Hallo Uwi, Malte und Peter
Kann auch sein, daß die Entwicklung von speziellen
integrierten Schaltungen vom Militär gefördert wurden.
Wahrscheinlich richtig und auch zu erwarten gewesen.
Ich denke auch, die Militärs waren eher nur Nutznießer
als treibende Kraft der Entwicklung.
Ich hatte mal ein wenig herumgesucht, aber in den
Prozessorhistorie-Geschichten klafft immer irgendwie
ein Loch. Der 4004 ist plötzlich da. Praktisch über
Nacht. Und jetzt haltet euch fest. Jerry Pournelle,
u.a. ein „Senior Columnist“ bei Dr. Dobbs, lässt
in der aktuellen DDJ-Ausgabe den Vorhang fallen.
JP schreibt also (p. 82f)
... In 1964, I was the <u>General Editor</u> of a classified USAF
Systems Command study called "<u><b>Project 75</b></u>." This was
conducted by the San Bernardino campus of the Aerospace
Corporation and was done by the Ballistic Systems Division
in conjunction with the Air Systems Divisions companion
study Project Forecast directed by Col. Francis X. Kane.
As to why San Bernardino, General Schriever wanted this
study group as far from the Pentagon as you could get
and still be in the continental U.S. To get to San
Bernardino, you had to go to Los Angeles, then drive
back a hundred miles into the low desert. It was also
a place few wanted to go.
„General Editor“, das hört sich nicht schlecht an …
Aber jetzt:
<u>Project 75</u> was ambitious. The goal was to look at every-
thing we knew about ballistic missiles, including what
we knew about the Soviet programs, then project that
to the year 1975. We would then look at what we'd need in
1975 to fulfill the USAF missions and that would help de-
termine what technologies we should begin developing in
1965 so we would have in 1975 the future -- at least, in
the realm of ballistic missiles -- we wanted. The study
was large and highly classified, and many of those who
worked on it, including me, were not authorized to see
the end product (even though, in my case, <u>I had written</u>
<u>just about every word in it</u> -- which makes more sense
than is apparent at first sight).
Und damit ist auch irgendwie klar, was nun passieren musste:
There were a number of conclusions and recommendations for
new technology development, but one stood out -- we needed
<u>better accuracies at intercontinental range</u>. If you want
to hit the other guy's weapons and minimize damage to his
cities, you want to use small accurate birds rather than
monster nukes.
<u>One way</u> to get that accuracy was to develop <u>better inertial</u>
<u>platforms</u> with smaller and more accurate gyros so that the
missile knew where it was at all times. We were already
working on that, moving inertial gyros from basketball-sized
with mechanical coupling to grapefruit-sized with laser data
acquisition.
OK, das wäre die herkömmliche Idee.
Aber dazu muss man nicht ein geheimes Camp in San Bernardino
durchfüttern:
The <u>next step</u> was to make use of that <u>better position</u>
<u>information</u>, and the only way to do that was by <u><b>on-board</b></u>
**<u>guidance computers</u>**. (A moment's thought will show that
you don't dare allow an ICBM to accept midcourse cor-
rections from ground bases.) **<u>We recommended development</u>**
**<u>of on-board guidance computers</u>**. That required computers
that were much smaller and lighter than any then in
existence. This, in turn, **<u>required Large-Scale Integrated</u>**
**<u>Circuits</u>**.
Was hat das Pentagon gemacht? Die haben das tatsächlich gebaut:
Accordingly, the Department of Defense <u>directed investments </u>
<u>into LSIC technologies</u>. The result was better on-board
guidance, and thus, far more accurate missiles, which was
the future we were trying to invent -- but there were other
results. <u>The work led to the 4004 chip</u>, then the 8080 by
way of the 8008. That was good enough to power small
general-purpose computers, such as the Altair, Sphere,
Imsai -- all now on display in the Smithsonian, right next
to Ezekiel, my old friend who happened to be a computer.
The personal computer was born. So was BYTE magazine and
Dr. Dobb's Journal and this column.
...
Zumindest ein kleiner Anhaltspunkt, wenn auch noch
keine genauen technischen Details der Entwicklung.
Aber ich halte die Veröffentlichung dennoch für
bemerkenswert. Eine kleine Lücke schliesst sich.
Grüße
CMБ