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Dumbkopf 1 computer from 1954?

E

edcross

Experienced Member
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Jul 15, 2015
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Just seen in facebook but not sure if this is an actual computer, anybody knows anything about it? Seller is asking for $150k bazongas incl. free local delivery :D.

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That thing has been offered for sale for at least the last 15 years. There has been some discussion about it, but few seem to know much about its function (ca. 1954). Probably some offshoot of Project Whirlwind, but that doesn't tell us much. Some have suspected that it's a phone line demodulator (i.e. modem)--no memory is visible here, so probably not any sort of stored-program computer.

If you dig through MIT's archives you might find something.
 
Makes one wonder about the naming "Dumbkopf I", aside from the Americanization of the German word "Dummkopf". Was it some euphemistic name meant to imply the unit was some lesser piece of computing equipment? I guess it might not have even been a stand-alone computer, but perhaps some auxiliary processor.
 
There have been guesses as to its function. Certainly not a general-purpose computer in the sense we think of it--not complex enough and no storage and no indicators of any sort.

Take a close look at the modules. The overwhelming majority are single-tube ones. Note the connectors running down the vertical strip--two per horizontal row. If you wayback the original ads in 2008 on the guy's webtv.com ads, you'll see that he lists power requirements at 12.6Vac at 80 amps and 150V DC at what, 10 amps? So the things in the upper right-hand quadrant are not power supplies--could be audio circuitry. The initial guesses that this was some sort of telecom interface would certainly fit. Not a computer.

As far as the name--you'll see "Dr. Dumbkopf" as a comics character dating from at least the 1930s. The character even appeared in a couple of 1950s cartoons. Spelled just that way. Doubtless it occurred in other places as well.
 
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Not really interested in the origin of the word. It would have started with the first German immigrant. It's the American Way to change the spelling and pronunciation of foreign words.

Even if it is communications equipment, I still wonder why it was named that. Either we have mis-understood that sign, or there was some interesting naming conventions being used wherever this equipment originated. We all know the wit and sarcasm of computer engineers, but still there seems like a story in it someplace. Of course, we're not likely to ever know it.
 
One of the proposed histories ties it to a MIT memo regarding the "XD-1" which given the usual engineer naming conventions would result in an unflattering name starting with "D."
 
Nope--the "XD-1" was the designation given to the prototype AN/FSQ-7 SAGE. history. "X" also commonly meant "experimental".

I'll venture that the seller doesn't know what the heck the box does.
 
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I doubt that it's from Whirlwind, but as I've mentioned, it could be from anything of the period. I think the idea of a telecoms demodulator fits pretty well. AT&T made the Bell 101 for SAGE in 1958, so this could be a predecessor:

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There are certainly not enough vacuum tubes to implement a computer. Perhaps a simple UART (shift registers) and associated analog circuitry (modulator/demodulator). Would they have given a name to such units? Or does "Dumbkopf I" refer to the computer to which it was connected? The test panel seems to imply it can generate an interrupt and the BNC or RCA jacks might have been for audio in/out.

MIT did work on prototype and research/development of SAGE, which would have required remote communication. I guess it could have also been a more-generic unit that was used/reused for many different applications.

I'm guessing there is no longer anyone that remembers, or documentation that explains, the naming conventions. There is a SAGE computer at the Smithsonian, or at least there was one donated there. I was fortunate enough to tour the SAGE facility in WA back in the mid-70's, while it was still in operation. Certainly, the military would not have used such naming conventions. A fascinating era in computing, though.
 
Well, identifying a computer based on a logic gate is pretty flimsy. Just because a computer used a 74LS74 doesn't make it a Kaypro. Still, seems there is a reasonable association with that project. Within the constraints of information reliability.
 
Given the lack of documentation and cooperation from the seller (Sellam tried a few years ago and was rebuffed), guesswork is all we have. Even a photo of the other side of the thing might help, but I suspect that it's not forthcoming. Heck, we're not even sure that it was from Lincoln Labs--all we have is the seller's claim.

And because it doesn't sell and because he doesn't want to cooperate, he thinks that jacking the price up (more than 50 percent in two years) is going to make the difference.

Heck, it just might...
 
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