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Guide to the Edward Feustel collection on the Rice University Computer Project
X4736.2008
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Title: Edward Feustel collection on the Rice University Computer Project
Identifier/Call Number: X4736.2008
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
4.8 Linear feet,
11 manuscript boxes, 1 1/2 manuscript box
Date (inclusive): 1958-1989
Abstract: 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.
creator:
Feustel, Edward A., 1940-
Collection processed by Paul McJones and CHM volunteers.
The collection is open for research.
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.
[Identification of Item], [Date], Edward Feustel collection on the Rice University Computer Project, Lot X4736.2008, Box [#],
Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Edward A. Feustel, 2008.
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.
The Rice University Computer Project (then Rice Institute) was established in 1957 with a grant from the Atomic Energy Commission
and an initial contribution from the Shell Development Company. It was led by Dr. Martin Graham, formerly of Brookhaven National
Laboratory, with a small technical staff. A large vacuum tube computer known as the R1 was constructed with several innovative
features designed to facilitate scientific computation. The internal word length was 56 bits, and the initial memory had 8K
words implemented with Radechon cathode ray tubes. 24K words of magnetic core memory were added in 1964. The Radechon tube
memory had a word length of 63 bits, which provided 7 bits for a pioneering implementation of a Hamming code error correcting
system in the memory interface circuits. Indirect addressing was implemented as well as a feature dedicating two bits of the
56 bit words as tag bits, which could be used in various ways to identify certain data elements, such as an aid in addressing
arrays. Console switches could be set to enable program trapping based on selected values of the tag bits which in turn could
control program behavior or facilitate program debugging.
Operating system software including an assembler and a compiler was developed by J. K. Iliffe, who joined the project from
England in 1958.
The computer was in operation from 1961 through 1971. Its use by science and engineering departments resulted in the publication
of more than 60 technical papers. It was one of the most successful of all large vacuum tube computers because of its innovations
and usefulness in producing scientific results and providing experience for graduate students in hardware and software design.
Iliffe returned to England and developed the data tag concept much further in a new architecture called the Basic Language
Machine. He returned to the Rice Project in 1968 to join in specifying the architecture of a new computer based on the Basic
Language Machine, to be constructed at Rice as a follow-on to the R1. The new machine was called the R2 and construction was
nearly 90% complete in 1976 when it was abandoned for lack of support.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Edward Feustel collection on the Rice University Computer Project is arranged into two series. Series 1, “Rice University
Computer Project materials,” contains documents that Feustel gathered when he left Rice University. The records in Series
1 span 1958 to 1970. There are early documents for the R1 hardware and software, written while the hardware was being designed
in the late 1950s. There are also hardware and software manuals used throughout the 1960s. There are source code listings
for the operating system, assembler and compilers, and libraries. Also included are status reports from 1967 and 1970 that
provide an overview of the R1 computer and how it was used for research at Rice University. Finally, there is a set of technical
reports and drafts of papers written about the R1. There is also a set of design documents and source code listings for the
R2, a follow-on to the R1 that was not completed. Series 2, “Prime Computer manuals,” contains hardware and software manuals
for Prime Computer products, as well as a few non-Prime Computer manuals.
The collection is arranged into 2 series:
Series 1, Rice University Computer Project materials, 1958-1971
Series 2, Prime Computer manuals, 1974-1989
Graham, Martin H. oral history, 2011-11-15, Lot X6332.2012, catalog number 102746199.
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746199 .
Related Collections at Other Repositories
Rice Institute Computer Project records, UA 87, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
http://search.library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/university-archives/computer-project-records .
Graham, Martin oral history. Interview #131 for the Center for the History of Electrical Engineering, The Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering, Inc.
http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Martin_Graham .
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Feustel, Edward A., 1940-
Prime Computer, Inc.--Handbooks and manuals
R1 Computer
Rice University. Department of Computer Science