Photos: Iconic computer innards as art

This summer, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is featuring an exhibit of intimate photographs of computers from its collection that were recently compiled for a book called Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers.

The book, written by John Alderman and featuring the photography of Mark Richards, chronicles 35 of the most significant computers. The visual history and informative breakdown of the computer reminds us not just how far, but how fast, humans have evolved the computer since the punch-card machine.

Here are some highlights from the exhibit and book.

1937
The IBM Model 077 was a collator that compared punch cards and then sorted them by whether they matched to make the filing process easier.

Credit: Mark Richards