MONADS PC returns to Monash

The Monash Museum of Computing History (MMoCH) was delighted to receive a MONADS PC computer this week. This much-traveled machine was returned from the University of Ulm in Germany. The machine was designed by Professor David Abramson and Professor John Rosenberg in the mid 1980's whilst they were academics in the Department of Computer Science at Monash University. Professor Abramson is currently an ARC Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash. The work came under an umbrella research project entitled MONADS, which was initiated by Professor Les Keedy in 1976.

MONADS PC was a micro-programmed workstation designed to support a very large virtual memory, capability-based addressing and information hiding software modules. It was at the leading edge of computer science research, demonstrating concepts that are still current, such as 64 bit architectures, object oriented programming and computer security. The name MONADS was taken from a word created by the philosopher Leibniz. A small number of machines were produced at Monash, some of which went to the University of Newcastle and later Sydney University. Professor Keedy later transported some to Germany where he took an appointment.

MMoCH Director, Dr Judy Sheard commented that, "This is a significant piece of computing history for Monash University as it reflects the innovative approach to computing started with the beginning of computer studies at the University and continued today in current e-Research."

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