The Centre for Computing History

Welcome to the first of what I hope will be a regular feature showcasing this week’s new additions to the Centre for Computing History’s hardware archive.

Why do we need to catalogue items?

First, some background: the Centre currently has around 1000 storage boxes containing all sorts of items. But the boxes are all shapes and sizes and the individual items aren’t on our system; there’s just a brief list of what’s in the box. As we bring the boxes from our warehouse in Haverhill to the new premises in Cambridge we plan to repack the items in standard-sized archive boxes and ensure that each individual item is photographed, described, catalogued – and most importantly tagged with it’s new location so we can find it in future.

Why go to all this trouble? Because once an item is catalogued, anyone can find it through our website. They’ll be able to read a brief description of what it is and what it does. There will be at least one picture so they’ll know what it looked like. And the site can automatically link them to related items such as peripherals, software, manuals, etc. Most importantly part of the archiving process involves recording the item’s new location so if anyone wants to see it, we can find it with no need to search high and low.

With 1000 boxes to go through this is a slow process. Currently we have 63 properly archived boxes (we call them “BX” boxes, as distinct to the storage boxes which are prefixed with “BOX”). Of course, we regularly receive hardware donations from members of the public and those need to be catalogued as well.

What is the archive?

An important part of the museum’s mission is preservation of computers and their history. To do this we aim to collect one example of every historically significant piece of hardware, software, or documentation, ideally with their original packaging. This goes into our archive where it will be preserved for anyone who would like to see it. If we have more than one of a particular item then the best one will go in the archive and the others can go on public display or used as handling stock. Broken items are still useful for spare parts to keep the display items running – this is a ‘hands-on’ museum and equipment does occasionally break!

Today’s Additions

• Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak. Many games could take advantage of the extra memory this provided to give better graphics, framerate, or gameplay options. Don’t lose the little plastic ejection lever or you’ll never get it out the expansion port!
• Xplorer FX Professional. A cheat cartridge for the Sony Playstation. Could be linked to a PC to download new cheat codes.
• Electroplan IEEE 488 Interface for the BBC Micro.
• Early Sinclair ZX Spectrum Console. This is one of the earliest ZX Spectrums I’ve seen! Based on the serial number it’s one of the first 8000 ever produced. The early models can be distinguished by their light grey keys.
• Prototype Sinclair QL. Owned by the Sinclair company and used for early development.
• Thorn EMI Liberator. Designed for the Civil Service in the mid eighties, this was a word processor designed to reduce civil servant’s reliance on typing pools and speed the production and editing of documents. It was required to be small and light enough to fit inside a standard government-issue briefcase.
• Music Expansion System for the Commodore 64 and 128. A full-sized (and rather heavy) music keyboard with an FM synth unit.

I’ve also updated the entry for our prototype Sinclair QL wafer memory expansion unit to include a close-up of the actual wafer. A very nice looking device!

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