Originally Posted by PR_Tom

Thats my father at one of the 23 SAGE computer installations that served to protect north america during the cold war. Pic from around 1964 or so.

Each installation was concrete hardened, and held 2 machines. One entirely redundant. Each computer held 60,000 vacuum tubes and required 3 megawatts to run, and 1 megawatt just to cool it! 3 megawatts can power 30,000 homes. Was the first decentralized network, and first use of modems. SAGE systems were used right into the 80's for air traffic control.


It's totally geek worthy to research computer history.