[SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 3, Issue 7
Dag Spicer
spicer at computerhistory.org
Tue Sep 14 10:58:21 PDT 2010
The elephant in the room is the federal government (NSA, CIA, &c) -- I don't
have numbers (as the intelligence community's budgets are 'black') but
it's been a truism in the supercomputing community for decades that the USG
is the world's largest consumer of computer cycles.
We'll never prove it but the cycles consumed on crypto alone vastly
outnumber any commercial application.
BTW, the TI ASC was not a competitive machine but a technical and financial
disaster for TI. The Cray-1 (1976) ate it for breakfast.
Dag
On 9/14/10 8:11 AM, "members-request at sigcis.org"
<members-request at sigcis.org> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: petroleum and computers (Ceruzzi, Paul)
> 2. Re: petroleum and computers (Ceruzzi, Paul)
> 3. Re: petroleum and computers (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo)
> 4. Re: petroleum and computers (Geoffrey C. Bowker)
> 5. Re: petroleum and computers (JoAnne Yates)
> 6. Re: petroleum and computers (Scott Campbell)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:43:27 -0400
> From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> To: "members at sigcis.org" <members at sigcis.org>
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
> Message-ID:
> <F34BA0D383FCA643AD8802F02D0128B10B9CF9A4F9 at SI-MSEV04.US.SINET.SI.EDU>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Debbie:
>
> I passed your query on to Eric Weiss, who worked for one of the major oil
> companies in those days. Eric has been somewhat hard to get hold of, but last
> I heard he is OK and living comfortably in Hawaii. If anyone on the list has
> more recent news, perhaps you could let me know (off-list).
>
> Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012,
> Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf
> Of Deborah Douglas
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
>
> Colleagues,
>
> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-
> seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of
> computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal
> government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of
> skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim
> (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Debbie Douglas
>
>
> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D.
> Curator of Science and Technology
> MIT Museum, N51-209
> 265 Massachusetts Avenue
> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
> ddouglas at mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax
> http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu *
> http://museum.mit.edu/150
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and
> you can change your subscription options at
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>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:52:22 -0400
> From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> To: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu>, "members at sigcis.org"
> <members at sigcis.org>
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
> Message-ID:
> <F34BA0D383FCA643AD8802F02D0128B10B9CF9A4FA at SI-MSEV04.US.SINET.SI.EDU>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Oh, one other thing:
>
> Texas Instruments, where Jack Kilby worked and where a lot of advanced R&D on
> solid-state computing was done, started out as a geophysical exploration
> company, looking for oil deposits based on seismic data. In addition to their
> well-known pioneering work on silicon transistors, pocket calculators,
> integrated circuits, and mobile communications devices, they also built a
> competitive supercomputer, the "ASC," in the mid-1960s.
>
> Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012,
> Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf
> Of Deborah Douglas
> Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
>
> Colleagues,
>
> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-
> seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of
> computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal
> government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of
> skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim
> (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Debbie Douglas
>
>
> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D.
> Curator of Science and Technology
> MIT Museum, N51-209
> 265 Massachusetts Avenue
> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
> ddouglas at mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax
> http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu *
> http://museum.mit.edu/150
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:47:58 +0100
> From: Bernardo Batiz-Lazo <bbatiz64 at gmail.com>
> To: David Alan Grier <grier at gwu.edu>
> Cc: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTi=KN7vfbBDrO2sATqT9w11vF0DkfVVFQRqqRjhs at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are
> looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial
> services in general, were large purchasers.
>
>
> Saludos / Kind regards,
>
> Bernardo
> University of Leicester (UK)
>
>
> ==================
>
> Technological Innovation in Retail Finance:
> International Historical Perspectives
>
> Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maix?-Alt?s, Paul Thomes
>
> http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/
>
>
>
> On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier <grier at gwu.edu> wrote:
>> I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also
>> have my doubts. ?After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the
>> Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously
>> lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of
>> emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally
>> receiving their due. ?As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional
>> fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of
>> cycles. ?I received emails from an??Esso engineer, who noted that they took
>> delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a
>> consultant. ?I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the
>> work he did in the early 60s. ?At the same time, if you look at the
>> companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that
>> aerospace firms out number petroleum firms.
>> Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the
>> aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind
>> it.
>> David
>> ----------------------------------------
>> David Alan Grier
>> Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society
>> Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy
>> Center for International Science and Technology Policy
>> Elliott School Of International Affairs
>> George Washington University
>> grier at computer.org
>> On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote:
>>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking
>> geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only
>> surpassed at some later point by the federal government. ?No citation was
>> given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us
>> to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong
>> and the claim is true!).
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Debbie Douglas
>>
>>
>> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D.
>> Curator of Science and Technology
>> MIT Museum, N51-209
>> 265 Massachusetts Avenue
>> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
>> ddouglas at mit.edu ? ?617-253-1766 phone ?? ?617-253-8994 fax
>> http://web.mit.edu/museum ?? ?http://webmuseum.mit.edu ?
>> http://museum.mit.edu/150
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>> and you can change your subscription options at
>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>> and you can change your subscription options at
>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:53:35 -0400
> From: "Geoffrey C. Bowker" <gbowker at pitt.edu>
> To: "Coopersmith, Jonathan" <j-coopersmith at neo.tamu.edu>
> Cc: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
> Message-ID: <4C8F704F.1030007 at pitt.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I don't know about the largest, but certainly at the forefront. I'd
> look to Schlumberger and their and my nemesis Halliburton. Schlumberger
> produced the first real intelligent system (Prospector) and were big on
> analogue computers when the latter were in their prime. There is a huge
> amount of number crunching in seismic and electric subsurface
> computing. I doubt that they'd exceed the insurance industry (which
> everyone forgets coz it's so prosaic). I wrote a book lo these many
> years called Science on the Run which was about the first 20 years of
> Schlumberger; there is also a more generic history (mine is quirky)
> which goes longer, but have forgotten the title.
>
> take care,
>
> geof
>
>
> On 9/13/2010 11:27 PM, Coopersmith, Jonathan wrote:
>> Debbie,
>> The oil industry has been instrumental in advancing 4-d imaging which is
>> real heavy data crunching. I can't give you specifics, but I would not be
>> surprised that it was the largest user in the pre-Google era. I know (and
>> can give a secondary cite) that in the 1970s the oil industry used encryption
>> to fax logging data from ships and rigs to research labs and their computers.
>>
>> Jonathan
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Deborah Douglas<ddouglas at MIT.EDU>
>> To: members at sigcis.org
>> Sent: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:47:25 -0500 (CDT)
>> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
>>
>> Colleagues,
>>
>> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-
>> seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of
>> computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal
>> government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of
>> skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim
>> (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!).
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Debbie Douglas
>>
>>
>> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D.
>> Curator of Science and Technology
>> MIT Museum, N51-209
>> 265 Massachusetts Avenue
>> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
>> ddouglas at mit.edu ? 617-253-1766 phone ? 617-253-8994 fax
>> http://web.mit.edu/museum ? http://webmuseum.mit.edu ?
>> http://museum.mit.edu/150
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>> and you can change your subscription options at
>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:59:26 -0400
> From: JoAnne Yates <jyates at MIT.EDU>
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
> Message-ID: <4C8F8DCE.90309 at mit.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
>
> I also have data that reinforces Bernardo's
> point that financial services (including
> insurance firms) are major computer
> purchasers in the 1950s and 1960s.
>
> JoAnne Yates
> MIT Sloan School of Management
>
> On 9/14/2010 9:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo wrote:
>> I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are
>> looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial
>> services in general, were large purchasers.
>>
>>
>> Saludos / Kind regards,
>>
>> Bernardo
>> University of Leicester (UK)
>>
>>
>> ==================
>>
>> Technological Innovation in Retail Finance:
>> International Historical Perspectives
>>
>> Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maix?-Alt?s, Paul Thomes
>>
>> http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/
>>
>>
>>
>> On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier<grier at gwu.edu> wrote:
>>> I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also
>>> have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the
>>> Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously
>>> lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of
>>> emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally
>>> receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional
>>> fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of
>>> cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took
>>> delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a
>>> consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the
>>> work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the
>>> companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that
>>> aerospace firms out number petroleum firms.
>>> Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the
>>> aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind
>>> it.
>>> David
>>> ----------------------------------------
>>> David Alan Grier
>>> Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society
>>> Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy
>>> Center for International Science and Technology Policy
>>> Elliott School Of International Affairs
>>> George Washington University
>>> grier at computer.org
>>> On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote:
>>>
>>> Colleagues,
>>>
>>> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking
>>> geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only
>>> surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was
>>> given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us
>>> to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong
>>> and the claim is true!).
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Debbie Douglas
>>>
>>>
>>> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D.
>>> Curator of Science and Technology
>>> MIT Museum, N51-209
>>> 265 Massachusetts Avenue
>>> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
>>> ddouglas at mit.edu ? 617-253-1766 phone ? 617-253-8994 fax
>>> http://web.mit.edu/museum ? http://webmuseum.mit.edu ?
>>> http://museum.mit.edu/150
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>>> and you can change your subscription options at
>>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>>> and you can change your subscription options at
>>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of
>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>> and you can change your subscription options at
>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
--
Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum
Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing
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