Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cutting Edge Then: 1000 bits per second

That means 1kbps to my teenage nieces, roughly the time of dinosaurs in youngsters' eyes.

[Arthur Cohen, the mathematician who led IBM's Project Mercury Team. "The IBM team had the honor of applying computing power and mathematics to support the project.... We experienced an unforgettable sense of excitement when Alan Shepard safely accomplished his mission. I will forever remember May 5, 1961, and the incredible team of NASA and IBM men and women I had the opportunity to work with."

Cohen, in an email to Computerworld noted that IBM's work involved an early manifestation of real-time and predictive analytics. What IBM technicians put together for NASA helped to usher in the days of real-time communication.

According to IBM, its team of more than 75 employees working on the Mercury Project from 1959 to 1963 developed a "real-time channel" called the IBM 7281, which could receive up to 1,000 bits of data per second.] emphasis added

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216469/IBM_celebrates_tech_behind_first_U.S._manned_space_flight?source=CTWNLE_nlt_pm_2011-05-06

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