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Best books on early mainframes

A

acorn_1401

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South UK
I am looking for a book or books about the early days of computers and mainframes. I am not looking to spend big money on a single book and ideally I be able to buy it on amazon/ebay/ someone here.

Ideally british computer history but open to ideas.

Thanks
 
I'm not sure what you're asking. Do you want historical narrative or technical documents?
The IEEE Annals of Computing series is a good resource from a narrative standpoint. Bitsavers is full of technical documentation.
 
TBH a little bit of both.

I have read books on LEO, I would like a book on ICL but it is very expensive for a book that I dont know if I will like or not.

I will have a look at the IEEE Annals tho was looking for something to hold.
 
For British-focused subjects look for any book by Simon Lavington; most likely you'll find it in a British bookstore ... for which you appear to be suitably located :->. Here in the USA they are hard to find. Three possibilities:

- Alan Turing and His Contemporaries: Building the World's First Computers
- Early British Computers: The Story of Vintage Computers and the People Who Built Them
- The Pegasus Story: A History of a Vintage British Computer

Some British-focused books from other authors:

- A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer -- Ferry, Georgina
- LEO: The Incredible Story of the World's First Business Computer -- Caminer, David & Aris, John & Hermon, Peter & Land, Frank
- The MU5 Computer System -- Norris, D. & Ibbett, R.N.
- Calculating Instruments and Machines -- Hartree, Douglas R.

I personally enjoyed:

- Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer -- Wilkes, Maurice

(I also enjoyed both LEO books!)

Paul Cerruzi is a well-known historian of the era, but not British-focused. Two examples:

- Reckoners: The Prehistory of the Digital Computer, from Relays to the Stored Program Concept, 1935-1945
- A History of Modern Computing

There are all generally "low technical" but much, much better than a quick gloss. What it sounds like you are looking for?
 
Postscript: Given your interest and location you might also consider the following two books. The first is a bit dryer (academic) in tone than the others but it carefully chronicles what-happened-next on the British computer scene:

- Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry -- John Hendry

Also British, but not entirely, and a very worthwhile read for all computer aficionados who grew up in a certain mileau and thus assumed that it's always been that way:

- Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing -- Janet Abbate
 
Chuck(G) said:
What, nobody has suggested "The Soul of a New Machine"? I'm shocked.
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perhaps because the MV/8000 was neither a mainframe or that it was talking about a computer built in the 80s?
also, I worked with a very talented guy who was on the 'losing' side who told me much of that book is bullshit
 
I don't know, Al. SoANW was immensely popular back in the day. Of course, it was tripe, but then many of the historical accounts, including those by yours truly are full of corrupted wetware flaws. I used to be a subscriber to Annals, but then, after reading a couple of articles written by college PhDs who had nothing to do with the original project, gave up in disgust. Anyone who had anything to do with the 1950s mainframe development almost certainly is pushing up daisies.

Perhaps the OP should start with this book.

Even more to the point, there's the phenomenon of "History is written by the victors" and "Vass you dere, Shollie?" Anyone who hasn't lived through the era when television was a very new thing and being able to push buttons on a telephone to dial, will have a badly colored understanding of the actual thought patterns.

As regards mainframes, I can recall an interesting story--and one that can be verified by looking at the classifieds of the Mercury-News of the time. My group at CDC briefly shared overflow office space with the Atari crowd in the building (we had the second floor, the Atari people were on the first) across the road (no, not the Brass Rail) from CDC on Moffett Park Drive. Periodically, Atari would advertise for programmers in the MurkyNoose with the admonition "Mainframe programmers need not apply".
 
Chuck(G) said:
Even more to the point, there's the phenomenon of "History is written by the victors" and "Vass you dere, Shollie?"
Click to expand...

Welcome to my world. We had an event for the 40th anniversary of Lisa, which included how important it was in creating Macintosh,
a fact swept under the carpet by His reality distortion field.

Chuck(G) said:
"Mainframe programmers need not apply".
Click to expand...

I suspect it was a dig at the COBOL mentality.
 
Speaking strictly from my own standpoint, the work I do with various library archivists and others has given me a new window into the personalities of various key figures in the computing industry. Memos, letters, transcripts of talks, etc. are far more interesting than the hardware details. Of course, said material not being my property, I can't share it. However, my hope is that some future researcher will discover it and write a book, if books still exist by then.
 
Al Kossow said:
I suspect it was a dig at the COBOL mentality.
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I am curious about what constitutes "COBOL mentality"?

There are many who have never programmed in COBOL but happily rubbish the language. It has its flaws but is very well suited for commercial applications, which explains why the bulk of the finance sector is still using COBOL in their back-end systems.
 
If you want really early British computing then I suggest Faster Than Thought edited by B V Bowden published in 1953. Is that early enough for you? I got this book as a mathematics prize at school in 1961 and it was my first detailed introduction to computing history. It covers the sort of stuff that the British Computer Conservation Society (CCS) work on for TNMOC, so early machines at Manchester University, ACE, EDSAC, mercury delay line memories, early magnetic drum drives and CRT based memories etcetera. It is certainly now a good general historical source. Physical copies appear to be pricey because of its possible rarity but online copies appear to be available for download and browsing.

Of course Colossus, Enigma and all the Bletchley Park story were still secret then, so were never mentioned in it but Babbage was and the frontispiece picture was inevitably a portrait of Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace.
 
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I just noticed your preference for "something to hold" so if you are feeling charitable OXFAM are offering a hardback original of Faster Than Thought at £80 although Abe Books can do less appealing ones for £30 up. My copy has my school's crest embossed in gold on the cover, having been a school prize, so is one of my treasured possessions.
 
I have picked up "A few good men from Univac", still on the look out for something this side of the pond. anyone want to lend me a copy? - LEO/EDSAC/ICL related PM me.
 
pbirkel@gmail.com said:
- A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer -- Ferry, Georgina
- LEO: The Incredible Story of the World's First Business Computer -- Caminer, David & Aris, John & Hermon, Peter & Land, Frank
Click to expand...
So I hve read a computer called Leo, do you feel it is worth reading both?
 
acorn_1401 said:
So I hve read a computer called Leo, do you feel it is worth reading both?
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"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
The first book was written for (IMO) "the popular trade" (light reading); small paperback format, 220 easy-on-the-eyes pages.
The second book was co-written by four of the LEO principals plus contributions from many other principals; full hardback format, 380 fairly dense pages. Aside from the detailed chronology there are many recollections, anecdotes, descriptions of business processes, inclusion of the best available documentation remaining from the era including the successor machines, individual sales, and eventual demise of the line. AFAIK it's now the definitive source on LEO. (And I'm expecting will stay that way ...)

The second book was better for my interests, if perhaps less "entertaining", but I like "academic" :-}. Prior to reading about LEO I was better informed on the scientific-computing lineage than "business" -- other than the general UNIVAC story. LEO was the clear case in which business-computing was understood earlier in the UK than the US. So despite having already read the first book, I was looking for more ... and was not disappointed in the second (although more technical hardware details would have been appreciated!). Like-new copies are available here in the US for $15, shipped. Worth every penny :-}.
 
acorn_1401 said:
TBH a little bit of both.

I have read books on LEO, I would like a book on ICL but it is very expensive for a book that I dont know if I will like or not.

I will have a look at the IEEE Annals tho was looking for something to hold.
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Campbell-Kelly, Martin, ICL: A Business and Technical History, 1989, 0-19-853918-5

Huh, that has got a little expensive.

The table of contents spans four pages and goes deeper than chapter names. Do you think it may help you make up your mind?

I have BTW read Caminer et al's book on LEO (probably 20+ years ago, when it was relatively new) and enjoyed it.
 
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