Vintage Educational GE Computer Film 1969 General Electric DATANET 30 Data Processing

Vintage Educational GE Computer Film from 1969, Produced by General Electric. A short intro to the computer's functions of INPUT, STORAGE, CALCULATION, OUTPUT and CONTROL. A low-budget, educational film, a bit dry, but several scenes of 1960's GE Computers, GE 435, DATANET 30 and other hardware. Audio is a bit choppy. Probably intended for high-school students of the 1960's. This was one of the very last GE Computer films made, since GE sold off its computer business to HONEYWELL the following year (1970). Your comments are welcome. Runs about 8 minutes.

2k and 4K stock footage available from Periscope Film

For More Information about GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPUTERS, visit:

Ed Thelen's General Electric Computers page
"General Electric Computer Department from the bottom up 1961 through 1965"

-- VIDEO: GE 210 Computer 1961 MICR - Banking Finance Data Processing

Computer History Museum

Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation (GE Computers)

DATANET-30 Systems Manual 1963

[josephgaviota]

That explanation about how a program works is actually a pretty good simple explanation for someone who doesn't know how computers work. I give it 👍👍.

[bblod]

This film describes, in the most simplistic way, how a computer and it's software operates. It should be used in today's elementary schools. 😎
Thanks CHAP for releasing it.

[exxzxxe]

Great series. The second job (around 1965) I had was as a programmer at the GE processing service bureau on Carpenter Freeway in Dallas. Most of my work involved the GE 225 with an AAU (auxilary aritmetic unit- for floating point calculations), programming in GECOM (GE's version of COBOL). Strangest job at the service bureau was our processing of the local phone company's long distance billing tapes. Long distance charges were spooled onto paper tape at the phone company's office. We sorted the charges in phone number order, also onto paper tape for final billing. I can remember the 225 operator's frantic mounting and dismounting punched paper tapes as the 225 progressed through the stages of the sort and merge steps.

[PashPaw]

It’s wild to think my great-grandmother worked at the plant building and repairing these machines in Phoenix. She was apparently quite adept at crawling around in them.

I often wonder what she would have thought about the modern microcomputers.

[exxzxxe]

I should have added the GE 225 and GE 235 were process-control computers adapted to "business processing." Later computers- the GE 435, GE 635 and GE 645 were designed for "business" and "scientific" processing.

[ElijahRetro]

Man I love Old School technology(some of the new technology's not too bad), and videos that have to do with Old School technology. This video here, instant classic. Well done C.H.A.P. 👍🏽😎👍🏽

[RottnRobbie]

Anybody else notice that new-fangled (in 1969) _felt-tip_ pen used to calculate George's pay?!?

[norcal]

$1 for health insurance! Those were the days.

[thesteelrodent]

this film is actually more educational than all the computer educational film from the 80s we were shown in school (which also included Wargames, Electric Dreams, and an ad for GEM because they didn't know how to teach IT)

[garthhowe]

Oh, if writing a payroll application was that easy. Lol Terrific film about the basic steps though.

[RodgerMudd]

This how big corporations are becoming the world rulers, and we have become but a number.

[cpm]

$1/week for health insurance! That would be nice.

[frankowalker]

Those jobs have also been taken by computers. LOL.