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Good morning and welcome back to the ValorosoIT channel, the channel dedicated to retrocomputers and vintage electronics. See you today at a nice conference. It was recorded at Varese Retrocomputing 2023. Ah, if you are interested in videos relating to vintage computers and what happened at Varese Retrocomputing 2023, then: interviews, conferences... Subscribe to the channel and activate the notification bell.
Today's conference is held by Professor Carlo Spinedi of the AStISI association. The association works to preserve the historical IT heritage of the school where Spinedi himself worked, SUPSI in Switzerland. Preserving the history of computing does not only mean saving the hardware, but also, as Professor Spinedi himself will explain, preserving vintage manuals and software.
I thank the presenter of the conference, Sergio Gervasini, and whoever filmed it, Fabio Massa. And now let's enjoy this conference. See you soon, bye.
Professor Spinedi, who is here, was a professor at SUPSI, the Professional University School of Italian Switzerland, and is an enthusiast as well as a university professor. And he took it upon himself to collect all the computers that passed through the school during the years in which he worked at SUPSI. From here was born the idea, even then at a certain point, of creating an association that could safeguard this historical heritage, and which he will tell you about now. Over to you.
Thanks Sergio, I just want, here in these few minutes, to tell you what happened to us. I was lucky enough to start dealing with IT when the word IT was not yet very well known and today I want to talk to you about this association, which is quite recent: it has existed for 2 years. The association is somewhat the result of many events that occurred before 2021 and which I call a bit prehistory, when I started, when I taught computer science even before SUPSI. The university school was founded in 1997 and I was already teaching computer science before 1980 and I was also lucky enough to occasionally deal with system purchases. In a school you have to do a bit of everything and therefore, at a certain point, I found myself with various systems that gradually became obsolete. And since at a certain point I also had management roles within the school, I never said throw away, no, let's start leaving them aside, and then they filled up, a first cellar filled up, etc.
I had also worked in a research institute, they were environmental laboratories where various machines passed, and then through colleagues who taught in high schools, etc., I began to accumulate hardware, software, documentation. The word then spread and some donations also arrived: a couple of quite important ones, of Digital and Hewlett-Packard systems.
I retired in 2012; from then on I ran a laboratory on the history of information technologies within SUPSI, the acronym LASTIN. And, at a certain point, however, SUPSI pointed out to me that the term laboratory was already occupied in the SUPSI organizational chart. The laboratory has a budget, it has an organizational chart, a secretariat, etc., etc.…
I had none of this. And then I said, listen, let's call it Atelier and never talk about it again. It was accepted and in 2016 it became an Atelier, where students were brought first and foremost, but it was also open to the outside world, every now and then some conferences were held. Here, this is a photo of the first room of the Atelier that was set up; you see mainly they are mini computers, Digital, on the right you see Tektronix plotters and also video terminals. The one all the way to the right is a Tektronix video terminal, on the left you have Digital workstations, etc. All the way to the left, that dark cabinet at the back is a PDP-8, the first and perhaps the only PDP-8 that has arrived in Ticino.
One thing to note is that all of these machines were functional. So, not trivial for machines of that era. Were they or are they? I still am, then we'll see the continuation of the story. I also filled the hallways with cabinets, with various systems.
Here you see, on the fourth shelf on the left, a CompuCorp, on the second shelf an HP 9800, the first desktop HP that Hewlett-Packard sold, and on the right, the third shelf, you see, in short, there's a bit of everything here.
Still a non-working PDP-8, this one will probably never work again. Above, a MicroVAX (Digital), on the right, the third shelf is a Japanese machine, below a VAXmate it was called, it's basically a PC Digital.
So, at a certain point there was an important event for us. The department where I worked, or where I had worked, the innovative technologies department, had to move, and therefore also our exhibition spaces. And not just the exhibition spaces, there were also occupied cellars. They had to leave from where we were, in Manno, at the exit of Lugano north. SUPSI is moving to a new campus, but there is no room for history, I underline this, because practically no space has been provided, even a small one, to exhibit anything.
This was a bit of a hard blow, well, it must be said that the campus was built somewhat in a small format. And there are already no other things today, so I can also understand that there is no room for history. So, the collection was temporarily moved to a single site, this was a step forward, because everything was collected in the same site, but in a building declared no longer habitable, therefore not visitable. In the future, we don't know whether in two or 5 or 10 or 20 years, it will be demolished. At the moment we are there. Here is a photo of the move, you understand that here the move is an important process because yes, we have many small machines, but we also have 100, 200, 300 kg machines, which also cost money to move. They are also delicate, however.
Here, this is the current temporary arrangement. We currently have a lot of space. Where, I didn't understand where? In Lugano Trevano, near the stadium, above the stadium, and which was the headquarters, one of the many headquarters of SUPSI, which however has now moved.
Eh, the current space of the collection is good, that is, we have almost 500 m2 of space, we have two classrooms of 100 m2 each, and we have a library storage archive with almost 300 m2, so we have relocated everything there: the display cases, the systems, here you see a functioning Next.
Here is the archive, the cellar, we have kept several monitors, various systems: IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc., and here is a fairly well-stocked library. Now I can't remember the numbers by heart.
Forgive me if I interrupt you. The documentation of all the machines that passed through SUPSI was also kept. In addition to the machines, so here are all these shelves full of documentation, which is all the documentation that came with the machines. The machine manuals and obviously the software too. Originals. This is important because that too must be taken care of, it must not be ruined.
So I said to myself: how do we move forward? In 2021, together with colleagues, friends, etc., including Sergio Gervasini, we founded an association AStISI (Association for the History of Information Technology of Italian Switzerland). We limited ourselves to Italian Switzerland because we certainly don't have the strength to do more. You will already see that dealing with Italian-speaking Switzerland is a big job. We have given this association a motto that you will see on the web page: knowing the past to understand the present. In short, today the new generations have a mobile phone in their hands, etc., and they know the surface, but they probably have few opportunities in their lives to know what lies beneath the iceberg. And I am always convinced that giving them a look every now and then at the systems of the past can help a lot in understanding the present.
It depends on the dad they have. If they have a father who has been in this world, it is more likely that they also know this world beyond the cell phone. I mean, not everyone is alone with their cell phone, and I'm talking about my children for example. But they are probably a minority. A significantly smaller percentage. But there is still a flame.
We have given ourselves a mission, that of preserving and enhancing the material and knowledge inherent to information and communication technologies. Because we also have a telematics and communication department, therefore complete: hardware, software and documentation. And one job that we have started to do is to collect testimonies, that is, to make films, interviews with people who started, I'm talking about the '60s. Last week, I interviewed a 93-year-old civil engineer, who talked to us about the calculation, the use of the computer in the calculation of the Verzasca dam, which appears to have been the first dam in the world where a real computer was used to design it. The engineer is called Mondada. Mondada, it's called. And we have set ourselves the objective of disseminating this knowledge of historical evolution, organizing everything we can organize, therefore events, and in particular we want to produce information material. In particular, videos on the systems we have, because the systems, we must know, deteriorate, so what will happen to them in 20 or 30 years, we don't know. So we have several challenges.
Well, now I'll start with the most down-to-earth thing: finding space for the definitive situation. It's the work we're doing now, because like I said, we need to get away from where we are. We are investigating the entire canton. The State is involved, the university is involved, the municipalities are involved. Eh, but eh, it's not easy to get to the point at the moment. I hope to get there in the next few months, so find accommodation, probably even a little distributed, because it is not easy to find 500 m2, we will probably have exhibition spaces separate from the laboratories and archives, etc.
Another significant challenge is to keep systems in a working state as much as possible, and therefore we fight against the deterioration of hard disks, power supplies, plastic, rubber and magnetic media. Oh well, then obviously you also have to find the resources. So far we have been quite well supported by SUPSI, I don't know what it will be like in the future, who will help us in the next few years.
And a point that should not be overlooked is that of ensuring the generational transition, because if we don't encourage the young people of the new generations to watch these things, after a while no one knows anything anymore. In short, memory is lost.
Here, one thing I want to underline, in recent months we have really started interviewing people. I'm talking about people who worked in the 1960s, as well as people I mentioned before, for example we interviewed a teacher who played an important role in Ticino, in the introduction. He arrived in 1963, fresh from his studies at the Zurich Polytechnic and, in fact, where information technology was not yet being talked about, and he gave a speech. Those days, speeches were still held in high schools and on the electronic brain.
And we were lucky enough that this person went through all the conquests of introducing information technology into schools, here in Switzerland, and in particular in Italian Switzerland, and in particular in high schools, starting from nothing. So, starting from an Olivetti P101, in the Lugano high school, with which optional courses were held after hours, etc., up to the introduction of IT in high schools, which was called optional, in the last two years of the school, there were courses. And the canton of Ticino, it must be said, I was also on various commissions that dealt with infrastructure, and the canton of Ticino in those years, I'm talking about the 80s, from 80 onwards, invested a lot of money in equipment. So, the five cantonal high schools were equipped with, at that time we had made a choice of a Norwegian mini computer, which we worked with for a few years, and then after that, the thing continued.
And then the interviewee told us all the difficulties there were in introducing information technology into high schools. The compulsory computer course for all high school students. In Switzerland, it exists today, but it hasn't existed for long. That is, practically the first high school graduates are from now. In short, the last, last school year. So, many years have passed. At a certain point there are some curious things. Compulsory IT had been introduced, and then there was a new regulation, this national level, which took it away! With the argument, saying: anyway, now everyone knows how to use the computer. And then, fortunately, someone has still managed to introduce it, and if you go and look at the study plans, you will find that high schools today, at least the ones I have seen, have quite serious study plans.
Alright, I'll conclude this short presentation. We are looking for members, obviously you are not close, but especially some active members. For us, active members are members who do something for the association. So, from hardware to software... cataloguing, there are many jobs and even here, let's say, we have a certain difficulty in finding young people who become curious and try to repair a power supply which perhaps is very difficult to find a replacement all over the world. Oh well, he must be an enthusiast.
Now I wanted to show you the page of our association. We practically keep the page www.astisi.ch updated on everything we do. And indeed, we actually spent some time collecting videos that have also been produced over 60 years by our Radio and Television of Italian Switzerland. There are some very old videos that were in danger of being destroyed and we saved them and put them for reference on this page.
Of this collection, which officially still belongs to SUPSI today, for internal use, if you like. It's not really a very didactic catalogue. My goal was to collect, concentrate the documentation on all the systems we have, therefore, of each machine. I tried to find documentation that is already present on the internet and maybe I couldn't find some documentation, but we had it in the original, we scanned it and put it above. We have reached almost 300 pieces cataloged at the moment. How many? 300 pieces, even heavy ones, in particular. We are also talking about Digital PDP-8, PDP-11. There is also a chronological catalogue.
It's a mechanical machine, a mechanical machine, and we go to 2000-2005. Oh, well, yes. History is history. Today she is old...
I was saying before, for example this one. Indeed, I especially try to concentrate the important documentation. What is your 90 piece? I have worked a lot in the Digital world (Digital Equipment Corp = DEC). So basically I have a PDP-8, at least 10 different models of PDP-11, starting with the 1170, that one isn't working, though. Up to the latest products, from the discrete ones, again like the 1144, then all the Micro PDPs. And then the VAX (Virtual Address eXtension), obviously, the first DEC VAX 11/780. We only have the power supply, to give an idea of how large the power supply was: two arrived in Ticino, one at the Lombardi studio and the other at Locarno Monti, which deals with meteorology. They demolished it and gave us a power supply and about ten cards. And then, precisely, until Digital died, then Alfa, AXP. We have AXPs. Then we have a nice Hewlett-Packard collection. A colleague who is now also a member of the association, George Kaufmann, was a salesman of Hewlett-Packard systems, and he himself collected quite a few systems from the years, again, '75 onwards, and donated everything to us. That's a rarity. Let's say that Digital and HP, practically everything is there. Yes, those two worlds are pretty well covered.
Okay, thanks everyone. If there are any questions...