Goldschmidt's calculating machine
The present activities of AMISA are of two types.
The first concerns the creation of the center, meaning essentially the preliminary studies and their scientific and technical follow-ups.
A first study, called the validity study, was done in 1993 and was subsidized by DATAR. It allowed us to consult on the one hand several dozen people involved in the computer field (creators, producers and users) and on the other hand 1132 people from the general public. The results of these surveys pushed us to continue these studies further, especially those concerning scientific and museographic programming. These studies will be followed up by a scientific committee which is presently being formed.
The second type of activity corresponds to a knowledge transfer mission linked to the history of counting and calculation continuing through the computer science and its present development. This transfer is done through exhibits entitled "Calculation up to PASCAL" and "Computer Science is 3000 years old" with the collaboration of: Federation des Equipes BULL, IBM Europe, IBM France, Musee National des Techniques (CNAM),and Palais de la Decouverte. It went from being permanent displays (Sophia-Antipolis 1991; Palais de la Decouverte 1992; CICA Sophia-Antipolis 1993) to travelling displays (Begles 1993; INRIA 1994; Bourges and Saint-Etienne 1995; Clermont-Ferrand 1996).