More IBM-tans III: The One With Actually More IBM-tans

[Bella]

MORE ACTUAL IBM-TANS & ASSOCIATES!!!

-> Go here <- to see what they look like

Harvard Mark II-tan (a.k.a. Aiken Relay Calculator [ARC])
- Automaton like her big sister
    - Electromechanical computer.
- Moves & speaks faster than Mark I but still slowly by all standards.
    - Several times faster than predecessor.
- Smaller stature than Mark I, but heavier build.
    - Improved/simpler design, but larger in scale.
- Dedicated mathematician
    - Specialized math function hardware.
- Interested in telephony
    - Logic used telephone relays.
- Two personae
    - Mark II consisted of two sub-computers that checked each other.
- Jumpy about the moths she seems to attract
    - First computer bug!
- Slight southern drawl
    - Built in MA, moved to Naval Proving Ground in VA.
- Loves the ocean
    - See above
- Bit of a "youngest child" despite being second-oldest
    - Last fully electro-mechanical HM, later releases trended toward electronic computing.

Status: Dead.

Relationships:
- Loves her sisters despite geographical distance.
- Closest to her "mom"
    - Programmed by Grace Hopper.
- To that end, considers the Univacs distant kin.
- Protective instinct over GENIAC-chan
    - Shared programmer/creator Edmund Berkeley.
- Friends with NORC-tan, bonded over proximity and a shared love of math. Exposed to the IBM side of the family through her, on better terms with them than her older sister.
- Friendly rivalry with the Army-tans up the coast: ENIAC-heika, EDVAC-san, ORDVAC-tan.

Appearance & Personality:
Below average height, disproportionately dense for her size/build, long red-brown hair tied into twin tails, one bronze eye one hazel eye, light skin. Exposed metal limbs, legs usually covered by white stockings but forearms are exposed. White gloves. Wears a 1950s contemporary dark blue sailor-style dress, perpetually covered in moth-holes patched with embroidery. Cream colored punch tape belt & neckerchief. Buttons on skirt-front resemble dials. Bronze wind-up key on head.

Quaint. Classic tomboy, outdoorsy and physical. Confident without her sister's smugness. Indecisive. More aware of electronic computers, but still doesn't compare herself to or feel threatened by them. Warmer & more effusive than her sisters, clingier too, a bit of a mama's girl.


Harvard Mark III-tan (a.k.a. Aiken Dahlgren Electronic Calculator [ADEC])
- Doll or machine-like traits less apparent
    - Mixed electromechanical-electronic computer.
- Experimental construction makes her less stable than her elder sisters
    - See above.
- Tidewater accent.
- Bombastic, self-assured, perhaps even in love with herself.
    - Delivered to Dahlgren without testing.
- Prides herself in being "careful" and "methodical", which others see as laziness
    - Slowest computer of its generation.
- Fan of military marches, plays the drums herself
    - Storage drums.
- Always coming up with some big plan or another, rarely carries them to completion
    - Less-successful departure from Mark I & II.
- Proud of her status as cover-girl
    - Featured on a time magazine cover.
- Likes the age of sail & seafaring
    - Naval computer.
- Fancies herself the captain of her crew (really just Mark II & the other mechanical computers at Dahlgren).
- Retired to a farm on the Northern Neck, where she died and was buried...
   
Status: Dead.

Relationships:
- Gets along best with Harvard Mark II.
- Likes her sisters, even if she finds both Mark I and Mark IV difficult to understand.
- More of a rivalry with NORC.
- Tends to be the target of pranks from ORDVAC-tan & BRLESC-tan given her outsized reactions.

Appearance & Personality:
Average height, pale skin, dark brown hair braided into drums over where her ears would be, with long wires plugging into the braids. Gold eyes. Wears a double-breasted white dress with tape reel inspired buttons and a magnetic tape bow, an antiquated navy & gold captain's coat, and captain's hat. The hat is styled with magnetic tape florettes and a tassel of magnetic drum heads. Platform-soled tall black boots.

Old-fashioned, tries to incorporate new ideas but isn't very good at it. Projects her confidence better than her elder sisters, commanding and martial. Inherited Mark I's arrogance and stubbornness without being able to deliver on it, which gets her into trouble more often than not. Takes a long time to do anything, less successful than her sisters but she doesn't seem to mind. Somewhat bellicose toward electronic computers.


Harvard Mark IV-tan
- Living girl unlike her sisters
    - Lone electronic computer in the lineup.
- Otherwise identical to Mark III
    - Mark III minus electromechanical aspects. [Source]
- She's somewhat of an outcast in her family, they try to include her but differences of personality make it hard.
- Boston accent.
    - Only HM to be designed, built & used in the Boston metro area.
- Kind of religious
    - Used for biblical analysis.
- Sings, the only in her family to do so.
    - Performed hymns. [Source]
- Works for the USAF
- Detail oriented, interested in building and inventing.
    - Might have been used aerospace & optics research.
- Rejects the prevailing wisdom of computers of her era, giving her a reputation as fuddy-duddy.
    - Not stored program, uses decimal, and other outdated concepts.
- Despite this, is the most worldly of her sisters with a better awareness of human culture, existentialism, mortality, spirituality, etc
    - Incorporated ideas outside Aiken's methodologies.
- (Correctly) denies taking after Whirlwind
    - Early adopter of core memory, albeit An Wang's design rather than Forrester's. [source]

Status: Dead.

Relationships:
- Closest with Harvard Mark I, despite having very different personalities. Shared a home with her & UNIVAC I
    - Housed together at Harvard.
- Takes more after her uncle than father, has his sense of humor and compassion, considered an auntie by the Wang computers
    - An Wang's first computing project.
- Colleague of Whirlwind and SAGE-tan
    - Used by Cambridge A.F. Research Lab.
- Liked by her peers, even if they're wary of her religiosity.
- Aware of Whirlwind's health issues and thankful she doesn't face them
    - Team chose core memory over electrostatic tubes (like Whirlwind's) because of their unreliability.
- Harvard Mark I is convinced Whirlwind has been "an influence" on her, which embarrasses her greatly...

Appearance & Personality:
Identical to Harvard Mark III but a living girl, pallid skin, bags under eyes. Gold eyes and half-moon glasses. Hair worn in long, Victorian-style ringlettes. Wears a long sleeved dark green dress and long black cape/coat with a white standing collar with frog closures styled in the design of tape reels. Buckled shoes and a bonnet decorated with magnetic tape ribbons.

Her dress and serious demeanor makes her comes off as rather puritanical. While she is dour, it's the result of her deep introspection about the nature of computers, their relationship to humans, and spiritual proclivities. Accepts her differences and the loneliness that comes with it, and cherishes the connections she has for what they are. Between her surprisingly accepting nature and hard work ethic perhaps she would be better classed as a Neo-Shaker of sorts.


IBM SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator)-tan
- Estranged cousin of the Harvard Marks
    - IBM project inspired by ASCC/HM1.
- Automaton
    - Electronic-electromechanical computer.
- Considers herself both the culmination of the IBM calculators, and the rightful foundress of the IBM computer families.
    - Bridged IBM's older & newer technologies.
- Talented mathematician
- Pacifist, thinks her cousins waste their talents in the military.
    - Co-designer Wallace Eckert believed HM1 failed to live up to its potential in the Navy.
- Trained astronomer with particular interest in lunar & planetary mechanics.
    - Used to calculate celestial mechanics.
- Prides herself for helping man to the moon.
    - Calculated tables used by NASA including the Apollo Program.
- "Visionary" inventor more than a hands-on tinkerer
    - Used in the nuclear propelled aircraft program.
- Enjoys gambling
    - Large scale application of monte carlo methods.
- Model-tier good looks and fashion sense.
    - *Very* stylish design, meant to be looked at.
- Fashion trends toward 1940s and 20s/art deco style.
    - "Behind the times" like other mechanical computers, but less so than some of the others.
- Bon vivant, loves socializing and nights out on the town
    - Housed behind glass at IBM HQ in Manhattan.
- Magazine cover-girl
    - Subject of a famous New Yorker cover.
- Transatlantic accent.
- Modest about her talents
    - IBM marketing heavily emphasized the SSEC as an aid to scientists, not a replacement.

Status:

Relationships:
- Number one enemy is Harvard Mark I.
    - Acrimonious falling out between Watson Sr. & Aiken.
- Does not really care for the others, either ...
- Number two enemy is IAS-sama
    - IBM 701 (commercialized IAS computer) replaced the SSEC.
- No children or heirs otherwise but considers IBM 650 a protegee
    - Shared development team.
- ENIAC and EDVAC find her frivolous and vain
    - Described by J. Presper Eckert as "a monstrosity"
   
Appearance and personality:
Smaller than HM1, medium skintone, bronze eyes, red hair, glass chassis with exposed machinery. "Classic" good looks for 1940s. Dresses in a sheer jacket studded with many red jewels, long bronze & silver gown, and red gemstone jewelry, and red high heels. Makeup is smokey and dramatic, taking more after 1920s than 40s contemporary looks.

Intelligent, quick-witted and sociable. Considers the people of New York City her friends and gets along easily with humans, and doesn't feel particularly isolated even if she doesn't interact much with other computers. A born performer, thinks of the world as her stage and people broadly as her audience.

[stewartsage]

Glad to see all the Harvard's get some descriptive love.  Mark IV-tan may be my favorite because of cute aggression?  Although more Navy -tans is good.

SSEC!  An actual IBM in this thread!  Good for her.  She's so powered by hate, then they Lenin'd her.  Weird how that keeps happening to early -tans/parts of them.  Perhaps the most stylish early -tan, other than IAS-sama?

[Bella]

I'm glad Harvard Mark IV-tan has been an underdog hit. For a computer with very little known information it seems to have some interesting accomplishments & anecdotes to its name which helps. (Also, being a part of the rapidly-expanding USAF Cambridge cohort.)

I definitely didn't conceptualize of SSEC as a hater but it's true that her connections to other -tans of the era are more defined by enmity than not. Well, except for little IBM 650 (who doesn't exist[?]). I don't think the others can handle her pretty girl swag ...

>_> I'm going to get hit by a flying Williams Tube for this one but I didn't think of IAS-sama as stylish ... I guess so just in a suits way instead of a dresses way! Ahead of her time. (This is why she was poached by IBM.)

[stewartsage]

That's why we have to go to Delaware!  Finishing her design does not absolve your burden.

We're thinking too different sartorial standards.  Or I'm not seeing stylish in the right light.  She dresses well and expensively.

[stewartsage]

Almost started a new topic for this but it didn't seem fair when this one has been used mostly in the last two years anyway.

Here's the full revision for CALDIC-tan mentioned in the II thread after a lot of supplemental research, so beware, it might speculate a bit since there's not a lot of formal research on CALDIC.

CALDIC-tan (California Digital Computer): AKA Datatron-tan AKA Burroughs 205-tan

• Cousin of ENIAC, one of the few she gets along with. (Returning Berkeley staff brought back what they learned about the stored program ENIAC to UCB, inspiring the whole project)
• Knows everyone.  Even if you don't know her. (A lot of prominent computer scientists and researchers got their start designing her, leading to a lot of second and third generations computers having surprise connections.)
• Seemed to be everywhere back in the day, a bit creepy with her level of helpfulness. (See above.)
• Unpopular at the time because she was willing to explain how she did things to humans. (Intended to teach hardware design and engineering.)
• Very proud of her educational role related to all of the above.
• Loud and talkative, narrates what she's doing unless asked not to. (Designed with exposed panels for access and modification, making her run very noisy.)
• Always kind of sickly but not enough to stop her. (Constantly modified and improved by a development team of ~40 grad students and professors).
• Naval Reserve officer (Underwritten by six years of Office of Naval Research funding)
• Part of the ABC Computer cult. (Berry was a major player in her becoming a commercial product.)
• Never actually got to meet her idol ENIAC-sama before she was fried by lightning.
• Permanent enemy of G-15 for trying to kill her. (The prototype G-15 replaced her in the teaching role at UCB.)
• Good friends with Harvard Mark IV (Both had early memory drum systems), SWAC-tan (shared developers and proximity, plus a memory drum), and ILLIAC-tan (also shared a memory drum).
• Sees RAMAC-tan and IBMs as kind of step-siblings.
• After surviving G-15's assassination attempt (she freaked out over being replaced, fell over a ficus, everyone thought she had broken), she resurfaced via her commercial variant the ElectroData 203 (officially a separately developed product by the Consolidated Engineering Corporation but in many ways refined CALDIC with a better memory drum.)
• Rubbed elbows with the greats of scientific and military computing in the 60s and 70s. Totally forgotten because she wasn't as flashy or powerful.
• Her powers are some sort of Numeromancy/probability manipulation, which is how she has stayed alive. Much slower and more ritual based than other, later forms.
• Uses weapons summoned from her bank of ideas tested on her in the 50s.
• Status: Alive somehow via emulator

Physical: Built like ENIAC-sama became a real girl.  Or at least one with more advanced SPACE AGE joints.  She still opens up and is prone to parts detaching (limbs, internal bits) from wear, age, and the frequency with which they've been changed (her teaching days and various modern peripherals Burroughs kept adding). Similarly olive skinned to ENIAC, but if she got outside and tanned more. Hair looks almost black is actually Berkeley blue, with golden tips. Used to style her outfits deliberately after ENIAC-sama, but that was too hot/impractical for most of her work. Tended to blend in with stylish business casual when times were good, but these days reverts to comfortable outfits from her youth in the 50s.  Always carrying various notepads, pens, loose wires, etc. 

Sources: Digital Computer Newsletter Vol. 2. No. 2 1 May 1950, A Second Survey of Electronic Digital Computing Systems, A Survey of Large Scale Digital Computers and Computer Projects, The California Digital Computer with a Compact Magnetic Memory, Smithsonian National Museum of American History Interview: Professor Paul Morton, Tom's Burroughs 205 page.

This took most of my available time since, surprise, there was more information CALDIC than I expected to find!  VAX, LINC-8, and Circle Computer are next on the list.  Probably later in the week.

[Bella]

NEW EARLY COMPUTER-TAN JUST DROPPED!!!

• Cousin of ENIAC, one of the few she gets along with. (Returning Berkeley staff brought back what they learned about the stored program ENIAC to UCB, inspiring the whole project)

ENIAC-heika's family tree grows!!! And in a direction that hasn't cause accidental misfortune for her(?)

• Knows everyone.  Even if you don't know her. (A lot of prominent computer scientists and researchers got their start designing her, leading to a lot of second and third generations computers having surprise connections.)
• Seemed to be everywhere back in the day, a bit creepy with her level of helpfulness. (See above.)

(Guy who has only seen IAS-tan) Getting some IAS-tan vibes off of her.

• Unpopular at the time because she was willing to explain how she did things to humans. (Intended to teach hardware design and engineering.)
• Very proud of her educational role related to all of the above.

Hah! EDVAC-chan inherited her cousin (once removed)'s willingness to talk about computers...

I do wonder what ENIAC-heika would say about that, given she was not to fond of their secrets being revealed ... ^___^;

• Loud and talkative, narrates what she's doing unless asked not to. (Designed with exposed panels for access and modification, making her run very noisy.)
• Always kind of sickly but not enough to stop her. (Constantly modified and improved by a development team of ~40 grad students and professors).
• Naval Reserve officer (Underwritten by six years of Office of Naval Research funding)

Sounds like proper friend material for Whirlwind-hime, or at least a kindred soul, between the outgoing personality, sickly constitution and constant "upgrades", and Naval connections.

I do wonder how CALDIC-sama feels about Whirlwind getting 1 William Dollars a month from the Navy, while she got like $20 and a handshake.

(Then again, they fired Whirlwind-tan and kept her on. ^_____^;;; )

• Part of the ABC Computer cult. (Berry was a major player in her becoming a commercial product.)

I need to know more about the cult! Interesting that she probably knows more about her ancestry, w.r.t. (Kami-?)ABC, than ENIAC did.

• Never actually got to meet her idol ENIAC-sama before she was fried by lightning.

Well, that sucks...

• Permanent enemy of G-15 for trying to kill her. (The prototype G-15 replaced her in the teaching role at UCB.)

Found the only person or thing G-15-tan is willing to kill. Besides vacuum tubes. I'm amused by the idea of them being ops!

• Good friends with Harvard Mark IV (Both had early memory drum systems), SWAC-tan (shared developers and proximity, plus a memory drum), and ILLIAC-tan (also shared a memory drum).

More unlikely friends for Harvard Mark IV! (And SWAC and ILLIAC I guess.)

• Sees RAMAC-tan and IBMs as kind of step-siblings.

She even has the IBM connection like Whirlwind! Also, RAMAC-tan nau plx.

• After surviving G-15's assassination attempt (she freaked out over being replaced, fell over a ficus, everyone thought she had broken), she resurfaced via her commercial variant the ElectroData 203 (officially a separately developed product by the Consolidated Engineering Corporation but in many ways refined CALDIC with a better memory drum.)

Do love it when a computer disappears for awhile and comes back in a new hat. Also, hooray Burroughs! Always felt unfair that BUIC-tan and MCP-tan are the only Burroughs personifications we have.

• Rubbed elbows with the greats of scientific and military computing in the 60s and 70s. Totally forgotten because she wasn't as flashy or powerful.

Another thing she and MADDIDA-tan have in common besides being California Girls. ^.^

• Her powers are some sort of Numeromancy/probability manipulation, which is how she has stayed alive. Much slower and more ritual based than other, later forms.
• Uses weapons summoned from her bank of ideas tested on her in the 50s.

This is dope as hell. Honestly I kinda wanna snag the probability manipulation bit for ENIAC-heika, what with the monte carlo simulation work... summoning weapons based on work she's been involved with is so freaking sick!!

• Status: Alive somehow via emulator

Physical: Built like ENIAC-sama became a real girl.  Or at least one with more advanced SPACE AGE joints.  She still opens up and is prone to parts detaching (limbs, internal bits) from wear, age, and the frequency with which they've been changed (her teaching days and various modern peripherals Burroughs kept adding). Similarly olive skinned to ENIAC, but if she got outside and tanned more. Hair looks almost black is actually Berkeley blue, with golden tips. Used to style her outfits deliberately after ENIAC-sama, but that was too hot/impractical for most of her work. Tended to blend in with stylish business casual when times were good, but these days reverts to comfortable outfits from her youth in the 50s.  Always carrying various notepads, pens, loose wires, etc. 

GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, TRANSCENDENT, I can picture her perfectly in my mind's eye lol. I'm scared to ask if she's mechanical or biological. I loooooove the dark blue hair with gold tips, and that she tried to dress like ENIAC-heika and was defeated by the weather. Maybe she can keep some of her big hats?

I look forward to seeing the rest!