Peter Samson

By mikeklimek1
  • Born

    Born

    Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts
  • Tech Model Railroad Club

    Tech Model Railroad Club

    At MIT Samson joined the Tech Model Rail Club(TMRC) which would lead to him spending most of his time around computers.
  • Period: to

    MIT

    He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where his "hacking" career would begin.
  • TMRC Dictionary

    TMRC Dictionary

    Samson wrote the first edition of the TMRC Dictionary, and a year later he would write the second edition.
  • Harmony Compiler

    Harmony Compiler

    The PDP-1 arrived at MIT, this computer was more accessible than most at the time allowing Samson to create the Harmony Compiler computer Program. The program turned text into synthesized music.
  • Spacewar!

    Spacewar!

    Many Tech Model Railroad Club members had a hand in developing Spacewar! the first video game to be played at multiple computer installations. Samson specifically wrote a program to display real stars in the game called "Expensive Planetarium".
  • TJ2

    TJ2

    He published the Type Justifying Program (TJ2), one of the first word processing programs.
  • PDP-6

    PDP-6

    The PDP-6 was released, Samson was a contributing architect and wrote the FORTRAN compiler.
  • DEC

    DEC

    Samson would begin his career at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
  • Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee

    Amateur New York Subway Riding Committee

    Samson and 5 others set out to write a program to be able to ride the New York City Subway system in its entirety in the shortest amount of time possible. They programmed the PDP-6 with the subway schedules to achieve a time of 26 and half hours.
  • Systems Concepts

    Systems Concepts

    While working at Systems Concepts, he programmed the first Chinese Character Digital Communication system and developed the Systems Concepts Digital Synthesizer (Samson Box).
  • NASA

    NASA

    While working at NASA, he oversaw hardware manufacturing most notably for the ILLIAC IV supercomputer complex and the NASA/Ames Research center.
  • Samson Box

    Samson Box

    The Digital Synthesizer (Samson Box) was installed at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics Research at Stanford University.
  • Autodesk

    Autodesk

    He contributed to rendering, animation, Web browsing, and scripting languages. He also received patents for software anti-piracy and Virtual Reality.
  • Computer History Museum

    Computer History Museum

    Samson is a member of the PDP-1 restoration team and a docent at the museum. (Photo: left to right - Alan Kotok, Peter Samson, Stephen Russel)