AN/GSA-51 Radar Course Directing Group

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The Burroughs AN/GSA-51 Radar Course Directing Group was a United States Air Force air defense command, control, and coordination system, part of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system. It was intended to replace vacuum tube IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Centrals. Developed under Electronic Systems Division's 416M Program, [1] : 241  in 1962 Burroughs "won the contract to provide a military version of its D825" modular data processing system [2] for the AN/GSA-51 to be used at "BUIC II radar sites" [3] (follow-on to the initial Back-Up Interceptor Control System, BUIC) [4] : 10  BUIC II was 1st used at North Truro Z-10 in 1966, [3] and the Hamilton AFB BUIC II was installed in the former MCC building. [5]

The first D825 computer was originally built for the Navy Research Laboratory with a designation of AN/GYK-3(V). [6] The D825 contained between one and four 48 bit central processor/arithmetic units, up to 16 memory modules and up to 20 IO modules. [7] [8] The BUIC systems used "two computer modules, six memory modules and three input/output modules". [7] The computer was designed for high availability and could still operate if any one of its modules failed. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Schaffel, Kenneth (1991). Emerging Shield: The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960 (45MB pdf). General Histories (Report). Office of Air Force History. ISBN   0-912799-60-9 . Retrieved 2011-09-26. A SAGE component, a 64 x 64 [4K] magnetic core memory ... SAGE direction center. This installation is located at Stewart Air Force Base in New York state. ...[Hancock Field] combined direction-combat center was located at Syracuse, New York. [captions of p. 198, 208, & 265 photos] NOTE: Schaffel's history uses the same name as "The Emerging Shield: The Air Defense Ground Environment," Air University Quarterly Review 8, no. 2 (spring 1956).
  2. ↑ DeWerth, John P. ...Sage Memories (personal notes) (Report). SMECC.org. Retrieved 2012-04-03. Senior Director's keyed console...fire button "[AN/GSA-51]". SMECC.org. BUIC ... Burroughs...D825 ... McChord AFB...August 1983 "Phoenix Air Defense Sector". SMECC.org. Luke AFB...February 1984
  3. 1 2 Winkler, David F; Webster, Julie L (June 1997). Searching the Skies: The Legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program (PDF) (Report). U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-26. "BUIC II radar sites would be capable of incorporating data feeds from other radar sectors directly onto their radar screens.
  4. ↑ Hellige, Hans Dieter (February 1993). Actors, Visions and Developments in the History of Computer Communications (PDF) (Report). "Work and Technology" Research Centre. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-11-16. Retrieved 2012-04-02.
  5. ↑ Page, Thomas E. (June 16, 2009). "IBM SAGE" (anecdotal message post). Ed-Thelen.org. Retrieved 2013-02-21. A number of Super-SAGE Combat Centers (AN/FSQ-32) were planned, but none was built. (T. E. Page cites: "Shield of Faith" by Bruce Briggs (Simon and Schuster, 1988.)
  6. 1 2 Anderson, James P.; Hoffman, Samuel A.; Shifman, Joseph; Williams, Robert J. (1962). "D825 - a multiple-computer system for command & control". Proceedings of the December 4-6, 1962, fall joint computer conference on - AFIPS '62 (Fall). pp. 86–96. doi:10.1145/1461518.1461527. S2CID   1186864.
  7. 1 2 "BUIC Fact Sheet". Burroughs Corporation. Archived from the original on July 29, 2003. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  8. ↑ Thompson, Rankin N. & Wilkinson, John A. (1963). "The D825 automatic operating and scheduling program". Proceedings of the May 21-23, 1963, spring joint computer conference on - AFIPS '63 (Spring). AFIPS '63 (Spring). pp. 41––49. doi:10.1145/1461551.1461558. S2CID   16688308.
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