[Recorded: May 9, 1963]
This vintage film features MIT Science Reporter John Fitch at the MIT Computation Center in an extended interview with MIT professor of computer science Fernando J. Corbato. The film was co-produced by WGBH (Boston) and MIT.
The prime focus of the film is timesharing, one of the most important developments in computing, and one which has come in and out of favor several times over the last several decades as the dichotomy between remote and centrally-managed computing resources played out; the latest incarnation for centrally-managed computing resources is known as cloud computing.
Timesharing as shown in this film, was a novel concept in the early 1960s. Driven by a desire to more efficiently use expensive computer resources while increasing the interactivity between user and computer (man and machine), timesharing was eventually taken up by industry in the form of special timesharing hardware for mainframe and minicomputer computer systems as well as in sophisticated operating systems to manage multiple users and resources.
Corbato describes how after the mid-1950s, when computers began to become reliable, the next big challenge to improve productivity and efficiency was the development of computer languages, FORTRAN being an example. One of the next bottlenecks in computing, according to Corabto, was the traditional batch processing method of combining many peoples computer jobs into one large single job for the computer to process at one time. He compares batch processing to a group of people catching a bus, all being moved at once.
Timesharing, on the other hand, involves attaching a large number of consoles to the central computer, each of which is given a time-slice of the computers time. While the computer is rapidly switching among user applications and problems, it appears to the user that s/he has complete access to the central computer.
Corbato then describes in technical detail a complex description of timesharing before showing some examples of timesharing from a terminal using a simple program to calculate a simple geometric problem (Pythagorean theorem).
In the long run, Corbato says, timesharing will help address the increasing need for computer time and ease-of-use.
Duration : 0:27:38
[youtube Q07PhW5sCEk]
No offense intended …
No offense intended – I meant nerds in the kindest possible definition; a term of endearment for the theoretically proclivic, oft-bespectacled intelligentsia that makes this world, technically, what it is.
they are scientists …
they are scientists, not ‘nerds’.*
yes, because the words are insulting.
There’s a …
There’s a difference? I know several scientists that call themselves nerds, geeks, labrats but have never heard them refer to themselves as scientists..not that they don’t, I just haven’t heard them.
@Struwwel2 he is a …
@Struwwel2 he is a scientist, not a ‘geek’.
he clearly mentions …
he clearly mentions -Round Robin
Nice gem from …
Nice gem from history. It is hard to imagine for people today what the thought processes were in the past during the early computers. This stuff is what got us where we are today and now taken as a given.. what it was not.
Technology has …
Technology has advanced significantly in the intervening decades, but one thing hasn’t changed: computer geeks today look the same as they did then. ; -)
so that was about …
so that was about 45 years ago. Just imagine what computers will look like in another 45 years…
later 400,000.00 $ …
later 400,000.00 $ for 12 seconds
All I could think …
All I could think of when seeing timesharing explained is “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
He basically described how multitasking works, and still works today.
Memories are bigger, disks are bigger, CPUs are faster, and we have nicer terminals, but it’s still basically the same.
600 dollars an hour …
600 dollars an hour!… in 1963!
Very large capacity …
Very large capacity. Nine megs. Wow.
-jcr
Great prehistoric …
Great prehistoric nerd festival! Worth watching for the nerd styles alone..gottal love the poindexter glasses all around..
That Honeywell …
That Honeywell salesman was clueless.
Honeywell purchased GE’s computer business (and got Multics as a result). Granted, not MANY people used the 6180 for business.
The interesting …
The interesting thing, is this is still a problem when working with expansive computers.
When working at a small TV station, I made a habit having making sure the computer was working while I’m on a break, or after I left work for the day.
I always wanted to have a computer, rendering or compressing as many hours a day as possible.
Around the 13 …
Around the 13 minute mark, where he’s talking about doing things in burst, that’s how computers worked up until just a few years ago. (in fact to a large extent even today).
Until the advent of Hyper-threading and multi-core, a computer could not do two things at once.
When things were “multi-tasked” they were actually processed in short bursts. This all happened so fast that you couldn’t tell, but that’s how it worked.
Actually, it’s …
Actually, it’s kinda freaky how similar a modern computer still is.. How far we’ve yet to come.
Nice history lesson …
Nice history lesson… and “that guy” is Corbato, who is one of the founding fathers of time-sharing and, indirectly by way of Multics, Unix and Linuxs.
We’re come a far …
We’re come a far way in 40 years.
Great video! One …
Great video! One thing that I’m curious about, is did that guy really expect the answer 13 for his hypotenuse calculation? I found that a little funny, as he’s a computer programmer, and some kind of expert at MIT, I thought he could have come up with a better estimate that that! I wouldn’t have known the exact answer myself, but it’s very simple to tell it would be just a little over 12 even for me!
has mit always been …
has mit always been this convoluted
Protip: Next time …
Protip: Next time make sure the audio is right as well
I miss my commodore …
I miss my commodore 64 I don’t miss punch cards
No kidding, they …
No kidding, they were primitive and much harder to use. Though I’d say the whole experience was more enjoyable. I miss my 8in floppys and monochrome screens darn it.
Very nice
Very nice