Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Howard J. Cohen collection
Identifier/Call Number: X7787.2016
Contributing Institution:
Computer History Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
5.0 Linear feet,
9 manuscript boxes and 1 record carton
Date (inclusive): 1978-1990
Abstract: The Howard J. Cohen collection contains hard copy listings of software from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as reference books,
manuals, directories, and a small number of floppy disks. Ranging in date from 1978 to 1990, the collection traces Cohen's
early work as a software engineer at Oceanroutes, Daisy Systems, ENSCO, and ROLM. The program listings from Oceanroutes relate
to ocean wave modeling, prediction, and statistics, while the software from Daisy Systems is for electronic design automation
and the placement of components on gate arrays. The collection also holds a small amount of reference books and manuals, most
of which are related to IBM and Intel.
Collection processed by Dick Johnson and Anna van Raaphorst-Johnson, 2018. Detailed inventory created by the donor, 2016.
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], Howard J. Cohen collection, Lot X7787.2016, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History
Museum.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Howard J. Cohen, 2016.
Howard J. Cohen is a software engineer and developer who has worked as a consultant for over 30 years. He has experience in
a broad spectrum of technologies, such as electronic design automation, ocean wave modeling, and bioinformatics and computational
genomics. A native of New York, Cohen earned a BS in physics from the City College of New York in 1966 and a PhD in theoretical
physics from Brandeis University in 1974. After graduating, Cohen worked for two years as a member of the technical staff
at NASA Ames Research Center. He then worked as a program manager in research and development at Oceanroutes from 1976 to
1979, where he was a project leader for and designer of the company's East Coast, Australian, and "portable" spectral ocean
wave models. In 1979, Cohen began working as a systems development consultant, first as a scientist at ENSCO from 1979 to
1982, where he was a lead investigator in applying passive underwater acoustic detection and estimation procedures to multi-sensor
target localization. After leaving ENSCO, Cohen joined Daisy Systems as a senior software engineer and group leader, where
he created tools for the automatic and interactive layout of semi-custom and full custom VLSI chips until 1987. After Daisy
Systems, Cohen continued to work as a consultant and occasionally in full time engineering and management positions for Silicon
Valley businesses, such as Nortel Networks, SurroMed, Incyte Genomics, BomDiver, Canon Information Systems, WeatherNews, PetroSoft,
LSI Logic, Aspect Development, Abbott Laboratories, ETAK, Engineering DataXpress, Nikon Precision, Diasonics, Rolm, Mindcraft,
Integrated CMOS Systems, Tibco Inc., and Zycad Corporation. Also, he has taught courses at several San Francisco Bay Area
colleges, including San Jose State University, Foothill College, College of San Mateo, and City College of San Francisco.
In addition to his software development consulting, Cohen has served as an expert witness since 1997, specializing in software
intellectual property litigation.
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Howard J. Cohen collection, ranging in date from 1978 to 1990, consists of program listings, manuals, reference books,
and directories. The bulk of the collection is made up of listings from companies that Cohen worked for during the 1970s and
1980s. Cohen retained these listings, which he either created himself or worked as a contributor on, to serve as a personal
archive, with each set of listings generated as a project snapshot. About half of the program listings are from Oceanroutes,
a company that provided weather routing services to vessels and predicted ocean wave statistics at fixed points, typically
for offshore drilling. There is also a significant amount of material from Daisy Systems, which was an early electronic design
automation company. There are small amounts of listings from ROLM and ENSCO. This portion of the collection contains three
8-inch floppy disks, which hold copies of source code and are stored with their related program listing. The rest of the collection
consists of manuals and reference materials, most of which are related to IBM and Intel.
The collection is arranged into 4 series:
Series 1, OceanRoutes program listings, 1978-1986
Series 2, Daisy Systems program listings, 1983-1986
Series 3, Other listings, 1979-1981
Series 4, Books and manuals, 1979-1990
Subjects and Indexing Terms
ENSCO
Chip design
Electronic design automation
FORTRAN
Gate array circuits
Ocean surface wave modeling