Robert Rivers Everett

Designer of Whirlwind — the first computer to operate in real time — Everett joined the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory in 1942 as a graduate student and in 1943 as a staff member. He served as Jay W. Forrester's assistant and became associate director of the Digital Computer Laboratory. Everett is recognized for his notion to undertake the development of a highly complicated system of his own, to which there was no precedent in terms of reliability or performance, thus producing Whirlwind, the first computer that operated in real time, used video displays for output, and the first that was not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems.

Its development led directly to the United States Air Force's Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, and indirectly to almost all business computers and minicomputers in the 1960s.