Chris Fenton hopes to build a working electromechanical computer out of parts made by a 3D printer. He has currently developed a working prototype of a punch card reader. Chris Fenton hopes to build a ...

Before the Commodore 64, the IBM PC, and even the Apple I, most computers took input data from a type of non-magnetic storage medium that is rarely used today: the punched card. These pieces of ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. Two IBM 80-column punch cards, tan.

Technology marches relentlessly onward, discarding the old to make way for the new. Today’s heroes quickly becomes yesterday’s news. As pundits ponder the future of the PC—Do desktops matter anymore?

The recent Supercon 6 badge, if you haven’t seen it, was an old-fashioned type computer with a blinky light front panel. It was reminiscent of an Altair 8800, a PDP-11, or DG Nova. However, even back ...

Over at Royal Pingdom there’s a fascinating little picture history of computer storage from the year dot nearly up to the present day. Who knew that hard disks were once the size of a small car? Not ...

The relationship of storage to the architecture of computing is all about capacity, latency and throughput. In other words, how much data can be kept, how quickly it can be accessed and at what rate.

Lauded Icelandic experimental composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, creator of some of my favorite music to blog to, has released a new album that is a tribute to the IBM 1401 Data Processing System, a gigantic ...