AN/FSQ-7
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:SAGE computer room.jpg The AN/FSQ-7 intercept computer, developed by IBM in partnership with the US Air Force. It was used in performing air defense command and control functions for the SAGE air defense system.
The AN/FSQ-7 used 55,000 vacuum tubes, about 1/2 acre (2,000 m²) of floor space, weighed 275 tons and used up to three megawatts of power. The AN/FSQ-7s remain the largest computers ever built, and will likely hold that record in the future. Fifty two computers were built.
The concept was first tested on the Whirlwind II at Cambridge, Massachusetts connected to receive data from a long-range and several short-range radars set up on Cape Cod. The key breakthrough was the development of magnetic core memory that vastly improved the machine's reliability, operating speed (×2), and input speed (×4) over the original Williams tube memory of the Whirlwind I.
References
- Morton M. Astrahan, John F. Jacobs, History of the Design of the SAGE Computer - The AN/FSQ/7 (Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 5 (No. 4), 1983, pp. 340-349)
External links
- AN/FSQ-7 Intercept Computer – From the Online Air Defense Radar Museum (by The Air Defense Radar Veterans' Association).
- SAGE computer documents on Bitsavers.org