hall@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (john hall) (05/06/89)
From: john hall <hall@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> On the ABM site at Grand Forks: I don't think it ever went on line. They were planning on shutting down the radar, until they had the radar track a small object from over the horizon to near DC (a meteor). The decision to kill the radar was at least delayed (I don't know if it is still operating). The processing machine was supposed to be parallel, 64 bits with 4 simultaneous instructions being executed. Claimed performace was 900 million instructions per second. This was 30 times faster than the nearest competitive system offered. I think the computer was a Univac, the best competitor was a TI scientific. Strictly custom built. Remember this was probably 1974 technology, definitely pre- Cray. The claimed performance was amazing. According to my information, they never could really figure out how to program the thing. My information is 15 years old, I was in 6th - 7th grade at the time (In Langdon, near where the radar actually was). jmh