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1,289 discussions, 9,527 archived comments; pages no longer carry the comments themselves.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
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co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
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content/museum/mit-whirlwind.md
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@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ params:
value: $708,909
tabs:
- links
forum_thread: 1020
links:
- title: Reminiscences of Jack Gilmore
url: http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/TheCompMusRep/TCMR-V02.html#Reminiscences
@@ -75,39 +76,6 @@ params:
- title: Stanford Computer Science Department
url: http://www-db.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/2-3.htm
text: Several pictures of the Whirlwind
comments:
- author: John Ackley (United States)
date: Thursday 12th June 2014
text: |-
Whirlwind practically filled the three story "Barta" building on Mass Ave.\
Basement $ Power supplies\
1st Floor staff offices, drum storage system\
2nd Floor $ main frame, memory banks, control room\
3rd Floor $ CRT input/ouput consoles\
Roof $ air handling to remove heat generated by 7,000 vacuum tube etc - about 170 KW
Earlier "computers" in the US were basically glorified desk calculators - Whirlwind I believe was the first binary computer that followed Johnny Von Neumands proposal $ data and programs in the same storage unit - also first computer to connect via phone line to remote devices like systems sites and computers. Other than the "Memory Test Computer" built specifically to test prototype core memory systems, Whirlwind was the first to use magnetic core memory.
In the early 50''s punched paper tape was the primary means on entering program source code.
Whirlwind was followed by the TX-0 and TX-2 computers.
- author: Ed (UK)
date: Wednesday 19th March 2014
text: A genuine question (pardon the ignorance), do the EDSAC (1949) or Harwell Dekatron (1951) not class as a real-time computer system? Neither of these were build as a replacement for a mechanical system.
- author: Barbara Ulman (CA/USA)
date: Monday 27th May 2013
text: I have a question. I worked at Project Whirlwind as a secretarial helper, and card-puncher for two summers (1953 $ 1954.) When I tell people this, they ask me how big the computer was. I tell them the building filled a city block, but I''d like a more accurate size to tell my friends. ( My dad, Joseph Ulman, wrote or edited the reports of Project Whirlwind.)
- author: Barbara Ulman (CA/USA)
date: Monday 27th May 2013
text: I have a question. I worked at Project Whirlwind as a secretarial helper, and card-puncher for two summers (1953 $ 1954.) When I tell people this, they ask me how big the computer was. I tell them the building filled a city block, but I''d like a more accurate size to tell my friends. ( My dad, Joseph Ulman, wrote or edited the reports of Project Whirlwind.)
- author: Barbara Ulman (CA/USA)
date: Monday 27th May 2013
text: I have a question. I worked at Project Whirlwind as a secretarial helper, and card-puncher for two summers (1953 $ 1954.) When I tell people this, they ask me how big the computer was. I tell them the building filled a city block, but I''d like a more accurate size to tell my friends. ( My dad, Joseph Ulman, wrote or edited the reports of Project Whirlwind.)
- author: Herbert Bello (Florida/USA)
date: Wednesday 1st June 2011
text: |-
I spent many years working on Whirwind computer\
was a operator and tech ,I see no mention of the original storage tubes before we put in the core memorys, also you should talk about the 1800 relays the system had.
oc_id: 1047
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230602211856/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1047