The Whirlwind I Computer

Project Whirlwind is a high-speed computer activity sponsored at the Digital Computer Laboratory, formerly a part of the Servomechanisms Laboratory, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the United States Air Force. The project began in 1945 with the assignment of building a highquality real-time aircraft simulator. Historically, the project has always been primarily interested in the fields of real-time simulation and control; but since about the beginning of 1947 most of its efforts have been devoted to the design and construction of the, digital computer known as Whirlwind I (WWI). This computer has been in operation for about 1 year and an increasing proportion of project effort now is going into application studies. Whirlwind I was designed for use in control and simulation work such as air traffic control, industrial process control, and aircraft simulation. Various design and synthesis issues are presented. [Note: Discussion of this paper was combined with that of the following paper: "Evaluation of the Engineering Aspects of Whirlwind I."]