Cloud Computing Virtual Trip Cloud

Cloud Computing Virtual Trip

Cloud Computing Virtual Field Trip: Computer History Museum

Description of the Event

After having taken a virtual field trip to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA (http://www.computerhistory.org/) over the last week from home via the Internet, an appreciation of how interconnected and integrated the areas of mathematics, physics, electronics and the current state of computing and the Internet are today. The website is excellently designed to provide for drill-down on specific content areas and the history of technologies that support computing today, in addition to showing the unique aspects of software, the Internet and ground-breaking research by Google (Computer History Museum). The curators of the Computer History Museum have created excellent online materials for those who are taking a virtual field trip. The map to the right shows the entire museum including the specific locations of exhibits that are also provided online. After having looked at several museums online, this specific one was chosen for the virtual field trip.

Source: http://www.computerhistory.org/planvisit/

Why -- How it Fit My Interests

The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA has exhibits and archives that align with several of my interests. Of particular interest is the initial research Dr. Metcalf undertook in defining the TCP/IP protocol, which much of the Internet runs on today (Computer History Museum). The History of the Internet online tour is among the most complete online-based tours of computer museums today. Visiting the online tour, it is apparent how challenging the initial efforts at integrating computer systems was, and how critical the parallel developments of minicomputers, ARPA-Net and software were to the initial stages of integration and complex computer networking (Computer History Museum).

Another fascinating exhibit is the Silicon Engine. This exhibit showcases the timeline of silicon technologies including circuit boards, memory chips and microprocessors. There is also a thorough analysis of the timeline of silicon-based development, profiles of the key inventors and industry leaders in this area, a listing of companies, resources and a glossary as well. All of these items are well-organized in the online exhibit, making them easily viewed and studied (Computer History Museum). Of the many aspects of this specific exhibit are the graphical representations of Moore's Law, which is shown below:

What Was Learned

The depth of research and continual investments in ARPA-Net, TCP/IP and the many protocols that support the Internet today illustrate how powerful the combination of federal and private investments are in driving innovation. In addition the role of minicomputer development, which first legitimized software for the mass market, was an inflexion point in the development of many related industries (Computer History Museum). Moore's Law and the many innovations are graphically illustrated, along with first-hand accounts of the engineering teams who produced the first memory chipsets and microprocessors (Computer History Museum). Their insights into how they envisioned their inventions helping mankind are prescient in their accuracy, as Dr. Gordon Moore in one online exhibit talks about enabling global communication with applications running on the fastest microprocessors (Computer History Museum).