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Project Whirlwind – The History of a Pioneer Computer, First Edition!! - $16 (Berlin, MA)
condition:
like new
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First edition book with slipcover, C 1980 by Kent C. Redmond and Thomas M. Smith
Digital Equipment Corporation press
Includes black and white photographs, diagrams, drawings and illustrations as well
Hardcover book with 280 pages
Measures approximately 9.5” inches high x 7.5” wide
Book Notation:
The men in this story were engineers. Their aim in 1944 was to design and build an aircraft simulator, but their achievement by 1953 was as different as it was unforeseen.
Instead, in the course of a decade of pioneering electronic and radar experience, they had acquired a thoroughgoing mastery of the basic concepts of integrated system design;
They had built “Whirlwind,” a high-speed, prototypal, digital computer that became uniquely appropriate for a brief, mid-century strategic mission in the defense of the nation;
And they had created a small group of experts who by their contributions then and later were to seed American computer technology with a know-how that,
in the reckoning of some observers, transformed the computer overnight from a limited instrument intended primarily for mathematical and scientific computation
to a device of wide and practical social potentiality. – from Project Whirlwind, Chapter 1
Online Info:
Whirlwind - the first high-speed electronic digital computer able to operate in 'real time' - contributed much to today's computer technology.
It was the first computer with synchronous parallel logic and the first to use random-access magnetic- core memory.
This significant first-generation computer was developed under the leadership of Jay W. Forrester and Robert R. Everett at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This is one of the only histories available for Project Whirlwind.
It's a great read that details a lot of the trials and tribulations Jay Forrester and his team experienced while developing Whirlwind.
It's certainly the most complete history of Whirlwind available - so it’s a must-read!
Contents:
The Beginning
Computer Problems
The Shift to Digital
Preliminary Design Efforts
Pressure from ONR
Breaking New Trails
Problems of Federal Assistance
Collision Course
R&D Policies and Practices
Crisis and Resolution
ADSEC and Whirlwind
Phasing into Operation
The End of the Beginning
A Retrospective
Epilogue
Appendix A by Jay W. Forrester
Appendix B by Robert R. Everett
A Note on Sources
Notes
Index
Online prices for Used in good condition: from $60 to $125 – get here for much less!
In excellent, like new condition, from smoke-free home
Pick up in Berlin, MA (sorry we don’t ship items, really we don't)
DEC digital equipment equip corp dec corporation company MA Mass Massachusetts state local vintage old rare out of print book computer computers computing education invention technology book books manual companies word processor processing Americana American US history historic historical society societies museum memorabilia ephemeral ephemera graphic graphics image images nostalgia nostalgic hardcover hard cover hardsided hard-sided sided photograph photographs read reading collectors collector’s collection library illustrated illustrations classic dust wrapper wrapped copy project whirlwind whirl wind worldwind world pioneer 1st first edition