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- James Wong - Curriculum Vitae
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- Pre-SAGE
- Fresh out of UCLA in 1952, I went to work for The RAND
Corporation as an Associate Mathematician. Worked with Cecil Hastings to
develop the best approximation in the sense of Chebyshev polynomials, as
applied to the emerging high-speed digital computers. The programming was
performed on the IBM CPC, IBM 701, and the RAND Johnniac. This activity
culminated in the book "Approximations for Digital Computers,"
by Princeton University Press in 1954.
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- SAGE
- Lincoln Lab, the birthplace of the SAGE program, was
created as an R&D center. Lincoln was willing to begin preparing the
computer programs, provided that some other organization would take over
their operational development, create the supporting software, and carry
out the installation. The Air Force selected RAND as the only logical choice
for this activity. One reason was: RAND had the corner on the country's
programmers!
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- In 1955, I was a member of the RAND team of eight "experienced"
programmers selected as the nucleus to go east to work with Lincoln Lab.
The objective was a hand-over of the SAGE computer program function from
Lincoln Lab to RAND and then transfer of this function to RAND's headquarters
in Santa Monica. The original agreement called for RAND to provide a total
of 75 programmers to collaborate in the design and development. An urgent
recruiting and training campaign for computer programmers was initiated.
The two organizations, RAND and Lincoln, would act essentially as one.
RAND's staff was to be integrated at all levels. Everyone was enthusiastic
and fascinated with this SAGE project.
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- I was the RAND member of the Lincoln Lab EPSCOM (Equipment
Program SAGE Checkout and Maintenance) team responsible for program design,
code checkout, and documentation of SAGE test equipment software. Tests
were developed for gap filler radar, ground-to-air data links, height finders,
and long-range radar.
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- Participated with Lincoln Lab personnel in the development
of the SAGE computer program executive system, specifically, the PEC (Program
Executive Control), the Compool System, and the PTRS (Program Test and
Recording System) on the XD-1 (Experimental SAGE) at Lincoln Lab. SAGE
was the first and largest computer based command and control system; and
since no one had any experience in the development of such a large system,
program design details were vague and incomplete resulting in problems
with scheduling, planning, and design change control. Numerous meetings
were held to resolve these problems.
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- I was responsible for the generation of a set of standard
installation tests for the McGuire sector. Because of schedule pressures,
the installation tests were produced for a program system that was still
under development. In 1957, I was Assistant Site Leader responsible for
the installation and checkout of the first version of the operational software
at the first SAGE site, McGuire AFB. The interesting question was: can
new hardware, new software, and new procedures be tested and integrated
at the same time? Since no one knew what to expect, the massive manning
concept was applied. There were 70 programmers on site working night and
day testing and installing the software. Every time a glitch occurred,
there was a lot of finger pointing between computer programmers and IBM
computer engineers. The McGuire SAGE sector became operational in June,
1958.
Stuart AFB, with forty RAND programmers on the installation team, went
on the air in September, 1958. In rapid succession, additional SAGE
sectors with fifteen programmers on each team became operational, about
one every two months until 1961 when all SAGE sites were completed. The
eventual SAGE configuration consisted of 20 DCs [Direction Center], 4 CCs
[Command Center], a DC/CC, and a remote CC all linked in a computer-to-computer
network.
There were over one million instructions in the SAGE computer program system.
The breakdowns are as follows:
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- 1. Operational Programs had 230,000 instructions:
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- Direction Center - 80,000
- Combat Center - 60,000
- Remote Combat Center - 90,000.
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- 2. Utility and Support Programs had 870,000 instructions.
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- In building the SAGE system, SDC had trained the first
700 system programmers, built the first real-time computer system, and
pioneered methods of large-scale program development. There were about
400 programmers at Santa Monica headquarters and about 300 programmers
on site working on the SAGE program. Many information processing managers
in the computer industry today cut their eyeteeth on SAGE.
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- "'Everything was first done on SAGE' were familiar
words throughout the industry. SAGE was the first large-scale information
processing system with capabilities so advanced that forty years later
they would still be considered state of the art. The hardware is better
and faster today but multiprogramming, distributed processing, on-line
data management, timesharing were all there in SAGE."
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- Post-SAGE:
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- With experience gained on SAGE, my next assignment was
the second largest command and control system, the SAC [Strategic Air Command]
Control System, (465-L). The computer was the AN/FSQ-31. The operational
program reached one million instructions and was the first large-scale
system to use the higher level language, JOVIAL. My follow-on assignment
was with the Air Force Satellite Control Systems group here at the Satellite
Test Center in Sunnyvale. Retired from industry in 1986.
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- My challenging and rewarding career spanned 35 years
with RAND, System Development Corp., Burroughs, and Unisys. I consider
myself fortunate to have always been in the forefront of technology. My
retirement years are now being spent tutoring math and computers to students
in the Learning Disabled Program at Foothill College.
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