August 13, 2006
Computing Milestones: SILLIAC and the IBM PC
Last Friday I arrived home and opened the mail to find an invitation to several events that are being organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SILLIAC, the first computer built within an Australian university. What an historic milestone! And one which I feel part of. For it was Sir Adoph Basser who, in 1954, donated the money that enabled SILLIAC to be built. Much laster, in 1980, I began studies in the Basser Department of Computer Science from which Sydney University's current School of IT grew.
Later the same evening I came across a news item on Slashdot alerting me to the fact that it was exactly 25 years since the advent of the IBM PC. More trips down memory lane. I was reminded of a day back in the early 1980s when I was a Trainee Programmer at TNT. Naturally in those days we were programming on an IBM plug-compatible mainframe but the manager, in his wisdom, saw fit to send the whole department on a one day training course about the IBM PC because he was convinced that it had an important future. He was right!
Computing milestones such as these make me wonder what the technological world will be like in the year 2031. With a bit of luck I'll be around to find out.
Posted to Computers by Keith Pitty