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SAGE System at the Computer History Museum by Ronald Horii
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has the world's largest collection of computing artifacts. It has many revolutionary pieces of technology that changed the computing world, like the ENIAC and the Apple 1. One huge impressive display is actually a tiny fraction of the original machine: the IBM SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) air defense computer. It was the largest computer ever built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment
Designed in the mid-1950's, the system had 2 computers, one backing up the other. It weighed 250 tons and used 60,000 vacuum tubes, with 49,000 in the computers. It required 3 megawatts of power. The computers were able to process 75,000 instructions per second. Each SAGE system could track up to 400 aircraft at a time.
What's significant about it was that it was the brains behind the NORAD air defense system that defended the country against enemy nuclear bombers during the Cold War. Its many eyes included radar stations, like the Almaden Air Force Station on Mt. Umunhum. Its fists were combat aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles, like the Nike. While fortunately, it never had to be used in actual combat, which could have meant nuclear war, it pioneered advancements in technology that became the foundation of modern computer systems, especially by IBM. Here's a film by IBM made in 1956 on the SAGE system: https://archive.org/details/OnGuard1956
Here's IBM's story about it: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/sage/
Between 1952 and 1955, 80% of IBM's computer revenues came from the SAGE project. 7000 IBM'ers worked on it by 1958. Technology spinoffs from the project were used in IBM's commercial system, such as the SABRE airline reservation system that IBM developed for American Airlines and is still in use today.
When I came to work for IBM in the 1970's, my office mate had worked on the SAGE system when he was a technician in the Air Force. He told stories about how he used to run around with shopping carts full of vacuum tubes, replacing them left and right.
The SAGE system required networking computers, radar, and air defense systems. It was one of the first large-scale wide-area computer networks. It led to the development of the Arpanet, which today we call the Internet.
More on the SAGE system here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/151980-inside-ibms-67-billion-sage-the-largest-computer-ever-built
The pictures below show the SAGE components in the Computer History Museum, from 2006, 2008, and 2011, after the whole museum went through a major renovation. All the pictures below are from 2011, except as noted.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has the world's largest collection of computing artifacts. It has many revolutionary pieces of technology that changed the computing world, like the ENIAC and the Apple 1. One huge impressive display is actually a tiny fraction of the original machine: the IBM SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) air defense computer. It was the largest computer ever built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment
Designed in the mid-1950's, the system had 2 computers, one backing up the other. It weighed 250 tons and used 60,000 vacuum tubes, with 49,000 in the computers. It required 3 megawatts of power. The computers were able to process 75,000 instructions per second. Each SAGE system could track up to 400 aircraft at a time.
What's significant about it was that it was the brains behind the NORAD air defense system that defended the country against enemy nuclear bombers during the Cold War. Its many eyes included radar stations, like the Almaden Air Force Station on Mt. Umunhum. Its fists were combat aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles, like the Nike. While fortunately, it never had to be used in actual combat, which could have meant nuclear war, it pioneered advancements in technology that became the foundation of modern computer systems, especially by IBM. Here's a film by IBM made in 1956 on the SAGE system: https://archive.org/details/OnGuard1956
Here's IBM's story about it: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/sage/
Between 1952 and 1955, 80% of IBM's computer revenues came from the SAGE project. 7000 IBM'ers worked on it by 1958. Technology spinoffs from the project were used in IBM's commercial system, such as the SABRE airline reservation system that IBM developed for American Airlines and is still in use today.
When I came to work for IBM in the 1970's, my office mate had worked on the SAGE system when he was a technician in the Air Force. He told stories about how he used to run around with shopping carts full of vacuum tubes, replacing them left and right.
The SAGE system required networking computers, radar, and air defense systems. It was one of the first large-scale wide-area computer networks. It led to the development of the Arpanet, which today we call the Internet.
More on the SAGE system here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/151980-inside-ibms-67-billion-sage-the-largest-computer-ever-built
The pictures below show the SAGE components in the Computer History Museum, from 2006, 2008, and 2011, after the whole museum went through a major renovation. All the pictures below are from 2011, except as noted.
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Roger Charles Delight
I read that the WATS lines were originally SAGE and strategic military lines. When it was obviated, the 800-number system was opened up using the tree-sized wire and cable trunks, which was why early 1-800 call centers sprang up in Blair, eastern Nebraska (near SAC just south of Omaha), and Boulder, Colorado (NORAD).
The Nike facilities (launchers and control/admin sites) had their own computers and used regular telephony for orders until SAGE.
The Nike facilities (launchers and control/admin sites) had their own computers and used regular telephony for orders until SAGE.
3 yrsReport
