Bell Labs Film on Shaping the Computer Age from 1984 - AT&T Archives

See more from the AT&T Archives at techchannel.att.com/archives
This film shows the history of computer design innovation within the Bell System, including the computer hardware AT&T Computer Systems (a division of AT&T from 1984-1995) sold, and the applications those systems were best used for. The computers were mainly marketed to businesses, rather than home users.
The computers shown in this video are the 3B2, the 3B5, and the 3B20D. The 3B2 was the first desktop "supermicrocomputer" with a 32-bit processor, running UNIX. The 3B5 was huge - the size of a dishwasher, reportedly - and if you added a reel-to-reel tape drive, the size ballooned to the equivalent of a small fridge. The 3B5 had the WE-32000 processor also, aka the Bellmac32A. The 3B20D computer originally powered the 4ESS in the Bell System - an electronic telephone switcher. Because these were specialized switchers, they were slow to be phased out - over a hundred were still in use as late as 2008. That same computer also was the basis for the first 5ESS machines.
AT&T Computer Systems, as a company, was formed in order to leverage Bell Labs brainpower in the computer field, and served as a path for AT&T to enter the computer hardware market. AT&T-CS existed from 1984 to 1996.
Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ
Note that the brief glitch at 0:53 was also present in the original source material.

[@ATTTechChannel]

Unfortunately, that skip is in our original source material, so there's no getting around it. We hope you enjoy the rest!

[@tomservo5007]

"We invented the transistor" /drops mic and walks away/

[@MrPisster]

My first computer in 1995 was an AT&T. 19200 modem at the time, faster than any of my friends!

[@mikeharrisonvo]

My initial interest was radio broadcasting. Three years after landing my first radio job (1977), I wound up being hired by a local corporate multimedia production agency in northern New Jersey. Our clients included many Fortune 500 companies and, among them was "Ma Bell:" AT&T/Long Lines, Bell Labs, Western Electric and New Jersey Bell. At any given time, we were working on at least one project for at least one of those companies. I became so fascinated with their various technologies and inventions, and the capabilities they gave the public, I actually began to wonder if I should have pursued that kind of work instead. Many in the general public have no idea that, beginning with the first radio networks (1930s), programs were sent from originating stations to affiliate stations across the country over the phone lines and microwaves of AT&T. Television later followed suit. AT&T, Bell Labs and Western Electric designed, built and put into space (with the help of NASA) the first telecommunications satellites that made it possible to hear radio and see television from all over the world equipped with the facilities. As omnimacrox says elsewhere in these comments, "Bell Laboratories with AT&T were the super stars of the planet until 1984. The modern world can thank Legendary Bell Laboratories for all the amazing contributions to our modern world."

[@robertwolfiii8711]

Welcome 2022 thanks again.

[@MarkPhilpott]

Great, my first job was for Lucent Bell Labs on the 4/5ESS - 31 digit CCD dialling feature; that was me :)

[@lance8080]

Mark Philpott why are you letting communist China kick our asses on 5 G technology ????

[@michaeliverson2164]

Sad that you guys forgot about C and C++. Those languages were so fundemental in software engineering and the basis for other programming languages as well

[@guilhermemorenothimoteodac2317]

Still are...

[@am74343]

256K RAM!! Wow! That was flyin' back in those days! LOL! I remember my first computer-- IBM PS model 25, which didn't come with a hard drive. Then my dad bought a 20 megabyte hard drive for it, and we were like, "WOW WOW WOW!!" LOL!!!

[@julerobb1]

I was wondering what's the video where they discuss the speech synthesizer thingy where they made it talk. It had Bob lucky in it. Additionally, when will the tech vault site come back? Do I need to build one instead of att having one?

[@BrokebackBob]

The 3B series was way cool and beyond state of the art in their time. I mourn for the loss of Bell Labs through government stupidity and evil lobbyists.

[@SouthernRailfan]

Nice video, What Year did they com out with the ROH (Receiver Off Hook Tone)? There was a different type in Farragut Tn. that that was a steady medium pitch sound that went like a horn for this phone company called Concord Telephone Exchange Inc. I Saw that ot said that the system was a ESS-PBX, Waht lond of a system was that? What kind of ROH tone was that? Please ket me know. Thank you,

[@MrWolfTickets]

search for Evan Doorbell Phone Tapes - he has hundreds of hours of tapes of exploring the different phone sounds of the network

[@SouthernRailfan]

Here's what is was I saw on telco.us This Concord Telephone Exchange was switch type: ATT/Philps Tel 5ESS-PBX Host. Do you know about that switch type? Have you heard the ROH tone from that switch Type? Please let me know. Thank you.

[@DuplicatedOnce]

0:53, please fix!

[@terminator10111]

and that how i was made

[@CheapSushi]

4 years later and I still chuckled at this comment

[@MarkPhilpott]

Aargh, autocorrect ! 'CCS'.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Amazing how my smart watch has magnitudes more computing power than all of this.

[@thekaiser4333]

Hippies.