Living Computer Museum (LCM, www.livingcomputermuseum.org) based in Seattle opened on 25 October 2012. The museum’s collection, which focuses on the milestones in computer history, how machines were used, and how machines are restored, was selected by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and the founder of LCM.

Visitors can view and get acquainted with machines such as Apple, Atari, AT&T, Control Data Corporation, Commodore, Cromemco, Data General, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM, IMSAI, Interdata, Kaypro, MITS, Osborne, Processor Technology, Radio Shack, Teletype Corporation, Vulcan, Xerox and XKL.

It has been announced just recently that visitors will be able to use and interact with a Unisys V380 mainframe. Unisys is an abbreviation for United Information Systems that was established in 1986 by the merger of two large manufacturers of mainframes (Burroughs Corporation, Sperry Corporation) V380 was designed to be a business computer, and a rival to machines manufactured by IBM.

Visitors to the exhibition can use the programme that was originally written for the City of Santa Ana, and was significantly modified by LCM as BIKE02. The name “bike” is a reference to the time when Santa Ana used V380 to issue bicycle licences to residents of the city. Naturally, the computer executed various other tasks as well.