Whirlwind
| Whirlwind-hime | |
| |
| Character Information | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | Whirlwind-hime |
| Other Names | Whirlwind I, TX-0, TX-1 |
| Human Name(s) | Winifred Forrester |
| Faction | Deceased OS-tans |
| Lineage | MIT, founder |
| Rival(s) | N/A |
| Appearance | |
| Height | 5'7" |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Blue |
| Weapon(s) | N/A |
| Design | |
| First Appearance | Late 2009 |
| Technical Information | |
| System Personified | Whirlwind |
| Developer(s) | MIT, Lincoln Labs |
| Debut | 20 Apr 1951 |
| Latest release | as Whirlwind: Circa 1959, as TX-0: Early-Mid 1970s |
Technical Details
Whirlwind-tan personifies the MIT computer that formed the basis for most modern computers and directly led to the development of the SAGE air defense system. First begun as a Navy flight simulator project, when the Navy bailed out the Air Force stepped in to keep it alive. One of the first electronic computers, she is a pioneer in output display and an early user of magnetic core memory making her among the fastest computers in the world.
Character Details
General
Whirlwind-tan - often called Whirlwind-hime to denote her high position within the MIT-tan clan - is depicted as a bespectacled woman in her mid 30s. Somewhat on the tall side, she has long black hair (usually worn swept away from her face and tied into braids), bright blue eyes and speaks with a heavy Boston accent. Her typical attire varies, from work-wear consisting of dresses and labcoats, to ornate formalwear consisting of 19th Century-inspired style dresses featuring bustles and corsetry. One constant across her wardrobe seems to be accessories incorporating black and white checkers, hair ribbons and vacuum tube-based jewelry. In her younger days she was a Naval Reservist, and thus wore the uniform of a US Navy Women's Reserve ensign, but since her dismissal she has avoided any association with her former service.
Whirlwind is an intelligent and amicable woman, though a hidden temperamental side has been hinted at before. She generally has a positive attitude in life, her only real "enemies" being the US Navy (for firing her) and the Air Force (for its perceived theft of her first-born child). She is renowned as an engineer and for her assistance on various period computer projects; among her greatest creations were her various children, as well as pioneering many technologies that would be employed by generations of computers to come.
History and Background
Early life
Whirlwind-tan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sometime in the mid-1940s, and fully matured by the early 50s. It is known that the was a US Navy (WAVES) reservist, but few other aspects of her early life have been documented.
Children
By her own admission, Whirlwind's greatest legacy is the creation of SAGE-tan - to a point her daughter could be considered the reason to her existence above all else. Indeed, when SAGE's development was completed in 1959 she was decommissioned and left at the mercy of a group of computer scientists who kept her alive half out of sympathy, half to experiment on her unique physical properties. A series of experimental operations - the TX-0 project - improved her lifespan, speed and powers, but cost her numerous body parts as well as general mental and physical stability. Especially problematic were the coma-like states she fell in and out of for the next fourteen years.
Despite the dire consequences to her health, there were several beneficial effects of her transformation into "TX-0". Foremost among these, the creation of her second child, PDP-1-tan - whose 1959 birth would have never been possible without the knowledge gained during Whirlwind's experimental surgeries. In many ways, PDP-1 filled the nest left empty by SAGE's departure, and became a comfort and companion to the ailing Whirlwind.
CTSS-tan was born in 1961, but the details of her creation and relationship with Whirlwind-tan are yet-unknown.
Unusually for the era, Whirlwind-tan's relationship with her daughters was not only close but mutually-affectionate despite intervening factors - distance, in the case of SAGE-tan, and worsening health with PDP-1 and CTSS.
Death and legacy
Whirlwind-tan's health became steadily worse with advancing age, and by the 1970s she was in a comatose state more often than not. In 1973, she passed away, shortly after SAGE's final visit with her. Her slow decline and lingering death is suspected to have contributed to SAGE's eventual psychological instability.
Whirlwind's transformation into TX-0 inspired not only the creation of PDP-1-tan, but the creation of an entire new type of computer-tan: smaller, nimbler, more efficient minicomputer-tans, whose ranks would swell throughout the next few decades to the point of becoming the dominant computer class. In this way, all computer-tans of the 1960s and 70s can be said to owe their existence to Whirlwind.
Family and relationships
Theories and notes
Fanworks
Writings
"Picnic" (The first canon appearance of Whirlwind-tan in a story)
"Dirty Water" (An account of Whirlwind-tan's death as told by SAGE-tan)
"A Journey of One Mile" (A story recounting Harvard Mark I-tan's first meeting with Whirlwind-tan)
