Artifact Details

Description

This patch panel came from an early neural network computer at Cornell University, likely the Perceptron or a similar research neural network. It is composed of a plastic board drilled with many plug-holes. On the back side of the plugboard are female connectors. The female connectors on the left end of the panel have been hand-soldered to bus wires, diodes, and off-panel connecting wires (the latter have been snipped off flush).

The Perceptron was built and used at Cornell University in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Professor Henry David Block of the Cornell Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Department collaborated with Frank Rosenblatt, a psychologist at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, on the development of the Perceptron. Based on the McCulloch-Pitts model of an artificial neuron, the Perceptron was the most widely known early neural network. In 1969, symbolic Artificial Intelligence (AI) pioneers Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert criticized neural networks in their book 'Perceptrons', resulting in a slump in neural network research until its reemergence in the 1980s.

Date

ca. 1962

Manufacturer

Cornell University

Place Manufactured

U.S.

Dimensions

1 1/4 x 24 x 6 in.

Category

I/O: console / panel

Credit

Gift of Lester Ludwig

Lot Number

X1106.92

Related Records

X1106.92C	Patch panel cables from experimental neural net computer
X1106.92B	Patch panel from experimental neural net computer
X1106.92D	Patch panel from experimental neural net computer