Mainframe Computer Component, Program Register 103 from the Whirlwind
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 into a program for building 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, Whirlwind represents an attempt to carry out computations in real time that incorporated such innovations as core memory, a graphic display, a light pen, data communication over telephone lines, and air traffic control functions.
label: Description
content: This component of the machine has an aluminum plate chassis with a gray hammertone finish, four black legs, and two black handles. The tube side (opposite the handle side) has seven vacuum tubes with a spot for an eighth, nine points for connecting to other parts of the computer, and one more complex male connector. The handle side has the circuit mounted on fiberboard - at one corner there are two small indicator lamps marked "0" & "1". A mark on both sides reads: 103 PROGRAM REGISTER (/) DIGITS 0-15 (/) 301 A REGISTER (/) DIGITS 1-15(/) SERIAL #6.
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: 1987.0818.15
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0818.15
label: accession number
content: 1987.0818
objectType: label: Object Name
content: mainframe component
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: fiberboard (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 11 1/2 in x 26 in; 21.59 cm x 29.21 cm x 66.04 cm