Mainframe Computer Component, CG24 Circuit Board, Eight-Position Matrix Switch

Description:

In the years following World War II, MIT established Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, to carry out research projects for the U.S. military. These included building the CG24, a transistorized computer that could simulate real time conditions. Designed and built in 1956 and 1957, it ran from 1958 until being scrapped in 1966-67. The CG24 was installed in Westford, Massachusetts, to interpret data from a tracking radar on Millstone Hill. Initially intended to track incoming missiles, the radar and computer also followed artificial satellites and measured lunar features.

Some twenty-four components of the CG24 are included in accession 304346, most of them individual circuit boards.

This brown board is marked: TCM 2 8 POSITION MATRIX SWITCH - 2. A paper tag that came with the object reads: 8-position (/) matrix switch (/) (to produce octal (/) output).

Date Made: 1958

Maker: Lincoln Laboratory, MIT

Location: Currently not on view

Place Made: United States: Massachusetts, Lexington

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Computers

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: CI.333906Accession Number: 304346Catalog Number: 333906

Object Name: computer component, mainframemainframe computer component

Measurements: overall: 1 cm x 14.5 cm x 16 cm; 13/32 in x 5 23/32 in x 6 5/16 in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ad-3058-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1398105

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