The IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing System [1] (FSQ-31, Q-31, colloq.) was a USAF command, control, and coordination system for the Cold War Strategic Air Command (SAC). IBM's Federal Systems Division [1] was the prime contractor for the AN/FSQ-31s, which were part of the TBD 465L SAC Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), [2] a "Big L" system of systems ( cf. 416L SAGE & 474L BMEWS [3]) which had numerous sites throughout the Continental United States: "all SAC command posts and missile Launch Control Centers" (e.g., The Notch), a communication network, etc.; and the several FSQ-31 sites including:
The FSQ-31 provided data to a site's Data Display Central [6] (DDC) "a wall display" [6] (e.g., Iconorama), and it arrived at Offutt in 1960. [7] On 20 February 1987, "SAC declared initial operational capability for the SAC Digital Network [which] upgraded the SAC Automated Command and Control system " [4]
The FSQ-31 included:
SACCS systems outside of the AN/FSQ-31 included the Subnet Communications Processor and the SACCS Software Test (SST) Facility at the Offutt command center (the backup SCP was at Barksdale AFB.) [9] SAC's QOR for the National Survivable Communications System (NSCS) was issued 13 September 1958; [10]: 175 and in September 1960 the "installation of a SAC display warning system" included 3 consoles in the Offutt command center. [10]: 218
Initial weight: 105,650 pounds (52.8 short tons; 47.9 t). [1]
The Q-31s were equipped with four 16 kiloword memory banks. The memory bank was oil and water cooled. Also considered as part of the memory subsystem in that they were addressed via fixed reserved memory addresses, were four 48 position switch banks, in which a short program could be inserted, and a plugboard, similar to the one used in IBM unit record equipment, that had the capacity of 32 words, so longer bootstrap or diagnostic programs could be installed in plug panels which could then be inserted into the receptacle and used. This served as a primitive ROM.
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terminal at Offutt command center | |
SACCS comm network |
SAGE—Air Force project 416L—became the pattern for at least twenty-five other major military command-control systems… These were the so-called "Big L" systems [and] included 425L, the NORAD system; 438L, the Air Force Intelligence Data Handling System; and 474L, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). … Project 465L, the SAC Control System (SACCS) [with] over a million lines, reached four times the size of the SAGE code and consumed 1,400 man-years of programming; SDC invented a major computer language, JOVIAL, specifically for this project. … In 1962 the SACCS was expanded to become [WWMCCS]
All incoming messages to the EDTCC are automatically switched and routed to the designated locations.