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The "Bouncing Ball" demo program by Charly Adama ran on MIT's Whirlwind mainframe or HAX, which displayed changing patterns according to settings of concole switches and was designed for Whirlwind's successor, the TX-0. Both even had primitive sound support, timed beeps generated by the console speaker. The Whirlwind team demonstrate mathematical programs such as the bouncing ball problem or solve simple differential equations.
1954 Whirlwind processes differential equations - The Laning and Zierler system was one of the first operating algebraic compilers, that is, a system capable of accepting mathematical formulae in algebraic notation and producing equivalent machine code. It was implemented in 1954 for the MIT WHIRLWIND by J. Halcombe Laning, Jr. and Neal Zierler. It is preceded by the UNIVAC A-2, IBM Speedcoding and a number of systems that were proposed but never implemented. |
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Alternative "Bouncing Ball" image by the MIT program team clearly titled "Whirlwind Display of the Bouncing Ball".
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Few applications were written for the system. One documented application, authored by Laning and Zierler themselves, involved a problem in aeronautics. The problem required seven systems of differential equations to express, and had been given to the Whirlwind because it was too large for MIT's Differential Analyzer to handle. The authors, exploiting the Runge-Kutta feature of their programming system, produced a 97-statement program in two and half hours. The program ran successfully the first time.
"The last instruction tells the computer how to deliver its results. These may be in the form of a table, an oscilloscope display, or a stream of impulses that will control a machine or any other device." - Whirlwind booklet 1951. |
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1951 August, Whirlwind mathematical waveform.
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Other Text:
When computers were still marvels, people would flock to watch them whenever the opportunity arose. They were usually disappointed. Whirring tapes and clattering card readers can hold one's interest for only so long. They just did the same dull thing over and over; besides, they were obviously mechanical - at best, overgrown record changers - and thus not very mysterious. The mainframe, which did all of the work, just sat there. There was nothing to see. However, something is always happening on a TV screen, which is why people stare at them for hours. On MIT's annual Open House day people came to stare at Whirlwind's CRT screen. What were they staring at? Bouncing Ball.
Bouncing Ball, programmed for the Whirlwind, may have been the first computer-CRT demonstration program. It certainly didn't do much: a dot appeared at the top of the screen, fell to the bottom, and bounced, with a loud "thok" from the console speaker. It bounced off the sides and the floor of the displayed box, gradually losing momentum until it hit the floor and quietly rolled off the screen through a hole in the bottom line. And that was all. |
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