Collection register / selected entries
ICM is cataloguing roughly 6,000 artefacts. This short route introduces six systems that reveal different ideas about what a computer could be.
Public access catalogue
PRESERVATION
Photo: ICM restoration journal ↗
ICM OBJECT 0001
Designed to make many thousands of simple processors work in parallel, the CM-2 turned computation into a field of visible red activity lights.
REMOTE LINEAGE
Photo: ICM restoration journal ↗
ICM OBJECT 0014
A system associated with the MIT MACSYMA Consortium and the Incompatible Timesharing System—part of the open, collaborative culture that shaped early computing.
PRESERVATION
Photo: RTC / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗
ICM OBJECT 0032
A small scientific computer that used table lookup for arithmetic, inspiring the affectionate backronym “Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try.”
PRESERVATION
Photo: ICM restoration journal ↗
ICM OBJECT 0048
A comparatively little-documented business minicomputer whose survival depends on preserving hardware, media and the knowledge needed to operate it.
REMOTE LINEAGE
Photo: ICM restoration journal ↗
ICM OBJECT 0051
A multi-processor KI1077 assembled by Peter Lothberg at KTH, preserving a branch of the PDP-10 story beyond its original manufacturer.
SYSTEM RESTORATION
Photo: ICM restoration journal ↗
ICM ARCHIVE 0036
Preservation reaches behind the control panel: wire-wrap backplanes, readable media and operating knowledge must survive together before the system can run again.
6 records displayed
The catalogue is still being built
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