SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book for Sale

SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book For Sale

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SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book:
$300.00

In 1957, IBM began the construction of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, by far the world’s largest computer system. Each location was equipped with anAN/FSQ-7acre-sized computer, and connected to a nation-wide network with cutting-edge 1,300-baud modems, SAGE was the pinnacle of the United States’ Cold War radar and missile air defenses.

SAGE consisted of 20 or so Direction Centers, each of which was a windowless, one-acre-large concrete cube. Inside each DC were two CPUs, each one measuring 7,500 sq ft and consisting of 60,000 vacuum tubes, 175,000 diodes, 13,000 transistors, and 256 KB of magnetic core RAM, consuming a total of 3MW of power and weighing in at 250 tons. Each CPU — only one operated at a time; the other was kept as a hot spare to minimize downtime — was capable of executing 75,000 32-bit FLOPS. (For comparison, the A10X processor in my iPad canexecute about 400 billion 64-bit FLOPS.)

The vacuum tube logical unit offered here is in near-mint condition. I will include a copy ofFrom Whirlwind to MITRE: The R&D Story of The SAGE Air Defense Computer,byKent C. RedmondandThomas M. Smith. (A $50 value!)

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SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book For Sale

SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book: $300.00

SAGE Computer Vacuum Tube Pluggable Unit and Book:
$300.00