AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central
Cold War-era air defense command and control computer
AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central
The AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central, referred to as the Q7, was a computerized air defense command and control system. It was used by the United States Air Force for ground-controlled interception as part of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) network during the Cold War. In accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the "AN/FSQ-7" designation represents the 7th design of an Army-Navy electronic device for fixed special combination system. The JETDS system also now is used to name all Department of Defense electronic systems. An advancement of the pioneering MIT Whirlwind II digital computer design, and manufactured by IBM as prime contractor, the AN/FSQ-7 was the largest discrete computer system ever built. Each of the 24 installed machines weighed 250 tons. The AN/FSQ-7 used a total of 60,000 vacuum tubes (49,000 in the computers) and up to 3 megawatts of electricity, performing about 75,000 instructions per second for networking regional radars.
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