Computer History Museum

George A. Michael papers

Item Details

Description

The George A. Michael papers are primarily made up of records Michael collected while he worked as a computational scientist at LLNL from 1953 to 1991. His role in the development and advancement of supercomputing is well-represented in his papers.

The first series of the collection is made up of materials created at LLNL that document the lab's computing projects and research, computing environment and programs, administrative issues, and conferences and events. This series is broken up into eight subseries.

The rest of the collection consists of material created by or related to other companies and organizations, including a large number of computer manuals. The majority of manuals are from DEC, CDC, Remington Rand, and IBM, and these companies each have their own series in the collection. The other less-represented companies’ manuals are grouped together in a separate series. Technical papers and reports published by universities, research groups, and the U.S. government are included in the collection. Additionally, there is a large number of periodicals, including magazines and journals, and promotional material from various companies. The collection also contains material related to computer conferences and workshops, many of which Michael attended or participated in as a speaker or leader. A small portion of the collection contains material from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), including LANL conference records and technical reports.

The smallest portion of the collection is made up of Michael's personal papers. Most of these are related to his own projects and his role on the board of trustees in the early days of the Computer History Museum.

Biographical/Historical Note

George Anthony Michael was born February 16, 1926, in Buffalo, New York. He first attended the University of Niagara in Niagara Falls, New York, and then moved across the country to attend the University of San Francisco, where he earned a degree in physics in 1952. The following year, Michael went to work as a theoretical physicist for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California, known then as the University of California Radiation Laboratory. Michael spent the majority of his career at LLNL.

During his 41-year career at LLNL, Michael played a large role in building the Laboratory's high performance computing (HPC) program, which led to LLNL gaining an international reputation as a leader in supercomputing. He co-founded the Salishan Conference on High-Speed Computing in 1981 and also the annual ACM/IEEE Supercomputing Conference, first held in 1988. Through these activities and other initiatives, Michael was essential in improving communications and dialogue between national laboratories, academia, government, and private industry in the field of high-performance computing.

Michael retired from LLNL in 1991, but continued to be active in the HPC community following his departure from the laboratory. Starting in 1995, Michael worked on compiling written histories and recording oral histories on the beginnings of computing at LLNL. Michael died on June 5, 2008, in Livermore, California.

Level of description
Folder
Date
1945-2000 (Made), 1953-1991 (Bulk)
Publisher
Computer History Museum (Publisher)
Extent
65.92 linear feet in 49 record cartons, 1 manuscript box, 2 oversize boxes, and 1 small flat box
Subject
Control Data Corporation (CDC), Digital Equipment Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory, Remington Rand, Inc., Supercomputing
Collection title
George A. Michael papers
Credit
Gift of George Michael
Catalogue number
102733955
Lot number
X4269.2008

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734708
Tentacle

These folders contain material related to the research of supercomputing mass storage options, with the focus on optical storage. Included are proceedings from the IEEE Symposium on Mass Storage Systems.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102659257

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102659258

This folder includes overviews and projections for LLNL along with annual reports and other records regarding the Controlled Thermonuclear Research (CTR) Computer Center and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL). Also included are records stating the main functions and goals of LLNL's Computer Research Group.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102659269

These folders contain material related to research into the Japanese computing industry and include records from LLNL trips to Japan, and visits made to LLNL by people from Japanese computer companies, including NEC Corporation.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102659270

Most of the output in this box consists of simulation output in the form of plots and graphs. One piece of output was printed on 35mm film and a large roll of paper with output printed on it is also included. Also included is a folder of output from FRAMIS, the relational database management tool used to store, retrieve, and manipulate data stored in a FRAMIS database.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734633

These folders contain material related to the research and development of data flow computer architecture, a joint project between LLNL and the MIT Laboratory of Computer Science. The project explores topics such as parallel computing, MIT's Project MAC, data flow languages, and data flow computer workshops held by MIT and Lawrence Livermore Lab.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734634

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734635

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734636

These folders contain material related to the development of a supercomputer for use by the U.S. Navy.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734637

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734638

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734639

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734640

These folders contain material related to the Department of Defense / National Science Foundation's Panel on Large Scale Computing and its report by the Lax Committee, and a resultant joint supercomputer research network between SRI International, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and LLNL called SPREAD (Supercomputer Project for Research, Experimentation, and Advanced Development).

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734641

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734642

These books cover topics including color television, cohabiting with computers, linotype and typesetting, software productivity, and writing style.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734643

These folders contain materials relating to Michael's personal projects and research. Included in these folders are materials--including a manual--on building the RCA COSMAC "Elf," which was advertised as a low-cost experimenter's microcomputer; the transcript of an oral history with Emil Mrak; materials on a collaboration with Frank Wilson on a project about music and the brain; and records relating to various historical projects that Michael worked on -- including correspondence with members of the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) regarding Michael's membership and authoring articles for the Annals of the History of Computing.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734644

These folders include issues of the Digital Computer Museum Report (later renamed Computer Museum Report), planning documents from the Museum, correspondence from Michael to Gordon Bell accepting Bell's invitation to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Digital Computer Museum, copies of the Digital Computer Museum's application for recognition of exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, financial statements, correspondence with Gwen Bell regarding museum functions, and materials from Michael's archival research at the Computer Museum and at other institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute Archives, the Oakland Museum, and the Mitre Corporation.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734645

These folders contain mostly reports and memos authored by Theodore H. Einwohner about Vaxima, a University of California dialect of MIT's algebraic manipulation program MACSYMA (MACSYMA was created as part of MIT's Project MAC). Einwohner was the laboratory-wide consultant for Vaxima.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734646

These folders contain material related to LLNL research and projects, such as the use of holograms in the medical field, supercomputing, the Defense Data Network for the U.S. Defense Communications Agency, computational mathematics, dataflow, multiprocessors, spatial modeling, and the UK's data directed computing industry. Also included is LLNL's annual research report from 1986 and several MIT project proposals.

Type
Document
Catalogue number
102734647