I heard that from his own mouth in the one talk of his I attended, and having read this book https://www.amazon.com/Project-Whirlwind-History-Pioneer-Com... I knew he was right.

Although "logic" might not make clear what we're talking about, it's things like parallel execution, modularity, 3D core memory, the first seriously useful form of it which got us going until DRAM, etc.

Note HN has this currently larger discussion of him: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12983740

As well as basically the way we still design and build computers to this day.

In the one talk of his I attended, he said he switched to modeling because after he'd finished Whirlwind, he (and his team) had solved all the significant outstanding problems in computer design. And that's not an exaggeration, read this excellent book for the details: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Whirlwind-History-Pioneer-Com...

To amplify how desperate people were for memory, back before the Whirlwind people came up with 3D core memory they were considering among other things a microwave version of mercury delay lines, running a signal out to western Massachusetts and back. All that and lots more in this gem of a book: http://www.amazon.com/Project-Whirlwind-History-Pioneer-Comp...