Historical Photo of the Month - February 2005

Microcomputer Club in 1978
Photograph Number P-20691

Today, almost every employee at JPL has a desktop computer. In 1978, however, this was not the case, because microcomputers (as they were known then) were still in the early years of development. This new technology was relatively unknown at JPL, except to members of the JPL Microcomputer Club. The club established an individual computing facility at JPL to provide a location for "development and implementation of state-of-the-art and advanced concepts in microcomputer hardware and software and as a training and testing center." Club secretary Sam Feinstein, treasurer Gary Paine, and president Jeb Long (L to R) are shown with one of the facility's three computers, a Commodore PET, which had 14 KB of ROM and 4 KB of RAM.

The Flight Projects Support Office oversaw operation of the facility as part of a study to determine the role of microcomputers in general purpose computing. For more information about the facility, read an article published in the October 10, 1978 issue of Universe.

For more information about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives.

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