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This 1959 computer plays Boards of Canada’s “Olson”

Ellsworth Toohey
Oct 10, 2025
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By Alexey Komarov - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

In 1962, MIT student Peter Samson transformed a hulking DEC PDP-1 computer into a musical instrument. His ingenious “Harmony Compiler” program converted the machine’s four status lights into square-wave voices, with each flicker producing a distinct note.

Today, the Computer History Museum maintains what’s …

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