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let's look at some more vintage Computer Design magazines. these issues are from 1967 (if you couldn't tell by the cover art!)
this DEC ad features a teddy bear.
neat ad about an IEE display. they were miniature projectors!
i have no idea what this is.
i know about TTL, there is also DTL and RTL, but did you know that there was also VTL?
every single one of these companies who made logic chips has been acquired or gone under -- except for one.
tunnel diodes -- another dead end. still interesting; see my thread https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1076212075448262656
this ad from Cinch has a photo of a giant machine that makes connectors. too bad it is so grainy.
in the 1960s there was an absolutely ferocious debate about standard symbols to be used for digital logic! amazing that we take the modern symbols for granted without realizing the war that was fought over them
here's a novel decimal display technology. this replaces a decoder and individual light bulbs. seems like a bit of a false optimization, this thing looks very rube goldbergian.
wow, this explains those weird animated x-rays of people's heads
an ad from Texas Instruments when they actually made lab instruments, not calculators and chips.
i love the die photo. this is a 16-bit memory. no, not 16 bits wide, 16 bits *total*
knocking perfect chad out of 2,520,000 feet of tape!
an ad for the Raytheon Symbolray tube! i managed to get one of these tubes up and running: http://tubetime.us/index.php/2018/06/04/a-vacuum-tube-rom/
here are some more interesting tubes from Raytheon.
a very early ad for "visible and infrared emitting diodes." the MVE-100 cost $14.50 in 1967 -- about $100 after inflation!
"Ever do a slow burn over [Grafana?]" why yes, yes i do.
!["Ever do a slow burn over [Grafana?]" why yes, yes i do.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcXJ_BMUMAAnKwS.png "\"Ever do a slow burn over [Grafana?]\" why yes, yes i do.")
I JusT L
VE To PUNCH HoLEs.
VE To PUNCH HoLEs.
now here's a nice modular keyboard! looks like Don Lancaster used them in his prototype TV typewriter.
early ad for DIP sockets, back when they were so new you had to spell out Dual In-line Package.
another cute IEE display
are you a softie?
wow, this guy got it right. lawyers really DO need computers.
i really like these IEE display ads. so many types i've never seen before.
IF AND OR BUT NOT!
Disciples of George Boole and John Venn.
Disciples of George Boole and John Venn.
here's an ad for the Honeywell DDP-516 computer. the ruggedized version of this computer was used for the first Interface Message Processors, essentially the first internet routers.
this is an extremely clever debugging technique for electronically controlled mechanisms. (a strobotac is a triggered strobe light capable of rapid flash rates)
reduce failures by having your software automatically pray at programmable intervals, in latin, hebrew, and FORTRAN! 
i like these job ads
nobody liked jack, apparently
the original Gerber photoplotter. yes, the same Gerber format we use for PCBs today.
oh this is interesting, connector contacts are made on a progressive series of die. i bet they do it the same way today.
tiny IEE display! only $14 (aka $100)
here's an odd disk system. looks like there's a removable cartridge version. it's not a floppy disk, i think the media is rigid.
looks like the CHM has a Data Disc memory system: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X449.84
nice graphics terminal.
i like these cutaway views of these indicator lamps (some with integrated switches)
another Monsanto LED ad (which doesn't even use the acronym because it hadn't been coined yet!)
ooh, and now GE has a competing solid-state lamp! (august '67)
oh it's an op amp ad
die photo
electrical specs
package and temperature range
manufacturer
part number
die photoelectrical specspackage and temperature rangemanufacturerpart number
IBM career ad: we can place you in one of our available slots in our huge library of programmers!
i like this PDP-8/S ad. enclosed, please find $10K. now send me computer!
i hope you like these keyboard ads. check out that key switch!
introduction of the 2N4416 JFET.
nice PDP8/I advertisement. i wish it was in color though.
oh look, it's an ad using yet another elephant-as-a-metaphor-for-a-large-memory trope.
diagnosing hardware errors is hard.
also: "The hypothetical limit is, of course, one module equals one central processor. Even though this may be unrealistic..."
also: "The hypothetical limit is, of course, one module equals one central processor. Even though this may be unrealistic..."
salty!
for some reason y'all like keyboards. so here's another vintage keyboard ad from 1967.
here's an interesting keyboard. this one has tiny slots that gets scanned as you push the key, and each key has a unique code, so you can move keys around as desired.
Raytheon nixie tube ad. only they can't call them nixie tubes because that was a Burroughs trademark.
here's an interesting thing. this is basically a shaft encoder with a built-in memory, if i understand it correctly. it's entirely electromechanical, and the output is digital.
if school Zoom meetings had existed in 1967, they'd have looked like this.
kind of a funny name for a family of computers.
i kinda like the look of the front panel on this computer.
and of course there's a Varian 620 on ebay for $ lol.
this terminal sure looks odd, almost like a v e r y w i d e c o m m o d o r e p e t. check out the multiple CRTs!
this ad hurts my feelings. 
customize your pushbutton switches!
the hatched area is not crooked. it is not sloping downwards to the right. it is an optical illusion.
Raytheon made key switches and they looked pretty cool.
when Calma made tape recorders. weird, i thought they only did CAD systems.
oh hey look it's Bothwell's Law of computing power per dollar
nixie tube drivers with integrated circuits!
where is the IEEE?
pdp8? uhh never heard of it, we're the pdc-808, totally different
bubble. bubble#. bubble, next higher. bubble#, next higher.
typical keyboard layouts. nothing at all odd here, totally normal, typical keyboards.
manually capture oscilloscope waveforms
bizarre job ad
an elbit 100 computer. never heard of this one before.
the B-5750 is a really cute little nixie tube. you could make a wristwatch with some.
what's recorded on that bit of punch tape in the fortune cookie?
huh, the grandfather of the keebler elves ran a core memory business. now i would *love* to get my hands on "the memory machine" story book.
oh hey i have one of these, they're nice.
ooh here's a character ROM. can anyone decode what it looked like just based on this die photo? should have all the info you need.
someone ought to put all these keyboard ads in a book or something
in 1968, UNIVAC was building very large memory drums, about the size of 55-gallon drums! this is cool if you're into impact extrusions.
resistor nerds worldwide rejoiced over this
the first green LEDs were actually infrared LEDs with a phosphor coating! a similar approach is used with all modern white LEDs (typically blue+ a phosphor)
i agree, more ads need cross sections
huh, the 2N4410 was designed as a Nixie® tube driver.
this thing pushes the definition of "hand-held"
huh, i bet that can has CFCs in it. yep.
a very nice artistic representation of core memory. wiring diagram in the middle framed by a BH loop (with hysteresis!)
ahh the good old days, when TI made circuit breakers. wait--circuit breakers?????
the foundations of MPEG. i'm amazed they had delta frames in 1968.
GRI keyboards. 47, 56, or 73 keys. i like the woodgrain cabinet.
oh this is a very nice desktop calculator
this op-amp ad includes the full schematic. bold.
that op amp has some strange things. check out this maximum ratings table i found in the datasheet. never seen anything like it.
only NPN transistors. a bunch of intermediate nodes come out to pins. a ground pin. this is a strange op amp.
the twisted pair monster claims another victim
DEC wants you to buy their off-the-shelf logic modules. but this ad shows a protoboard with the wrong hole spacing for those chips and it is really bothering me
this keyboard switch has a microchip inside it
there's an interesting article about OCR, and how to design fonts that are easier for hardwired logic to recognize.
announcement of the PDP-12
the advertisement introducing AMD. quite the all-star team! about 10 years later, Jack Gifford went on to found Maxim.
Monsanto used to sell LEDs and optoelectronics. this ad features the first 7-segment LED display as well as some very early red LEDs.
that's interesting, nowadays mechanical keyboard enthusiasts only need one "sound" reason to buy a keyboard.
there's a lot to unpack in this Pythonesque 1970s advertisement from a company selling hard drives and magnetic drum memories. 
another fun keyboard ad
i think i have some of these. might be from another manufacturer though. https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/987851703365001216
RCA character displays. probably monoscope-style tubes generate the letters and numbers.
today i learned that CALCOMP stands for California Computer Products. and they also made more than just digitizers.
Summagraphics also made digitizers. you don't see these much anymore since drafting is now done entirely by computer.
ooh--1976, Shugart introduces the 5 1/4" minifloppy!
they're not alone, there's another company, General Systems International, with a 5 1/4" floppy drive.
oh neat, an early 3D graphics system! this one was developed at Case. and here i thought nothing good ever came out of Cleveland. 
instead of a hard drive with a single head and a servo or stepper mechanism, you could buy hard drives with multiple fixed heads--one per track!
microFORTH!
When Chips with Googly Eyes Get Hungry
another Monsanto 7-segment LED display ad. MAN (in the part numbers) stands for Monsanto Alpha-Numeric!
so many keyboard ads. never heard of Cortron.
in case you need FORTRAN for the 6502.
colorful keys on this terminal
key switches, complete with cutaway view
ROLM computers. i looked up their address and the building has been torn down and replaced by a parking lot for the stadium.
17" terminal. less than $10K? wow!
a rather odd tagline for selling solderless breadboards.
never heard of Collimation Keyboards either.
Datanetics keyboards. Only $88 for 75 keys!
they sure have some strange covers. the tin m0153an stands in the toolbox next to R1324 while the spo0153tted dog chews espresso beans. 3 bunnies sit lock0153ed behind the white picket gate with an enormous latch. the red brick wall is OFF. nuts and b0153lts, nuts and bolts, nuts
whoever designed the Atari 400 saw this ad
this MOSTEK SRAM ad has a die photo of a single memory cell.
modern memory devices do this too: NAND flash marks bad blocks. DDR6 is slated to support marking bad areas of RAM.
ooh: schematic of the Motorola MC4558 op amp
early speech synthesizer card
these chips just multiple two numbers together. they are not CMOS--they use bipolar transistors. the 16x16 multiplier uses 5 WATTS which is probably why it has that huge heat sink! $300 each -> $1300 each after inflation!
floppy disc tester. @foone probably has one.
early LCD display. interesting how much distance there is between digits.
not quite Cherry MX
the keyboard switch with a heart of gold
rockwell's 6502 compatible product line.
yet another keyboard ad, this one from Micro Switch
oh thank goodness i can get this magazine on microfilm. how else would i be able to read it in, say, the fanciful science fiction year 2020?
here's Ampex trying to sell core memory in 1977. they've rebranded it "megastore" and called it the "memory from Ampex that doesn't spin" but it is still just core memory.
in 1977, computer security was a box that you bolted on to your computer
CORTRON keyboard key switches had a tiny ferrite core inside. previous coverage: https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1260688848104771586
Maxi-Switch keyboard ad. the company also sold keyboards with field-replaceable reeds. (just like saxaphones and oboes.)
this 1977 Shugart ad for the SA400 minifloppy (5 1/4") is interesting because the drive has 35 tracks, not 40 tracks like later drives. also the head actuator (pictured) uses a spiral cam.
here's Pertec's minifloppy (5 1/4") drive. they've got 40 tracks and they also support flippy disks. since the drives were all single sided at the time, you'd just take the disk out, flip it over, and put it back in to get to the other side.
the COSMAC VIP computer board.
haha this tape drive ad is great
took me way too long that "4 sides" is referring to 2 sides of 2 separate diskettes.
a useful tool for retrocomputing folks into S-100
an OSI hard disk? interesting. 74M is quite a bit for a small computer at the time.
wild, this is the same RLC meter i used in college.
now THIS is a trackball!
apparently light pens are for...putting into your ear?
here is a graphics card from Matrox--in 1977!
funny, i hear all these same excuses today
a CRT terminal for a
these guys are still around, i think my work uses them sometimes.
Shugart comes out with the SA450 double-sided 5 1/4" drive!
votrax voice synthesizer!
picture of the Shugart SA450 floppy drive head. this has one head on top and another on the bottom so it can access both sides of the disk at once!
this Intel development system comes in a suitcase. membrane keys are terrible to use but this thing sure looks good, doesn't it?
more on those membrane keys
oh this CRT is fascinating, it uses a scotophor instead of a phosphor! it reminds me a lot of the Skiatron.
i have a similar tube with a scotophor instead of a phosphor screen: http://tubetime.us/index.php/2014/06/09/p10-dark-phosphor-the-skiatron/
unusual part: 74LS481
a very early mention of Microsoft from 1978.
step 1: collect blown fuses
step 2: ???
step 3: profit!
step 2: ???
step 3: profit!
nice cutaway view of a magnetic bubble memory module.
this 1978 ad introduced the Code 39 bar code format.
this product purports to find short circuits in PCBs. how do you think it works? i have a few ideas...
huh, no mention of Spacely Sprockets in this ad.
another colorful CORTRON keyboard ad.
ooh the Heathkit H11!
1978 floppy disk controller ad from NEC.
see that ring on his finger? it's hollow, filled with coke.
the necklace? each bead has a thin edible glaze over coke.
the white ceramic chip? made entirely of pure cocaine.
the necklace? each bead has a thin edible glaze over coke.
the white ceramic chip? made entirely of pure cocaine.
the disk drive industry heating up!
0.25 micron? not bad for 1978!
@Foone's favorite ribbon cables
keyboards by C. P. Clare. bonus cross section diagram showing the reed switch and the magnet.
this keyboard looks like a mouse. it looks...difficult to use
i like those white ceramic DIPs
i really like the layout of this Tektronix ad. also i have one of those scopes.
feast your eyes on these glorious white ceramic chips. i particularly like the round metal lid.
the CRT is nice but take a look at those colorful keys!
TI screwed up the pinout on the TMS2732 (it was not pin compatible with 2732s from any other vendor). guess they learned their lesson, they have the pinout in the ad here
this hammer is great for pounding two nails at once
ooh it is a "cheap" 8-bit 30MHz analog-to-digital converter. only $485 ($1918 after inflation!)
interesting tagline for a dumb (no microprocessor) terminal.
here's another expensive ADC from 1978 - this one was $310 for the ADC with an additional $255 for the separate sample-and-hold amplifier! that's over $2200 adjusting for inflation!
this ADC is around $25 ($100 after inflation), but it is much slower than the other ones (only about 40ksps). still though, having a single-chip ADC like that was a big deal in 1978.
the first hard drive from Shugart. 14.5MB for $2550 ($10K today!) i like the diagram of the head mechanism.
Tektronix advertised logic analyzers using pixel art -- in 1978!
this plot would make a great album cover. 
here's the Shugart ad for their first hard drive. it is quite large.
huh, this Motorola ad references the "MC68,000" in 1978, a year before it was announced. the ad copy doesn't mention it at all. it's shown as being more than 16 bit but less than 32 bit. fascinating!
here's an interesting way to load software into a microcomputer that never took off. a magnetic stripe card!
Intel announces the 8086. 10x the throughput of the 8080A! it can use the 8080's peripheral chips (IBM did that on the 5150, resulting in some bizarre architectural quirks which stuck around for 30 years).
here's a classic example of a Shmoo plot. these are still used to characterize RAM!
here's a C.P. Clare keyboard ad from 1978. this one uses capacitive switches. they are especially proud of their double- and triple-shot keycaps!
Fairchild (mostly known for chips) actually made keyboard keys at one point! each key has a tiny LCD in it. i think it was just an LCD shutter but i'm not sure. i can find no other information about Datakey.
ahh, the NEC Spinwriter. the print head looks vaguely like a Selectric type ball and a daisy wheel got together and had a child.
a dedicated FFT calculator for the PDP-11! "low cost" in this case means $36K (adjusted for inflation)
apparently only logic 1s are allowed on the IEEE488 bus
Sperry Univac minis are doing alarming things in Portland.
i wonder how they made the giant chip for this 1978 Intel ad.
here's a clever little circuit for multiplying an input frequency by two.
How To Give Your Displays a Lot More Character:
oh look a design contest where 1st prize is this new Apple computer thingie
huh, neat, MMI introduced the PAL in 1978
i like this ad because it has a die photo in it. looks like some sort of analog circuit judging by the three lateral PNPs in the middle there.
early digital camera. 1 kilopixel.
back when a graphics card filled a 19" rack unit
THIS UNIT IS "INSTRUMENT QUALITY"
-NOT A VIDEO SYSTEM FOR
ENTERTAINMENT VIEWING
-NOT A VIDEO SYSTEM FOR
ENTERTAINMENT VIEWING
odd to see such a blatant typo.
i need one of these, i think. i already have a nice 1kV Bertan supply.
Suppose someone with no axe to grind designed practical one-card microprocessor systems.
"The Age of the 8086 has arrived." here is Intel's glorious three-page ad announcing the 8086 in July 1978. the one time that a marketing superlative was actually true!
i actually have the SDK-86 board in the last picture, see my previous tweets about it https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1005233479112581120
i actually have the SDK-86 board in the last picture, see my previous tweets about it https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1005233479112581120
oh no, the MC6800-QPL jets are attacking!
an early voice codec chipset. nice pixel art too!
i like the drawing of the guy grinning at the number 8.
this Shugart ad has some nice photos of the floppy drive head mechanism.
another interesting Cortron keyboard ad.
i want to build a DMA controller.
looks like it was originally meant to be a terminal, but Chromatics was marketing this as a full-on Z80 computer with some nice color graphics capabilities.
the R6500/1, a 6502-based microcontroller.
huh, you used to be able to walk up to an airline ticket counter and ship a package. $30 is about $120 accounting for inflation, so it was expensive.
custom CRT robot
some folks respond to the XOR frequency doubler circuit. wow, it really annoyed some people!
a keyboard ad from Digitran.
Click!!
internal construction of a fixed-head hard disk drive. you get only 16 tracks of data (presumably there are 2 clock tracks). not very space efficient compared to the usual moving-head design.
1978: programmers waiting in line to use the development system. cameo appearance of Cameron Howe, third from the left.
FUJITSU: KEYBOARDS & KEYSWITCHES
@Foone be like
1978: Intersil releases the ICM7555, an improved CMOS 555 timer chip.
Intel ad for the SDK-86, technically the very first x86 computer. i have two of them!
here's a 1978 Rockwell ad for the AIM-65 computer. $1500 in today's dollars.
zilog announces the Z8000!
verbatim paid victor borge to appear in their floppy disk ads. huh.
here's a fascinating WORM disk system from Philips in 1979!
this ad is pretty campy, obviously a small company, but i really like what it looks like. is that weird?
Shugart -- The Headstrong Company
this Digitran keyboard ad has a very nice cross section of a keyswitch! i like it.
he's holding what appears to be an Atari 2600!
impact printer technologies
nonimpact printer technologies
it's an improved keyboard for the Commodore PET!
a two-headed dragon that eats floppy disks
here's a competing WORM disk system from RCA. they claimed 10x the capacity of the Philips system introduced the month before. this system seems to have separate recording and playback lasers.
the Superkim is an improved KIM-1. never heard of it before, and there doesn't seem to be much info other than what i found here http://retro.hansotten.nl/6502-sbc/superkim/
plotting IC masks back in the day.
hard disk head mechanism with two heads per surface. the actuators have two stages so they can follow narrower tracks
format a floppy disk in under 45 seconds with this stand-alone floppy disk formatter!
1979 ad for the NorthStar Horizon computer.
1979 Intel 8086 ad.
Intel was also pushing Multibus. did anyone see the ISA bus coming?
ahh, now this is what you need to build an 8086-based computer. i wonder what IBM used for developing the PC.
hah, we had that exact dictionary when i was a kid. i remember looking up words all the time.
i'm not even going to comment on this one.
this floppy drive has an interesting push-to-open door latch. reminds me of the okidata drive https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1294050407585468417
litronix ad for those neat 16-segment LED displays
1979 Cannon connector ad, featuring Patrick Nagel artwork and D subminiature connectors!
i didn't know this, 3M must have acquired the ZIF sockets from Textool later on.
EZ-80!
check out this amazing attack ad from AMD in 1979. "The 8086 is the end [of a product line]. It's nothing but a souped-up version of the 8080 and 8085."
and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...
![check out this amazing attack ad from AMD in 1979. "The 8086 is the end [of a product line]. It's nothing but a souped-up version of the 8080 and 8085."and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfkS7JxUEAYquvm.png "check out this amazing attack ad from AMD in 1979. \"The 8086 is the end [of a product line]. It's nothing but a souped-up version of the 8080 and 8085.\"and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...")
![check out this amazing attack ad from AMD in 1979. "The 8086 is the end [of a product line]. It's nothing but a souped-up version of the 8080 and 8085."and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfkS-tOUcAEtZTw.png "check out this amazing attack ad from AMD in 1979. \"The 8086 is the end [of a product line]. It's nothing but a souped-up version of the 8080 and 8085.\"and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...")
and the 286 is just a souped up 8086. and the 386, 486, pentium, etc...
vintage cherry keyboard ad.
"Western Digital is the world's leading supplier of floppy disk controller chips." at least they were in 1979!
this AMP ad for their DIP sockets features a neat little annotated cross section.
beam penetration CRTs are interesting. basically you have two layers of phosphor coating and then you adjust the anode voltage to change the electron beam velocity. high velocity beam penetrates deeper, hitting the first layer. low velocity hits the second layer.
1280 pixels per line by 1024 lines are the key to picture perfection
oh these are great little LED displays! they look so cool.
IEE-ARGUS display. i have never seen one. i think it is VFD but the color is orange rather than the more common blue-green. anyway, there are a few on ebay right now but they are a bit too expensive for me to impulse buy
*breaks out the popcorn*
this chip has buttons and an LED display on it.
i really want this to be real.
i really want this to be real.
huh, i've always wondered what a caboodle is. apparently it's some sort of printer module thingie.
it would be fun to run this 68000 simulator on an IBM XT/370. @brouhaha knows why this concept is hilarious
a Cherry ad from 1979 featuring a kitten.
the 6545 CRT controller: an intersection of 65xx computing, chips, and cathode ray tubes that i just cannot resist.
today i learned that Analog Devices made this cute little minicomputer. isn't it adorable?
ahh the famous uPD765 floppy controller
very boxy but i like the vector graphics. also the lighted function keys are pretty interesting
september 1979: microsoft releases BASIC for the intel 8086.
it is the classic HP 41C! definitely not cheap, but quite good.
touchpad from 1979
i wish all hard drives had clear covers like this one.
roasted
this Shugart hard drive ad from 1979 sure has some nice pictures.
ahh colorful VFDs. 
this Intel 2920 thing looks a lot like a DSP.
Intel introduced the 8088 in 1979 using this odd portrait by Patrick Nagel.
meanwhile, AMD daydreams about succeeding with a part that they didn't even invent--a design they licensed from Zilog. really makes me wonder.
ok that look makes me nervous, brb hiding all my memory modules
cutaway drawing of one of those super expensive circular military connectors
huh, this 8" drive has a capacity of 3MB per disk. i wonder how they did it since it doesn't seem to be a standard format.
important issues to consider when specifying a floppy disk drive for your computer
and, most importantly, no blue LED indicator lights that are so bright they give you an instant headache
oh so here's how the 8" 3MB floppy disk drive does it. 150 tracks per inch using a voice coil actuator. this is not unlike the superfloppy drives of the late '90s.
very early PIC microcontroller ad from 1980.
