IBM 1401 - Key Persons
Alan Shugart, seeing a great opportunity, left IBM, probably with a good deal of the documentation, and started Shugart Associates. I don't believe that IBM thought it was worthwhile to patent this device, so they didn't."
In 1972, after two years out of IBM at a startup firm, he returned to San Jose to coordinate engineering development of the IBM 3800 laser Printer. Francis retired from IBM in 1980 to start an engineering consulting firm designing tools and machines for small manufacturing businesses and metal recovery plants. In 1988 he joined an international firm designing ski lifts for 15 years. Fran was an avid Stearman aerobatic biplane pilot, a watercolor artist and holds six US IBM patents.
This is a 1963 announcement picture of Gene Darrow as Manager of Printers,Product Engineering.
This is a 2002 picture of Gene Darrow.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
- Butler
Carl Claunch - CarlClaunch51 at gmail dot com - mobile (650) 444-3829
My first hands-on computer experience was with an IBM 1130 system, at the start of four and a half decades working with and in the computer field. Recently, I have been building a recreation of an 1130 system, as a focus for my hobby interests in electronics and computer design. Involving, as it does, a mixture of original historical computer technology and modern technology like FPGA, the experience I have been gaining may be useful in restoration efforts, to augment or substitute for unavailable products or options.
Charles Branscomb's career at IBM spanned 39 years, where he developed and managed several successful IBM products, including the IBM 1401 data processing system, enterprise systems (System/360) and several mid-range systems. Charles joined IBM in the Endicott, NY lab in August 1950 to design punched card handling and unit record products. In 1957 he became Area Manager for accounting machines and directed the development of the IBM 1401. After various executive staff positions, in 1964 he became Director of Computer Assisted Instruction and in 1966, President of the Systems Development Division with eight US labs and six European labs, managing delivery and expansion of the System/360 product line. In 1971 he joined the Corporate Technical Committee investigating future technologies; in 1973 became Director of Engineering, Programming, and Technology; and in 1974 became VP Development and Manufacturing of the General Systems Division in Atlanta, responsible for Systems 32, 34, 38, Series 1, and the IBM PC. In 1983 he became VP of Telecommunication Systems in Communications Product Division in Raleigh. After his retirement in 1986, he consulted full-time to IBM for 3 additional years and then spent more than a dozen years volunteering at North Carolina State University with two adjunct appointments in its College of Engineering. Charles received a MSME from North Carolina State University in 1950.
I joined IBM in the Endicott, NY lab in August, 1950 after receiving an MSME from North Carolina State University. After a brief engineering training program, worked on a new accounting machine in 1952. Then worked for Larry Wilson who was developing new technology for all aspects of punched card handling and putting out new unit record products. I was still working for Larry when in mid-1957 I was assigned as Manager, accounting machines. After assessing the WWAM, I directed the development of SPACE, which led to the announcement of the 1401 in October, 1959.
Chris Reid - reidjc (at) sbcglobal dot net>
Chris has taught 1401 programming, and successfully ran an object deck she made a "few years ago" on "our" 1401.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Robert Helm talks with patient John Pokoski. Pokoski experienced a sudden cardiac arrest and is in recovery after receiving six bypasses at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. Photo by Ioanna Raptis/Seacoastonline
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Fran Underwood was my immediate supervisor and Jim Ingram "held my card". At that point, the basic machine had been designed but the optional features were still on the drawing boards. The first engineering model was in the process of being constructed and debugged. I was green as grass and my very first assignments involved learning the system, drafting, and technical writing.
Soon I was involved with debugging the system, particularly the second model, which also included optional features, and generating the necessary engineering changes. My prime responsibility was "expanded arithmetic" (multiply/divide). Later, I was involved with M/D redesign and testing, and other options such as process overlap and Sterling arithmetic.
Frank Quigley worked in Endicott, not NYC, but he did early planning work on the assembly program that came to be named 1401 SPS, and consulted with those in NYC who implemented it.
Futterman, Alan - afutterman1 @ verizon . net
All of my work developing add-on memories for IBM systems was done pre-1977 when I spent a few years working for Advanced Memory systems. We sold our systems to Memorex and others who leased them to IBM's customers who were attempting to reduce their computer costs. Since IBM leased their systems on a "per Module" basis they could not prevent their customers from incorporating non-IBM equipment into their computing setup, but they were not responsible for servicing non-IBM parts of the system and whenever a problem occurred anywhere in the system, we either needed to fix it or to prove that it was IBM's problem before they would respond.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Software Team
Job Titles:
- Software Engineer at Pixar Animation Studios
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Howard, John - john at k6yim dot com
I got into electronics as a cub scout; built a crystal radio, and one tube regenerative receiver. The next step in Radio requires a license, which I got when 12 years old ( K6YIM). In my later teens I got a First Class Radiotelephone license which is required to work on most commercial RF applications. I worked repairing car radios and a Broadcast radio station.
Hunt, Jim (Chip) [JimHunt at Pacbell dot net] phone cell - 650-346-4020
Jim knew Robert Garner from SUN days. Jim also worked on attack submarines, and has wonderful, wild and wooly tales to tell ;-)) (And he seems to have a very practical working knowledge of electronics :-)) Fixed our big backlog of defective SMS cards.
His formal bio is modern processor development at many levels.
Unfortunately (for us) Jim now has a day job, not available for Wednesday "work" -
He is also "John H. Palmer", co-author of "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems" published by MIT Press.
Jack Palmer was manager of the 1401/1620 systems software effort in the early 1960s.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Job Titles:
- Glendale Lab Mgr - Endicott, NY
John L. Pokoski was born in St. Louis, Missouri on June 19, 1937. He received a BSEE from St. Louis University Cum Laude in 1959, an MSE from Arizona State University in 1965, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University in 1967. From 1959-1963 he was with the IBM Product Development Laboratory in Endicott, NY, where he was involved in the design and development of small, general purpose computers. In the summers of 1971 and 1972 he was a NASA Faculty Fellow at the Marshall Space Flight Center and the Goddard Space Flight Center. He was a Visiting Professor of Electrical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh Scotland in 1977 and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Arizona in 1995. From 1967 to 2002 he was a member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Hampshire, serving as Chairman from 1985-1994. He has published twenty-four professional papers, has been a member of many professional and honorary organizations, and has received several awards and honors.
John Van - known as "Van" - van.ii at charter dot net - vangard1 @ charter . net
Although Van lives in Georga, he has contributed many artifacts, advice, and stories to this project. He has also contributed a wealth of IBM stories. As found in The One Week School That Lasted For Six, Van had more than his share of experience with 1401s and "Overlap".
Van's web site has disappeared, and he has not responded to e-mail since ?2018?
Job Titles:
- Senior VP of IBM Marketing & Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
Luca Severini likes the bay area weather even better than his native Rome, not so humid. He has worked in software in Italy and Munich, Germany. Now he is studying computer science at San Jose State - One of is professors is Ron Mak, who introduced Luca to ROPE (Ron's Own Programming Environment). Now Luca is maintenaning and enhancing ROPE. He has a ported it to the Mac and looking for suggestions. He is in contact with Van Snyder and thinking of making a version of ROPE which edits, compiles, runs Fortran on the simulated 1401.
Luca has also written a C cross compiler for the 1401 - for hardware types, a cross compiler uses code in a different machine (say a PC) to compile code for a "target" machine, in this case, an IBM 1401 ;-))
Job Titles:
- Member of the Software Team
- Lead
Dr. Maurice Papo graduated in France from "Ecole Polytechnique" (1951) and "Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications" (1954). He also holds shorter course degrees from Brookings Institute Washington, INSEAD-Stanford, and Centre des Hautes Etudes de l'Armement
Michael Marineau - mike at marineau dot org
I live[d] in San Francisco and spend my time volunteering outside growing plants, at museums helping people, and for a rescue fostering dogs. Previously I was playing the startup game as the lead software engineer behind CoreOS Container Linux. After spending years building an operating system, computers without any need for such frivolities sound quite appealing! I went to college at Oregon State University where one of my most lasting achievements was a Firefox crop circle:
Mohan, Bhushan - bmohan at gmail dot com
I started my career in 1971 with IBM India as a Customer Engineer and was initially trained and assigned to maintain the1401 systems along with even older Unit record machines. IBM 1401s were the most popular systems in India till end 70s and I supported them very actively till mid 80s just before the last of the working 1401 discontinued.
Job Titles:
- State Research Stuttgart ( 1975 - 1989 )
Job Titles:
- Lead Cartridge Engineer Plus Other Stuff Like Stacking Paper
Job Titles:
- Member of the Restoration Team
- Member of the Software Team
Paul Laughton talked about following his passion to a programming career that spanned from mainframes to micros, including the early days of Apple, working on a $13,000 contract to develop Apple DOS, meeting his future wife at the Homebrew Computer Club, hanging out with Jobs and Woz, and writing the book on Atari DOS and AtariBASIC. He eventually wound up writing firmware for one of the first consumer digital cameras at Logitech. Paul is now a docent at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, home of VCF West, using his spare time to write and maintain the BASIC! For Android app.
Joined IBM in 1956 as a CE Customer Engineer in L. A. Downtown office. Trainer on and serviced most unit record equipment, including 604,607 & 650. If machine had a gray covers, we serviced it. In 1960 became western region specialist on IBM's early transistorized computer 608. 1961 trained on 7070 computer for Automobile Club of Southern Calif. 1965 received a BS degree from Calif. State College at LA. 1965 trained on 360 mod 50 and was appointed account specialist for United Calif. Bank. In 1968 took assignment as service planning rep. SPR for mod 50 in Poughkeepsie, NY. 1971 transferred to San Jose as an SPR on the 3305 fixed head file. 1977 transferred to software, worked on several products including CICS and change team for linkage editor. Retired in 1992. After retirement remodeled 4 houses from the ground up. Sort of a jack of all construction trades.
Joe is fun ! He just gets in there and fixes it ! Not much chatter, just results :-))
Robert Garner received a MSEE from Stanford University in 1977 and began his 41-year Silicon Valley career when Bob Metcalfe recruited him into the Xerox System Development Division (SDD) in Palo Alto to co-design the first commercial Ethernet interface and subsequently the Xerox 8010 STAR Professional Workstation and Servers. In 1981, he joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in Lynn Conway's VLSI Architecture Group. In 1984, he joined the start-up Sun Microsystems working with Bill Joy and Dave Patterson to co-architect the SPARC (RISC) architecture and co-design its first SPARC product, the Sun-4/200 workstation. He subsequently managed I/O ASIC development for the SparcCenter-2000 server and directed several full-custom microprocessor projects including UltraSPARC-I with multi-media instructions and the innovative multi-threaded graphics-oriented MAJC microprocessor. In 1998, he joined the start-up Brocade Communications as Director of Hardware Engineering, responsible for FibreChannel ASIC and switching products. In 2001, he joined the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, where he co-designed the 3D, liquid-cooled, avant-garde IceCube server and managed advanced Petascale storage software development for IBM's General Parallel File Systems product. He retired from IBM in 2018. For the past twenty years, he has led a team that restored and maintains two 1960s IBM mainframe computers demo'd weekly at the Computer History Museum.
Job Titles:
- Manager of the IBM 2305 Control Unit for the Fixed Head Disk File
Sand, Duane - duanebsand at gmail dot com
I am a retired systems programmer. I worked at major computer companies from 1975 to 2017, including Burroughs (on Cobol-optimized systems), Tandem, Google, and Mips. I worked mostly on compilers and related tools, including migration of computer product lines via object code translation. That migration was my biggest career accomplishment. I also wrote microcode, extended two instruction sets, evaluated cache techniques, patented simple branch prediction hardware, and consulted on the design of Google's flash memory hardware. I am fascinated by software and hardware that is simple, efficient, and understandable. I enjoy explaining things and rediscovering tech history. I am administrator of two relevant interest groups on Facebook: Minimalistic Computing, and Computer History Musings. In an alternate lifetime, I would have become a science writer for children. My personal heroes are Chuck Yeager, Richard Feynman, and Isaac Asimov.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Software Team
Severini, Luca - lucaseverini (at) mac dot com , 1 650-417-5974
Job Titles:
- Member of the Software Team
Stan Paddock - STPaddock at sbcglobal dot net - (H) (408) 293-9342
I was first introduced to the IBM 1401 in 1968 while working part-time at the Pomona, CA IBM refurbishment facility. This was a part time job while I was attending Cal Poly in Pomona. I worked on Keypunches, verifiers, 1401 systems and 1440 systems.
Stan Smillie only worked as a summer employee at IBM in 1960 and 1961. He was the author of the Arith phases of 1401 FORTRAN II. He graduated Bronx High School of Science in 1961.
Stephen Madsen - s8madsen @ yahoo . com
The first computer Stephen used was at Iowa State University. The vacuum tube computer which had 4K of memory was built by the faculty using the IAS design. [see Wikipedia]
Stephen's career was mostly in software. He started working for IBM in Southern California as a system engineer in 1966. New employees were mainly trained to use the System/360 computers, but tabulating machines were still in use, so they were trained to use them also. An early assignment was working with North American Aviation to convert tabulating machine applications to computer applications using RPG.
In 1973 Stephen transferred to Palo Alto where he wrote programs related to the Information Management System (IMS), such as the Data Dictionary and the Batch Terminal System (BTS). In 1979 Stephen transferred to a branch office in San Francisco as an IMS specialist. In 1980 he transferred to the San Jose laboratory where he worked with IMS and other software. He eventually worked with DB2 related software including Query Management Facility (QMF) and Data Warehouse. After 38 years Stephen retired from IBM in 2004.
Stephen received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1964 and a MS in Management Science from the University of Southern California in 1972.
Sun, Karen - karensun522 at gmail dot com
My bio: Grew up in the dense streets of Shanghai with the humid summer and freezing winter, I am a recent immigrant amazed by the Bay Area's unbeatable weather, yet clueless about the outside world after 3-year Covid. By all accounts, the path that led me to being a 1401 lab operator was an unlikely one. Luckily all the magic started from sitting in a training room with Jack Ghiselli, Paul Laughton and Pat Buder.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Software Team
Tim Robinson retired in 2003 from Broadcom Corporation, where he led a group responsible for the development of Broadcom's range of WiFi wireless networking chipsets. Trained in Physics, he entered the computing field in 1980 in the UK, where, as co-founder of High Level Hardware Ltd., he designed a user-microprogrammable computer system for developing novel programming languages.
He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989, and has held senior engineering positions at several Silicon Valley startups (MicroUnity and Epigram). Robinson maintains a strong interest in the early history of computing, particularly mechanical computing devices, both analog and digital.
Since retiring he has devoted much of his time to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, where for eight years he maintained and demonstrated Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No 2, a five ton calculating machine designed in 1848. His other interests include music, and current developments in physics and cosmology.
Ugur, Arda - < ardaugur2011 @ gmail . com >
I am originally from Istanbul, Turkey, where I received my undergraduate and graduate degrees in civil engineering. A childhood spent without having a computer, I met with computers relatively late in life. My first computer was an 80826 with 16 MHz CPU, 1 MB RAM, 40 MB hard drive and 3.5" floppy disc drive running MS DOS and Windows 3.1. Amazingly enough, I used this computer to take my first introductory course in computers and numerical analysis in BASIC programming.
Van Snyder - provided a very small number of bug fixes for the above simulation,