People

Dr. Arlen Michaels donated his lifelong collection of over 150 microcomputers to Carleton University. The school has dedicated their vintage computing display in his honour: “Arlen’s Evolution of Microcomputing”.

I think the most trenchant definition of a microcomputer is “a computer you can lift”. It’s easy to forget that they haven’t been around forever. The earliest microcomputers appeared during the 1970s. My own practical experience with microcomputers extends back to systems originating in North America and Europe around 1975. I first designed and built my own microcomputer by hand from parts in 1976, which was at a turning-point in technology: five years after Intel created the first primitive microprocessor chip and five years before the now-ubiquitous IBM PC would make its debut. I was motivated then by my interest in electronics and by my postgraduate experience with laboratory minicomputers like the DEC PDP-11 and PDP-8, which I had programmed for real-time control of psychology experiments. In 1980 I was hired to co-found a Microprocessor Unit at the University of Stirling, in Scotland, to promote the application of microprocessors in academic research and in local industry. It may seem inconceivable now, but at this time universities did not yet teach courses about microprocessors, and computing science students were still banging away on terminals tied to a time-shared mainframe computer.

When people began discarding obsolete microcomputers, I started “rescuing” old systems that seemed to me to be important exemplars of technology history. This formed the core of a reference collection which is now very useful for explaining old technology as well as for recovering digital content from obsolete systems and media. There are nearly a hundred working examples of desktop and portable computers in this dinosaur gallery, dating from the mid-1970’s to the mid-1990’s.

– Dr. Arlen Michaels

Thank you to School of Computer Science faculty & staff that donated equipment:

• Dr. Robert Biddle – Professor Emeritus
• Dr. Jit Bose – Chancellor’s Professor
• Dr. J-P Corriveau – Director
• Dr. Frank Dehne – Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus
• Dr. Edward Melcer – Associate Professor
• Andrew Miles – Sr Systems Administrator
• Dr. Jörg-Rüdiger Sack – Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus
• Dr. Paul Van Oorschot – Professor
• Dr. Franz Oppacher – Professor
• Dr. Tony White – Professor

Thank you to our university departments that donated equipment:

• ITS
• Library
• Faculty of Engineering and Design
• Sprott School of Business

Thank you to our generous donors:

• Dr. Arlen Michaels [2024-26] – Donated his lifelong collection of microcomputers to the School of Computer Science
• Grant Bechthold [2026] – Generously donated his late dad’s Nabu 1100 and the MITS Altair 8800. “My dad was a rocket scientist with NRC. When they shut it down in the late 60’s they stood up a micro computer group at NRC. He was very active in the hobbyist Ottawa computer group. Our basement was full of computers and electronics.”. Grant Bechthold Sr. was an Engineering graduate from Carleton University.
• National Defense [2018] – The person was an Engineer working for National Defense and worked on the Avro Aero and also worked on some rocket engines and used this computer during his time at National Defense. Donated  the TRS-80 Model 2 with 8″ floppy disk drive
• Danny Globerman – Donated 2 x 486 laptops: Compaq 2820
• Tariq Francis [2022] – Apple LC II with Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse