Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!flying!frisbie From: frisbie@flying-disk.com (Alan Frisbie) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Jovial (was Re: Info on GE-635) Message-ID: <8380@flying-disk.com> Date: 8 Feb 91 15:30:26 GMT References: <1665@digi.lonestar.org> <193900.598@timbuk.cray.com> <1991Feb8.212943.2233@en.ecn.purdue.edu> Followup-To: comp.arch Organization: Flying Disk Systems, Inc. Lines: 42 In article <1991Feb8.212943.2233@en.ecn.purdue.edu>, wailes@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Tom S Wailes) writes: > Some years ago I had the honor of programming one of the worlds largest > collections of vacuum tubes ever put into large scale use. It was called > the SAGE computer system and boasted of having 54,000 vacuum tubes (all > trying to ruin your day). IBM made these systems ~ 1956-58 for the > Air Force for the Air Defense of the United States and Canada. It was > labeled the "AFSN/Q-7" or the "Q-7" for short. I believe the correct designation was AN/FSQ-7. If I remember right, all military equipment of that vintage had the designation AN/xxx-n. "A/N" stood for something like Army/Navy, but I don't really know. Each of the three letters "xxx" had a meaning. "FSQ" meant something like "Equipment associated with a Radar set, meant to be used in a fixed location". If anyone is *really* interested, I could look up the list of what each letter actually meant. > It was put out of service at the end of 1983. What is not well known is that the three companies in the US which made vacuum tubes for it (RCA, GE & Sylvania) stopped producing them in 1975. The Air Force figured that since the Q-7 was scheduled to be replaced in 1980, they would buy a five-year supply (a *lot* of tubes). What happened between 1980 and 1983? They had to buy tubes from the only qualified supplier they could find -- in Czechoslovakia! In 1982, I was part of a tour sponsered by The Computer Museum to visit the Q-7 at North Bay, Canada. 700 feet below solid granite, is a three-story building, with a blast door that looks just like the one in "War Games". Part (a very small part) of this same computer is now on display at The Computer Museum, 300 Congress Street, Boston, Mass. It just isn't the same, however, as being led *through* the computer while it was in operation. "On your left are bits three through six of the accumulator." :-) --- Alan E. Frisbie Frisbie@Flying-Disk.Com (Preferred) --- Flying Disk Systems, Inc. or ...elroy!flying!frisbie --- 4759 Round Top Drive or Flying!Frisbie@Elroy.jpl.nasa.gov --- Los Angeles, CA 90065 or Frisbie%Flying@oxy.edu --- (213) 256-2575 or ...oxy!flying!frisbie