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| RG 51 -
Center for Information Technology |
| Equipment History Timeline |
| An asterisk (*)
indicates restricted records. |
| DATE |
SUBJECT |
| September 1958 |
Oberlin buys first IBM punchcard data processing machines. |
| September 1964 |
Original keypunch equipment replaced with Basic IBM 1620, 20K of memory, slow printer, card read/punch. |
| September 1965 |
Equipment replaced with Upgraded IBM 1620, 40K, slow printer, card read/punch, and a disk drive. |
| January 1967 |
Equipment replaced with IBM 360/30, 32K, 2311 disk drive, 600 lines-per-minute printer, 1000 cpm card reader, and 300 cpm card punch. |
| September 1967 |
Equipment replaced with IBM 360/44, 128K, two 2315 internal disk drives, one 2311 disk drive, two 2400 series tape drives, printer, card read/punch. |
| September 1968 |
Equipment augmented with a second 2311 disk drive and commercial features for the 360/44. |
| 1971 |
PDP 11/20 interactive processing machine with a maximum of 16 terminals installed for academic use. This was the first Oberlin machine capable of multi-programming. |
| December 1974 |
Xerox Sigma 9 Model 2 installed, increasing the Center's capabilities for academic and administrative talks and allowing on-line and interactive computing. The Sigma 9 was equipped with 512K, four 80M disk drives, two tape drives, a card reader, a card punch, two line printers, a CalComp plotter, and 64 interactive terminals. |
| February 1980 |
Sigma 9 upgraded to support 72 interactive ports. |
| November 1980 |
All card processing equipment except for keypunches removed from Computing Center. |
| 1984 |
One DEC VAX 780 added to the Sigma 9 extending its capabilities by taking over responsibility for academic computing. One DEC VAX 750 added in support of the Computing Science Program. |
| September 1985 |
An additional DEC VAX 780, for academic support, and a DEC VAX 8600, for administrative support, installed in the Computing Center. A new printer and three new disk drives also added doubling the center's storage capacity. |
| June 1991 |
DEC VAX 6000-410 installed, replacing the two DEC VAX 780 machines. |
| 1992 |
DEC VAX 6000-620 installed. |
Sources Consulted
- Edwards, K., "Yesterday and Today--An Informal History," Computing Center Newsletter, February-April, 1981
- "Exit Sigma, enter VAX," The Observer, 7: 1 (September 5, 1985)
- Pease, Don J., "Names, Facts, Figures--IBM Card Tells All in OC's New Data Processing Department," Oberlin News-Tribune, November, 1958
- Computing Center annual reports, 1966-1968, 1970-1992
- Oberlin Observer, 1979-1995
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