Title
Presentation and demonstration of Cyclops Camera
Catalog Number
102740214
Type
Moving image
Description
In this video, American electrical engineer and entrepreneur Terry Walker discusses his early youth and formative experiences in Texas learning about electronics, his move to the West Coast to attend Stanford University for a PhD in electrical engineering and his innovative experiments outside of academia, bringing the power of the microprocessor to the general public via microcomputers and peripherals. Walker was both an independent inventor as well as lead engineer for seminal early microcomputer company Cromemco, where he designed many of their most significant and successful products. One of these, named CYCLOPS, was a monochrome digital camera that interfaced with the popular S-100 microcomputer system of the time, the Altair 8800 — the computer that kicked off the personal computer revolution. Walker described CYCLOPS in detail, from its novel MOS sensor with a digital output to its marketing as the wildly-successfull cover story of the February 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, the leading magazine for electronics hobbyists and early computer enthusiasts. Walker then discusses several of the peripherals and systems he designed for S-100 bus systems, including Cromemco’s own systems, before concluding with some thoughts about the progress in personal computing that he participated in as both an observer and a key participant.
Date
2017-10-03
Participants
|
Spicer, Dag, Interviewer
|
|
Walker, Terry, Interviewee
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Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Mountain View, CA
Duration
02:07:59
Format
MOV
Category
Oral history
Collection Title
CHM Oral History Collection
Credit
Computer History Museum
