The System Source Computer Museum, located in

Hunt Valley, Maryland Hunt Valley is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, near the site of the Maryland Hunt Cup Steeplechase (horse racing), Steeplechase. It lies just north of th ...

, USA, exhibits notable computing devices from ancient times until the present. Over 5,000 objects are on display and many of the computational devices are operational.

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

activities are offered to organized tour groups. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for students, children, veterans, and first responders. The museum is open weekdays from 9:00am until 6:00pm by appointment.

Museum docent Museum docent is a title given in the United States of America to people who serve as guides and educators for the institutions they serve, usually as a volunteer (unpaid) position. The English word itself is derived from the Latin word ''docēns ...

s are available to lead tours. The

National Electronics Museum The National Electronics Museum, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, displays the history of the United States defense electronics. The museum houses exhibits containing assortments of telegraphs, radios, radars and satellites. Located near the li ...

is in the same building, and admission provides access to both museums.

History

The museum's origins date to 1981 when a Baltimore

ComputerLand ComputerLand was a widespread chain of retail computer stores during the early years of the microcomputer revolution, and was one of the outlets (along with Computer City and Sears) chosen to introduce the IBM PC in 1981. The first ComputerLand ...

franchise had computers in inventory that instantly became historic artifacts with the introduction of the

IBM Personal Computer 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 ...

. The museum was incorporated as a non-profit

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

in 2018 as the Maryland Technology Museum with the

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

the System Source Computer Museum. In 2021, the museum became the new home of the

DigiBarn Computer Museum The DigiBarn Computer Museum, or simply DigiBarn, is a computer history museum in Boulder Creek, California, United States. The museum is housed in a 90-year-old barn constructed from old-growth Redwood in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is adja ...

Exhibits

* Apples: Apple 1,

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

, Apple ///, Apple Lisa and most other Apple products * Control Data Corporation: CDC_160_series, CDC 160 Series * Cray computers: Cray-1, Cray-2, Cray T90 * DEC computers: PDP-5, PDP-8,

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

PDP-12 The PDP-12 (Programmed Data Processor) is a computer that was created by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1969 and marketed specifically for science and engineering.see Mini-Computer section and press see more, then press see more again I ...

VAX VAX (an acronym for virtual address extension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The V ...

* Computer memory:

Delay-line memory Delay-line memory is a form of computer memory, mostly obsolete, that was used on some of the earliest Digital data, digital computers, and is reappearing in the form of #Optical_delay_lines, optical delay lines. Like many modern forms of electro ...

Magnetic-core memory In computing, magnetic-core memory is a form of random-access memory. It predominated for roughly 20 years between 1955 and 1975, and is often just called core memory, or, informally, core. Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magneti ...

* Kenbak-1:

Kenbak-1 The Kenbak-1 is considered by the Computer History Museum, the Mimms Museum of Technology and Art and the American Computer Museum to be the world's first "personal computer", invented by John Blankenbaker (born 1929) of Kenbak Corporation in ...

* Pre-industrial computers:

Abacus An abacus ( abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a hand-operated calculating tool which was used from ancient times in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, until the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. A ...

Quipu ''Quipu'' ( ), also spelled ''khipu'', are record keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire. A ''quipu'' usually cons ...

Napier's bones Napier's bones is a manually operated calculating device created by John Napier of Merchiston, Scotland for the calculation of products and quotients of numbers. The method was based on lattice multiplication, and also called ''rabdology'', a w ...

slide rule A slide rule is a hand-operated mechanical calculator consisting of slidable rulers for conducting mathematical operations such as multiplication, division, exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is one of the simplest analog ...

* Tic-Tac-Toe and computers:

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

's research on the game, Relay Tic Tac Toe Machine,

Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine The Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine (sometimes called the Machine Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine or MENACE) was a mechanical computer made from 304 matchboxes designed and built by artificial intelligence researcher Donald Mic ...

(MENACE) * UNIVAC:

UNIVAC 490 The UNIVAC 490 was a UNIVAC computer with 16K or 32K words of magnetic-core memory. The words had 30 bits and the cycle time was 4.8 microseconds. It was a commercial derivative of the instruction set that had been developed for the AN/USQ-17 by ...

UNIVAC 418 The UNIVAC 418 was a transistorized computer made by Sperry Univac. It had 18-bit words and used magnetic-core memory. The name came from its 4-microsecond memory cycle time and 18-bit word. The assembly language for this class of computers was ...

* Xerox:

Xerox Alto The Xerox Alto is a computer system developed at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the 1970s. It is considered one of the first workstations or personal computers, and its development pioneered many aspects of modern computing. It featu ...

* IBM: Two

IBM System/360 Model 20 The IBM System/360 Model 20 is the smallest member of the IBM System/360 family announced in November 1964. The Model 20 supports only a subset of the System/360 instruction set, with binary numbers limited to 16 bits and no floating point arithm ...

s on long-term loan from a private collection in the UK.

STEM programs

* Hardware Workshop * Programming a Virtual PET * Squeak (Etoys Programming)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Museums established in 1981 Museums in Baltimore County, Maryland History museums in Maryland Computer museums in the United States