" MICROWORLD " 1976 AT&T / BELL SYSTEM MICROPROCESSOR & COMPUTERS FILM w/ WILLIAM SHATNER XD35644

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“Microworld with William Shatner” (1976) is a color, educational and promotional film made by AT&T about the future of microprocessors. Canadian actor William Shatner, best known for his role in Star Trek, walks the viewer through solid state technology and the art of the integrated microcircuit. Additionally, he underscores the importance of silicon in this technology and how the invention of the transistor paved the way for modern technology.
The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell and Hubbard also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary telephone company in the United States. This company maintained an effective monopoly on local telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators agreed to allow AT&T to retain Western Electric and enter general trades computer manufacture and sales in return for its offer to split the Bell System by divesting itself of ownership of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982.
Camera pans over table cluttered with various electronic devices: keyboard, audio recorder, telephone, digital wristwatch, manual SLR film camera, LED calculator; Title appears across computer monitor screen (0:08). William Shatner appears across computer monitor screen and introduces subject of film: microelectronics (0:50). Close-up Shatner’s thumb as he holds up a tiny chip (1:08). Shatner walks in front of green screen displaying zoomed in image of chip made up of many small transistors (1:18). Camera zooms into open page of encyclopedia at the end of row of “World Book Encyclopedias” on book shelf (2:05). Shatner stands beside advanced machinery in processing plant, holds silicon crystal ingot (2:35). Microchips resting on sand underwater (2:48). Engineer suits up in white protective suit, face mask, and latex gloves before entering “clean room” lab, dramatic music plays alongside sequence of shots of engineers analyzing microchip under microscope (3:03). Shatner sits in front of advanced imaging machine, displays small speck of dust obstructing circuit board (3:37). Silicon wafers undergoing series of treatments at lab: Close-up shots of wafer as it is passed along various automated machines, narrator details how wafer is later turned into chips, another sequence of close-ups as chips are extrapolated from wafer (3:55). Interior of Bell Lab, discover of the microchip circuit in 1947 (5:04). 1930s Jackson Bell Cathedral-style radio on table, facade of radio removed to reveal “vacuum tubes/valves” operating in interior (5:24). Image of inventors of transistor John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain at Bell Labs (5:47). Close-up examples of transistors before image changes to complex circuit board (6:02). Production of transistor at a Western Electric plant, young woman sits at desk with advanced imaging technology while Shatner speaks to camera behind her (6:48). Microprocessor: View of microprocessor under microscope, appears to be undergoing wafer probe test (7:14). Microprocessor as the brain of modern electronic systems, electronic pulses flowing through various areas of circuit board (8:32). Shatner stands before enlarged blueprint of chip design, displays thousands of transistors locked and sealed in silicon (9:40). Woman works on design of chip in lab using what appears to be IBM Series 1 Computer (10:28). Since World War II amount of information produced by society doubles every seven years - necessity of the “microworld:” Shatner holds up copy of the New York Times, montage sequence of various electronic processing systems appears across screen (11:06). Bell System 1975 - Com Key 416 Telephone (11:54). Map of the United States highlighting Bell System’s electronic network (12:05). Young school children sit in front of 70s-era computer and do simple addition calculations, shot switches to high school classroom with students using computers to generate complex graphs (12:24). Shatner poses closing question, “What’s next?” (13:20). Closing credits roll over footage of table cluttered with various electronic devices used during opening sequence (14:05).
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFi...

[@jeremyjedynak]

This is a really good lost episode of Star Trek!

[@kd4pba]

Damnit Jim!

[@FlushCut]

Do you like fish sticks?

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

In late '76 I helped my Dad breadboard the families 1st 8080 computer (well, I stripped a lot of wires anyways). By '77 I was already programming in Machine Language. Today using python for the other 'ML' Machine Learning (and video postprocessing and...). Graduated electronics tech school in early '83 (the Final was design and build a basic but complete computer from discreet TTL. CMOS, n the usual from the power supply up everything else . Spent a career mostly in music studio repair and restoration, but some medical, solar, tv/vcr, etc in the mix too. It lasted from the dawn of microprocessors until well into the age of surface mount. (Sadly, 3 words that don't appear often together are 'Deaf Audio Technician'. Note that going blind is an added bonus that crushes careers quickly and efficiently.) I do miss it, I don't miss it. Good times and bad times. I can at least look back and say that in some small way, I helped change the world a bit for the better. (Hopefully still doing so.) 🖖🤕👍

[@cosmacgrandpa]

Awesome history! I'm retired now but there's a reason I have "COSMAC" in my handle. 😆 I built my first computer from the 1976 August Popular Electronics article.

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

@@cosmacgrandpa Equally awesome history! That is so 😎 Retired too, but never lost my love for silicone. By the end of following summer we had a Netronix Explorer 85 kit up and running with the full whopping 64K of DRAM (we sunk the family vacation fund into it). The rest is unfinished history until they plant me. I must say I miss the days of coding directly to metal.

[@publicmail2]

1976, 7000 transistors on a chip, 50 years later today 150 billion!

[@uploadJ]

Moore's what? Law ... yes.

[@christopherneufelt8971]

Thanks to periscope for saving and sharing this GEM!

[@FlushCut]

Considering AT&T has the original... You can even watch theirs...

[@curlyrooster118]

I remember this from High School. Then went on to Electronics for a living.

[@dfirth224]

I took electronics in high school in late 60s. We worked on vacuum tube radios and TVs.

[@null7936]

Thank you US.

[@aarond23]

Good film! And they were right no one knew what was ahead!

[@renatoamaral8259]

Excellent video! A masterpiece!

[@ernestcline2868]

Yet another time travel _Star Trek_ episode since the TRS-80 Model I and Apple II were introduced in 1977, a year after this film which shows them was supposedly shot. (Perhaps Shattner's scenes were shot in 1976, with images of the microcomputers being added later.)

[@jecelassumpcaojr890]

IMDb lists this video as 1980. Half of the references on the Internet agree and the other half say 1976. A Disc ][ for the Apple ][ machines is shown near the end where they are generating some graphs on the screen. That came out in very late 1978 and wouldn't be in a classroom before 1979.

[@wtmayhew]

AT&T uploaded this same film to AT&T Tech Channel on KZbin 13 years ago. The first comment is from Paul Cohen who produced the film and he said, “in 1980.”

[@paulwomack5866]

This film is not 1976 - at 12:27 we see Apple II (with floppy drive) in a classroom. Apple II launched on June 10, 1977. Sadly, the copyright (at 14:32:14) is covered by the frame counter! I've seen some suggestions out on the 'net that this film was made in 1976 BUT REVISED in 1980, which would explain the Apple II with floppies.

[@wendelldolittle5063]

In about 1967 68 my dad was a vice president at western electric ( the manufacturing end of the bell system) at 222 broadway in nyc. I can remember a small tv screen hooked up to our phone and connected to my grandmothers house 30 miles away where she had a screen too. My dad would dial her up and there she was. I was 14 years old at the time. The bell system was the largest contractor for the us government when it came to communication and electronic defense systems at the time. I do believe from what my dad would talk about at the dinner table to my mother the us government would supply bell system technology way ahead of what bell system was working on. I think I remember the phone screen was also at the nyc world’s fair in the early 60’s. My dad was born in 1920 and what a life he lived! Who knew!

[@LMB222]

Was he behind the idiotic idea to introduce the videophone?

[@patrickgroeneveld2340]

Amazing feature. Everything said still applies. Given that it showed an Apple-II computer, it must have been made after 1977.

[@philliplopez8745]

Our progress is almost unbelievable and the pace of change increases. We are doomed .

[@Bongofurry]

Cause of man not technology sooo

[@richeastmain4031]

Bill and Bell, great combo!

[@renatoamaral8259]

Aye, Captain James T. Kirk!

[@dfirth224]

One of those Bell Lab scientists quit his job to start a transistor manufacturing company in his hometown of Palo Alto, California. Thus was born "Silicon Valley".

[@SB-qm5wg]

Great documentary.

[@CandyHam]

this is phenomenally excellent, thank you for uploading

[@Uhhhhtheuhhhhmewhentheuhh]

its crazy how forward thinking this is, it sounds like it could have been made 100 years ago or 10

[@the_rubbish_bin]

I really dig the background music in this film!

[@KeritechElectronics]

Fascinating!

[@mikemurphy8714]

About the size of one of the flies many eyes. Thanks Dr. Suisse.

[@Mrshoujo]

*Seuss

[@mikemurphy8714]

@@Mrshoujo Seuss

[@scottcass4243]

I got out of High School in 76 and had no idea how the technology in this video would shape my life going forward. Just retired after 40 years in holding just about every job in Information Technology you could think of.

[@James_Knott]

These days, a single chip can hold billions of transistors. Imagine what he would have said about a modern smart phone!.

[@geemanbmw]

Ask him he's still alive and kicking and was just in Low Earth Orbit

[@James_Knott]

@@geemanbmw Was he actually in orbit? I thought it was just a suborbital hop.

[@geemanbmw]

@James_Knott something like that... he was emotionally effected by it

[@geemanbmw]

@@James_Knott yeah he went straight up and then straight back down lol

[@thomasgoodwin2648]

Yeah, Blue Origin. Straight up, straight down. To be orbital, you also need to go sideways... really fast! (17,500mph, 27,000Kph). That'll take you around Earth (1 orbit) about every 90 minutes. (edit) Oh and as to Shatner, yeah it affected him greatly, but not in the way he had hoped. He expected some kind of enlightenment, but instead found himself getting lost in the vast soul crushing depths of the empty nothing that surrounds us. Not the 1st to have that experience. It can scare the precious bodily fluids out of ya.

[@digitalrailroader]

The irony is that the official AT&T archives KZbin channel posted this same video several years ago.

[@kc0lif]

William shatner wow.

[@Jack-xo2zp]

For all its expertise and ability, Bell Telephone couldn't fight the federal government.

[@beryllium1932]

Seems like they did pretty well, holding a near monopoly for many decades.

[@davidmcguren3225]

You can see the link to TRON in some of the old grafix, awsome

[@cpm1003]

@12:26 - Surprising to see an Apple ][ in a film from 1976!

[@Patrick_B687-3]

Holy Moly, is that Sandra Locke? 6:53 Yep, I think so!

[@joshuagibson2520]

Ol Willy ShatShat. When he was a young fella.

[@StarsManny]

At 0:29 is a Tandy radio shack trs-80. These came out in 1977. So I'm not sure how this film could be from 1976?

[@Chris_at_Home]

I worked in electronics as a tech most of my work career. I even worked in a TV repair shop at 16 yo in 1969, 4 years in the military as an avionics technician, oil well logging tool tech and then in telecommunications retired from the T doing satellite communications. Worked on many types of communications equipment including two way, microwave and fiber optic and many types of low speed and high speed circuits.

[@So-CA_NV_AZ82]

Holy Shatner, another great video P.F. 👍🏽😎👍🏽

[@cosmacgrandpa]

Great video but how can it be from 1976 when it contains a TRS-80 and an Apple-II, neither of which were released until 1977? UPDATE: And an Apple Disk-II, which was not released until 1978?

[@fmphotooffice5513]

Today a large number of those discrete components, the 3 leg package, are unavailable. The ones left are in individual's parts bins all over the world. Today, when putting together circuits with old schematics, there is a lot of substitution going on. Now even through-hole assemby has more to do with structural necessity. SMD technology, even for passive compinents is more typical today.

[@guguineo]

Prophetic and still UP TO DATE . . .

[@christopherneufelt8971]

This is absolutely true. There was no redirection to any random technology and they even left details on research on genetical networks. No wonder that the same laboratories made possible the C and C++ language. Take care yourself and the people you love.

[@josephcote6120]

At 15:23 there is a dome input device I saw demonstrated at a late-70's West Coast Computer Faire. Anyone happen to know the name of the company that made it or what it was called? It was operated by selecting a pattern with your fingertips on those eight buttons, then using your thumb to finish the character by choosing one of several thumb buttons which triggered an ascii char to be sent out the port. The person demonstrating it was going pretty fast, probably faster than some typists (and with just one hand.)

[@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda]

14:22 sorry, don't know. But sounds cool.

[@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda]

Probably the same thing at 0:09

[@MrSpeedFrk]

"tens of millions of dollars"

[@whiskeymike5154]

"Making predictions is tough, especially about the future. " -- Yogi Berra Nice hairpiece though.

[@OldmanGamerYT]

The technologies presented seem quant by today's standards. Of course, we are now living in the world imagined in this video. Amazing! Will quantum computing be the next stage? Only time will tell.

[@agentsmithisalive]

I think it must 1977 at least, since that's when the TRS-80 (shown in the film) first came out?

[@davidmcguren3225]

This is so entertaining

[@uploadJ]

Anybody else recognize the Nagra 4 reel to reel portable tape recorder on the outro?

[@TheRealTrididos]

Andromeda Strain music realness.

[@Daledavispratt]

The way he's talking about the 80s and 90s...technology is going to be out of control by then. I'm glad I won't live to see it...

[@Katchi_]

I find myself wondering what the landscape would look like if the US didn't break up Bell.

[@cpm1003]

I wonder if anyone can identify any of the chips shown in this video?

[@burntorangeak]

*Clozee breaths heavily*

[@RetroJack]

I wonder what those chip designers would say if they could see a Ryzen 9!

[@FlushCut]

Of course an AMD fan clown makes an appearance...

[@RetroJack]

@@FlushCut I guess everything's a competition for you, huh?

[@J_Calvin_Hobbes]

thumb 👍

[@Bongofurry]

Should have invested more $$.

[@ccronn]

Just to think that all of this has devolved into Tik Tok

[@skiing43degreesnorth]

1976? Impossible. 1979 probably.

[@geemanbmw]

Man discovers splitting the atom uses it on its enemy then 2 years later alien probes show up to see what's going on and crash and all of a sudden Bell Labs is creating micro chips.... Got it !

[@telesniper2]

1947.....hm....the same year that UFO crashed at Roswell...

[@marlonbryanmunoznunez3179]

Nice catch 😆

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@marlonbryanmunoznunez3179 And to think it was "reverse engineered" for business all in the same year!

[@joshuagibson2520]

Did that one end up in Hangar 18 @ WPAFB?

[@peterparker9286]

​@@joshuagibson2520Mega Death Peace sells but who's buying.

[@joshuagibson2520]

@@peterparker9286 nope. Wrong album.

[@RiceCakeWtf]

There's no future in these computer things, waste of time.

[@paulgaskins7713]

6:52 hey! What is she doing there?! I was told that ‘back then’ women could only be house wives and secretaries and if they worked real hard and went to college they could be a nurse or teacher. Weird

[@FlushCut]

Do you like fish sticks? Bet you like fish sticks...

[@mikemurphy8714]

He was standing with his area awfully close to her don't you think?

[@tonycraib5939]

Its just a passing fad .Know one will ever have use for this rubbish

[@PatrickBaptist]

lol William SHAT-nerd

[@v8snail]

Is that 'The Shat'?