IBM Ad for SAGE, A Massive Cold War Air Defense System (1960)

A daily dose of unique art, culture and technology.

IBM Ad for SAGE, A Massive Cold War Air Defense System (1960)

by E.D.W. Lynch at 10:43 AM on January 12, 2012

__ Share

__ Pin

This 1960 IBM ad touts the capabilities of SAGE, a massive Cold War-era automated system for tracking and destroying incoming enemy bombers. The heart of the system was the IBM AN/FSQ-7 computer, which at 275 tons is still the world’s largest computer. Each computer had 55,000 vacuum tubes, required a half acre of floor space, and operated on punch cards. There were 52 AN/FSQ-7 computers around the country. SAGE was retired in the early 1980s.

$Semi-Automatic Ground Environment $SAGE$$

Here are photos Scott Beale shot in 2006 of the SAGE on display at Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

via Retronaut

video via chiklit, photo via MITRE

__ Pin

Follow on Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard and Subscribe by Email

Laughing Squid Hosting

In addition to this blog, Laughing Squid is also an independently owned web hosting company with a focus on WordPress hosting. The revenue from our hosting services helps support this blog. Our hosting plans start out at $4 per month. If you are interested in hosting with us, you can sign-up here. and if you know of anyone who needs WordPress hosting, please send them our way. Thanks!

Please note, some Laughing Squid posts may contain affiliate marketing links, which means it is possible we will receive a small share of the sales of some of the products or services that are linked from our posts.

← Previous Blog Post

Next Blog Post →

Host Your WordPress Website With Laughing Squid