New software gallery at National Museum of Computing is sponsored by InsightSoftware.com

A new Software Gallery has been opened at The National Museum of Computing by Sir Charles Dunstone, Chairman of The Carphone Warehouse Group and TalkTalk Group.

The gallery has been created by an assembly of TNMOC volunteers led by Jill Clarke and Bob Jones and has been entirely sponsored by Insightsoftware.com, flexible ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) reporting software provider.

Matt Crotty, Chairman of Insightsoftware.com and also a TNMOC trustee, said: "The new Software Gallery tackles a very wide-ranging and difficult subject area with creativity and flair. We are delighted with the result and very pleased that so many of our customers have been eager to come to see it".

Sir Charles Dunstone said: "This is my first visit to The National Museum of Computing and I have been astonished at the amazing displays of working vintage computers. The Museum dramatically demonstrates the pace of change in computing since Colossus, the world's first electronic computer, a British first which has been such a well-kept secret and which the Museum displays so well as a working rebuild. Since then hardware and software have combined to give consumers access to so much information in a way that could not have been conceived of even a few years ago. I was particularly impressed to see the enthusiasm and wonder of a party of school pupils learning about their computer heritage as I toured the new Gallery and the Museum".

The new Software Gallery, laid out in four quadrants, includes:

  •   a wall-sized programming language timeline

  •   an 'exploded' PC showing its internal components

  •   a robotics display

  •   a computer language database, already containing 2000 entries to which visitors can add

  •   an early, single-purpose accounting software machine, the Burroughs L5000

  •   a display demonstrating the pervasiveness of software in the home

  •   a special programming challenge for visitors and other hands-on exhibits.

Jill Clarke, TNMOC Volunteer whose brainchild the Software Gallery was, said: "Our Museum has some of the most amazing working hardware on display, but as a software engineer, I felt we were missing a huge part of the computing heritage story: the development of software. It's been hard work but great fun compiling the Gallery and we look forward to receiving feedback from our ever-growing number of visitors".

Tim Reynolds, Chairman of TNMOC, said: "It is a privilege to be Chairman of an organisation with such dynamic staff and volunteers. We have lots of great ideas and realistic plans to develop the Museum further as one of the top computing museums in the world. I urge the IT industry to follow the generous example set by Insightsoftware.com to support us in that aim".

In performing the opening, Sir Charles Dunstone also announced a competition for young people to participate in 'The Grand Digital', a potential new computing world record to be attempted at the Museum later this year. The same software program will be run sequentially on computers from each of the seven decades of computing since the 1950s. Young people will be invited to enter a competition to become operators of the seven computers that will be selected to demonstrate the amazing progress and power of computing.

The new Software Gallery and all the other displays can be visited whenever the Museum is fully open. For opening times, see www.tnmoc.org.