Fun Fact # 325 The Glitch Chips of SAC

 Fun Fact #325

The Glitch Chips of SAC

Computer Glitches are never fun but thankfully by definition they are: “a sudden, often temporary malfunction…”. However, when you’re dealing with Nuclear missiles that temporary issue becomes a matter of the utmost importance. This is exactly what happened between 1979-1980 when there were 9 Strategic Air Command (SAC) false alarms only avoiding retaliatory strikes after Norad couldn't confirm the missiles (declassified in 2012 -nsarchive.gwu.edu). The source of these glitches was a $46 cent microchip responsible for sending the routine “All-clear” messages which would occasionally change 0s, into 2s. After this incident The American Government would begin seeking redundant systems in computers which is common practice in high value systems today. 

nsarchive.gwu.edu