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Born in Fitchburg Massachusetts
“Peter Samson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Samson. -
Joins TMRC and attends first lecture at MIT
"Peter Samson had been a member of the Tech Model Railroad Club since his first week at MIT in the fall of 1958. The first event that entering MIT freshmen attended was a traditional welcoming lecture, the same one that had been given for as long as anyone at MIT could remember." (Levy 6) -
Peter Samson's Vow
"Peter Samson vowed to find out how the massive matrix of wires, relays and crossbar switches worked at MIT worked" (Levy,6) -
TX-0 Hacking Begins
"So the TMRC hackers, who soon were referring to themselves as TX-0 hackers, changed their lifestyles to accommodate the computer." (Levy 6) -
Music on TX-0
Circa 1959 Samson wrote code which used well timed changes of data in the accumulator to generate monophonic sounds of different pitches, and play some melodies of Johann Sebastian Bach. They developed a system which used a sort of music language to encode the music in more human-friendly form. 1-Bit Music News - One Bit Is Enough, shiru.untergrund.net/1bit/pivot/entry.php?id=102. -
First programming course offered at MIT
Levy, Steven. “The Tech Model Railroad Club.” Wired, Conde Nast, www.wired.com/2014/11/the-tech-model-railroad-club/. -
TMRC Dictionary Creation
Peter R. Sampson In June 1959 computer scientist Peter R. SamsonOffsite Link, then on the Public Relations Committee of the MIT Tech Model Railroad ClubOffsite Link, defined the term "hackOffsite Link" in the Tech Model Railroad Club DictionaryOffsite Link as: "1) an article or project without constructive end "2) a project undertaken on bad self-advice "3) an entropy booster "4) to produce, or attempt to produce, a hack(3)." -
Last year at MIT
“Peter Samson.” Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/events/bio/peter,samson. -
Joins DEC
“Peter Samson.” Peter Samson | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. -
Samson Develops Compiler for PDP-6
After joining the DEC, Samson then developed a version of the FORTRAN compiler that is able to run on the PDP-6. “Peter Samson.” Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/events/bio/peter,samson. -
Programmed the PDP-6
In 1967, he programmed the PDP-6 with the complete schedules of the New York subway system, and used it interactively on-line to win a competition for traveling through the entire system in minimum time.
“Peter Samson.” Peter Samson | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. -
Joined Systems Concepts, Inc. in San Francisco
Here, he programmed the first Chinese-character digital communication system and designed the Systems Concepts Digital Synthesizer, then the world's largest and most capable music synthesizer, which served for more than a decade as principal synthesis engine for the computer music group at Stanford University (CCRMA)." “Peter Samson.” Peter Samson | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson/. -
Designed The System Concepts Digital Synthesizer, also known as Samson Box
It was serious hardware, the largest and the most capable music synthesizer of the time - it had 256 oscillators with frequency and amplitude envelopes, 128 modifiers (filters or modulators), and delay memory. It supported additive, subtractive, non-linear FM synthesis, and waveshaping. It was used to create computer music by different composers for more than ten years. 1-Bit Music News - One Bit Is Enough, shiru.untergrund.net/1bit/pivot/entry.php?id=102. -
Joins NASA
Samson moved to work for Nasa, where he was in charge of the oversight of manufacturing for a majority of the hardware products used. “Peter Samson.” Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/events/bio/peter,samson. -
Rebuilt Spacewar
“PDP-1 Restoration Team Member, Peter Samson Listening to Music Programmed for the DEC PDP-1 during the PDP-1 Restoration Project.” PDP-1 Restoration Team Member, Peter Samson Listening to Music Programmed for the DEC PDP-1 during the PDP-1 Restoration Project | PDP-1 Restoration Project | Computer History Museum, www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/87c7e8058c23e98aca274b0f65dac436/.
