A new video captures a 1968 demo of IBM’s Executive Terminal

The Computer History Museum’s collection tells the biographies of its items, including an early Memorex videotape from 1968 recently acquired. The tape’s story begins with Debra Dunlop’s email about a collection belonging to her father, Robert Dunlop, an industrial psychologist at IBM, RCA, and Xerox. After receiving the collection, a rare video recording was discovered detailing a forgotten IBM computing system demo. The recording was restored by George Blood LP, revealing a starkly different vision of computing than the well-known “Mother of All Demos” by Doug Engelbart. Dunlop’s Executive Terminal showcased advanced computing for hierarchical organizations, contrasting Engelbart’s collaborative vision. The released video restores a lost chapter in computing history.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ibm-demo

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