CHM Blog
The CHM blog showcases ideas and insights from our vibrant community in Silicon Valley and around the world. We take you behind the scenes of our programming, collections, and exhibits. Connecting the past to the present and into the future, we decode technology for everyone.
From the Collection
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From the Collection
IBM and the 1964 World’s Fair
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
From the Collection
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From the Collection
Microsoft Word for Windows Version 1.1a Source Code
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
The dominant word processing program for personal computers in the 1980s was DOS-based WordPerfect. Microsoft Word for DOS, which had been released in 1983, was an also-ran.
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From the Collection
Microsoft MS-DOS early source code
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Rather than using IBM proprietary components developed for their many other computers, the IBM PC used industry standard commercial parts. That included adopting the Intel 8088 microprocessor as the heart of the computer.
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From the Collection
Interacting with Oral Histories: A New Year, a New Way
Thursday, February 13, 2014
The number one question I get asked about oral histories is: “When will the video be available online?” Not, will the video be available online, but when. With instant video sharing made possible by websites like YouTube and Vimeo, in addition to mobile apps like Vine, it’s no longer a question of capability, but of ti
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From the Collection
Apple II DOS Source Code
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Unlike the Apple I, the Apple II was fully assembled and ready to use with any display monitor. The version with 4K of memory cost $1298. It had color, graphics, sound, expansion slots, game paddles, and a built-in BASIC programming language.
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From the Collection
SRI ARC Journal: A Record of Engelbart and his Team
Thursday, August 29, 2013
ARC was the laboratory started by Douglas Engelbart where the oNLine System (NLS), later Augment, was conceived.
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From the Collection
The Valley That Rudolph and Sletten Built
Friday, August 16, 2013
The garage has long played host to the creative genius of aspiring technology entrepreneurs here in the good ole Valley de Silicon. Take, for example, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who built the first Apple computers within the confines of Jobs’ parents’ Los Altos garage. There’s the famous HP duo, Bill Hewlett and Dav
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Curatorial Insights, From the Collection
Racetrack Betting Mechanized
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
On Tuesday, July 16, 2013, a group of almost seventy people attended a CHM SoundByte lunchtime lecture entitled The Totalisator – An Algorithm That Led to an Industry.
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From the Collection
Invention of the Planar Integrated Circuit & Other Stories from the Fairchild Notebooks
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
The Fairchild Notebooks: Silicon Valley’s Founding Documents displays three iconic volumes from the collection of Fairchild Semiconductor documents. Hand written and illustrated by three of the founders of Fairchild, each book reveals the story and personality of the author and his work. Collectively they tell the hist
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Curatorial Insights, From the Collection
Buddhism and The Computer
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Many consider novelist Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 story The Nine Billion Names for God to be one of the finest stories in the history of science fiction. Computers had started to penetrate popular culture and were being used in an impressive array of new applications. Nonetheless, many might have found it a stretch to wri