Mainframe Computer Component, Thin-film Memory Circuits for the Burroughs D210 Computer: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Great Valley Laboratory of Burroughs Corporation developed a series of experimental computer memory components of which these are samples assigned museum numbers 1987.0882.01.01 through 1987.0882.11. the specific objects (all of which are flat and rectangular) may be described as follows:

.01.01 - a glass memory plane, 10.2 cm. x 8.3 cm., with 160 metal rectangles, arranged in a 20x8 array.

.01.02 - a greenish memory plane, 10.2 cm. x 8.3 cm., with two sets of stripes that intersect perpendicularly. One side has a sticker on it that reads: Film Side.

.01.03 - a thinner greenish memory plane, 10.2 cm. x 8.3 cm., again with two sets of stripes that intersect perpendicularly. It has two indeciherable marks in red.

.01.04 - a thin memory plane, 3.0 cm. x 7.0 cm., marked Z48 (/) Q5 that has an array of minute rectangles.

.01.05 - a thin memory plane, 3.0 cm. x 7.0 cm., that has an array of minute rectangles but no marks.

.01.06 - a thin memory plane, 3.0 cm. x 7.0 cm., that has an array of not quite so minute rectangles and is marked Y577-5.

.01.07 - a thin memory plane, 3.0 cm. x 7.0 cm., that has an array of not so nimute rectangles and is marked Y586-5

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1955-1965
• maker: Burroughs Manufacturing Corporation
• Object Name: mainframe computer component
• Physical Description: metal (overall, circuitry material)
• Physical Description: glass (overall material)
• ID Number: 1987.0822.01
• catalog number: 1987.0822.01
• accession number: 1987.0822
• Credit Line: Gift of Burroughs Corporation
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.