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The author, Brian Donovan, is a software engineer and writer who currently lives in Hong Kong with his wife and two cats.

Last modified: $Date: 2007-02-28 06:45:39 +0800 (Wed, 28 Feb 2007) $

Chaos by James Gleick

Chaos by Cal Henderson full titleChaos: Making a New Science
authorJames Gleick
pages352 (35 pages of footnotes and index)
publisherVintage
rating 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10 5/10
reviewerBrian Donovan
ISBN0749386061 (UK edition)
summary Pivotal moments in the work of a number of the scientists who contributed to the development of the study of chaos (aka nonlinear dynamical systems) from about 1960 through the 1980s are illustrated through a series of loosely-connected vignettes. read the review

Computers mentioned in the book

In addition to the systems pictured below, the Apple II is also mentioned (on p305), but there were so many models produced under some permutation of the Apple II name that trying to choose a representative photo seemed pointless. Cray supercomputers are also mentioned in several places but no dates or models are specified.

Royal McBee LGP-30

Control Data Corporation Cyber 205

The Royal McBee LGP-30 (1956, first mentioned on p11): the computer used by Lorenz in the climate modeling work that led to his discovery of the Lorenz attractor. User input was entered via a typewriter. Click for the Computer History Museum page on Royal McBee, which links to a PDF of the promotional materials for the LGP-30. Incidentally, the LGP-30 is the computer used by Mel in The Story of Mel. Image credit Computer History Museum.

The Control Data Corporation Cyber 205 (1981, first mentioned on p19): supercomputer used by the US National Meteorological Center for weather forecasting. The brochures available from the Computer History Museum page on CDC are for systems that predate the Cyber 205, but they're still interesting. If you can read French, there seems to be a French-language Control Data Corporation club and they have a website. Image credit La micro devient familiale.

Control Data 6600

IBM 7040

The Control Data Corporation 6600 (1963, first mentioned on p77): computer used by Hoppensteadt to produce his bifurcation movie. Brochures for this system (freon-cooled!) are available from the Computer History Museum page on CDC. Image credit Computer History Museum.

The IBM 7040 (1963, first mentioned on p150): computer used by Michel Hénon to visualize the Hénon attractor. There's a brief Wikipedia entry on the 7040. Image credit Columbia University.

HP-65 handheld calculator

Systron-Donner 3300

The HP-65 Hewlitt-Packard handheld calculator (1974, first mentioned on p170): used by Mitchell Feigenbaum. There's a very informative entry regarding the HP-65 on hpmuseum.org. Did you know that the HP-65, which sold for $795 when introduced, was used by Apollo astronauts in 1975 to perform course-correction calculations during the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous?

The Systron-Donner 3300 (1968, first mentioned on p245): computer used by Robert Stetson Shaw and the UC Santa Cruz "Dynamical Systems Collective". The text never actually specifies the model, simply referring to the system by the manufacturer's name, Systron-Donner, but the book describes it as a heavy, dusty thing with a patch panel for its front and either the 3300 (pictured above) or the 10/20 would seem to fit. The Computer History Museum has an entry for Systron-Donner that includes brochures for both the 3300 (the educational analog computer) and the 10/20 and 40/80 systems. Image credit Computer History Museum.

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