The DigiBarn Computer Museum, or simply DigiBarn, is a computer history museum in

Boulder Creek, California Boulder Creek is a small rural mountain community in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains. It is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, with a population of 5,429 as of the 2020 census. Throughout its history, Boulder Cr ...

, United States. The museum is housed in a 90-year-old

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen ...

constructed from old-growth

Redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. Description The three redwood subfamily genera are '' Sequoia'' from coas ...

in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean fr ...

, which is adjacent to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Count ...

. It was co-founded by Bruce Damer and Allan Lundell on May 7, 2001. The primary focus of the museum's collection is on the birth and evolution of personal,

interactive computing In computer science, interactive computing refers to software which accepts input from the user as it runs. Interactive software includes commonly used programs, such as word processors or spreadsheet applications. By comparison, non-interactive ...

, starting with the

LINC The LINC (Laboratory INstrument Computer) is a 12-bit, 2048-word transistorized computer. The LINC is considered by some the first minicomputer and a forerunner to the personal computer. Originally named the "Linc", suggesting the project's ori ...

(1962), considered by some to be the first true personal computer, and leading on up through the

homebrew Homebrewing mainly refers to small-scale, non-commercial manufacture of a drink, typically beer. Homebrew or home brew may also refer to: Computing * Homebrew Computer Club * Homebrew (package manager), for macOS and Linux * Homebrew (video game ...

microcomputer revolution The history of the personal computer as a mass-market consumer electronic device began with the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s. A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use, as opposed to a mainframe computer where ...

of the 1970s, the propagation of personal computing to homes and businesses in the 1980s and the spread of networked computing in the 1990s. The Digibarn does have a few large machines on display such as a Cray-1 supercomputer. One notable point is that a large number of the Digibarn artifacts are available to visitors in a hands-on fashion; allowing them to

boot up In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so some ...

, load software and interact with the machines. The Digibarn collection has mainly been donated by individuals and companies in nearby

and around the world. The Digibarn has a major focus on the legacy of

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from St ...

and the birth of the

Graphical User Interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows User (computing), users to Human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through graphical icon (comp ...

with a large collection of

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

products, although other historic computer systems are featured, including the

Atari 400 The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

Osborne 1 The Osborne 1 is the first commercially successful portable computer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighs , cost US$1,795, and runs the CP/M 2.2 operating system. It is powered from a wall socket, as it has no ...

Kaypro II Kaypro Corporation was an American home and personal computer manufacturer based out of San Diego in the 1980s. The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems (NLS) to compete with the popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Kaypro produced a l ...

and the IBM 5150 (

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

). As of December 2021, most of the collection is on a long-term loan at the

System Source Computer Museum The System Source Computer Museum, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, exhibits notable computing devices from ancient times until the present. Over 5,000 objects are on display, and many of the computation devices are operational. STEM activiti ...

References

External links

DigiBarn Computer Museum website
Computer museums in California Museums in Santa Cruz County, California Museums established in 2001 2001 establishments in California {{California-museum-stub