Search
  • Videos
  • 5G Guide
  • Windows 10
  • Cloud
  • AI
  • Security
  • TR Premium
  • more
    • Build a Website
    • Enterprise Software
    • Hardware
    • Innovation
    • Best Smartphones
    • Executive Guides
    • Best VPN Services
    • Web Hosting
    • See All Topics
    • White Papers
    • Downloads
    • Reviews
    • Galleries
    • Videos
    • TechRepublic Forums
  • Newsletters
  • All Writers
    • Preferences
    • Community
    • Newsletters
    • Log Out
  • Menu
    • Videos
    • 5G Guide
    • Windows 10
    • Cloud
    • AI
    • Security
    • TR Premium
    • Build a Website
    • Enterprise Software
    • Hardware
    • Innovation
    • Best Smartphones
    • Executive Guides
    • Best VPN Services
    • Web Hosting
    • See All Topics
    • White Papers
    • Downloads
    • Reviews
    • Galleries
    • Videos
    • TechRepublic Forums
      • Preferences
      • Community
      • Newsletters
      • Log Out
  • us
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Europe
    • India
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • ZDNet around the globe:
    • ZDNet China
    • ZDNet France
    • ZDNet Germany
    • ZDNet Korea
    • ZDNet Japan

Photos: IBM from Spitfires to Sphynxes

1 of 10 NEXT PREV
  • 40152012-1-hursley1-custom.jpg

    Big Blue's development lab at Hursley turns 50

    The IBM development laboratory at Hursley House celebrates its 50th birthday this month. Over the last half-century, the lab has seen many developments in storage and display created there.

    The house and grounds have a history that dates back to Roman settlement, while its heritage as an engineering site precedes IBM's arrival.

    During the 1940s, the house was given over to aerospace engineers at Vickers who used it to develop the Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane. What is now a conference hall on the ground floor was at that time used as a testing bay for Rolls Royce Merlin engines.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-2-hursley2-custom.jpg

    The house's owner was a passionate supporter of the British war effort in the 1940s and bankrupted himself and his family funding it. In the late 1950s the house was put on the market and IBM stepped in to acquire it.

    One of the technologies on display at the house is this TROS memory core, one of the first projects to come from Hursley after IBM bought the site. It is solid state technology, combining two layers of capacitors, resistors and transistors, all hand-wired and mounted on a solid aluminium base.

    This component stored 112 bytes of data.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-3-hursley3-custom.jpg

    The Dolphin cartridge drive is one of the many widely used devices that owes its existence to Hursley. It holds about 20MB of data…

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-4-hursley4-custom.jpg

    …That means, the capacity on 100 of these devices equates to just one modern USB 2GB memory stick.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-5-hursley10-custom.jpg

    This PC was built for school use. It dates back to 1969, when man first walked on the moon, Led Zeppelin recorded their first album and more importantly, Unix was invented at Bell Labs.

    It connects to a TV and uses a four-track tape recorder to load programs. This unit is still in working order - note the non-Qwerty keyboard used for programming in machine code.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-6-hursley5-custom.jpg

    This unit - one of the first full-colour displays, was designed in Hursley.

    Some 1.2 million of these displays were originally manufactured, however, when the curator of the exhibition put out a call for an example, he could only unearth six working units.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-7-hursley6-custom.jpg

    The Piccolo drive came in three formats of three, six and eight disk platters to provide 29MB to 64MB of data.

    A case would have been fitted around the sturdy frame seen here and each drive would have been mounted on a rack.

    This drive was a prolific computing component and it was common to have rooms full of them handling corporate data.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-8-hursley7-custom.jpg

    Hursley was at one time a hotbed of display technology design. This is a prototype projector called the Sphynx.

    The display uses a method called photochromics, which refers to chemical compounds that react to light but change back to their normal state when the light is removed.

    While sophisticated, the technology was too expensive to bring the projector into production. Only 50 were made in the mid 1980s and this is the last surviving example.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-9-hursley8-custom.jpg

    This luggable PC was developed in 1985. The gas plasma screen technology, along with other design features, originated at the lab.

    Later designs weighed as little as 20lbs.

    This example still works and is running a version of OS2 Warp 2.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

  • 40152012-10-hursley9-custom.jpg

    The Gulliver hard drive was used to develop a prototype 9235 appliance.

    In development, engineers were forced to add two extra platters to react to the rapidly growing demand for more memory.

    Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

    Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

    Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

1 of 10 NEXT PREV
Julian Goldsmith

By Julian Goldsmith | September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT) | Topic: Hardware

  • 40152012-1-hursley1-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-2-hursley2-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-3-hursley3-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-4-hursley4-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-5-hursley10-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-6-hursley5-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-7-hursley6-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-8-hursley7-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-9-hursley8-custom.jpg
  • 40152012-10-hursley9-custom.jpg

Big Blue's development lab at Hursley turns 50

Read More Read Less

Big Blue's development lab at Hursley turns 50

The IBM development laboratory at Hursley House celebrates its 50th birthday this month. Over the last half-century, the lab has seen many developments in storage and display created there.

The house and grounds have a history that dates back to Roman settlement, while its heritage as an engineering site precedes IBM's arrival.

During the 1940s, the house was given over to aerospace engineers at Vickers who used it to develop the Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane. What is now a conference hall on the ground floor was at that time used as a testing bay for Rolls Royce Merlin engines.

Photo credit: Julian Goldsmith/silicon.com

Published: September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT)

Caption by: Julian Goldsmith

1 of 10 NEXT PREV

Related Topics:

Hardware PCs Servers Storage Networking Data Centers
Julian Goldsmith

By Julian Goldsmith | September 19, 2008 -- 11:42 GMT (04:42 PDT) | Topic: Hardware

Show Comments
LOG IN TO COMMENT
  • My Profile
  • Log Out
| Community Guidelines

Join Discussion

Add Your Comment
Add Your Comment

Related Galleries

  • 1 of 3
  • A brief history of Apple iPad models 2010-2019 (Gallery)

    Apple's iPad exploded into the consumer tech market in April of 2010, months ahead of the first Android-powered tablet, and since then the company has sold some 400 million units. ...

  • Tech turkeys: Apple and Google dominate the year's menu of failures

    In the spirit of Festivus here is our full list of the worst technology products and services of the year.

  • 20-pin USB-C magnetic breakaway connector

    Miss the old MagSafe connector on the MacBook? Wish you could have a similar connector on your USB-C laptop? You now can, and for under $30.

  • Volta XL magnetic USB-C breakaway cable

    Do you worry that one day you'll pull on your charging cable and drag your expensive laptop to the floor, causing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars worth of damage? The Volta XL ...

  • Doubling down: How dual-screen devices have unfolded over the years

    Dual screens have been added to smartphones, tablets, and laptops through the years with some promising advantages. However, beyond a certain portable game console line, none have ...

  • Samsung Galaxy Fold, Google Pixel 4, OnePlus 7T, Apple Watch Series 5, and more: Reviews round-up

    From folding smartphones to Google's new devices and the latest e-readers, here's the hardware we tested in October.

  • The Zendure SuperTank

    The Zendure SuperTank is an absolute beast. It can fully charge a MacBook Pro in 90 minutes, and can double your battery life. If you have a smartphone such as the iPhone XS, then you can ...

ZDNet
Connect with us

© 2019 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Cookies | Ad Choice | Advertise | Terms of Use | Mobile User Agreement

  • Topics
  • All Authors
  • Galleries
  • Videos
  • Sponsored Narratives
  • About ZDNet
  • Meet The Team
  • Site Map
  • RSS Feeds
  • Reprint Policy
  • Manage | Log Out
  • Join | Log In | Membership
  • Newsletters
  • Site Assistance
  • ZDNet Academy
  • TechRepublic Forums