[Hattori:] Welcome back. We are at the Computer Museum History Center here in Silicon Valley this week and with us is the executive director and CEO John Tool. John, thanks for having us.
[Unidentified Male: John Tool, Ceo, Computer Museum History Center:] Thank you.
[Hattori:] How many artifact do you have here, what, dating back to the '50s, even before that?
[Unidentified Male:] You bet, we got thousands and thousands of things from hardware, software, ephemeral, networking kinds of things.
[Hattori:] One thing I was wondering about, where is the very first computer?
[Unidentified Male:] surprised you asked. Actually, the first computer was actually termed for women who actually used for calculations.
[Hattori:] Oh, not a machine, a person.
[Unidentified Male:] It was not a machine, they were people,OK, that were actually considered particularly during the war, and insurance industries were doing actuarial tables.
[Hattori:] So they would sit there and scribble and do calculations all day?
[Unidentified Male:] Exactly. And they became some of the first programmers.
[Hattori:] What are we standing in front of here? This is a
[Unidentified Male:] This is an exciting machine. This is a one of a kind rescued by the computer museum. It is a tube machine, there are thousands of these kinds of things.
[Hattori:] You don't see those anymore, do you?
[Unidentified Male:] Not really. Very unreliable in the sense of what the machines were. But it really pioneered a lot of new stuff.
[Hattori:] And what kind of power did it have for calculations?
[Unidentified Male:] Well, it was, by comparison to what we have today, orders of thousands of thousands of less power than we have. But at the time it was just world break-through.
[Hattori:] John, this is a terrific place. The Computing Museum History center, if you are ever in the neighborhood, stop on by.
[Unidentified Male:] Thank you.
[Hattori:] Another device that's also marking its 20th anniversary this year is the compact disc. No other audio technology has been able to match the sound quality of the CD until now. Mark Saltzman has this week's "Technofile."
[Mark Saltzman, Cnn Correspondent:] A war is on to replace the almighty CD. The contenders: DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD. Both offer true, six-channel Surround Sound, much like a DVD movie, with five speakers delivering different tracks, and the subwoofer pumping out the low-end bass.
[Paul Kennar, Audio Product Specialist:] You really feel like you're sitting in the middle of the performance.
[Saltzman:] We tested them out for some music lovers at an audio store.
[Unidentified Female:] It sounded like different things were coming from different places.
[Saltzman:] The discs hold much more information than a standard CD, and offer graphics to display on a TV such as lyrics or videos. So, the big question remains, how do they differ?
[Kennar:] Dvd-Audio really positions itself more with the home theater experience. The Super Audio CD, though, is geared more as an extension of what the CD started out as, and is going above and beyond what CD did.
[Saltzman:] Some of our music-lovers said they preferred the DVD- Audio.
[Unidentified Male:] I'd say the first one sounded more live. The sounds are more in-depth, the bass is more vibrant, and everything is there.
[Saltzman:] Others preferred the Super Audio
[Cd. Unidentified Female:] I would buy the Super Audio
[Cd. Saltzman:] Some couldn't tell the difference.
[Unidentified Male:] I'd say about the same quality as a cd, I mean, from my ears.
[Saltzman:] Only a handful of DVD-Audio discs are on the market right now, with a few hundred more planned by the end of the year. There are already about 200 Super Audio CD's available. Both formats are hovering around the $25 range. [on camera]: Now here's the catch, just like you had to buy a new piece of equipment 20 years ago to play CD's, both the DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD require yet another player. And that can cost you anywhere from $400 on the low end all the way up to $15,000. But some DVD-Audio discs will work in an existing DVD video player.
[Kennar:] And the great thing about Super Audio is that when you have a hybrid disc which has the Super Audio and the regular CD layer on it, you can pop that into any CD player: in your car, on the road with your CD Walkman or anywhere.
[Saltzman:] Will there be room in the market for both of these formats? Audiofiles like these will determine whether one goes the way of the Betamax.
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