From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer (History of Computing) PDF
Preview From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer (History of Computing)
From Whirlwind to MITRE The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer KENT C. REDMOND AND THOMAS M. SMITH From Whirlwind to MITRE The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer KENT C. REDMOND AND THOMAS M. SMITH T~ s book presents an organizational and social history of one of the foundational projects of the computer era—the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment] air defense system—from its first test at Bedford, Massachusetts, in 195'' , to the installation of the first operational un t in 1958. The idea for SAGE grew out of Project Whirlwind, a World War II computer development effort, when the Department of Defense realized that the Whirlwind computer nr ght be used as the anchor of a continent-wide advance warning system. Developed for the Air Force by MIT engineers and scientists, SAGE mon tored North America’s skies for possible at tack by manned aircraft and missiles for 25 years. Aside from its strategic importance, SAGE set the foundation for mass data processing and foreshadowed many computer developments of the 1960s. The heart of the system, the AN/ ^SQ-?, was the first computer to have an in ternal memory composed of magnetic cores— tiny ferrite rings that served as reversible electromagnets. SAGE also introduced com puter-driven displays, online terminals, time shar ing, high-reliability computation, digital signal processing, digital transmission over telephone lines, digital track-while-scan, digital simulation, computer networking, and duplex computing. The book shows how the wartime alliance of en gineers, scientists, and the military exemplified by MIT’s Radiation Lab helped to transform the practice of research and development in the United States through the end of the Cold War. Kent C. Redmond is Professor of History, Emeri tus, at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Thomas M. Smith is Professor of the History of Science, "SAGE bears comparison with the Manhattan Project, the Atlas and Polaris missile programs, and the Apollo moon program. As one ths great technological and managerial achievements of the Cold War, it has long deserved the history that Redmond and Smith have now produced." —Alex Roland, Duke University 3 THE MIT PRESS MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02142 http: / / mitpress.mi-t. edu REDFH 0-262-18201-7 9 780262 182010 " " ' From Whirlwind to MITRE History of Computing I. Bernard Cohen and William Aspray, editors editorial board: Bernard Galler, J. A. N. Lee, Arthur Norberg, Brian Randell, Henry Tropp, Michael Williams, Heinz Zemanek William Aspray, John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing Charles J. Bashe, Lyle R. Johnson, John H. Palmer, and Emerson W. Pugh, IBM’s Early Computers Paul E. Ceruzzi, A History of Modem Computing I. Bernard Cohen, Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer 1. Bernard Cohen and Gregory W. Welch, editors, Makin’ Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer John Hendry, Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry Michael Lindgren, Glory and Failure: The Difference Engines of Johann Muller, Charles Babbage, and Georg and Edvard Scheutz David E. Lundstrom, A Few Good Men from Univac R. Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software Emerson W. Pugh, Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology Emerson W. Pugh, Memories That Shaped an Industry Emerson W. Pugh, Lyle R. Johnson, and John H. Palmer, IBM’s 360 and Early 370 Systems Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, From Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer Raul Rojas and Ulf Hashagen, editors, The First Computers—History and Architectures Dorothy Stein, Ada: A Life and a Legacy Maurice V. Wilkes, Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer From Whirlwind to MITRE The R&D Story of the SAGE Air Defense Computer Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2000 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or infor mation storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. Set in New Baskerville by The MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Redmond, Kent C., 1914- From whirlwind to MITRE : the R&D story of the SAGE air defense computer / Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith, p. cm. — (History of computing) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-18201-7 (he : alk. paper) 1. SAGE (Air defense system)—History. 2. Military research—United States— History. I. Smith, Thomas M. II. Title. III. Series. UG633 .R378 2000 355.4'5'0973—dc21 00-029228 Contents Acknoiuledgments ix 1 “It Worked!” 1 2 The Beginning of the Beginning 5 3 ADSEC 21 4 Valley’s Discovery 31 5 Managerial Misgivings vs. Technical Accomplishments 39 6 The Prob lem of “Internal Storage ” 51 7 Project Whirlwind’s Perspectives on Computer R&D and Air Traffic Control 59 8 Do It Right, Cut It Off, or Temporize? 67 vi Contents 9 The Bedford Tests 77 10 Project Charles 95 11 Lincoln Laboratory 109 12 Organizing the Tasks That Faced Division 6 129 13 Planning the Air Defense Computer 145 14 The Memory Test Computer 157 15 IBM and the Air Defense Challenge 179 16 Collaborating on the XD-1 193 17 Bringing IBM up to Speed 205 18 Tight Schedules, Slippage, and Project Grind 213 19 Adjustments and Triumphs 227 20 Slippage, the XD-1, and the XD-2 237 21 Technical Memorandum 20: The Pattern for the Future System 253
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