TX-2 Project

Re-creating the historically important TX-2 computer

TX-2 Documentation

Contents

The main categories of documentation are:

  1. Documentation produced by the TX-2 project itself. For example explanation of the planned design, reference information for maintenance and documentation intended for TX-2 programmers.
  2. Papers published by people who wrote software on and for the TX-2; Ivan Sutherland’s thesis, for example.
  3. Proposals, progress reports, and other administrative documentation relating to the TX-2 project and Lincoln Lab. This mostly does not contain information of directly technical use, but can help establish the timing of changes and the motivation for changes.
  4. Retrospectives of the TX-2 project and programs such as Sketchpad.
  5. Project documentation, including commentary on the primary sources.

There are also some related photographs and videos.

How You Can Help

If you know of additional material that’s not listed here, please let us know (for example by email to james@youngman.org). Even if you can’t give it to us directly (e.g. because Lincoln Lab would need to release it), it will be useful for us to know that it exists.

Documentation Highlights

The TX-2 Technical Manual is the key reference work on the workings of the TX2, while the User Handbook is the first place to look for the kind of information a programmer would need to know.

Lincoln Laboratory TX-2 Project Documentation

Lincoln Laboratory Division 6 was responsible for the development of the TX-2. Their memos normally begin with the digit 6.

Introductory and Overview Material

  1. Papers presented at the February 1957 Western Joint Computer Conference (Los Angeles, California) by members of the TX-2 project.
  2. TX-2 Introductory Notes, A. Vanderburgh, 24 February 1959.
  3. Some Examples of TX-2 Programming, H. Philip Peterson, July 1958. Also known as Memorandum 6M-5780. These appear to have been prepared before some significant parts of the design (such as the address of the A register) were changed.
  4. User Program Measurement in a Time-Shared Environment. Alan G. Nemeth and Paul D. Rovner. Communications of the ACM, October 1971, Volume 14 Number 10; this describes the use of the sync system with the TX-2’s APEX time-sharing system. Includes some details of the implementation of the sync system.

TX-2 Users Handbook

The handbook describes the system’s instruction set, peripherals and some operational procedures and details (e.g. console controls and indicators). It also describes the system assembler, includes a listing of the customary set-up of the boot code in the A and B plug boards.

  1. TX-2 Users Handbook Chapter 3 - Operation Code, August 1963.
  2. TX-2 Users Handbook, Alexander Vanderburgh, July 1961 / October 1961 / August 1963.
    • via bitsavers
    • via archive.org (searchable)
    • This is a more-complete copy, but it still does not include the sections on the Magnetic Tape storage or the plotter.

TX-2 Technical Manual

Also known as Lincoln Manual No. 44. This was a three-volume work.

  1. TX-2 Technical Manual Volume 1 (Chapters 1 to 7)
  2. TX-2 Technical Manual Volume 2 (Chapters 8 to 15)
  3. TX-2 Technical Manual Volume 3 (Chapter 16)

The chapters of the Technical Manual are

  • Volume 1
    • Chapter 1: Introductory Description
    • Chapter 2: Functional Description of TX-2
    • Chapter 3: Circuit Logic Elements
    • Chapter 4: Memories
    • Chapter 5: Timing and Control
    • Chapter 6: Funcitonal Organization of the Control Element
    • Chapter 7: Operation Codes
  • Volume 2
    • Chapter 8: Pulse and Level Notation
    • Chapter 9: Computer Dynamics
    • Chapter 10: Control Element
    • Chapter 11: Memory Element
    • Chapter 12: Program Element
    • Chapter 13: Exchange Element
    • Chapter 14: Arithmetic Element
    • Chapter 15: In-Out Element
  • Volume 3
    • Chapter 16: Timing Charts

APEX

APEX was introduced in 1964 and was a system for time-sharing on the TX-2.

Sketchpad pre-dates APEX. Sketchpad is our primary focus for the simulator. The BCPL compiler used APEX, but we don’t have details of APEX or a copy of the BCPL compiler.

  1. A Time- and Memory-Sharing Executive Program for Quick-Response On-Line Applications. Fall Joint Computer Conference, 1965. AFIPS Conference Proceedings, Volume 27 Part 1.

TX-2 Hardware

  1. 6M-5661, Toggle Switch Storage System TX-2, Leopold Neumann, April 21, 1958.
  2. A Computer-Integrated Rapid-Access Magnetic Tape System with Fixed Address. IRE-ACM-AIEE ‘58 (Western): Proceedings of the Western Joint Computer Conference: Contrasts in Computers May 6-8, 1958, Pages 42–46
  3. A Discussion of the Circuitry Used in the Lincoln TX-2 Computer. Jonathan R. Fadiman. Lincoln Laboratory Memo 6D-2631, 1 October, 1958.
  4. The New Skip-on-Index Instruction, J. M. Frankovitch, February 4th, 1960.
  5. The Lincoln Keyboard - a typewriter keyboard designed for computers imput flexibility. A. Vanderburgh. Communications of the ACM, Volume 1, Issue 7, July 1958.

Papers on TX-2 Software

Sketchpad

  1. Sketchpad, A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System, Ph.D thesis of Ivan Edward Sutherland, January 7, 1963.
  2. Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System, Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 296, January 30, 1963.
  3. Sketchpad listings and memoranda pertaining to TX-2 computer and programming. Computer History Museum; catalog number 102726903.
    • The listings come in two documents. Large sections of these are illegible. These listings appear to have been printed on the TX-2’s Xerox printer and then photocopied. Many of the key details of the listing are unrecognizable blobs. TX-2 assembly language makes extensive use of superscripts and subscripts, and the small size of these has meant that the photocopying did not always come out well.

See also Sketchpad videos.

Sketchpad-III

  1. Sketchpad-III, Three-Dimensional Graphical Communication With A Computer, Ph.D thesis of Timothy Edward Johnson, May 1963.
  2. Sketchpad III: a computer program for drawing in three dimensions. Timothy E. Johnson. AFIPS ‘63 (Spring): Proceedings of the May 21-23, 1963, Spring Joint Computer Conference, May 1963. Pages 347–353.

See also Sketchpad-III videos.

  1. Graphical Communication and Control Languages. L. G. Roberts. Lincoln Laboratory, M.I.T.
    • This describes a list processing system which it states is similar to but not identical to those used in Sketchpad and Sketchpad-III.
    • Available from researchgate.net

Other TX-2 Software

  1. Aspects of Associative Processing, J. A. Feldman, MIT Lincoln Laboratory Group 23 Technnical Note 1965-13, 21 April 1965.
  2. BCPL Reference Manual, Martin Richards (M.I.T. Project MAC), Henry Ancona (Lincoln Laboratory), 6 May 1969.
  3. LO - A Text Formatting Program A. Evans Jr, Lincoln Laboratory, 21 February 1975.

Theses Relating to Work Done on the TX-2

  1. The On-Line Graphical Specification of Computer Procedures. William Robert Sutherland, January, 1966.
  2. On-Line Graphical Specification of Computer Procedures. W. R. Sutherland, 23 May 1966, Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 405.

Lawrence Roberts’ Thesis

  1. Machine Perception of Three-Dimensional Solids. Lawrence Gilman Roberts, June 1963. Available from MIT libraries

Roberts’ work used a “ring list” representation for drawings. This is similar to but not identical to the methods used in Sketchpad and Sketchpad-III (see page 59 of Roberts’ thesis).

Networking

  1. The ARPANET Completion Report, by F. Heart, A. McKenzie, J. McQuillian, and D. Walden, BBN Report 4799, January 4, 1978. Available from walden-family.org and archive.org.

Administrative Documents

The quarterly status reports of several of the divisions of Lincoln Laboratory (e.g. 2, 5, 6) provide some useful background information about the stages in the build of the TX-2 computer.

Division 2

  1. Division 2 Quarterly Progress Report: Data Systems, 15 August 1964.

Retrospectives, Oral History, etc.

  1. An Interview with Ivan Sutherland, OH 171, Conducted by William Aspray, 1 May 1989. Charles Babbage Institute.
  2. Graphics in Time-Sharing: A Summary of the TX-2 Experience William R. Sutherland, James W. Forgie, Marie V. Morello.
  3. Interaction at Lincoln laboratory in the 1960’s: looking forward – looking back William Buxton, Ron Baecker, Wesley Clark, Fontaine Richardson, Ivan Sutherland. CHI EA ‘05: CHI ‘05 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. April 2005, Pages 1162–1167.
  4. The LINC was Early and Small. Wesley A. Clark. HPW ‘86: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on The history of personal workstations. January 1986 Pages 133–155. Video.