Oral History of Robert Everett - Computer History Museum

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Oral History of Robert Everett Hendrie: But still. Did you do it with the modem…did the modem do tone signaling, or do you remember what scheme… Everett: I think we just sent…we’d have a point-to-point line from the radar to the computer, and you’d just dump a pulse, and out it would come on the other end. Hendrie: So it was a direct – the telephone company provided copper-to-copper connection. Everett: Yes. But then when it came to build a system that was a different matter. So the telephone company designed their own modems, which was what they should do, and so they took care of that. Then there was the issue of backup lines and whether you could use switch lines for this and things of that sort. And all that stuff had to be worked out. Hendrie: Did you end up learning how to use switch lines as the backup? Everett: Originally they were all dedicated lines but I believe – obviously they use switch lines now – somewhere along the line they learned… Hendrie: Somewhere along the line they did figure it out. Everett: They figured it out, yes. But in the beginning, they were all dedicated lines and trimmed up to make the…to fast digits. Hendrie: Okay. Everett: Now, the telephone company had built a thing called Missile Master, which was a control system for [US Army’s Project] Nike’s surface to air missiles. Hendrie: Yes. Everett: And they used digital transmissions. And they used 750 bits per second. So it was funny, this was deemed to be a terrible problem. They used 750 and we used whatever it was, 1700 or 1400, I can’t remember any more. And, of course, we knew that wasn’t a problem, but the real problem was between the Army and the Air Force in who was going to tell what, who was going to tell who to do something. And they finally got that settled. And a week after they got that settled, the 750, the 1400 problem was solved. But then when we finally hooked up with this new system, it turned out that one end was the big Indian and the other was the little Indian. Hendrie: Oh no. CHM Ref: X3877.2007 © 2007 Computer History Museum Page 36 of 56
Everett: Isn’t that something? Hendrie: And that problem still plagues people today. Everett: Nobody ever thought of the question, you know. Oral History of Robert Everett Hendrie: I know. Things that just couldn’t be changed got set before anybody knew that there was a problem. Everett: Well, we managed the thing pretty well because none of this existed, you see. So everybody had to do something, and they might as well do the same thing, if you could have arranged for it. And so the rule was if you want to talk to SAGE, you’ve got to use SAGE standards; don’t use SAGE standards, you can’t talk to SAGE. Since SAGE was in the middle of everything, everybody had to use SAGE standards. Except the Missile Master. Hendrie: Which got built earlier probably. Got speced before SAGE? Everett: Yes. Hendrie: All right, let’s take a break now. END OF TAPE THREE Everett: Okay. Hendrie: Could you tell me a little bit about the displays in SAGE? Everett: Well, the original displays we put on Whirlwind were simply ordinary TV-type cathode ray tubes, and there was a dot map. But the ones in SAGE, we didn't have the time to get all that done if we'd had to spell out every pixel. So we used a tube that had been developed by… Hendrie: Was it Stromberg-Carlson? Everett: Stromberg-Carlson, that sounds like it. Hendrie: I believe the character drawing was done by them. CHM Ref: X3877.2007 © 2007 Computer History Museum Page 37 of 56
Page 1 and 2: Oral History of Robert Everett Inte
Page 3 and 4: Oral History of Robert Everett Hend
Page 5 and 6: Hendrie: Really? Oh, that’s good.
Page 7 and 8: Oral History of Robert Everett over
Page 9 and 10: Oral History of Robert Everett Ever
Page 17 and 18: Hendrie: How did they fix that? Ora
Page 19 and 20: Everett: No. Hendrie: It was design
Page 23 and 24: Hendrie: Oh, my goodness. Everett:
Page 25 and 26: Oral History of Robert Everett a pe
Page 27 and 28: Everett: Oh, 1950? Hendrie: Okay. E
Page 31 and 32: Oral History of Robert Everett a wh
Page 33 and 34: Oral History of Robert Everett driv
Page 35: Oral History of Robert Everett ther
Page 41 and 42: Oral History of Robert Everett and
Page 45 and 46: Hendrie: And so the order got chang
Page 47 and 48: Oral History of Robert Everett was
Page 49 and 50: Hendrie: We have to pause now. And
Page 51 and 52: Oral History of Robert Everett But
Page 53 and 54: Oral History of Robert Everett your

Oral History of Robert Everett - Computer History Museum

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?