HISTORY OF COMPUTING IN MEXICO

Interest in computing in Mexico began when in the mid-1950s a group of scientists from UNAM sent engineer
Sergio Beltrán López to visit the main campus of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), with the
aim of learning how The computers manufactured by IBM were capable of efficiently solving a complex system
of simultaneous integral-differential equations. This research problem had caught the attention of the UNAM
scientific team due to its direct application in the solution of a significant number of real problems in soil
mechanics that occurred in Mexico City, since without the help of computers resolution of these problems was
considered to take an unacceptably long time. This is why they realized the great potential that these tools had
for the future.
However, the exact date on which Mexico officially began its history with computing is June 8, 1958, when the
UNAM put the IBM-650 into operation (Illustration 1). This computer
was placed in the shelter of the Electronic Computing Center (CCE),
located in the basement of the old Faculty of Sciences. The IBM-650
operated with bulbs, using a magnetic drum with a capacity for 20,000
digits, was capable of performing 1,300 addition and subtraction
operations per second and worked with a card reader and punch,
adopting a numerical system called bi-quinary. It used an assembler
called SOAP (Symbolic Optimizer and Assembly Program), a pseudo-
compiler called RUNCIBLE and an interpreter called BELL and the first
tasks that were entrusted to this computer were to solve problems in
astronomy, physics and chemical engineering. A database was even Illustration1 IBM-650 UNAM
created for an anthropology group.
Shortly after its creation, the CCE began to disseminate knowledge about the applications of new computer
technology. Thus, an annual conference called “Computers and their applications” was organized, the first
being held in 1959. In the following years, UNAM purchased other, more sophisticated computers. For
example, in the late 1960s, UNAM acquired a Bendix G-15. Part of the design of the Bendix G-15 model
contained transistors, it had a magnetic tape drive for data storage, a punch card reader, as well as a console
for entering programs. This computer was part of the “Mobile Computing Center” educational program, whose
main purpose was to disseminate computer knowledge throughout the country.
Other academic institutions, such as the IPN and the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de
Monterrey (ITESM), soon joined the select group of computer users by acquiring an IBM-709 and an IBM-
1620, respectively. In the same way, other government institutions such as the Mexican Social Security
Institute (IMSS), the Federal Congress, the Federal Electricity Company
(CFE) and Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), among others, were pioneering
Mexican institutions in the era. digital. By 1968 there were about 200
computers operating within the country and that amount was on average in
other Latin American countries such as Argentina and Chile.
A few years after Mexico's entry into the digital revolution, several universities Illustration2 IBM-709
decided to offer undergraduate and graduate programs in engineering and
computer science. Apparently, the first bachelor's program in computer
engineering was offered starting in 1965 by the IPN. Shortly after, other
institutions such as ITESM (in 1968), the Autonomous University of Puebla (UAP) and the Autonomous
University of Nuevo León (UANL) (in 1973) would begin their own study programs. At the graduate level, it was
at UNAM where some courses in computer science began to be taught during the first years of the
development of this discipline in Mexico. Formally, the first Mexican graduate program in computer science
was founded at UNAM in the early 1960s, sponsored by UNESCO, and that first master's program was mainly
attended by undergraduate students from the School of Sciences and Engineering of the UNAM.
In Mexico, the development of computer technology began a few years after the appearance of the
microprocessor in the United States around 1970. What motivated this development was that from then on the
low cost of microprocessors made the design of a wide variety of computers feasible.
One of the first computers designed in Mexico was the Heterarchical Parallel Processing Computer (AHR)7
which was built at UNAM in the period 1979-1982. The project was directed by Adolfo Guzmán Arenas and
was designed with the specific purpose of executing programs written in LISP efficiently. This computer was
capable of hosting from 5 to 64 Z-80 processors working simultaneously to execute a program written in the
language. The minicomputer with its operating system was used to edit, load and observe the output of a
program as it was executed by the AHR.
The Microcomputer Application Department of the BUAP Institute of Sciences was one of the pioneer centers
in the development of computers based on microprocessors within Mexico. In this research center directed by
Harold V. Macintosh, several computing systems were designed and built, in addition to some compilers and
several scientific application programs.
In mid-1981, the design of the Turing-850 began and the first prototype of the computer was completed at the
end of 1984. The Turing-850 personal computer (see figure 6) was specially designed with technology that
could be easily produced within Mexico. The original idea of the project was to transfer the developed
technology to Mexican companies that were interested in mass producing it. The design of the Turing-850
included some novel features for the time such as a hierarchical architecture based on two Z-80 processors,
manufactured by Zilog Inc., and a stylus that allowed drawing on the screen. The Z80 processors were
selected for their compatibility with the CP/M operating system, the only
operating system for personal computers available in the country at that
time.
In August 1984, the first prototype of the Almita II computer was completed Illustration3 Turing-850
at the Computer Technology Research Center of the National Polytechnic
Institute (CINTEC-IPN), its main designer being Dr. Miguel Lindig Bos. In
the 1984 version, Almita II had 256 KB of RAM, two 5.25-inch floppy disk
drives with a capacity of 360 KB each, as well as an intelligent terminal with
an Intel 8031 processor. The central processor of this computer was a 16-bit Intel 80186 which operated at a
speed of 8 MHz. That processor was representative of the state of technology at that time. The design of
Almita II was a notable achievement of Mexican engineering since it was experimentally proven that its
processing speed was up to 3.4 times higher than that of the first personal computer that IBM launched on the
market.
The presentation in 1987 of the IPN E-16 caused a profound impact among the institute's authorities, to the
point that it was decided to start mass production of this computer with the purpose of self-supplying with it the
computing needs of high schools and colleges. top of the IPN. The program was so successful that, by the end
of 1993, more than 1,189 IPN E-16 computers and their descendants operated daily in a large majority of the
IPN offices, providing support for administrative and teaching activities.
By the 1990s, the academy continued to be a leader in technological development and evolution; UNAM's first
connection was established with the BITNET Academic Computing Network and with the National Science
Foundation (NSF). , crossing borders by establishing communication between data networks. The ITESM,
Monterrey campus, establishes the first Internet node in Mexico, while the UNAM is the first institution in Latin
America to use the network for academic and public outreach purposes, in its origins, companies such as
Banco de México, Televisa and Banamex were connected to the Internet through the UNAM node.
By the year 2000, the era of national and international grids (infrastructure that allows the integration and
collective use of high-performance computers, networks and databases managed by different institutions) for
scientific computing ushered in. An experimental cluster is installed and configured, which is a set of
computers that can work in a coordinated manner on the same problem. The federal government, through
TRAMITANET (governmental electronic procedures system), expedites federal procedures. Establishes the
eMéxico National System, whose main objective is to offer the community access to a series of content in
education, health, commerce, tourism, government services and other types. With this we can affirm that a
great future awaits Mexico in terms of the advancement of computer systems, but joint work is needed
between academia, business and government.

Fountain:
Daniel Ortiz Arroyo, MEXICAN COMPUTERS: A BRIEF TECHNICAL AND HISTORICAL REVIEW
Available at: http://www.revista.unam.mx/vol.9/num9/art63/art63.pdf