Milestone-Proposal:SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:10, 23 December 2010

This Proposal has not been submitted and may only be edited by the original author.

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 Mitre Photo Archives for Semi- Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE)   http://www.mitre.org/about/photo_archives/sage_photo.html
-http://www.mitre.org/about/sage.html|a5=
+http://www.mitre.org/about/sage.html|a5= SAGE, or Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, was developed for the United States Air Force from 1950 to 1957 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Digital Computer Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. The work required scientific research in many different fields:  computer hardware and software, radar, communications, and so on. During the period from 1950 to 1958, MIT and Lincoln Laboratory did much of the scientific research but others played important roles as well, for example, the Cambridge Research Laboratory (AFCRL), who’s work cannot be addressed at this time. Engineering is never a solo activity and as expected other companies were involved in successfully launching SAGE. The contract for manufacturing the AN/FSQ-7 computers was awarded to IBM. Western Electric Company provided buildings and internal power supply and communications. Phone lines were provided by the Bell System. System Development Corporation (SDC) was responsible for the software which consisted of 500,000 lines of assembly language.
-SAGE, or Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, was developed for the United States Air Force from 1950 to 1957 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Digital Computer Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. The work required scientific research in many different fields:  computer hardware and software, radar, communications, and so on. During the period from 1950 to 1958, MIT and Lincoln Laboratory did much of the scientific research but others played important roles as well, for example, the Cambridge Research Laboratory (AFCRL), who’s work cannot be addressed in any details at this time. MIT and Lincoln Laboratory were the ‘Engineer of Record,’ a term well understood by engineers in private practice or on public works project.  Engineering is never a solo activity and as expected other companies were involved  in successfully launching SAGE. Manufacturing of the AN/FSQ-7 computers was awarded to IBM. Buildings and internal power supply and communications were provided by Western Electric Company. Phone lines were provided by the Bell System and the software, 500,000 lines of assembly language, was furnished by System Development Corporation (SDC).
 SAGE was unique in that it was engineered in response to a specific contract. Its uniqueness is evident by the many innovations attributed to SAGE as follows: [3]
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 Internal parity checking.
 Built-in test data reduction.
-|a6=later|a7=Main lobby of MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington MA.  Access by the public is available.  Details will be provided later.|a8=Yes|a9=The main lobby provides entrance to public spaces such as the cafeteria and auditorium where IEEE meetings and other events take place.|a10=MIT Lincoln Laboratory|a11=Yes|a12=IEEE Boston Section, Robert Alongi Business Manager,
+|a6=
+Two obstacles which we can identify have to do with organizational issues and lack of qualified personnel. Three non-profits institutions were created during the SAGE program. These organizational changes were amicably carried out and proved affective, allowing SAGE to progress smoothly in an orderly way.
+The first big organization change was Lincoln Laboratory, which spun off from the main campus so that MIT could maintain its academic mission. The second was the creation of MITRE Corporation. MITRE was spun off from Lincoln Laboratory to complete SAGE weapons integration and implement the design. According to reference [3],  this change prevented Lincoln Lab from “becoming over overwhelmed by its responsibilities”.  The third was spinning-off the System Development Corporation (SDC), from RAND Corporation. SDC was created to handle the immense software requirements and to avoid a conflict within the research of the parent company.
+Lack of experienced of qualified computer professionals was a problem and the solution was OJT - on-the-job-training.
+As Bob Everett has noted, the SAGE program alone “trained hundreds of digital-system design engineers, thousands of computer programmers and thousands of digital-computer field engineers who gave great impetus to the new field of digital computers”. In the areas of hardware and computer operations, SAGE ‘s firsts included “computer-driven displays, on-line terminals, time-sharing, high-reliability computations, digital signal processing, digital transmission over telephone lines, digital track-while-scan, digital simulation, core memories, computer networking, duplex computers.”
+|a7=Main lobby of MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington MA.  Access by the public is available.  Details will be provided later.|a8=Yes|a9=The main lobby provides entrance to public spaces such as the cafeteria and auditorium where IEEE meetings and other events take place.|a10=MIT Lincoln Laboratory|a11=Yes|a12=IEEE Boston Section, Robert Alongi Business Manager,
 One Centre Street, Suite 203
 Wakefield, MA  01880.|a13name=Bruce Hecht|a13section=Boston Section|a13position=Chair person 2010|a13email=Bruce Hecht|a14name=Robert Alongi|a14ou=Boston Section|a14position=Business Manager|a14email=r.alongi@ieee.org|a15Aname=Gilmore G Cooke|a15Aemail=gilcooke@ieee.org|a15Aname2=William P.  Delaney|a15Aemail2=delaney@ll.mit.edu|a15Bname=c/o Robert Alongi|a15Bemail=r.alongi@ieee.org|a15Bname2=MIT Lincoln Laboratory|a15Bemail2=Later|a15Cname=Gilmore Cooke, PE|a15Ctitle=Committee Chair|a15Corg=Boston Section History Committee|a15Caddress=8 Canvasback Labe|a15Cphone=617-759-4271|a15Cemail=gilcooke@ieee.org}}