Computer History Museum

Largest computer museum in the world maintains memory in Mountain View, CA

Computer History Museum
1401 N Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 810-1010
computerhistory.org

What happened in computing history today? That's a question you'll get to explore at a world-class museum dedicated to educating, documenting and preserving the history of machines and technology that has changed the world in every way. Exhibits such as The Story of How Computers Came to Be, The Babbage Engine, the First Computer Pioneer, A Timeline of Semiconductors in Computing History, and Visible Storage, showcase technology with expertly-displayed visuals and real machines! A special archive building contains 90% more equipment than guests see when visiting Computer History Museum. But it's all the more reason to become a member and return time after time.

Fascinating exhibits and information from Computer History Museum

• Microelectronic silicon computer chips from the 1950s to today
• Calculators, Punched Card Processing, Mainframes
• Analog Computers, Supercomputers, Minicomputers, Personal Computers, Gaming, AI, Robotics, Input-Output
• Revolution: First 2,000 Years of Computing - includes histories of IBM, Google and more
• Pilot project of the Computer History Museum's Software Preservation Group to develop expertise in the collection, preservation, and presentation of historic software. Current project involves IBM 704 FORTRAN/FORTRAN II compiler. FORTRAN was the first high-level programming language and the first high-quality optimizing compiler.
• For the tech-minded, visit computerhistory.org, and download the historic MS-DOS and Word for Windows source code available to the public as a part of the Historical Source Code Series

Why Mountain View? Mountain View is located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County. See some of the giants of industry. The story of how Computer History Museum arrived in Mountain View is not a short one, but involves decades of change, migration and a permanent home. In 1979 The Digital Computer Museum opened inside Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) office in Marlborough, Massachusetts. 20 years later in 1999 The Computer Museum in Boston closed and moved some exhibits to Boston's Museum of Science. The remainder of the historical collection of world-class artifacts were acquired by The Computer Museum History Center in Mountain View, which became a 501(c)3 non-profit.