The Edward Feustel collection on the Rice University Computer Project (formerly Rice Institute) contains material collected by Feustel while he was employed at Rice University and Prime Computer. The collection spans 1958 to 1989, with some undated material. The material from Rice University documents the Rice University Computer Project, which produced the R1 computer, in full operation from 1961 to 1971. The R1 material includes documentation for R1 hardware and software, source code listings, status reports, and technical papers. The collection also includes some design documents and source codes listings for the R2, which was a planned follow-on to the R1, but whose construction was never completed. Also included are Prime Computer manuals.

Edward A. Feustel was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1940. He graduated from MIT in 1964 with simultaneous bachelor of science and master of science degrees in electrical engineering. He then earned a master of arts in 1965 and a PhD in 1967 from Princeton University in electrical engineering, after which he became a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Feustel began working at Rice University in 1968 where he participated in the Rice University Computer Project with responsibility for software design and emulation of the R2 computer. Feustel became a tenured associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Rice before leaving in 1979. From 1979 to 1992 Feustel worked at Prime Computer where he was a principal technical consultant. After leaving Prime in 1992, Feustel joined the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as a member of its research staff until 2000. After IDA, Feustel served as an adjunct faculty member at the Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) from 2000 to 2007 and adjunct professor of computer science at Dartmouth College from 2007 until his retirement in 2012. Throughout his career Feustel published numerous papers on non-parametric detection and computer architecture. Feustel currently resides in Plainfield, New Hampshire.

4.8 Linear feet, 11 manuscript boxes, 1 1/2 manuscript box

The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.

The collection is open for research.