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John Alderman

Mark Richards

Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers Hardcover – May 10, 2007

by John Alderman (Author), Mark Richards (Photographer), Dag Spicer (Foreword)

61 ratings

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An unprecedented combination of computer history and striking images, Core Memory reveals modern technology's evolution through the world's most renowned computer collection, the Computer History Museum in the Silicon Valley. Vivid photos capture these historically important machines including the Eniac, Crays 1 3, Apple I and II while authoritative text profiles each, telling the stories of their innovations and peculiarities. Thirty-five machines are profiled in over 100 extraordinary color photographs, making Core Memory a surprising addition to the library of photography collectors and the ultimate geek-chic gift.

Print length

160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Chronicle Books
Publication date

May 10, 2007
Grade level

8 and up
Reading age

13 years and up
Dimensions

9.4 x 1 x 11.5 inches
ISBN-10

0811854426
ISBN-13

978-0811854429
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Richards's work has been featured in numerous publications. He lives in California

Product details

Publisher : Chronicle Books; 1st edition (May 10, 2007)
Language : English
Hardcover : 160 pages
ISBN-10 : 0811854426
ISBN-13 : 978-0811854429
Reading age : 13 years and up
Grade level : 8 and up
Item Weight : 2.56 pounds
Dimensions : 9.4 x 1 x 11.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,609,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #489 in Computing Industry History
- #4,258 in Computer Hardware & DIY
- #8,638 in Computer Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
61 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		66%
4 star		22%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Robert Beard

Quick Shipment Book Arrived in Perfect Condition

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2019

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The shipping aspect of this purchase was perfect. The book itself, is a little disappointing. The captions describing the vintage computers illustrated in the book are kind of lacking in detail. Also, a coffee table book ought to be in a little bigger format that this one is. Overall, I'm happy with the book, though. I live near the Computer History Museum, and have seen most of these computers in person. This book is a nice reminder of those visits.

Helpful

Craig Stalwart

A beautiful book, but....

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2009

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The book is very pretty, and has some *outstanding* photographs of classic machines. If only the selection of machines and printing (at least on my copy) matched the quality of the photos, this would be on my "must by" list.

Newer photo-books like this rely on some special printing techniques to make their images stand out, such as printing a glossy image, with the non-printed portion paper treated to make it flat and bright white. It makes for a stunning presentation when it is done properly.

My book has several pages where the glossy images are scratched, and others where the pages are covered with scratches and dirt. I don't know if my pages sat on the top of a pallet or the presses were just dirty, but it clearly happened before binding, as in some cases, page 64 on the left hand side is very dirty, page 65 on the right is totally clean. The beautiful dust jacket is also badly scuffed up--a book like this should have been shrink wrapped--and the cover dinged. This Chinese-printed book would have been considered a "hurt" at my local press.

On this sort of book, that totally shatters the beauty of it all, and I think I will end up returning it. I considered asking for a replacement, but I am further disappointed by the selection of machines.

There are major companies of the era not even represented here. Not a single Data General machine...I would have expected the "70's photogenic" Nova, or a later machine like a S/150. No Burroughs, no DEC-20...the entire history of DEC reduced to two photos and one closeup of a pdp8 and a glimpse of the boot console panel from a DEC-10.

VAX? What's a VAX? No mention of a VAX here, but the TRS-80 I and 100 get four pages. I *loved* my Model 100, but this is not the place for it.

With a title like "core memory" and a pdp8 on the cover, I expected more early machines, yet the book dedicates six pages to the Apple I/II and four to the Commodore 64.

There is more coverage of the Commodore 64 PC than the entire history of Digital Equipment Corporation. Control Data is limited to a photo of the CDC6600 console, a photo of backplane wiring and two images of a boot switch panel.

Home PC's should really be their own book. But if they wanted to cover home PCs up to 1983, they should have hit "visually iconic" machines like the IMSAI or the Ohio Scientific PCs. How about some classic rare peripherals; the Atari 815 dual disk drive is a 9x9x12" box with nine LEDs in three colors, surely some unique peripherals like this deserve inclusion more than a two-page closeup of the Commodore 64's keyboard.

Now, I would like to mention the wonderful photos of SAGE and Johnniac. Had it not been that the photo of the SAGE light gun was covered with scratches, I would have kept it for SAGE alone. But as I said, in a photo book, damaged photos ruin the whole point.

I spotted a few factual errors and typos in my quick scan of the book, but the major errors are really errors of omission.

Conclusion: If yours is printed correctly and clean, it is a beautiful book and a bargain at the Amazon sale price. But if you are expecting a book primarily about machines running core memory, or minicomputers/mainframes from the 1970s as would be inferred from the cover and the name, you will be disappointed. I am.

27 people found this helpful

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B Donnelly

very cool coffee table book

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2013

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The only thing "bad" about this book is that there isn't more of it.

The photos are BEAUTIFUL. (get it for that reason alone)

Perhaps if you are a CRAV Computing person (Classic, Retro, Antique, Vintage), and/or lived back in the Good Ol' Days and worked with equipment like is portrayed, you might enjoy it more than others. Although any person truly interested in computers should really enjoy it. (so it would make a nice gift for the discriminating computer enthusiast -- or the gift for the computer person who has everything (which is impossible -- too much is never enough))

I bet the author was planning on doing a series. But these things tend to be somewhat vertical market, so that probably isn't going to happen. More's the pity and it's our loss. (the Royal Our)

2 people found this helpful

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Dr. Drax

A work of art more than a history

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2007

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This book is a stunningly beautiful work of art. With well-composed shots of decades' worth of computers, it's a joy to look at.

However, the book is not anything like a comprehensive computer history. Each computer covered has just a short description, enough to give it some context. Nor are the pictures of each computer comprehensive; clearly, they've been chosen for their artistic value, not to give an overall view of the machine.

I will admit that the pictures were still enough to take me down memory lane, even if for me that starts with the Apple ][ and TRS-80. But, I didn't learn anything about those computers that I didn't already know.

So, as long as you're willing to approach this as an art photography book, I highly recommend it. If you're looking for a history of computing, this isn't it.

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R. Lauzon

Great book, but at least 1 bug

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2019

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The stats for the Kenbak-1 are missing. Other than that, this is a great "art" book with old computers.

One person found this helpful

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S. Kosloske

Mixed feelings about this book, but I am glad I own it.

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2008

Verified Purchase

The book is a great overview of the history of commerical/military computer development in the last 60+ years. Hits most of the major models, and mentions why they're in the book. Each one was a special devleopment in it's time for one reason or another.

But after reading it, I wish it was about 2x the size, physically. It's a large book alredy, but it should be art-sized. And it could EASILY be several hundreds of pages. I know it's more of an overview book, but it would be great if each model had it's own chapter, including design diagrams, pictures of the installations, programmers, builders, etc.

On it's own it's a great book, and well worth the money. But the computer-nerd in me sees the potential of this content...

One person found this helpful

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Agustin

Great pictures!

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2016

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Great pictures !... if you are a lover of vintage computers you will definitely find a lot of pleasure as you browse over the pages of this book. Not too much detail in terms of the history or architecture of the computers that were included, but you will find a lot of joy exploring the details in the images. I'm sure not even those working with these machines had a chance to contemplate the fine touches, but here you can.

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Jim Moores

Fantastic images

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2014

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Fantastic images. Also see the postcard book for similar.

One person found this helpful

Nick

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2015

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lovely book

One person found this helpful

Warren P.

Wonderful Photography and an amazing work of art

Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2014

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I love this book. I'm a computer geek, and the history of computing is a passion for me. This book has pictures of early computing pioneer's early work, and where that is lost to the ravages of time, there are even a few "reconstructions" like the Z4 Adder by Zuse. I have never visited the computing history museum where most of these machines that were photographed live nowadays, but I sure would love to visit it.

Jens Kirchhoff

Bildband in kompromissloser Qualität

Reviewed in Germany on August 18, 2008

Verified Purchase

Die Fotos sind in Objekt, Perspektive und Ausschnitt sorgfältig ausgesucht, in Beleuchtung, Kontrast, Farbe und Auflösung bestens ausgeführt. Das Papier und der Farbdruck sind hervorragend. Besser geht es im Medium Buch nicht,.... ein Genuss. Die textlichen Informationen sind ebenfalls sehr interessant, decken aber nur an diesen wenigen Beispielen die Geschichte des Computers ab. Die Objekte betreffen die Anfänge des elektronischen Computerzeitalters, wo noch mit diskreten Bauelementen -zuerst ohne Chips- auf riesigen Platinen gelötet wurde.

Betrachtet man das Buch als Bilderbuch, wird man nicht enttäuscht.

6 people found this helpful

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3D71

Great pictures, poor text

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2012

Verified Purchase

If the person who wrote the intro had also done the main text this would have been an all-round good book. But the commentary on many of the pictures is brief, vague and sometimes misses the point to the extent that it is often frustrating. A missed opportunity, but great photography, like many pretty but superficial coffee-table books. Such pictures deserve subtext, descriptions and anecdotes to bring them to life.

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