Mainframe Computer Component, Whirlwind Accumulator 302
date: label: date made
content: 1949-1951
name: label: maker
content: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lincoln Laboratory
notes: label: Description
content: Begun during World War II as a program to develop an analog device for training pilots, MIT's Project Whirlwind developed in the 1950s as a place to develop a prototype digital computer for defense against incoming Soviet missles. It would lead to the SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment) computers built by IBM for this purpose. More generally, the Whirlwind computer represented an attempt to carry out computations in real time that incorporated such innovations as core memory, a graphic display light pen, data communication over telephone lines, and air traffic control functions.
label: Description
content: This component of the machine has a square aluminum plate chassis with a gray hammertone finish. One side has an array of 25 vacuum tubes (there are spaces for 27) and a tag that reads: 302 ACCUMULATOR (/) DIGITS 1-14 (/) SERIAL #5. The other side has a red fiberboard base with a complex array of components. There are four small lamps in one corner. Two of these have a label that reads: 302.1 (/) PARTIAL SUM. The other two have a label that reads: 302.02 (/) CARRY.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0818.14
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0818.14
label: accession number
content: 1987.0818
objectType: label: Object Name
content: mainframe computer component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (tubes and lamps material)
label: Physical Description
content: fiberboard (circuit board material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 27 3/4 in x 26 in; 21.59 cm x 70.485 cm x 66.04 cm