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Piece of Monash history returns home

10 December 2008

Dr Judy Sheard and Professor David Abramson with the MONADS PC.
Dr Judy Sheard and Professor David Abramson with the MONADS PC.

The Monash Museum of Computing History has welcomed the return of a piece of history, a computer that was designed and built at Monash in the mid-1980s.

The MONADS PC computer has been returned from the University of Ulm in Germany where it has spent the last 23 years supporting operating system research.

The machine was a research experiment designed by David Abramson and John Rosenberg when they were academics in the Department of Computer Science.

At the time, it was at the leading edge of computer science research, testing ways to develop software systems that were more reliable, secure and cost effective.

Many of the ideas generated during the research have been adopted by the software industry such as 64-bit architecture, security architectures, and distributed virtual memory.

Professor Abramson is currently an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology.

Museum director Dr Judy Sheard said the MONADS PC was a significant piece of computing history for Monash University.

"It reflects the innovative approach to computing started with the beginning of computer studies at the University and continued today in current e-Research," Dr Sheard said.

The Monash Museum of Computing History was created in 2000 to provide a resource for the study of computing history and the preservation of computing technology.

It is open from Monday-Friday 9am - 5pm in the Foyer, Level 2, Building B, Caulfield campus, Monash University.

For more information visit the museum website.