TX-2 Project

Re-creating the historically important TX-2 computer

People

This page contains information about some of the people who worked on the TX-2.

Clark, Wesley A.

Designer of the TX-2, LINC and other computers, and could reasonably be credited with the creation of both the workstation (the TX-2) and the minicomputer (LINC). Wes also proposed (to Bob Taylor and Larry Roberts) the idea of using IMPs to form a message swutching network for the ARPANET.

  1. Wikipedia page for Wesley A. Clark.
  2. Digibarn’s Memories and Tributes for Wesley A. Clark.
  3. Masic I. The Most Influential Scientists in the Development of Medical Informatics (33): Wesley Allison Clark (1927-2016). Acta Inform Med. 2022 Sep;30(3):251-252. doi:10.5455/aim.2022.30.251-252. PMID: 36311154; PMCID: PMC9559876. (PDF)
  4. New York Times obituary. Markoff, John; 2016-02-27.

Kleinrock, Leonard

Pioneer in computer networking.

  1. Kleinrock’s thesis, Kleinrock, “Message Delay in Communication Nets with Storage”. was based on work carried out on the TX-2. The software is available at the Computer History Museum.
  2. Wikipedia page for Leonard Kleinrock.

Loomis, Herschel. H.

  1. Loomis, Herschel H. Graphical Manipulation Techniques Using the Lincoln TX-2 Computer. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, 1960. - cited in Ivan E. Sutherland’s Sketchpad paper.
  2. Loomis, Herschel H. “The Effects of Logic Delay on Computation Rate.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, 1963.
  3. Herschel Loomis later took a role as Assistant Professor of Engineering at UCSD (as stated in his 1964 paper).
  4. It is possible that this is the same person who was honoured in 2017 at his retirement from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Ornstein, Severo

  1. Wikipedia page for Severo Ornstein
  2. Oral history interview with Severo Ornstein, 1990-03-06, Charles Babbage Institute. (pdf)
  3. Ornstein, Severo oral history, 2015-11-20, Computer History Museum. (transcript)

Roberts, Larry

An Internet Pioneer. Created the ARPANET.

Roberts’ Ph.D. thesis “Machine Perception of Three-Dimensional Solids” was based on work carried out on the TX-2. Roberts is credited as the father of Computer Vision as a result of this work.

Roberts wrote the TX-2’s M4 assembler.

Roberts asked Leonard Kleinrock to apply mathematical methods to model and measure the performance of the network.

See also Dana Mayor’s Larry Roberts – Complete Biography, History and Inventions.

Sutherland, Ivan E.

Author of Sketchpad and pioneer in computer graphics.

  1. Wikipedia page on Ivan E. Sutherland.
  2. Oral history interview with Ivan Sutherland at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
  3. Ivan Edward Sutherland, OH 171. Oral history interview by William Aspray, 1 May 1989, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. http://purl.umn.edu/107642

Work on Sketchpad

See also Sketchpad videos.

  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.

Vanderburgh, Alexander

Author and editor of the TX-2 User’s Handbook, the reference for the TX-2 programmer.

  1. Smithsonian’s Documents Relating to a 1958 High School Course in Computers; the course was taught by Alexander Vanderburgh.
  2. Alexander Vanderburgh Obituary, reproduced from The Boston Globe 2014-11-04.