this with ease....um no pun intended.
March 16, 2016
Unexpectedly beautiful. I picked this up because I'm fascinated by the history of things and I thought it would be interesting. But the photography caused me to look at these old bits of machinery in a different sort of way. I do wish there were more captions to let me know what I was looking at, but overall I enjoyed the experience of this book.
December 12, 2013
Not bad, but the images didn't really do much for the book. Seeing picture after picture of bundles of green wire don't really help me visualize the systems and in general weren't very interesting. The text was good but far too short. Over all I liked it, just left me a little wanting.
January 1, 2010
Not really for reading, but the most beautiful pictures of vintage computers I have ever seen. So amazing how mechanical the early computers were. All the way up to the 70s. I'm not really into coffee table books, bit I'll flick through this again and again.
December 29, 2008
Beautiful pictures and very brief descriptions. Porn for nerds.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews