Interesting Computer Items

There are computers available today for any task one can think up.  I have accumulated or written articles that I hope the public will find interesting.

The First Computer I Met Was No Cheap Desktop Computer

I first started working with computers when I was hired by IBM on July 15, 1957.  At the time, I was working for a company in the school photography business in Charlotte, NC.   My job was to repair the machines that processed the film and repair the machines that printed the pictures.

I answered an ad in the Charlotte Observer and was interviewed on a Saturday where I was tested and apparently passed because I received a job offer in the mail.  I accepted the offer and began in Kingston, New York where IBM was building the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system.   This system had 58,000 vacuum tubes at its core.   Training for maintenance on this system began July 15, 1957 and lasted about 9 months.  It was a very difficult school, where you had to meet a certain standard in order to keep your job.

Following completion of the training, I was assigned to the Montgomery Air Defense Sector (MOADS) at Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.  We installed the system, brought it up, tested it out and passed all the certifications required by the Air Force. 

The entire system was duplexed.  By that, I mean there were 2 complete systems.  Should one system fail, it would autopmatically switch over to the other system which had been monitoring activity in a standby mode.  It was a seamless switchover.

Our defense assignment was to protect the southeastern United States from air attacks.  We had input from quite a few radars, both air search and height finders.   The system had control of NIKE installations through out the area.  As a part of testing and authentication, the Air Force would launch unmanned bombers out of one of the air bases and our system would track them and launch missiles at the target.  The missiles had no warheads because it wasn't necessary to shoot the planes down to be successful.  Nevertheless, we did down many of the planes.  We also had the capability to launch interceptor aircraft and vector them into the targets.  All of the operational activities were done by Air Force personnel.

The research that went into the development of the SAGE system was the basis for several commercial computers marketed by IBM later in time.  I found that my training on SAGE gave me enough of the theory on the IBM 7044 system that I was able to use the diagnostics and service it.

This was a most enjoyable portion of my 40+ year career with IBM.