DIGITAL COMPUTER 0' 0 '- 4 04 1 4 ý ilIy IONS Albrotl J Noiot1umn l41tllitr Vtil 7 Nil 3 4 Or W NTINTI STAhI K t• 1MrUUI1' IN I II N 1a u L'mputer' Aheree- ll I 10 - ape mpeer round Calulatore Whirl•tnd I • 4 4 O Novel Prving o 0 41 Whs Nt 1 Boak Iwodish board For Computing Machinery StocWholm Sweden % Computer English Electric Company % 3 inac Ona tsltto Naisinale Per Le Applicasioni Del C alolo 1 1 I i nloen Germy any I1 and Ul to 4 5 National l h1%ieial Laboratory Control Mechanisma and Electrontic s I lDivieion 6 T R i Computer at RItE Malvern I a 1 Coleman Engineeri •I Company Inc A IBM Magnetic Disc Memory 3 New Electrodata Corporation Components 13 14 IS I 10 A Doee •llIgai t0 1 Ia 1 International Conference on Electronic Digital Computers and t Inlormation Procee ing A International Meeting On Analog Computation in Brussels 3 Wisconsin Meetingi The Computing Laboratozy in the University MISCELLANEOUS 1 2 Computer Survey NCR Research Center 1 Second Annual Electrodata Corporation Scholarships Contributions Wanted For Digital Computer Newsletter 4 C S C C C • Approved by ThUnder $ retary of the Navy 16 August 1964 0h 1 L A R •10 A is I s 16 16 16 Now 0 1 INGIO J5 16 C i 1k C I kthw 4 m 1PO a - T iSf 1 NT D frITUT T E kl AVAILABLE T•E COPY I TO DTIC CONTA TED •RNJ QUALITY FJ A SIGNS CAZNT NUMB E DC OF NOT THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINED REPRODUCED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY BLANK PAGES THAT HAVE BEEN DELETED COMPUTERS U S A The folowi wni n ntI'ilo how the naimhino hours foir the three hilth-apwe d com pute'rs fr Ohs aworageo week its the period 0000 36 November 19114 to 0300 it May 10Wt Q110 VAI9 I 8yd g AoolImiprovement 3 1 niinoering Vorwiting Total Knpiln ring C B Chargeable FPYAC NNIAC 1 5 0 5 39 4 30 9 00 0 4119 37 4 00 0 Tints 0 8 11 3 Production 61 5l 00 5 44 0 05 3 100 0 40 1 10 4 5 3 4 3 15 1 16 7 3 7 36 5 34 9 7 5 0 ldie Time 1 1 1 3 N aýT ni# 0 3 3 6 1 4 16510 168 0 165 0 Total Chargesbie Tim C 4oo-Chargeablo Time Due t9 1 Mach'ine Cause A Non-Machine Causes Total Noui-Chargnab1 Time GRAND TOTAL 51 6 The Bell Relay Calculators have been transferred from the Computing Laboratory ORL to CONARC Board Number 4 Fort Sties Texas The CRC-105 Digital Differential Analyzer has been transferred from the Computing Laboratory VIRL to the ballistic Measurements Laboratory BRL IHl B QLEOMHO The Burroughs 9101 In a desk mine general purpose low coat electronic computer it Is designed to be Intermiediate In both price and performance between a battery of desk top calculators on one hand and a giant computing Installation on the other It combines the powerful features of the large-scale computers with the convenience and simplicity of manual methods The EIOI uses the full keyboard of a Burroughs bookkeeping machine for data Input and the tabulating page printer of the same machine for data output Its external program Is embodied In the positions of pins inserted into the removable pinboard units It stores constants Intermediate results and final answers on a magnetic drum entry Anotonal Punched Paper Tape Input Unit can be used both to bypsa the keyboard to the odaajand to suppement tMhe lmruetl aw inhD plaboard p ag ram Figue 1 ahove this unit Inposilens aloageld the 3101 -1 Inputi I I volim ud hill kev'yt tuttut uitrrokillho iWukkis'e'iu tg imicu'hi n6 ut inniima riI l'unelu ' I'gTap thinl will rendtq 1 A I I- I or 11- Ommienul 14%111 Vhitput 24 4111111 pernjs rnivemd Ikenilt jjotipuiv gpi Antivrý rmplHOV fext Ihlot tt for timi Controi netielrn llu III- leerm u%III111 10 I welv wide fr Irtutled n hirn'ri tir unit Number syatenu 1hl'kre' rxe'eed ete''ihal hinoteten storage M gne'Ue drliumrniotry 100 word capacity 38000 rpm progranisme'd spilit- programmina Machin# languago of III aingir-adutreas Instructioens program oi cntroilod by placenivat of pins in1 8 rentuvsbil pinboardar providing 12A program steps I automatic address- modiflcat lon counters with programmed limits unconditional transfer Instructions montsr or supplementary instructions can be read from tape fpeedl Addition and subtraction at 10 per second multiplication and division of per second including accesa times Blast All components completely sell-contained In a single desk-slam cabinet on eastlers 0 Inchea wide by 33 Inches deep i ant ex tornal- word it'npth 11l 13 digmit N plus Power Requires 3S0-TORI single phase 3-wire line dissipates about 1500 wattam 44 Figure 1 Burroughs ElOl 6- lilt 1 1 rhit mlla I lNA 111P I hl N ImIthinie Corluiratimit haitannounce'd a n ni ri ly viltbt ir t d oIIe I eint1 ititer troIlled the lI0N with seve'ral ii wnt tl' ca lculat ing Npoed and storage vttli wil oh ef lilt expeier imental n edel the' compnh ty demnonstraited severarl mtonths ago Deliveries will tit i e'iriy In 10 56 Thi' ne'w mninhine In the first comtpletely tranninioriaod computer availablo for commercial inala linttion Htrreloo' heavily in production techniqtueosmuitable for the large-c-5ale manufacture of computing and data procommngli equipmecnt combining transastor@ printecl circuitry and other forms of nminiaturiantion Use of theme' devices makes priamible the ast efficient assembly of modular comixone'nta that can be uNod ita buildingll blocka In future machines It operates entirely on treansistore--without the time of a mingle vacuum tube Magnetic cores make up the machine's internnl storagle In the now talculator a one-half reduction In computer-unit nine and a 90%t reduction In power requiroments over a comparable vacuum tube model have been achieved More than 3 000 traiisletora are used In the 608 The power translstor the 160x4 Is a result of Intensive reaerach and development activity of the IBM Laboratories The capacity and speed of the 608 will enable It to tackle problems of greater Rise and complexity than those now handled by the IBM Types 404 and 607 Calculators Pluggable Components are mounted along with related circuitry on about 700 printed wiring panels These printed circuits are well adapted to the fast automatic production techniques that have been set up by IBM to Increase uniformity and quality - The machine can perform 4 600 addition a second a computing speed two and one-half times faster than IBM' a Type 607 calculator It can multiply two 9-dligit numbers and come up -_____with the 18 digit product in eleven mtllimeconds It can divide an 18-digit number by a 9-digit number and produce the S-digit quotient In just thirteen milliseqoinds The calculating punch unit used for boith Input and output is designed to permit a card to be calculated and the resuits punched while It io passing through the machine at the rate of1155 per minute This provides 50% girte zor card output than is now available In a machine such as the 607 The three-dimensional array of magnetic cores in the memory sectkun of the 608 provideo more than twice the storage capacity of Its predecepsor Programming to handled by a flexibly wired control panel similar to those found In IBM machines currently in use Up to eighty program steps form the basis of the machine's logical' ability The non-sequential arrangement of the steps allows the programmer to initiate or skip Individual steps by simple control p -' wiring The program steps are supplemented by electronic selectors coincidence switches and various test Impulses that provide the programmf with the tools for setting up machine logic directly on the co-trol panel External manual and vlseual controls permit the operator to test complicated calculating routines before proceedig with a problem THE DISTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY Electronic Computer Project The mixing problem mentioned in an earlier report Is now on the machine and Is being debugged As an Integral test calculation the well-known case of the lighter fluid on the heavier one ts being undertaken at the present time At the same time an attack has been made on the problem by analytical methods It will be recalled that In the stable case in which the upper fluid is the lighter the motion could be adequately represented by an approximate perturbation velocity potential which linearized the problem Wei has uno validity In the uanstable case since the basic assumpiion of small velocities and displacements no longer holds -31- iir 11 1 itf theie new anpproach to the' piuo•bl'eic of tne uolsithli ra•am ' Im to expa nd pcite'l•I lip h k' trf tcr di tlerfalc'tett and tll other relevaent qut entilie am ererl' s o'f power'rc o'f the Initial tiaial te'roe'fftrlc• tt It ratther hi'• y ait the Interf ac'e The' caiculaltIion of thel NueeveaI be perh1ur1' lti compli bet e'd atnd so falr hase been carried only up to tern11m of the Joeerth order The gene'rn i chaer•ter of the oott ion e11 reve with experinment ict well ate with other aepproxinmate the'ories As wait mentioned previously a large-12 000 word-dronm is on order to replace the present rone Virtually all the detign constierations have been completed and a buffering register and major control comlionents have been constructed Other chassos In the unit are now being wired The tubes in the machine now have been in operation more than 15 000 hours Random tests on some of hem indicated the need for extensive tube replacement In general the main reason for this replacement was excessive interelectrode leakage in particular heater-cathode leakage Work continues on higher speed arithmetic components An extensive program on the possible use of large cathode tubes for restricted read-around high density storage has been completed and has been written up for publication LIBRASCOPE COMPUTER Librascope Incorporated has under development a low-cost electronic General-Purpose Dtlitxl Computer The logical orifaela 0 ln•lbased on work done by Dr Stanley P Frankel In the design of the MINAC Computer Design aims are to handle large scale scientific and engineering calculations at medtuni speed consistent with structural simplicity and a minimum number of components The computer is a serial one address fixed binary point stored - pr'ogram magnetic drum machine While the command structure is relatively simple having only 16 orders the computer is fully automatic executing internally stored programs capable of branching and self modification Internal operations are in the binary system and word length Is 30 bits plus a sign digit The magnetic drum has a capacity of 4096 words numbers or instructions organized into 64 channels of 64 words each At a drum speed of 3500 R P M maximum and average random access times are 17 and 8 5 milliseconds respectively However a system of optimum access programming is relatively easy to use which reduces total search time per operation to two milliseconds The input-output system consists of a Flexowriter with paper tape punch and reader Normal input is through the tape reader however the keyboard may be used as desired Data are entered in hexadecimal or binary coded decimal form In the latter case as well as for output the number base conversion is done by a programmed subroutine permitting great flexibility for special applications The format is coded and the computer has full control of all Flexowriter functions including the tape punch and reader A single address order structure is employed wherein the accumulator register supplies one operand and holds the result for all arithmetic operations There are six orders of arithmetic character these are addition subtraction integral and fractional multiplication and extraction selective erasure Multiplication and division take one drum revolution 17 msec for execution all others one word time 0 26 rnsec A blocked state Is entered by the computer after a spillover in addition subtraction or division or if the one-operation mode is selected after each operation The break point order may put the computer In the blocked state dependent upon a six-bit code and settings of six corresponding switches thus establishing a hierarchy of break point Instructions From the blocked state the computer may be flled mantllnly for example with a program alteration or oetput subroutine -4- Four orde'rs are istotlaietd with prograitm sequrnre controtl The control transfer order and return address order raclitate the Insertion of •oturoutinem in the main computation scheme The Mtore addreiss order iprmiits alteration of addrerus portions of Instructionti for Instance within subroutines Decision on branching is xwoslble with the test conditional control transfer order wherntheint sign of the accumulator content Is tested Two orders are available to record words from the accululator register Into the main memory one clearing the accumulator to zero The three remaining orders are bring clear and add Input and output The entire computer contains approximately 100 tubes and A200 germanium diodes All circuits are connervatively designed and are conveniently packaged in plug-in units for ease of maintenance The cabinet volume is about ten cubic feet and power required Is less than 1500 watts from a 115-volt 60-cycle single-phase supply General Specifications Number Base 2 Word Length 30 bits plus a sign digit Number Range -1 to 1 Negative No Rep Complement Mode of Operation Serial Storage Magnetic Drum Storage Capacity 4096 words Clock Frequency 120 K C Total Access Time 2 m s minimum 17 m s maximum Transfer Time I m s minimum 17 m s maximum Addition Time 26 m s excluding access time Multiplication Time 17 m s excluding access time Division Time 17 m s excluding access time NAREC The Naval Research Laboratory's electronic digital computer has been operating since December 1952 with a 1536-word magnetic drum storage and since November 1954 with a 1024-word electrostatic storage Since May 1953 half of the time has been devoted to engineering and development with the remaining time being made available for scheduled computational purposes The development work is now expected to be completed by July 1956 The most notable recent progress has been in the improved operation of the electrostatic storage This system makes use of three standard three-inch cathode-ray tubes 3RPI for each binary-digit position Thus there are 45 chassis of three cathode-ray tubes each to store 1024 45-binary-digit words This design was expected to reduce cathode-ray-tube replacement costs and to improve read-around ratio and reliability by reducing the effect of storage surface blemishes Recent experience has indicated that the results are as anticipated Individual cathode-ray tubes within a group of the three tubes in a unit have become inoperative such as filament burn-out and the unit did not lose its data When operating with electrostatic storage there is at present a lO-usec action period followed by a lO-usec forced regeneration period A test program for checking computer operation indicated that the machine performed more than 9 000 sIngle-address orders per second -5- Input has bevn provided in the form of a Ferranti photo-clectric tape reader and the output consists of a Flcxowriter or high-speed punch 60 characters sec In July 1955 It is planned that the present 1536-word drum storage will be replaced by a 8192-word drum storage system NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS Technical Advisory Committee for Mathematics In its report of October 15 1953 the Ad Hoc Committee composed of representatives of professional scientific and engineering societies tinder the chairmanship of M J Kelly appointed by Secretary Weeks to review the activities of the National Bureau of Standards recommended the lormation of a set of Technical Advisory Committees to advise tile director of the Bureau of Standards and his staff on matters which the committees and the staff of the Bureau consider of importance In accordance with this report known as the Kelly report the Policy Committee of the Mathematical Societies of America which was represented on the original Kelly Committee nomlnated members for a Technical Advisory Committee for the Applied Mathematics Division of the National Bureau of Standards At present this committee consists of David Blackwell of Howard University E U Condon -consulting physicist Mark Kac of Cornell University P M Morse of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Mina Rees of Hunter College Chairman and A H Taub of the University of Illinois In meetings held on October 23 1954 and on February 3 1955 the Advisory Committee reviewed the program of the four sections of the Applied Mathematics Division namely tile Numerical Analysis Section the Computation Laboratory the Statistical Engineering Laboratory and the Mathematical Physics Section At both meetings the needs for new computing equipment and methods for financing the acquisition of such equipment were discussed At the request of the Committee the Applied Mathematics Division conducted a Bureauwide survey in order to analyze the needs of NBS in the field of high-speed computation This survey revealed that many Important problems in various scientific and engineering areas require computation facilities not only in excess of the Bureau's existing machines but even many times more powerful than any existing machine Accordingly a preliminary systems study was carried out and tentative plans were devised for a powerful computer which could be realized physically by existing NBS computer circuitry and components The proposed machine will be from 50 to 500 times faster than SEAC in solving a large class of scientific problems and thus would be capable of satisfying the advanced computational requirements of NBS The proposed general-purpose computer the system plans for which were formulated by A L Leiner W A Notz r L Smith and A Weinberger of NBS will have an all-parallel logical organization capable of being constructed from a slightly modified version of the timetested circuitry used in BEAC and DYSEAC Without increasing the pulse repetition frequency of I Mc sec used in the two earlier comp'iters an Increase in speed of a factor of 100 can be achieved The new computer will operate with 53-digit numbers in the binary system The arithmetic unit features a 53-stage adder with novel carry generating circuits in which the basic addition cycle for a complete word will be 1 microsecond Multiplication is to be performed by repeated additions and subtractions and the shifting will be arranged to skip over one two or three 0's or l's in the permitted instances Included will be instructions for both fixed-point and floating-point numbers The effective utilization of such an arithmetic unit depends on using a memory with a very short random-access time-of the order of I microsecond The NBS diode-capacitor memory developed by A W Holt can be operated at these speeds Such a fast memory would be backed up by a much larger but slower magnetic-core memory Average fixed-point operation times for the 3-address mode will be 8-1 2 microseconds for addition and 29 microseconds lor multiplication while average 3-address floating-point operation times will be 16 microseconds for addition and 25 microseconds for multiplication Accumulation can be performed In an average time of 2 microseconds per word -6- Two concurrent input-output trunks are to be provided each of which could communl' to with n iny different input-output units Computations can proceed while either or both ct input-output trunks are in use and automatic Interlocks would prevent any logically use of the memory for arithmetic references or input-output references Extenshi fications of the special supervisory control facilities Incorporated In the DYSEAC also to be provided These preliminary specifications for the new NOS machine were presented to the M - matical Technical Advisory Committee on April 30 1955 NAVAL PROVING GROUND CALCULATORS Reassembly of the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator NORC at the Naval Proving Ground is essentially complete except for the checking out period -_ A compiling routine for the automati' -PwovIng Ground Report NovY-374 -- _ -Iv of NORC programs was published in Naval The Aiken Dahlgren Electronic-Calculator ADEC continued on a three-shift operation while the Aiken Relay Calculator ARDC operated on one shft A card-to-tape-to-card converter S --for ADEC which was built by the Technitrol Engineering Company has recently par sed its acceptance tests and will be shipped to the Naval Proving Ground UNIVAC II The new UNIVAC II magnetic core electronic computer with double the speed and capacity of UNIVAC I has been announced by Remington Rand Inc Two major equipment improvements are Involved These are 1 the replacement of the present 1000-word mercury delay line internal memory with a 2000-word magnetic core memory and 2 increasing the input-output tape read and write speed to 20 000 characters per second Present 60-word Input-output buffers will be replaced with equivalent magnetic core buffers Other system improvements include Installation of high-speed magnetic clutches in the Uniservo Units thus reducing tape start-stop time to 15 ms Present Input-output synchronizers SYI and SYO are replaced by an Input Character Distributor and an Output Character Distributer capable of 40 000 character per second operating speed-double that required to accommodate the new 20 000 character per second tape read-write speed Design of the new 2000-word magnetic core internal memory and associated address decoding is such that It will accommodate up to four additional 2000-word memory units for a maxtmum of 10 000 words of high speed Internal memory Present ten-word transfer instructions Y and Z are replaced with one-to-ten word transfer instructions and the present Extract Function Is extended to cover word transfers into and out of memory thus achieving the equivalent of Individual addressable characters Contributing to the better than two-to-one internal computer speed-up Is the elimination of the alpha-time portion of computer operation cycle An additional advantage achieved with the higher rdeordlng density 200 characters per inch is the Increase in information capacity of a reel of Univac tape to approximately 3 000 000 characters Below is given a comparison of UNIVAC I and the new UNIVAC U 7- UNIVAC System Comparisons UNIVAC II UNIVAC I Operating Area 1 CENTRAL COMPUTER 1 Memory 1 000 words of 12 characters each alpha numeric -12 000 character capacity Mercury delay-line storage system 2 000 words of 12 characters each alpha numeric 24 000 character capacity Additional 2 000 word increments of memory up to 10 000 words 120 000 char vters may be added Magnetic core storage system All instructions now in UNIVAC I plus 2 Instructions 3 Time Extract order-transfers predetermined pattern of digits from memory to arithmetic unit Field selector-all instructions referring to memory operate under control of extract pattern One two and ten word transfers One to 10 word transfer order Transfer to registers 425 micro-seconds Addition 525 microseconds Transfers to registers 120 micro-seconds Addition 200 microseconds Four-stage cycle of Three stage cycle of operation operation 1 Capacity 1 440 000 digits per 1 500 foot reel 3 000 000 digits per 1 500 foot reel 2 Number of tape control units Uniservos 10 10 more under consideration 3 Length of tape 1 500 feet 1 500 feet 4 Density 128 characters per inch 200 characters per inch 5 Speed 100 inches of tape read in and out per second or 12 800 characters per second 100 inches of tape per second or 20 000 characters per second 6 Start and Stop time for tape feeding 45 Milliseconds 15 Milliseconds 7 Space between each block of 60 words 2 4 inches 1 inch B Time to read one block of 60 words 100-104 milliseconds 200 Instructlons 45-50 milliseconds 300 instructions 4 Control 2 TAPE UNITS Metal -S - Operating Area 9 10 UNIVAC I UNIVAC II Blocks of 60 words per 1 500 foot reel of tape 2 000 4 000 Reading time 3-1 2 minutes 2 000 blocks 3-1 2 minutes 4 000 blocks WHIRLWIND I Applications During the past three months the Scientific and Engineering Computation Group in conjunction with various departments at M I T processed 66 problems for solution on Whirlwind I These problems are described in the Project Whirlwind Summary Reports submitted to the Office of Naval Research and cover some 15 different fields of applications The results of 22 of the problems have been or will be included in academic theses Of these 19 represent doctoral theses two master's and one electrical engineering thesis Thirty-seven of the problems have originated from research projects sponsored at M T by the Office of Naval Research Even though no major modifications were introduced into the comprehensive system of service routines the development of new coding techniques by the S EC Group was extended by the development of translation programs for M I T 's Numerically Controlled Milling Machine The new coding techniques are also useful to members of the Servomechanisms Laboratory in coding for the UNIVAC Scientific 1103 computer Academic Course 6 535 Introduction to Digital Computer Coding and Logic a discussion of selected topics in programming logical design and applications of large scale digital computers was offered at MIT during the spring of 1955 The course included the solution of a progrAmming problem on a simplified single address computer simulated by Whirlwind L Among the problems solved by the class members were the solution of simultaneous linear equations integration of differential equations and the economization of power series 'The total enrollment was 55 seniors and graduate students from both the engineering and Industrial management curricula _ ____________- Project Whirlwind-staff-members--hve-been participating In seminars on machine ruethods of computation numerical analysis and operations research Systems A Revisions in the Marginal Checking Procedures for the Drum Systems The programmed-marginal-checking facilities have been expande' to include additional terminal equipment Previously this equipment was checked by taki g manual nargins during specially assigned maintenance periods The marginal-checking equipment w s modified to include the drum equipment in the daily programmed-marginal-checking routines In the past check program cycle for this type of terminal equipment has been long compared to the existing voltage variation cycle R is now possible to select the marginal-checking equipment In a special mode which will hold a preset excursion for an amount of time determined by the program A consolidated test program containinq nine routines has been written for the drum system The proper choice of program techniques aid assignment of variation lines has reduced the checking time enough to make It practical to Include the program as a part of the daily marginal-checking routine The drum system containing approxuimtely 5 500 cathodes Is now checked in ne halU a the hoer scheduled for daily system main enance -S Thi' foIilwtni data pertains to the mnot recent 13 sad 33 w'eks of operation 13 Week Period 33 Week Peritod Total Cormpuiter operating time 1023 hours 45i06 houtrs Total lost time 6b 157 1 hours Total number of failure incidents 170 410 Average uninterrupted operating time bntween incidents 10 9 hours 10 0 hours Average time to locate and repair each failure 23 minutes 23 1 minutes Percentage operating time usable 96 6% 96 6% hours COMPUTERS OVERSEAS DESK JSWEDISH BOARD FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY STOCKHOLM SWEDEN The electronic computer BESK parallel machine Williams tube parallel storage auxiliary magnetic drum storage designed and built at the Board under Erik Stemme as chief engineer was taken in use November 5 1953 and has been in regular operation for problem solving since March 1 1954 Customers are official scientific and military inptitutions as well as industry DEUCE DIGITAL COMPUTER ENGLISH ELECTRIC COMPANY Mode of Operation The DEUCE operates in the binary notation Word length in 32 binary digits The time taken to pass a word from one location to another is known as a 'word Ume' or 'minor cycle ' A word iay repreq ent either an instruction or a number the number varying in size from 0 up to 2 aeout 10% even if one digit is regarded as representing the sign Storage The high-speed store of the DEUCE has a capacity of 402 words and it backed by a lowerspeed store of capacity of 8 192 words arranged in such a way that it may be considered merely as an extension of the high-speed store The high speed store of the DEUCE consists of 12 mercury delay lines each holding 32 words and shorter lines 2 of which hold 4 words 3 of which hold 2 words and 4 of which are holding single words The low speed or backing store is a magnetic drum which has 256 tracks each holding 32 words and 16 reading and 16 writing heads These heads may be moved into any of 16 positions Transfers of information may take place between the drum and the high-speed store at any time such trasfers involving one track and one delay line at a time The time required for such a transfer is about 10 milliseconds but if a head shift is involved a further 40 milliseconds may be required This time Is not wanted however as computation may proceed in the meantime Accurate planning can in many programs virtually eliminate the Ume spent on magnetic transfers - e 10 - I w l llor tnl Ittinow ivai lm 111i m iPiti i' i o I ritnNilrr o iitiomhrmotm iwon anti oult of the' o Ilic lotiiiy No0-tuI hnn A vatt red etd'r Itooituilit'id whivih will iet 'itw 32 volkimosit of 'nh i'mrd nl a 111ox- t i 701 roli 11r 'o u1111104 setio I 1 ma 111011110a usl Alii mM f k t pi 1332 1 0111111 d'e 111 14 1li t liumsi y loins tamllt enrdaf art' i vatil litfd hi biiio iry form while' toy itoi llilto mpuor mir' i m it ca rdt %nd ranolthited lInt A mepasrtle vat' rd punich Irt prov iIII whIt'ill Will puknt'h Aiact it cardue lI the' corresNpondting firld if '2 s'olunioue Tht' punich will operate' tit a iapee'd of 100 vard p per minute the varda tieing punt' lied lin Pit cr1 in dci' Imat or binary fornim Control Doosk P acilitle's The Cont tiDes k of the DEUCE Includes fuac iitirs to assist In the diAgnosis of program and circuit fauldts T1wo'Cat hod# VaI'Tubbifi111t r're provided in order that the contents of any delay line may be seen at will while the current instruction being obeyed io shown on a row of lights It In also possible to reduce the rate of program operation to 20 steps por second or even to one at a time If desired Arrangements have been made to punch out each Instruction as It in obeyed Tho programnic'r in then tree to take away a act of cards and scrutinize thorm without wnosting machine time FINAC INSTITUTO NAZIONALE PER LE APPLICAZIONE DJEL CALCOLI2ROM The Installation of a Ferranti Mark 14' Computer has been completed It will be officially named FINAC Ferranti -Istituto Nazionale Applicazioni Calcolo During the first year it In scheduled for a regular 8-hours-per-day schedule It will be mainly devoted to partial differential equations periodogram analysis and inversi-Dr of matrices The final acceptance test has started on June 20 1955 1 An extra high speed parallel output will be added about January 1956 it will print 150 line per minute 64 characters each row 92 Including spaces Courses on programming are given at the Institute GI AND G2 GOETTINGEN GERMANY Up to the present two computers 01 and G2 G for Goettingen have been completed by the Arbeitsgruppe Numeriache Rechenmaschinen in Goettingen Germany Both computers are Installed at the Max -Planck -Institut fuer Physik Prof Heisenberg In Goettingen G1 was set up ir September 1952 and 02 In January 1955 G1 is a small and slow serial computer with a drum memory It calculates in the binary system and has decimal input and output The speed is about 3 operations per second The G1 is controlled directly from 4 selectable punched tapes To render this kind of control sufficiently flexible all the contents of each single track on the drum can be shifted cyclically by one word length and also a conditional transfer of the control from one tape to another can be ordered It Is an advantage of this machine that programming is especially simple It takes only a few hours for a mathematician to learn to run the machine and all students of the Institute are allowed to use the machine during the nighttime without any supervision being necessary Often It is worth while to program and use the machine for problems that could be calculated on a desk-machine within 2 hour@ The machine has 472 tubes and no cdystal diodes l ttts' i t 'irn hIIvil rim tilttul 2 hourmri 'll daiy 115 11 ti till Mehri'dled I iniv hom 111i1-Y in apreld K1 1111 vl1 ' iteiu r %% thillriummuemory for 21148 wordi of O110 12 1g4 igvtedt 11 It ciiilit-O'ie It 0u ' 11111ay m' 4 11 WlwithowIm 'tpint ' Input and tiutput stre di'einiaiI dig its vm'l o Outwiut i k 1w Ieleprinit'r Cont rol fro tnihi' dtuni mentor y 2 ortter ranIII 1w Nored Ini 111v win d od longt h The%twpe'ed is ahiml 20 op'rtiot pw The 1 2hast 1200 Itibi'm and no er itl uil iud An I -regist er enlitiloN the ume'r toi modtify til ntiouctrolion Juml Iii'fort exevuit ion byiad Iiog the ofthe I- regiati'r ito t he nddrv'a s hInhle unst ru't io wit hout chian ivio the hintt ruieion in conent tit the wemnory To facilitate the use of subroutines stortd onl punched tapos in a library there are buili in so called tape instruct Ions Tapec instructionti are special symbols on the punched taipe During the reading in front the tape they call up sutjroutinea that are permanently attired on the drum 8 different tape instructions permit to add 7 constants or the content of the 11-regioleer to the addresses In the orders during the transfer from tape to drunm IRty this the Allocation of the symbolic addresses in the library subroutines to the final addresses on the drum can be performed easily Another tape instruction permits control of the computer directly from the keys of the teleprinter The instruction code consists of 32 Instructions Two of these serve the programming of calculations with floating point 1 Shift the number in the multiplicand register to the left until the first binary one reaches the position in front of the point and write the number of 2 Muk j y b u ontent of the accumulator by 2 n -2 n 6 ccunulato int the u iifs Th r'con'ditional transfer the execution of the next order can be suppressed conditioned by the sign of the number In theaopcomualaor or by the content of the I-register or by the position of 2 manual aw'tchwon the control panel or by the reading of a marked number Sch marks for Instance c-an be attached to last numbers of the rows of a matrix or in partial differential - iheqations to the numbers at the boundary The use of such marks often shortens the program 4appreciably NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY CONTROL MECHANISMS AND ELECTROI 'bVJIGt1 The National Physical Laboratory has recently taken delivery of an English Electric DEUCE which is now installed and working We are now constructing a new machine ACE 2 This is a very fust serial machine using mercury delay line store It has special facilities for floating point working and for fast binary decimal and decimal binary conversion At is a 4 address code machine one is the address of the next Instruction and makes use of optimum coding The NPL are designing a machine the TACT to be constructed by Northampton Polytechnic This is quite a new type of machine designed for extreme ease of programming The Laboratory in conjunction with other Government departments has set up a small team which is investigating the uses of high speed digital comnputors for clerical work T R E COMPUTER AT R R E MALVERN The T R E computer has been in use for approximately 12 months to date During this period some improvements have been made particularly in the C R T deflection amplifiers Of the total hours during which the computer has been switched on about 50% have been spent on useful computation about 25% on developm ent and the remaianing 25% on scheduled daily routine tests and maintenance and extra untit-ieduled tests and maintenance T1he computer has been left working unattended for periods of up to 5 hours then being switched off by a time switch I toi now fitted with a system for shauttng down at the end of a -12 - 4 TheIiI1 hitur prire ran to InluilN piuch livii'm om the f illing tif it lame c' apacity maglneltI drum it tilther oNpred output deviro itio e A liheto io'iei'tr i Inape reidcr nod pomNmit 'iv COMPONENTS COLE MAN E N odNE ItllNaOCO MPANIY i NC Colenian Enogineering Conipany Inc now otfers n 6 -deeadt annlog-to-digital converter known by the ti-nde -mark Digit izer ' to supplemnent its xtar dArd tine of 3 4 and S -deende miodels The New 6-decade standard version will accumulate a total of one million counts at the rate of 10 40 or 100 counts per turn of the input shaft Thin In the first timne that a 8decade instrument of this type has been avalldhle See Fig 2 LIGHTS RELAYS OR SOLENOIDS DIGITALIZING RELAY NORMALLY CLOSED BRUSHES 5 CONTA TS MASTER SA 4 32 6 INCREASING COUNT HUNDREDS DECADE TENS DECADE UNITS DECADE Figure Z - Coleman Digitirer schematic This device is particularly well suited for Installation on data reduction equipment comparators in automation systems or to any systems which require a large number of shaft rotations to be expressed digitally Digitizers convert shaft rotations Into discrete electrical contact setting throughwhtch various readout devices such as punched card of perforated tape machines or electric printers can be actuated This Digitizer can be operated for continuous readout with the brushes and contacts engaged or can be used in an on demand type readout system to eliminate wear on the brushes and contacts and greatly reduce the torque With the brushes and contacts retracted during rotation speeds upwards of 16 000 rpm at the units decade corresponding to 3 000 digits per second can be attained 1 -13 The' Iorqu tito ntarl rota1titon in this roodmt on Im Ie' than 01 Inch-oinrcem The 11-decande il liti ' r o'rrudil'a a mpare approx imccl y 7 4 by 5 by I i 1' Including t rrtroding 3 i•oundo %i The wright of the unit Im nplir nxin lely voliio To Illuxt rate the minipliclty of desilgn anwd the high degree' of riggedne a nd reliability stand ard •gAring ti umed thrwlei IhocaI the DIgItirer ' The barklinh reaultlng from wear of in no waty to the accurac'y of the count sinee the count changes at the - the••• pe'rm enniritlult' unit decade and the dual brush iymirm emnployed in thin new Digitimer always ham one of the two Ibrushem tn the proper posftion to read regardlres of I nrklnah In the mystrm IBM' - MAGNETIC DISC MEMORY International Business Machines Corporation has announced the development of a random access memory device of vast capacity for the storage of information in data processing machines The experimental unit known un the IBM 305 stores 5-million characters and when combined in multiple units for use with a single electronic data processing system will provide an hinormation memory bin of almost unlimited capacity see Fig 3 The new equipment wiU be used with both punched card and magnetic tape-operated machines and also will be the hoest of a new line of IBM electronic data processing machines U ' %q' -- --- ------ -' IP 00 Figure 3 - IBM's new magnetic disc memory The new memory unit is made up of a stack of magnetic discs mounted on a vertical shaft and slightly separated from one another Data Is stored as magnetized spots on the discs At the side of the stack is a reading and writing arm which moves under electronic con- trol directly to the 'address or location of the data desired The 305 was developed at IBM's Advanced Engineering Laboratory Ban lose C ali -14- L 14 NEW ELrCTRODATA CORPOROATION COMPONENTS Fo r ust' with the Datatroni computer ElectroData Corporation now hiwo available DataHeader nialnetiv tape units and an alphanumeric punch card converter Each DataReader holds 400 000 words of ton decimal digits and sign Under computer conIrol the unit makes a two-way search for 20-word blocks reads or writes at the rate of 28 500 words per minute It fills the 4000-word drum storage In o-1 2 seconds Two read-write heads record at a rate of 100 bits per inch In the non-return to zero system Two 10-1 2 Inch reels han dle 2500 feet of tape moving at 60 Inches per second and rewinding at 120 inches per second Special features Include self-checking a preliminary calibration operation which rejects defective portion# of tape and vacuum servo control pf tape movement The new punch card converter operating on naphanumeric Information reads punches or operates line printers at the rate of the punch card machines Reading speed available Is 200 cards per minute punching speed 100 cards per minute and printing speed 150 lines per minute Eight computer words of ten decimal digits and sigp are contained on one card or line Card reading punching or printing and computation go on at the same time MEETINGS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTERS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING An International conference on Electronic digital computers and Information processing will be held on 25-27 October 1955 at the Institut fur Praktische Mathematik IPM Technische The Conference Is%aponab odby the German professional societies in applied Mathematics G4MM -and In communications engineering NTG - VDE Discussions will Include machine logic and mathematical theory engineering and development aspects and applications Fazrther information on registration which in open to all may be obtained from - Prof Dr A Walther Institut fur Praktische Mathematik 1PM Technische Hochachule Darmstadt Germany INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON ANALOG COMPUTATION IN BRUSSELS This meeting is being arranged by the Belgian Professional Societies In electrical engineering SBE communications engineering SITEL and mechanical engineering 89M The program contains paper and disecsslonuj of various analog methods and their applications to industry and science Farther informatiin may be obtained from - - P rmskin Dr Sc Math Sih rttaryi Universite Libre de BruHeies 50 Av Fr Roosevelt Brussels Belgium F-A WISCONSIN M ETING TiltE CONMPUTING IAnIl AT ItY IN TI E UNIVEIltSITY The University of Wisconsin Is holding a conference entitled The Computing Lnhbratory in the University for a two and one hall day period beginning Wednesday morning August 17 1955 There will be a few addresses on the computing field in general several short talks by the ablest users of computing equipment and several panel discussions concerned with the role of computing in higher educational Institutions The meeting is planned so as to be of interest to administrators and educators in higher educational institutions and to those In governmental agencies and industries who are responsibly concerned with the employment of trained personnel inquiries concerning the conference may be addressed to the Director of the Numerical Analysis Laboratory 206 North Hall The University of Wisconsin Madison 6 Wisconsin MISCELLANEOUS COMPUTER SURVEY Thu Ballistic Research Laboratories' Computing Laboratory has undertaken to conduct a complete survey of domestic digital electronic computing systems either in current operation or in current or advanced stages of development It is planned to include in a final report a complete description of digital computing systems cross-indices on components thereof glossaries and miscellaneous items pertaining to computing systems Government agencies educational institutions and manufacturers who own operate or manufacture digital computing systems and have not been contacted or have not contributed to the survey are requested to contact the Director Ballistic Research Laboratories Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland Attn Mr M Welk Computing Laboratory for Information and questionnaires A iWP1-a NEW NCR RESEARCH CENTER A new electronic engineering and research center will be constructed this summer in HawthorinelCaU by TheJl atioeaL4eak-aegister Company as part of the Company's overall to -consolidate and intensify Its electronic engineering and research program on the West Coast - -- The Company has also organized a special Electronic Applications Group with head--- ý-•quarters in Dayton to provide maximum technical assistance to customers and potential customers This special group will conduct detailed surveys of possible electronic applications and carry out preliminary programming for these applications It will also give courses in programming for customers' representatives and for other interested parties Named to direct the activities of this group of scientists and technicians is Dr A D Hestenes who previously held positione with the Franklin Institute and the National Applied Mathematics Laboratories of the National Bureau of Standards SECOND ANNUAL ELECTRODATA CORPORATION SCHOLARSHIPS live graduate students one each from Harvard Louisiana State University Oklahoma A M College the University of Southern California and Washington University are spending 10 weeks this summer at ZlectroData Corporation's computing center In Pasadena Under the direction of Dr Paul Brock manager of the technical services department they will undertake an Intensive study pv'ogram covering logical design and operation of digital - - computing equipment practical numerical analysis theory of programming and coding industrial and commercial applications of electronic computers and the organization and management of a computer manufacturing facility The students' fields of interest are accounting economics chemical engineering electrical engineering and mathematics ElectroData Corporation has made a $500 grant to each student's university continuing a program established in the summer of 1954 when two graduate mathematicians from Purdue University spent 10 weeks at ElectroData on similar scholarships CONTRIBUTIONS WANTED FOR DIGITAL COMPUTER NEWSLETTER V The Office of Naval Research welcomes contributions to the Digital Computer NEWSLETTER The NEWSLETTER is published four times a year on the first of January April July and October and material should be in the hands of the editor at least one month before the publication date in order to be included in that issue Short technical articles on new machines on new developments in digital techniques and components on new types of problems solved and generally news items which may be of potential interest to government users are desired The NEWSLETTER is circulated to all interested military and government agencies and to contractors of the Federal Government In addition it is being reprinted in the Journal of the Asuociatima for Computing Machinery Communications should be addressed to A 3 Neumann Editor Digital Computer Newsletter Code 427 Office of Naval Research Navy Department Washington 25 D C -17 - 17 - L________________________ s vs