-DIGITAL COMPUTER vm VEWSL ITTER _ ONAVAL RESEARCH d IC -ý-c Vol ii Noi SCIENCES DWIVlow W ____________ jaimarii1P I OF CON'TINI'S 'I'AIIIXt 'hUNIVAC 1 'it t I h' MWA i I 2 l p er Ihlie NINAC I Fie cim Compkiute rA' I L The MANIAC I 1 I' RC Digjtttt IIi tlerenItia I Aria ly t 1 ltiur roiho Beie m-Switch ing Ttibei eisrn ich Shret -MNeta I Magnetic k I egtrificsaI 1 DC N News Item is Dlrumi D Approved by The Under Secretary of The Navy 27 August 1951 j' T DICLAIME1 z- THIS DOCUMENT IS BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE THE COPY FURNISRED TO DTIC CONTAINED A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF NOT DO I 'TAWHICH F E RODUTC'T E GPICWTY THIS DoCUMENT CONTAINED REPRODUCED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY BLAWK PAGES THAT HAVE BEEN DELETED COMPUTERS A OWt' III Dligi taml I t 'vtlalt Al ly Ati' wia ilplvy i'd to Ilv Ilp 1 0 llnl ll l lilrai lry tilt IN Nm- nlithvr miil nllht tim mlll nll luog i irv 110lin 111r14%11111041iy 1nliul yr ItuavsreIu lrlasl iml holl 11 1 44111n101 Nil lllols'•i ifteagol itrliat1110e ler101 1 414111 s'aiuoll lnlin I hi Abh Il's14 p1 rt dvorytVP intln slaplulormer OIroinul ' irvvsnaploltd Ope rialhlnal X11 Pr1P1I'o 111 sliv tie1110 1 onnr i'pt i ii Iforv vIo plo i tinhue polding 27 Novelrilwor 47 wooka im snilpalrod with ttho prl'violii published lh rivirdh for 105tl2 ilCN Vol V Nil 2 i Ii to11II1 following labhia Avoritf Mitehlin OIW VAC Scheduled Kngiin'eringO Ullnohodulod Kngineering Problem Set-Up and Code Checkinig Pro•uction Idle Total Machine Time ThMem 23 11 27 2 39 1 29 4 26 3 145 11 Waeek In Hosurn EDVAC INIAC LP-1 1052 1053 1952 195b3 2 4 27 0 34 8 53 7 23 8 34A4 70 4 23 3 21 7 2 4 29 1 55 0 19 4 30 4 26 1 12 5 35 8 20 4 87 1 3 7 24 1 32 7 18 3 70 4 5 4 165 3 152 2 160 7 139 3 159 9 terms were defined In DCN Vol V No 2 p 8 THE UNIVAC The first industrial application of Univac is announced for March 1954 when the Remington Rand System goes into operation at Appliance Park newly-constructed home of General Electric's Major Appliance Division in Louisville Kentucky Heading the list of functions to be electronically processed are payroll and labor distribution material scheduling and inventory control Later in 1954 some commercial service and billing will be added By the end of the year the program is to include general and cost accounting as well Compared with conventional methods in the same administrative areas annual savings of $500 000 are estimated in performing these initial functions alone Univac's potential however permits planning to enlarge its scope considerably One of the computer's most important eventual uses at Appliance Park is expected to be in the compilation of sales statistics and the preparation of market forecasts for division and product department management THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY COMPUTER IAS The relocation of the Institute for Advanced Study machine within the Computer Laboratory is completed and it is being placed in use again Various changes were made in the circuitry for the magnetic drum during the move The revised drum unit is now being tested and should be placed in operation soon Various further engineering improvements are now being planned and will be reported in succeeding issues '' -2- p Milny dliffill o lltlt 1 1 h-oir -I'-per JA l IIY l II hI ll lit lld Ovii•tnt ilPI MuirOior other' VAlUN r' t ihi' UnlnlnIono 1loIVe'tIty M oedf IIIIti t'olinios to nehintli' Won Il'llitng uhoollf tklling Novem'itilt ' ill' f ollril' t ihI' t All tV#lU14AP I'III I Ii hilkiiA llAt ltirillog lhIl 1'411' 041'e Onl thP fipe Ih• I JikACt on i 0pl'i' lll Mf elh IIi InllllllIlthoua Ni P 'PihIIull t14iitin l 'utlhod# lr y Whh ll MI eiflv4iy It nlfit v eiullu'ril filI' lmiI'ra opoid by ICA htr' thi' I hIA Inv re110d valu oft shi0 flnip the T111 044 ui'poutpi'l A change in t111hinlnloe' 'i'S ein i 111pi 1114%hv lipo ' ll n nnnl lread rololn -Ill 1 411 Art' basod llo po lls' coolt rot An hfit ' u%1 n te eif cycl chniIA trom tllhs to•hni1tI vllu offitat to thl pilreisnt 11o1 nly 1%114'Nl i oit oine' 1 whe'llus Are' 11i10h tytur' n I'm l ct er l g-htte'n a tuoll h d iltl ahl At•ll Adilo ildl i 11 1ift ill n A tomknm r yof tit I liii toihl ehi ne n Illcar'tecollds t mIl roscoinds Addition wilt '1145 11111 Iptli it A IIiI 'vol in In ltalled in tI lltli 114' m11enI'y Thi illi And hilni'e lit 1e' 4111 41 the 1n ike hti Mtieor s 1 uplicatroac by zerofm T40 4 nllerosicondi wiult lilt ivat ioll by 010 4 tf0 Division 940 flhicaomeovolldN Inp ut One Character from Tape 4 miilliseconds i Piunch One Character on Tape 40 milliseconds Display 1 millisecond •ie Spot on Oscilloscope a0 Iit i'osevonlds The times listed include the times for bringing out the order and the operand The multiplication and division orders can vary by 50 microseconds from the figures given because of the dependence of shift time oil the relative numbers of l's and 0's in the registers CONSOLIDATED MODEL 30-2001COMPUTER The Consolidated Engineering Corporation announces that the prototype computer Model 30-201 is in operation and has solved a number of problems Among these was the Inversion of a 26th-order matrix Before it was shut down to be packaged in the prototype cabinet the engineering breadboard computer had solved a number of problems Among them were computation of 2184 values for a complex probability-integral completed in 8 hours anct the computation of mole percent weight percent and liquid volume percent for a 21-component mass-spectrometer analysis of a natural gas Running time of the latter problem was 14 seconds and print-out took i-1 2 minutes Two scheduled training courses in coding have been held for customer personnel and others are planned Construction has begun on three production-model computers the first of which will be delivered 1 April 1954 -3- - WHl tWINi 1 Ajipll IvatItinn1l i Mring ip p 111hs 114 r'to montth4i th following problesna wer' Innitlated by tho Scientific and lroup In vonjuin't ion with varim•n dIpartnmnta at MIT for lnltels'ling Cotmpuliation 5lKC solutlion on WNhirlwind I Pruobltn N Tlu 144 Solf-CoeUmistent Moloular Orbitals 145 Evahuiation of Socond-Ordor Tempnerature Diffuse hcattoring from Z ic 140 large' t 147 E11nergy Bands in Cryitail lAi Elliptic Boundary-Value Problems 149 Digital Methods of Dotecting Signals in Noite 151 Machine Programming and Mathematical Analysis of the Jeieral Galme of NIM 152 Diffusion in an Oxide-Coated Cathode 153 Oust Response Simultaneoum Linear IntegroDifferential Equations 155 Synoptic Climatology 158 Evaluation of the Reflection Coefficient in a SemiInfinite Rectangular Wave Guide 157 Rectangular Matrix Multiplication 1igenvaluo of Real Symmotric Matrix Work was also done on other problems described in previous issues Magnetic-Core Memory The excellent performance record which the new magnetic-core memory has established during the five weeks Nov 2 to Dec 6 is encouraging Only one parity alarm indicating a failure to get correct information from memory was ma de during approximately 700 hours of computer operation This figure is in contrast to the average of 2 alarms per day encountered when electrostatic storage was part of the Whirlwind I system The comparison is more Impressive when one considers that the access time of magnatic-core memory is 8 microsec where q electrostatic wtvrage required an average of 30 microsec for the equivalent operations THE SWAC The SWAC has been scheduled for 80-hour-per-week operation Of this time 60 hours represent useful computing Routine and preventative maintenance account for about 15 hours NAVAL PROVING GROUND CALCULATORS During the last quarter the Aiken Relay Calculator Mark 1I and the Mark III Calculator have operated on a 24-hour-per-day schedule five days a week -4- tog liriieet-tiy o t he Mark 11 hIS aIvera9ed 89 per vent and that of the Mark The ourat llp Ill ham avue gid 75 1w r cent douring the 4anio period The Mark III has shown substantial imlw1OV4111411t III recetol fllhouils wol t he 'aveage efficenlecy for the pieriod indicated Is its best record for' 111V sinli1 Inc per-i I odf timet' Tho addition tft Ihe new checked sequencinog systei to the Mark UI Calculator de ser illwd in it provious us mo has provided tmoie flexlibiility for solving problems on the Ca lcu lillor It ha - aliso improved the t echnique s for the i nimiediate de tect ion of operating errors and this ho4 been reflected in more accurate and more reliable computation - Recent adcidit bu to t he c0o1putilog farililt Ics at Dahilgren are tihe IBM typ e 063 card-totape converter and the IBM type 043 tape -to- card converterc These two machines will providv otiimlu n Vlcittoll between the Mark 11 Calculator and the IBM fac ility A conversion system to llcuvidt c'ommul nicaiion between the Mark Ill Calculator and the IBM Calculators is planned The Calciuilators continue ' to be occup1 ied int urgent hal list ic computations however the recent Iminprovemientt lin the Mn rk Ill op erating efficiency has reduced the backlog of problems Wigbaittlog in Defense Departmnett activities inclutding contractors conside rably PtOblems or can usuially be scheciolvd to meet the requested deadlines THE CIRCLE COMPUTER The first production model of the Circle Computer has been comp leted at Hogan Laboratories 155 Perry Sttreet New York N Y The first test routine was successfully run on the machine on November 30 1953 The first computer is scheduled for delivery during the first week of January 1954 The Computer proper shown in Figure 1 is 3 x 4 x 6 feet and consumes 3 5 Kw of power front a single-phase 60-cycle 110-volt line The electronic components are divided 1 TeCrlCOmpter Figure -5 - - - - - - - - - - 0- into small logical units which are built on three-tube subchassis These are mounted in such a way that they are easily removable for checking and service The logical design is patterned after the Princeton-type machines Serial operation and single-address coding are used The logical characteristics of the Circle Computer are Word Structure Words are 40 binary digits plus two sign digits Two orders may be stored in one word space Memory Magnetic drum rotating at 3540 rpm Capacity is 1024 words Arithmetic Binary with fixed binary point Operating Speed Additions and subtractions Multiplication and division Transfers Reading and writing Input Flexowriter Output Flexowriter 25 45 17 100 milliseconds milliseconds milliseconds milliseconds digit Three circle Computers are in the process of manufacture THE MINIAC The first MINIAC was delivered by Marchant Research Inc several months ago to the Atlantic Refining Co Philadelphia Pennsylvania where it was placed in service and is at last report doing a very fine job A second machine purchased by Atlantic for their Dallas Texas research installation is under construction and is expected to be delivered early 1954 Considerable design revision was made upon the MINIAC effective on the second Atlantic machine in that it Is a decimal computer of 10-digit word length but retaining the 4096-word magnetic-drum memory turning at 6000 rpm One of the features of this revised MINIAC is that it may be operated hexa-decimally yielding better than two additional decimal places Running time required for the same problem in hexadecimal notation is identical with that required by the decimal notation however sub-routine translation between these two notations requires a moderate amount of time This machine is also capable of storing alphabetical data An accessory feature providing 256 words oi the 4096 words storage at 1 25 milliseconds average access time has been developed An accessory flip-flop register whose primary use is in command revision is also offered as an accessory Either or both of these units may be added to a standard machine in the field ELECOM COMPUTERS Elecom 100 Elecom modei 100 electronic computer number three is in the final stages of engineering test and will be ready for delivery in December 1953 A binary three-address computer with a 512 word memory drum Elecom 100 number three handles alphabetic as well as numeric data It also has built-in auto-monitoring Previous Elecom 100s are operating at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds delivered November 1952 and Project Cyclone delivered April 1953 -6- Elecom 120 Courses in programming logic circuitry maintenance etc for purchasers of the Elecom 120 electronic computer were held at Elecom's facilities in Long Island City New York in November The first three Elecom 120 computers are scheduled for delivery early in 1954 The computer is an alpha-numeric decimal two-address machine with a 1 000 word memory drum and a ten word rapid-access recirculating channel Built-in floating decimal and wa idditional 1 000 words of memory are available as extra features on the Elecom 120 THE MANIAC The computer was first operated in early March 1952 with its 1024 40-binary-digi' words of electrostatic storage on 2 cathode ray tubes and a complete arithmetic unit but with relatively slow input-output uevices teletype The schvdulu llazi been on the basis of a 16-hr day 7 days per week During the period several modifications have been made and additional equipment added The computer now has a Ferranti photo-electric paper tape reader an Analex high speed printer a 10 000 word ERA magnetic drum and a slow single channel magnetic tape to record complete electrostatic memory contents The operating experience in the three six-month periods follows Effective Computation Computation time nullified by computer error Testing and Maintenance Second half 1952 70 0 9 5 20 5 First half 1953 75 5 8 5 16 0 Second half 1953 73 5 5 3 21 2 The time spent to incorporate additional equipment is not included in the above table Those figures are 11 6 percent 8 0 percent and 7 0 percent of the total time respectively However warm-up time of nearly one hour each morning is included under Testing and Maintenance and Scheduled Maintenance does not exist CRC DIGITAL DIFFERENTIAL ANALYZER A CRC 105 Decimal Digital Differential Analyzer is currently undergoing final acceptance tests at the Ballistic Research Laboratories Aberdeen Proving Ground Three other CRC 105 Differential Analyzers have been giving reliable service for varying periods These machines are located in the Navy Bureau of Ordnance in Washington D C Naval Ordnance Test Station Pasadena California and Lockheed Aircraft Corporation Burbank California Machine Number 5 was to be delivered in December to the Air Force and Machine Number 6 is to be delivered this month to Army Ordnance COMPUTER COMPONENTS RAYTHEON MAGNETIC SHIFT REGISTERS SR-20 The Raytheon Four-Stage 20KC Magnetic Shift Register known as the SR-20 is a compact ruggedly built unit incorporating 4- bit storage capacity in one small package Its unique features include A single magnetic core and single diode for each binary digit of information a 12-volt output with one-zero ratio of more than 10 1 highly stable operation The low output impedance of this element permits its use with loads as iow as 1000 ohms and -7 - up to 0 02 microiarad of capacitance The input and output may be parallel or serial furthermore as many of these elements as desired may be used to build up a register One successful commercial application already in operation utilizes forty-one SR-20 packages connected in series to form a register 164 binary digits in length SR-100 The Raytheon Single- tage 100KC Magnetic Shift Register known as the SR-100 several views of which are shown in Figure 2 has many of the same circuit characteristics as the SR-20 All components are sealed in a plastic case except the diode which is readily removable The widt margins of the operating parameters give this component exceptional circuit stability The rated maximum frequency of operation is 100KC The tolerance of shiftpulse width is greater than plus or minus 30% The minimum load impedance that can be tolerated without appreciable attenuation at the output is 7500 ohms The output is 16 volts in amplitude with a 5 1 one-zero ratio and the line runs at a power level of less than 1 4 watt per stage with a full load at maximum rated frequency tip Figure 2 Raytheon magnetic shift register SR-100 Raytheon has also developed compatible electronic driver packages for both the SR-20 and SR-100 Shift Register components Work is proceeding towards the utilization of magnetic cores in logical and arithmetic circuitry These developments give promise of a substantial reduction of tube count in future computer systems BURROUGHS BEAM-SWITCHING TUBES The new Burroughs Beam Switching Tubes permit the forming switching and modulating of an electron beam in ten discrete positions--either consecutively or at random Fractional microsecond switching from output to output is obtained from a single impulse or from -8- high-speed pulses up into the 5-megacycle range These low-power high-vacuum tubes are available with single output or with 10 outputs and with selective reset or zero reset LOGISTICS RESEARCH SHEET- METAL MAGNETIC DRUM A new memory wheel has been developed by Logistics Research Inc_ Redondo Beach Calif The device consists of a four-foot welded sheet-metal magnetic drum with magnetized surface rotating at high speed Magnetic readers are said to float above the surface of the drum on cushions of air 0 0004 in thick The memory capacity of the new wheel is claimed at approximately 1 million words The system utilizes an application of the Bernoulli principle which may be demonstrated by blowing through a spool of thread with a piece of paper pierced by a common pin to keep it centered against the other end The air exiting from the front end of the spool flows outward in a thin layer under the paper creating a partial vacuum strong enough to hold the paper in place rather than blowing it off Similarly in the Memory Wheel the air between the head and drum positions the head at a constant distance from the drum's surface In experiments with a model a three-foot sheet-metal drum known to be several thousandths of an inch out of a true circle the heads were found to maintain a gap of 0 0001 in between head and drum with less than 5 percent variation in the signals produced NOTICE DCN NEWS ITEMS The Electronics Branch of the Office of Naval Research Washington 25 D C solicits news items for inclusion in the Digital Computer Newsletter Material should be received by 10 March 10 June 10 September or 10 December for publication in the Newsletter of the following month SURVEY OF AUTOMATIC DIGITAL COMPUTERS The Office of Naval Research has recently completed a tabulation of data on Automatic Digital Computers throughout the world comprising 98 pages on as many models Three Indexes are included This Survey of Automatic Digital Computers is being published by the Office of Technical Services Commerce Department Washington 25 D C at a price of $2 00 payable to the Treasurer of the United States It is identified by P B No 111-293 -9E37931