Whirlwind I

Whirlwind I was a <a href="/facts/Cold_War/spJdJQ3q">Cold War</a>-era <a href="/facts/List_of_vacuum-tube_computers/LekQ3jN1">vacuum-tube computer</a> developed by the <a href="/facts/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology/Xk49vNA8">MIT</a> Servomechanisms Laboratory for the <a href="/facts/United_States_Navy/xYK0fUou">U.S. Navy</a>. Operational in 1951, it was among the first digital electronic computers that operated in real-time for output, and the first that was not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems.
It was one of the first computers to calculate in <a href="/facts/Bit-level_parallelism/HgFdRBM3">bit-parallel</a> (rather than <a href="/facts/Serial_computer/CaQGzRth">bit-serial</a>), and was the first to use <a href="/facts/Magnetic-core_memory/4TFIXSNd">magnetic-core memory</a>.
Its development led directly to the Whirlwind II design used as the basis for the <a href="/facts/United_States_Air_Force/7MxWBYlc">United States Air Force</a> <a href="/facts/Semi-Automatic_Ground_Environment/qAPVULus">SAGE</a> air defense system, and indirectly to almost all business computers and <a href="/facts/Minicomputer/g8hvpQxe">minicomputers</a> in the 1960s, particularly because of the mantra "short word length, speed, people."

Whirlwind I open-in-new

Whirlwind I