Peter Samson
Encyclopedia
Peter R. Samson is an American
computer scientist
, best known for creating pioneering computer software.
Samson studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) between 1958-1963. He wrote, with characteristic wit, the first editions of the Tech Model Railroad Club
(TMRC) dictionary, a predecessor to the Jargon File
. He appears in Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
by Steven Levy
.
in his student days at MIT, Samson was noted for his contributions to the Signals and Power Subcommittee, the technical side of the club. Steven Levy
's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution outlines Samson's interest in trains and electronics, and his influence in the club. Levy explains how the club was in fact Samson's gateway into hacking and his ability to manipulate electronics and machine code
to create programs
. Levy explains how Samson discovered his programming passion with the IBM 704
, but frustration with the high level of security around the machine. Only those with very high clearance
were able to actually handle the computer, with all programs
submitted to be processed through the machine by someone else. This meant Samson would not find out the results of his programs until a few days after submitting them. Because of these restrictions to the IBM 704, it was not until Samson was introduced to the TX-0
(later nicknamed 'Tixo') that he could explore his obsession with computer programming, members of the Railroad Club were able to access the computer directly, without having to go through a superior.
on the TX-0
at MIT Building 26, he developed an interest in computing waveforms to synthesize music. For the PDP-1
he wrote the Harmony Compiler
with which PDP-1 users coded music.
He wrote the Expensive Planetarium
star display for Spacewar!.
Also for the PDP-1 he wrote TJ-2
(Type Justifying Program), the predecessor of the troff
and nroff
page layout programs developed at Bell Labs, a War
card game, and, with Alan Kotok
, T-Square
, a drafting program that used a Spacewar! controller for an input device.
(DEC) PDP-6
, and wrote the machine's first Fortran
compiler
. He is the author of Fortran II.
, he programmed the first Chinese-character digital communication system, while he was director of marketing and director of program development.
group at Stanford University
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
supercomputer
complex at the NASA Ames Research Center
.
, he contributed to rendering, animation, Web browsing, and scripting languages. He received U.S. patents in software anti-piracy
and virtual reality
.
in the shortest possible time. True to the MIT hacker culture he enlisted a computer in planning for the event. Despite missing out on the then fastest time, Samson's attempt was to act as the inspiration for many similar subway racing
attempts.
Mouse That Roared panel discussion recorded in May 2006 to celebrate the restoration of a PDP-1. For the restoration project he reverse-engineered music tapes from the PDP-1 era and built a player for the museum where he is currently a docent
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
, best known for creating pioneering computer software.
Samson studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) between 1958-1963. He wrote, with characteristic wit, the first editions of the Tech Model Railroad Club
Tech Model Railroad Club
The Tech Model Railroad Club is a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and one of the most celebrated model railroad clubs in the world, because of its historic role as a wellspring of hacker culture...
(TMRC) dictionary, a predecessor to the Jargon File
Jargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
. He appears in Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution is a book by Steven Levy about hacker culture. It was published in 1984 in Garden City, New York by Anchor Press/Doubleday...
by Steven Levy
Steven Levy
Steven Levy is an American journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy.-Career:...
.
The Tech Model Railroad Club
As a member of the Tech Model Railroad ClubTech Model Railroad Club
The Tech Model Railroad Club is a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and one of the most celebrated model railroad clubs in the world, because of its historic role as a wellspring of hacker culture...
in his student days at MIT, Samson was noted for his contributions to the Signals and Power Subcommittee, the technical side of the club. Steven Levy
Steven Levy
Steven Levy is an American journalist who has written several books on computers, technology, cryptography, the Internet, cybersecurity, and privacy.-Career:...
's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution outlines Samson's interest in trains and electronics, and his influence in the club. Levy explains how the club was in fact Samson's gateway into hacking and his ability to manipulate electronics and machine code
Machine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
to create programs
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
. Levy explains how Samson discovered his programming passion with the IBM 704
IBM 704
The IBM 704, the first mass-produced computer with floating point arithmetic hardware, was introduced by IBM in 1954. The 704 was significantly improved over the IBM 701 in terms of architecture as well as implementations which were not compatible with its predecessor.Changes from the 701 included...
, but frustration with the high level of security around the machine. Only those with very high clearance
Clearance
A clearance can refer to:* in chess, A positional move, where a player moves a piece occupying a certain square away, replacing it with an allied piece that will strengthen the player's position....
were able to actually handle the computer, with all programs
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
submitted to be processed through the machine by someone else. This meant Samson would not find out the results of his programs until a few days after submitting them. Because of these restrictions to the IBM 704, it was not until Samson was introduced to the TX-0
TX-0
The TX-0, for Transistorized Experimental computer zero, but affectionately referred to as tixo , was an early fully transistorized computer and contained a then-huge 64K of 18-bit words of magnetic core memory. The TX-0 was built in 1955 and went online in 1956 and was used continually through the...
(later nicknamed 'Tixo') that he could explore his obsession with computer programming, members of the Railroad Club were able to access the computer directly, without having to go through a superior.
Dawn of software
Working with Jack DennisJack Dennis
Jack Dennis is a computer scientist and retired MIT professor.Dennis entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949 as an electrical engineering major; he received his MS degree in 1954, and continued doctoral research and received his ScD in 1958...
on the TX-0
TX-0
The TX-0, for Transistorized Experimental computer zero, but affectionately referred to as tixo , was an early fully transistorized computer and contained a then-huge 64K of 18-bit words of magnetic core memory. The TX-0 was built in 1955 and went online in 1956 and was used continually through the...
at MIT Building 26, he developed an interest in computing waveforms to synthesize music. For the PDP-1
PDP-1
The PDP-1 was the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture at MIT, BBN and elsewhere...
he wrote the Harmony Compiler
Harmony Compiler
Harmony Compiler was written by Peter Samson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The compiler was designed to encode music for the PDP-1 and built on an earlier program Samson wrote for the TX-0 computer.]...
with which PDP-1 users coded music.
He wrote the Expensive Planetarium
Expensive Planetarium
Expensive Planetarium is the star display written by Peter Samson for Spacewar!, one of the first interactive computer games. Conceived and written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology students including Stephen Russell who programmed it, the Spacewar! game first ran in early 1962 on the PDP-1...
star display for Spacewar!.
Also for the PDP-1 he wrote TJ-2
TJ-2
TJ-2 was published by Peter Samson in May 1963 and is thought to be the first page layout program. Although it lacks page numbering, page headers and footers, TJ-2 is the first word processor to provide a number of essential typographic alignment and automatic typesetting features:*Columnation,...
(Type Justifying Program), the predecessor of the troff
Troff
troff is a document processing system developed by AT&T for the Unix operating system.-History:troff can trace its origins back to a text formatting program called RUNOFF, written by Jerome H. Saltzer for MIT's CTSS operating system in the mid-1960s...
and nroff
Nroff
nroff is a Unix text-formatting program; it produces output suitable for simple fixed-width printers and terminal windows...
page layout programs developed at Bell Labs, a War
War (card game)
War is a card game typically involving two players. It uses a standard French playing card deck. Due to its simplicity, it is played most often by children.-Gameplay:The deck is divided evenly among the two players, giving each a down stack...
card game, and, with Alan Kotok
Alan Kotok
Alan Kotok was an American computer scientist known for his work at Digital Equipment Corporation and at the World Wide Web Consortium...
, T-Square
T-Square (software)
T-Square was an early drafting program written by Peter Samson assisted by Alan Kotok and possibly Robert A. Saunders while they were students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and members of the Tech Model Railroad Club....
, a drafting program that used a Spacewar! controller for an input device.
DEC
Samson was a contributing architect to the Digital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
(DEC) PDP-6
PDP-6
The PDP-6 was a computer model developed by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1963. It was influential primarily as the prototype for the later PDP-10; the instruction sets of the two machines are almost identical.The PDP-6 was DEC's first "big" machine...
, and wrote the machine's first Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
. He is the author of Fortran II.
Chinese
At Systems ConceptsSystems Concepts
Systems Concepts is a company co-founded by Stewart Nelson and Mike Levitt focused on making hardware products related to the DEC PDP-10 series of computers...
, he programmed the first Chinese-character digital communication system, while he was director of marketing and director of program development.
Synthesized music
Samson designed the Systems Concepts Digital Synthesizer. Built at Systems Concepts, it was for ten years the primary engine for the computer musicComputer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
group at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
NASA
Samson oversaw manufacturing engineering for hardware including the central memory subsystem for the ILLIAC IVILLIAC IV
The ILLIAC IV was one of the most infamous supercomputers ever built. One of a series of research machines, the ILLIACs from the University of Illinois, the ILLIAC IV design featured fairly high parallelism with up to 256 processors, used to allow the machine to work on large data sets in what...
supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
complex at the NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...
.
Autodesk
At AutodeskAutodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, he contributed to rendering, animation, Web browsing, and scripting languages. He received U.S. patents in software anti-piracy
Anti-piracy
Anti-piracy is a term used to describe countermeasures against maritime piracy but moreoften by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual-property rights....
and virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
.
Subway racing
In 1966 Samson attempted to ride all lines of the New York City SubwayNew York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
in the shortest possible time. True to the MIT hacker culture he enlisted a computer in planning for the event. Despite missing out on the then fastest time, Samson's attempt was to act as the inspiration for many similar subway racing
Subway Challenge
The objective of the Subway Challenge is to navigate the entire New York City Subway system in the shortest time possible. This ride is also known as the Rapid Transit Challenge and the "Ultimate Ride".There are two primary variations of this challenge:...
attempts.
Current
Samson appears in the Computer History MuseumComputer History Museum
The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
Mouse That Roared panel discussion recorded in May 2006 to celebrate the restoration of a PDP-1. For the restoration project he reverse-engineered music tapes from the PDP-1 era and built a player for the museum where he is currently a docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...
.
External links
- Peter Samson personal home page
- Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language
- [ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-107.pdf Music Playing on the PDP-6], by Donald Sordillo, 1996, contains Music Compiler for PDP-1 by Peter Samson
- PDP-1 Music, Daniel P. B. Smith, Web site and post to alt.folklore.computers (Google link) (accessed June 10, 2006)