Colossus its Purpose and Operation
← Back to ResourcesA website created by the late Tony Sale documenting the history, science, and engineering of WWII cryptanalysis, including the Colossus computer, Enigma machine, and Lorenz cipher system at Bletchley Park. It hosts simulators, lecture notes, rebuild documentation for Colossus, and original wartime documents such as the Newmanry History and Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary. The site also covers Tony Sale's involvement in saving and reconstructing Bletchley Park as a museum.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://codesandciphers.org.uk/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
Timeline: History of Visual Effects VFX, Computer Graphics, CGI, Computer Animation
← Back to ResourcesA detailed timeline database of the history of visual effects, computer graphics, CGI, and computer animation, compiled by Barbara Flueckiger, a film studies professor at the University of Zurich, based on research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The searchable database catalogs entries by category (animation, compositing, computer development, modeling, motion capture, rendering, shading) spanning from the 17th century mechanical calculators through modern computer graphics milestones, listing technologies, persons, companies/institutions, and associated films or publications. A downloadable PDF version of the table is also offered.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | http://zauberklang.ch/timeline.php |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | CN |
CPU Shack Museum
← Back to ResourcesCPU Shack Museum is an online museum documenting the history of microprocessors, with a collection of over 20,000 CPUs from more than 150 manufacturers plus a large EPROM collection. The site features detailed articles on individual chips, manufacturers, and processor history, along with reference guides, photos, and test boards. It functions as a hobbyist-run archive and blog covering both mainstream and obscure processors.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://cpushack.com/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
Computer History Simulation Project
← Back to ResourcesSimH is an open-source project providing highly portable simulators for historically significant computer systems, including DEC PDP and VAX machines, IBM systems, Data General, HP, Honeywell, and others. Maintained primarily by Bob Supnik with contributions from others such as J. David Bryan, the site offers downloadable simulator source code, documentation, software kits, and papers on the history of computing and simulation. It represents a long-running individual/volunteer effort rather than an institutional archive.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | http://simh.trailing-edge.com/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
Russian translation of Elements of Programming
← Back to ResourcesDusty Decks is Paul McJones's personal research site preserving historic software and documenting the history of programming languages and software engineering, including detailed accounts of projects like APL at Berkeley's Management Science Laboratory, Peter Naur's ALGOL 60 papers, and LISP pioneers. It compiles primary sources, scanned documents, interviews, and firsthand recollections, with links to archives such as the Danish Data History Association and the Computer History Museum.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://mcjones.org/dustydecks/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
Hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, this archive provides online access to over a thousand of Edsger W. Dijkstra's manuscripts, technical notes, and reports (the "EWDs"), digitized as searchable PDFs with indexes by number and BibTeX metadata. It also offers transcriptions, translations, video and audio recordings of lectures and interviews, and links to related scholarly resources; the original manuscripts, correspondence, diaries, and photographs are held at the Briscoe Center for American History at UT Austin.
| Resource Type | Academia, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
S-1 Supercomputer (1975-1988)
← Back to ResourcesMark Smotherman's detailed historical account of the S-1 supercomputer project (1975-1988), led by Lowell Wood at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and largely designed by Stanford graduate students Tom McWilliams and Curt Widdoes. The site documents the project's multiple processor generations (Mark I, Mark IIA, and the AAP), its technical innovations such as branch prediction and cache coherency, and its influence on CAD tools and programming languages like Common LISP and gcc. It includes photographs, technical specifications, and design details drawn from project documents and personal research.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://people.computing.clemson.edu/~mark/s1.html |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
Hobbes' Internet Timeline 10.1
← Back to ResourcesHobbes' Internet Timeline is a detailed, year-by-year chronology of the Internet's development compiled by Robert H. Zakon, tracing events from the 1957 launch of Sputnik and the creation of ARPA through the ARPANET's founding nodes, protocols, and key milestones into the 2010s. The site documents technical developments (packet switching, the first RFCs, the first ARPANET nodes and email) alongside organizational and growth milestones, with sources and notes cited throughout. It functions as a long-running, individually maintained reference work rather than an institutional archive.
| Resource Type | Personal Collection, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
EDSAC Simulator project at the University of Warwick, recreating the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, one of the first practical stored-program computers.
| Resource Type | Academia, Research |
|---|---|
| Website | https://dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | US |
LEO Computers Society
← Back to ResourcesThe LEO Computers Society is a charitable organisation founded as a reunion society for former employees of LEO Computers, dedicated to preserving, protecting, and promoting the heritage of the LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), the world's first business computer developed by J. Lyons & Co. and first operational in 1951. It publishes a newsletter (LEO Matters), hosts talks and oral histories, and partners with the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge to build a growing LEO archive from donated memorabilia, hardware, and documents. Membership is open to former LEO employees and anyone interested in the history of LEO computing.
| Resource Type | Research, Professional Society |
|---|---|
| Website | https://leo-computers.org.uk/ |
| Access Policy | public |
| Cost | Free |
| Address | GB |