InI 6 DIGITAL COMPTER 9 -sI N6p p1 liA A A14 iii n l'dltpi 'rýtws It91 ArA Vldo1elt AC lav At W At' 000 Ilawthrarns Cai fi Canada oo a P'o Ivrk 4 KCA 1AIAMAC 11 Camden Now Jersey C IKA Hervivo Co YIr AC I told U i'atriolk Air Forke base e Florlda ona f6 'rovittral Mnlillooraln Ca Vip AC 1 M40pit Cro rcso 361 a 1 Tolorogister Corr Ike erv woteIlal Dt 6 Ul S Naval Air Missile Tool Center KAYDAC Point Mu 1 Calif Maryland 9 U S Naval Air Toot Center Naval Air Station Patultent tver to Western Reserve Univ Searching Selector Cleveland Olio 3 ito I Eleootrodats Data P rocessing Service Bureau Pasadena Calif 4 S 6 7 5 9 10 11 12 13 Franklin Institute Laboratories Computing Center Philadelphia t-'ena Geoneral FJ 1 ric Co Computer Dept Temps Arizona Gleorgia Inotitute at Technology Rich Computer Center Atlanta Georgia M I T Computation Center Cambridge Mass National hurelau of Statidards Applied mathiematics Divi Waxhiiugton D C Computing Facility New York N Y New York Univ AMC Digital Com puter 1Princeton Now Jersey Princeton Univ Princeton RCA Electronic Liata Processing Section Camden Now Jersey Roam Wooldritige Corp Digital Conmputi ig Center Lon Angeles Callif U S Naval Proving Ground Naval Ordnance Computation Center Dahigren Virginia COMPUTERS OVERSEAS London England ld E17 DecaOki A2' N V Electrologica Amsterdam Holland 3 ' English Electric Export and Trading Co Ltd Stafford England 4 Institut Fuer Praktische Mathenmatik Darmsetadt Germany S Mathematical Centre ARMAC Amsterdam Hollarli 16 TheUnderpproved by ThenderSecretary of thle Navy August 1964 CL A R IN G HOUs i 10 10 10 t0 ItI IZ 12 13 23 14 14 17 17 V 17 18 I I Instruments Inc Systems Div Anaheim Calif T Bcka Z Bendix Computer Div GIS Los Angeles Cali-f 3 ouncil for Economic and Industry Research Inc Arlington Virginia 4 Datatron Users Organization S office of Naval Research Newsletter Washington D C Telemeter Magnetics Inc ERMA Memory Los Angeles Calif 7 Contributions for the Digital Comiputer Newsletter 4 a l6 3 NationalI Cash Register Co Bank Posting Machine Dayton Ohio I is 15 COMPONENT T9asnLenrCorp Model S Electroplotter Los Angeles Calif ZIntelligentMachines Research Co Character Sensing Alexandria Virginia S 1en 4 19 19 19 Z0 20 20 Zo NAVEXOS P-645 j q COMPUTERS AND DATA PROCESSORS NORTH AMERICA A otowikiuud poiA nito 'o rimigt mistoo beingil iovoltilioi fur tho Ialalrom %'un4aiulor soti us in Armanionti toote datai rotuct'ioti T'ayloru moo andip poiliodn tniaIo aliprotinimalimia toe both being %lositfor 111h4c1111111141f1 hini11lim 'moos t orvi i'e rioul Ioe lot' ding it woneral dolougging Waco T'ho D1111141 Flight Tool louta r11111eolatlln Syatoem of magttiolt' W110 date aeeurding and autot11411 i' pIYltIIIk It 111'1111ivat dMotIiit lit em13t'tnbupwr loom kwoti deveoping notioamaeorlly 11w MIT'-prr'paaeit siitihgt prtntgrzsni Whwic arart'hoa latpo for varlwoa kinda of data teuta it for paritly and amonothnoea and Inotrpolatea faultv data potitta haa beent oheokod tout Manual Intervoniaton aitt 'larat'tron dtisplay Inetorporat lit lto thit myote'u waita ottly tho deolivery of hwardwaro thia auninir A modoat aervi'e routine packago utillaisag this NAUIC-1ike console to Ivoitilg tevolopeti for tho purptuse of streamltinng tionaolo operations In diy-to-dafy u160 ALWAC 0100 - AI 4WAC INC - HIAWTHIORNE CALIF' ''flie A 4WAC O00 in a high-eoited hilih-ewpielty ole'tronite data proconaing system comnlitnitig miagnetic vol' storage' magnetiv Moement logic and modular conetruvtlon Inutruction Code Summary Time lit microseconds Load and Store 02 04 15 34 39 40 41 42 43 Clear A Load E Exchange A anid B Load A Load B Store A Store Addresa Store B Store E Ti me 48 56 Be 88 88 88 811 88 g6 Arithmetic 13 30 31 32 33 35 36 63 37 38 bIcrease E Add Subtract Minus subtract Minus add Absolute add Absolute subtract Decrease E Divide Multiply 56 93 96 98 96 go 96 56 500 var 300 var Floating Point 45 46 47 48 49 95 98 99 Add and normalize Standardize Divide and normalize Multiply and normalize Subtract and normalize Add Multiply Subtract var var var var var var var var Logical and Miscellaneous 01 No operation 03 set flagp I6 Ruverse A sign 20 Shift AB left 21 Shift AD right 22 Shift AB left and round off 23 Shift AB right and round off 24 Extract 251Shift A 1 11 26 Shift A right 66 Set A positive Ti me 48 46 48 var var var var var var var 48 Skips and Tests 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 14 19 29 58 5 59 60 Test flags Absolute Skip Skip if Z ON Skip if V non-zero Skip if A negative Skip if A zero Stop Skip Test E Compare A and W Skip and set index Relaife SkOip Ski if Z Oero eo4 kpI Skli if A positive Skip if A -ion-zero 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 Input -Oulpit and Ilutfors Ti1me Ttim 00 Initial Input 17 Read input to butter 18 Write output from but 37 opy out •emIuory 506 to but 16 Copy In buffr to memoiry 44 heaect tn ut-ou tpni unit 56 50 var var vhr Word Structure tw7lwe d•nimal digits and algebraic sign Ac uniulator has thlrteri Witits eko1uding sign 'No decimal digits per alphanumeric character In all modem of Plunra e Iwodigit operation code tour digit address and other digits of the word availlable for control purposes i Mting-polnt operaltion with ten-digit mantissa and twn-digit axponent index Within the computer each digit is represented by a met of tour bits successive positions have the significane' 6 4 2 1 Register A B o Ri R2 R3 34 D R register register register register 13 digits plug I bit to indictesini Wmay be combined into 11 digits plus I bit to indicate ein a single register 4 digits Ditto register Ditto register register register register Ditto Ditto 1 word o1 memory 13 digits plum I bit to indicate sign Addres digits of current instruction modified by X register specified 4 digits Y register Sreoister T register N register 3 digit of ew rent instruction Address of next order to be obeyed 4 digits Order digits of current instruction 2 digits Butfer digits of cturrant instruction 2 dieits A B and R registers are all directly affected by programming A and B are used to nold the results of arithmetic operations while the E registers are used as counters and for address modiflcation q v The excess digit in the A register is designated by V and is used to hold any carry or shift past the most significant e nd In the case of an increane in V not a shift an overflow Z indicator is also turned on Sturagtl Capacity Magnetic cores Minimum 1 000 words maximum 10 000 words in increments of 1 000 words Magnetic drums 20 000 words per drum 50 drums per buffer 10 buffers per ALWAC 800 Magnetic tapes 200 000 or 400 000 words per transport 10 transports per buffer 10 buffers per ALWAC 800 Total drum store 120 millieo Total tape store 480 million digits -2 - digit lMufferw i'otal any y•te per ALWAC 800 10 buffers Drum buffer 40 words drums have 40-word channels Tape butter 40 words magnetic tapes have 40-word block Punch card or tabulator butter 20 words Paper tape typewriter butter I word All buttffers aro addressable for commands and data and any of the 10 buffor connections may be used to link to a second ALWAC 800 by means of a 1 000-word core bufter Input MagneUc tape 15 000 diglts see Punch crds 200 cards min Paper tape 400 diglts sec Typewriter 10 dIgts sec Output Magnetic tape 15 000 digits sec Punch cards 100 cards min Line printer 150 Unes min Paper tape 60 digits sec Typewriter 10 digits sec FERRANTI ELECTRIC LIMITED - TORONTO ONTARIO Ferranti's work here during the past twelve months has been mainly concerned with business and industrial projects The most interesting of these are the Canada Post Office Route Reference Computer and the Trans-Canada Air Lines Reservations System Route Reference Computer This nachine was designed to work in conjunction with a mail conveyor system develope bY Canada Post Office engineers The memory an air bearing magnetic drum contains 16 000 addresLees street town province with the corresponding 2 250 route codes 'Coded addresies on the letters are scanned photoelectrically and the appropriate route Is determined by the conmputer A gate-selector machine instructed by the computer operates release mechanism on the conveyor to effect the sortation The computer is built entirely of transistors and magnetic core circuits and operates at a digit rate of 180 kc s The maximum speed of sortation is about 10 letters per second as presently limited by the conveyors Two conveyor systems can be operated simultaneously so that forward and final or city sortations can be carried out at the same time The computer was completed in January of this year and is now being installed with the conveyor systems in Ottawa Ontario A fair history of operation has accumulated which shows the computer to be remarkably reliable and error-free -3 - T C A Reservations fstem This project concerns the development of input apparatus to carrij•ri-o•Tiiiiiiia-iin •ofi• servktions scheme using the Ferut Computer at the University of Toronto ua the remotely located central computer A special device which should prove valmable In a wide variety of applications has been designed as the primary input This machine presently known as the Ferranti Business Transactor reads cards marked with ordinary lead-pencil The Information 285 bits per card Is available in parallel but is read out in series-parallel by moans of a stepping-relay which Is operated automatically by the insertion of a card Great flexibility is achieved since the order of presentation of information is controlled by changes in wiring only Replies are received from the central computer and appear as punches on the edge of the card When a reply Is received between 3 and 5 secunda after Insertion the card Is automatically released from the transactor and the card cannot be removed until a reply ts received Six transactors together with local distributing equipment and a computer coupler unit are expected to be fully instasled In June of this year The demonstration is a full scale representation of the system requirements and will handle all aspects of the flight reservations problem such un reservation cancellation query multiple-leg routng limited sale and so forth COmio ut Production They are now producing a line of plug-in printed circuit transistor modules which provide the basic logical elements in digital machines The packaes consist of flip-flops gating circuits emitter-followers Inverters read-amplIfiers for magnetic drums counters shift registers and power packages Card-file assemblies hi basic units accepting 16 packages are also available in a range of multiple-assemblies Our production of magnetic drums from two inches In diameter to twelve inches In diameter continues New Facilities A new Electronics Division was formed in Toronto over a year ago to handle quantity production of electronic equipment A research team of experienced engineers was also established at Ferranti Electric Inc in Now York City to work primarily in the digital field This team has recently produced a complete line of delay-line packages both lumped-constant and nickel lines Delays ranging from 20 to 5 000 microseconds at digit frequencies up to one megacycle are available in the nickel-line series providing storage for 10 to 2 500 bits per line BIZMAC H - RCA - CAMDEN4 NEW JERSEY The BIZMAC System was Ildtially designed to meet the requirements of an integrated clerical operation The overall design philosophy expressed by the System was to fit to this largescale data processing a most economical equipment complement This was accomplished by functionally analyzing studies of operations in public utilities life Insurance companies goveminent agencies morchandising firms and manufacturing firms for the purpose of adapting the equipment of these functions As one consequence of these analyses the BIZMAC I System was designed to handle variable lengths of data This data compression on tape made it possible to consider using the Computer as a part of the total system where tapes were centrally controlled The volume and machine speeds considered indicated the use of a fixed program device for sorting extracting merging and similar data-shuffling operations Finally to balance the system load a high degree of flexibility was incorporated into the Input-output devices Early in 1956 announcement was made of a BIZMAC System that was acceptance-tested and delivered to the Ordnance Tank-Automotive Command OTAC of the U S Army Ordnance Corps in Detroit Michigan Two additional Systems were installed elsewhere during the year and are now In operatuon -4- In order to broaden the market a set of functional enlargements have been incorporated into the BIZMAC II system now in production The first major tinzovation was Universal Trunks for the Computer The original fiveinput ten-output trunk scheme was oppe cow any computer trunk may be used for either reading or writing Each trunk is independent and may be switched electronically under program control A second change was Simultaneous Operation A unique scheme for time-sharing of electronics permits write-com-uei-write-read nr wTrite-write to be handled simultaneously as an integral part of the Computer No auxiliary equipment it required to accomplish this Linear Read haa been added Variability in data organization offers great flexibility In the Comlter especially on a read-in operation from tapc where all items may be randomly distributed in the High-Speed Memory However in certain file maintenance operations it Is preferable to leave data in compressed form This may now be done at the programmer's option Tape Control has also been greatly enhanced A decision-making instruction is included whichdetermirnes the status of magnetic tape operations Rewind of tape under program control of the Computer simultaneous with any other Computer operation is also provided A new High-Speed Memory with a capacity of 8192 characters is now standard equipment not includlinig-12 0 characters of auxiliary memory storage The plane used is a 64 x 64 frame and two seven-plane banks are used A higher speed Paper Tape Reader is provided at the Computer Console operating at a rate of 400 characters per second Tape Station design for manual handling is available This new Tape Station was designed specffially ftooptimize the manual mounting and dismounting of magnetic tape reels Other new features have been included in the BIZMAC II System Worthy of mention is the simplified System Central the Trancoder and the Transcribing Card Punch The Operator Operator-Verifier and Monitor System Central console functions have been consolidated for smaller systems The Trancoder and Transcribing Card Punch are all transistor output devices that translate data from magnetic tape to 5-hole punched paper tape and to EAM punched cards respectively It is very important to note that this design program on the BIZMAC System makes available more economical equipment complements for initial installations Specifically the HIZMAC U Computer with functional enlargements is reduced in its physical size and is available at no increase in cost FLAC I AND II - RCA SERVICE CO - PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE FLORIDA The following is the operating record for the Flac I system at the Missile Test Project during the period from 20 March to 20 May 1957 No of Hours Percentage of manned hours Data Running 425 6 40 8 Code Checking 200 5 19 8 Analysis 17 7 1 7 Routine Library Maintenance 42 0 4 03 Category -5 - Category No of Hours Percentage of manned hours Preventive Maintenance 169 1 16 22 Unscheduled Maintenance 111 d 10 67 61 5 5 9 Scheduled Engineering External Power FaA ures 5 3 59 Idle Time 3 1 29 1 042 0 100 00 fotal Manned Hours Unscheduled Computer Total Available Hours for Period 422 0 1 464 0 On 2 January 1957 the major components of FLAC were moved to the new Technical Laboratory Building The new 4096 forty eight bit word random access magnetic core memory and a new power supply system were introduced into the computing system at the time of the move On 23 January 1957 the first production data routine was run on the new FLAC I Since 20 March 1957 FLAC I has been scheduled for 24 hours each day 5 days each week In addition some time was made available on weekends for the accomplishment of engineering work The magnetic core memory and the power system for the FLAC II computing system have been delivered and are currently being installed The remaining system components are scheduled for delivery the latter part of the summer 1957 FLAC H - TECHNITROL ENGINEERING CO - PHILADELPHIA PENNA FLAC H1computer being built for Patrick Air Force Base by Technitrol Engineering Company is now nearing completion The machine construction is complete and is being checked out The main computer is scheduled for delivery to Patrick July 15 1957 where It will be mated to a magnetic core memory manufactured by Telemeter Magnetics Incorporated RESERVATIONS DATA PROCESSOR - TELEREGISTER CORP - STAMFORD CONNECTICUT The Teleregister Corporation a subsidiary of Ogden Corporation in conjunction with Pan American World Airways has demonstrated two way radio transmission of airline reservations data processing This marks the first time that there has been two way transmission of business data overseas with no intermediate record such as punched tape punched cards or mag- netic tape In the demonstration at San Juan Puerto Rico they operated an agent set which was tied in with Pan American's reservations bureau in Long Island City Here a data processor stores information on available seats for the entire Pan American network and is capable of handling automatically 36 hundred inquiries per hour The demonstration remote data link consisted of telephone lines within San Juan radio from San Juan to Miami Florida and land lines from Miami to Long Island City Teleregister's conventional system as used by Pan American operates as follows When an agent inserts a destination plate and presses the selected keys all the elements of the inquiry or the transaction are transmtlted in parallel over the cable to the Master Seeker which connects the Agent Set to the central equipment -6- Two methods of remoting Agent Sets have been devised The first identified as local remoting is used within a metropolitan area and for distances up to about fifty miles A metallic pair to each Remote Location is required A Local Remote Transceiver converts the Agent Set message from parallel to serial form and sends it over one wire of the pair The second wire is used for sending synchronizing signals to the Local Central Office Transceiver terminating the pairs which converts the message back to parallel form and stores it while waiting for connection to the Processor through the Master Seeker The reply is returned by the same route For distances greater than fifty miles or for locations where metallic pairs are not available the second method of remoting has been designed It makes use of 75 or 100 word-perminute simplex telegraph channels This system makes possible the sharing of such a line or channelby up to 21 different stations each being connected to the central office as required for the on-line processing of an inquiry or a transaction Input-output devices in a distant city such as an airline Agent Set gain access to the central data processing equipment through a Distant Remote Transceiver which converts the data from the Agent Set into serial form for transmission over the channel The data is in a form similar to teletype code but whereas in teletype code five elements equal a character in the Teleregister transmission four of the five elements are information bits and the fifth element is used for checking the accuracy of the transmission At'the Central Office location a number of channels terminate in a Distant Line Connector which detects lines requesting service and connects a calling to an idle Distant Central Office Transceiver As soon as a line Is connected to a Transceiver the Transceiver in conjunction with the Line Connector initiates a roll call of the stations on the line Each distant station on a line is responsive to a particular station-call letter Upon receiving its call letter a remote station will respond in one of two ways 1 If it has no traffic no Agent Set has requested service it will transmit the call letter of the next station in the roll call sequence 2 If it has traffic it will transmit a special character to condition other remote stations so that they cannot read the forth-coming message and will then transmit the message text Agent Set query In brief a roll call consists of the assigning of station call letters to each statiun on a channel the order of call for the stations being determined primarily by geographic locations When any station on the line requests service it opens the line briefly to inform the Central Office of the service request When a Central Office Transceiver is connected to the line the call letter of the first station in the sequence is transmitted from the Central Office If the first station has no traffic it will transmit the call letter of the second station etc until a station having an Agent Set connected is reached This station will transmit its message to the Central Office Transceiver which will convert the received teletype code and store the message A bid for access to the data processor is made through a seeker As soon as the Transceiver is granted access to the processor the latter processes the request or transaction and a reply is given to the Transceiver this reply being stored and then transmitted over the line The Distant Transceiver which sent the message is the only station effectively connected into the line at this time so that the reply is read by this station only The Distant Transceiver converts the reply from serial to parallel and passes it on to the Agent Set Upon completion of the reply from the Central Office the roll call will continue the call letters of the next station in the sequence being transmitted from the Central Office It should be noted that the Central Office equipment monitors the progress of a r U call so that it It always in condition to call the next station if necessary In other words if any remote station is out of service it cannot respond to its call letter and consequently cannot call the next station in the sequence the Central Office equipment is able to detect the failure of a remote station to answer and it will step in to call the next station Through the use of the Transceiver a single channel can serve up to 21 stations and the Line Connector can handle up to 10 channels The limiting factor is the total number of queries or transactions which a lmne can handle without undue delay This is about 800 per hour -7 - RATDAC - U 8 NAVAL AIR MISILE TEST CENTER - POINT MUGU CALIF The development of the new Input equipment for RAYDAC has been completed and will be in operation by 15 June 1957 This equipment will permit the RAYDAC to be used for processIng the data reduction workload generated at the NAMTC The ability to read information from IBM cards and paper tape directly into the RAYDAC at high speed will also expedite the handling of the variety of scientific problems for which the m chine has been primarily used in the past NAVAL AIR TEST CENTER - U S NAVAL AIR STATIONPATUXENT RIVER MARYLAND Difficulty has been encountered in attempting to use interchangeably in the ElectroData DataReader magnetic tape supplied by different manufacturers Sufficient difference exists in the signal strength of Information recorded on the different tapes so that reliable read-back cannot be achieved from the different tapes with a fixed gain in the amplification circuits of the DataReader This trouble has been overcome by J icorporating a means of gain adjustment in the amplification circuits The operating statistics based on an 8 5 hour shift per day for the three calendar months ending 30 April 1957 are as follows February March April Hours %Hours 176 1 93 2 177 4 97 5 184 5 97 8 Down Time 12 8 6 8 4 5 2 5 4 2 2 2 Total Time 188 9 100 0 181 9 100 0 188 7 100 0 Useful Time %Hours% Analysis of Useful Time Code Checking 71 6 37 9 91 6 50 4 71 9 38 1 Production Computing 81 2 43 0 52 0 28 6 73 7 39 1 1 2 0 Aril195 ar asfo-8-s 0 6 0 0 0 9 0 5 1 7 0 9 13 0 7 1 18 0 9 5 20 4 10 8 20 8 11 4 20 0 10 g 176 1 93 2 177 4 97 5 184 5 97 8 Demonstration endng Idle ScheduleduMaintenance TOta WESTERN RARESERV UNIVERSITY SEARCHING RSLECTOR WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY - CLEVELAND OHIO The capabilities of this machine as previously reported see Digital Computer Newsletter April 1987 have been extoent d so as to extend Its ability to correlate fragmentary information Additional capabilities have been provided as described below As previously indicated If any one of several characteristics e g any one of the raw maertals P 8 T satisfy a search requirement the plugaoard is wired for the logical sum syof- boliW for example P 5 T When at least one characteristic In wired to indicate the corresponding logical produt which might be symbolized sBh tCl bypDI Al t Ee where the capital letters with the subscript I denote any one member from the sets of characteristics A B C D E It might be noted that the example searches are all formulated on the basis that no more than one characteristic from each set is required Th p• esent capabilities of the equipment permit alternate searches to be defined by specifying L at various multiplicities of characteristics from different sets shall be detected when scanning the encoded abstract of a giver article Thus using subscripts as before searches symbolized by A2 B3 C1 D 2 E4 may be programmed and carried out When programming searches that are satisfied by at least one characteristic each from X groups of characteristics out of a larger plurality of n such groups newly designed switching circuits are used Thus it becomes possible to conduct a search for which one characteristic each from three groups of characteristics out of five would be specified Such a search requirement might be symbolized by A 1 B1 C1 D1 E1 35 For the general case this type of search requirement is symbolized by A 1 Bj Ck D1 E ---- where x n and i J k 1 m may ha're values independent of each other and also independent of x and n At the present time x and n in the above expression may have values of ten or less The machine now has the capability of conducting ten such seai ches simultaneously with automatic indication of fulfillment by a given encoded abstract of one or more such search requiremeits Those searches which are characterized by larger values of the x index in the above expression will select those information items that more nearly fulfill all the search requirements as expressed by a multiterm logical product Hence different searches character ized by increasing values of x will select items of less and less fragmentary nature but of pertinent interest to evaluation of a given problem or situation COMPUTING CENTERS WESTERN DATA PROCESSING CENTER - UNIV OF CALIFORNIALOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA The Western Data Processing Center directed by Dr George W Brow i has b een established within the Graduate School of Business Administration University ot California The center Is a joint venture of the University and IBM and is the first university computin•g center devoted primarily to the study of complicated business management problems Already idurty colleges and universities in eleven western states and Hawaii have announced their intention to become participating members of the project The Center now using a 650 will consist of 705 The computer will be housed in its own $750 000 research building the cost of which will be shared by the University and IBM APPLIED MATHEMATICS LABORATORY - DAVID TAYLOIR MODEL BASIN WASHINGTON 7 D C The new two story building for the Applied MAathematics Laboratory David Taylor Model Basin is nearing completion Plans are to reassemble the staff of the Laboratory now scattered in various offices throughout the Model Basin and to move in on Julie 1 1957 Delivery of the UNIVAC-LARC which will be installed in this building is eupected on 3r about December 1958 Programning of problems for the LARC has bI'gun and a rroup has been assigned to conduct research in advanced programming for the LARC - 9 - DATA PROCK8WING SERVICE BUREAU - KIECTRO 1 %TA - PASADKNA CALIF A large staff of programmers t ' hnical speoialists and mathoemititians are now providing customer contract servicto in the Dat Processing Service Burnau at the ElctruData Division of Burroughs Corporation in Pasademi California Electronic computer service is offered in the fields of scientific industrial and businoss data prooeasing at the center The bureau is one of the West's largest computing centers A complete Datatron electronic data processing system is available to clients for any data handling problem ýncluded in the system are the high-speed medium-sixe electronic digital Datatron computer punch card units punched paper tape units electric typewriter magnetic tape and line printer input-output units and automatic floating point facility for special scientific problems The bureau also has available an ElectroData 101 desk-size rneral purpose electronic computer for problems too complex for desk calculators and too smaaU for economical solution by the Datatron A complete library of sub-routines and programs is located at the bureau which In located in a large modernistic room at the main plant Answers to the client's problems are presented in the form he prefers -- reports graphs tabular lists etc COMPUTING CENTER - FRANKLIN INSTITUTE LABORATORIES PHILADELPHIA PENNA The UNIVAC Computing Center of the Franklin Institute Laboratories is currently operating on a one-shift basis The facilities are used both by the clients of the Laboratories on a contract basis and by the Philadelphia Service Bureau of the Remington Rand UNIVAC Division of Sperry Rand This UNIVAC I installation Is maintained and operated by Institute personnel the staff also includes mathematicians and programmers to aid project sponsors in the formulation and solution of problems At present a routines tape library of more than 2500 blocks of coding has been assembled and is constantly being expanded Optimum use is being made of this library of subroutines and of automatic coding techniques to reduce the time and cost of problem solution COMPUTER DEPARTMENT - GENERAL ELECTRIC CO - TEMPE ARIZONA General Electric's new Computer Department has established its Scientific Applications Section on the campus of Arizona State College Tempe Arizona The manager of the Section is Dr Herbert R J Grosch In addition to working with the college on both training and research problems they are operating a service bureau providing consultation mathematical and operations analysis and programming services in the business and mathematical areas as well as renting machine time The system consists of an IBM 704 with 8192 words of core storage one drum unit eight tape units and a full line of peripheral equipmernt They offer their computing services to government and private organizations RICH ELECTRONIC COMPUTER CENTER - GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ATLANTA GEORGIA Dr Eugene K Ritter has left the Rich Electronic Computer Center Georgia Institute of Technology to join the staff of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation Georgia Division as Head of - 10 - - their Mothomatirlal Analysts Departmont Moving up ma Head of the Computer Center is Dr Willism V Ate'hison who has headed the ierter'm Progrsmmiting and Coding Oroup since I 955 The Computer Cont r is in the procoss of modifying 80-column card-to-tape and tape-tocard conversion equipment to be used in conjunction with its two digital computers the IRM 050 and UNIVAC SCIENTIFIC EllA 1101 Some operating statistics of tho computers for the last six months ire IBM 650 Average scihduled maintenance - 7% Average unscheduled maintenance - 3% UNIVAC SCIENTIFIC ERA 1101 Average scheduled maintenance - 13% Average unscheduled maintenance - negligible Notei based on a single shiW operation daily test by the Computer Center e maintenance is provided by IBM Corporation COMPUTATION CENTER - M I T - CAMBRIDGE MASS The MIT Computation Center which was established in July 1956 is an inter-departmental activity located in the new Karl T Compton Laboratory Building 26 The principal objective of the Center is to increase the number of students staff members and scientists qualified to use modern computing machines to further their research efforts The Center is an activity which has many assets qualified staff modern computing equipment and a brand new physical plant The participating personnel in the Center program are located at MIT IBM or one of the participating New England Colleges or Universities Specifically the Center represents a cooperative activity involving MIT the IBM Corporation and at present 25 New England Colleges and Universities An active participation by the staffs of the New England Culleges in the Computation Center program was initiated by the appointment of 24 Research Assistants and Associates at these institutions during the academic year 1956-1957 These appointees provide active liaison between the staff at the Center and the students and stalf at their Individual Institutions Appointments of this type will be made each year -- to insure a widespread and dynamic participating program Physical Plant The physical plant of the MIT Computation Center consists of 18 000 square fe't located in the recently erected Karl T Compton Laboratory Specifically the Center occupies part of the basement the entire first floor and part of the second floor of the Compton Laboratory In addition a two-story annex is used to house the IBM Type 704 Electronic Data Processing Machine and the associated Electric Accounting Machine equipment The first floor contains adequate space for the headquarters staff the operations staff analysts programmers machine operators etc IBM Institutional Representatives New England University Research Assistants and Associates MIT Research Assistants and Associates classroom and seminar room as well as the 704 computer The basement provides space for the EAM machines the systems research laboratory dark room facilities the electrical power plant and the air conditioning equipment The second floor provides space for the programming research staff the visiting professors and the library and document room All this area has been furnished in a first-class manner to facilitate the progress of research at the Center - 11- Comuter Installation Although the 704 Computer was installed sometime ago there have the completion of the physical plant and associated air conditioning equipment which prevented earlier operation of the machine As a matter of fact it Is now expected that the machine will be placed into three shift operation on June 10 1957 It in therefore too early to make any definite statements regarding the reliability of the machine or of the results obtained therefrom Bunceeding news reports will contain Information of thin type been u r w---M-•W d' fil As noted from previous announcements the Whirlwind I computer is becoming less used in the Scientific and Engineering Computation Group problems and more actively identified with the Lincoln Laboratory Accordingly the Whirlwind I reliability figures will be discontinued APPLIED MATHEMATICS DIV - NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS WASHINGTON D C An IBM 704 has been installed at the National Bureau of Standards and operation was begun on May 15 This installation includes 4096 words of core memory six magnetic tapes a card reader a card punch and an on-line printer Machine time is available to other government agencies and their contractors at cost $200 hr Programming assistance can be pro- vide4 An experimental system for using the 704 computer at the NBS has been developed This system called CORBIE Is expected to facilitate rapid and easy code checking as well as problem solution It does not require the presence of peripheral equipment a drum or more than 4090 words of core memory Codes are to be initially read Into the computer in symbolic form from cards They are then stored on magnetic tape and thereafter are always loaded into the computer from the magnetic tape If some lines of a code are to be changed only the changes are read into the computer from symbolic cards The old code in read Into the computer from magnetic tape and the new modified code is written back on to magnetic tape Code checking Is to be done entirely in symbolic form and several code checking routines are automatically available DurLig code checking the progress through the code is recorded by the monitor on-line printer which prints information at various pre-determined break points The system has provision for the later addition of a symbolic trace or auto-monitoring routine The codes of numerous programmers are stored on the same tape and each code is identified by a call number Up to four such tapes may be on the line at the same time If someone wishes to read a certain code into the computer he drops Into the card hopper the control cards which contain the code identification number The computer automatically finds this code on any of the tapes currently on-line and reads it into the computer The activity of the computer is controlled by control cards most of which originate with the programmer An important feature of this system Is a technique of compressing the symbolic code before it is stored on magnetic tape The bulk of the code of this system Is concerned with automatically up-dating the magnetic tape files of codes and data It also includes the SHARE assembly program SAP as an integral part AEC COMPUTING FACILITY - NEW YORK UNIVERSITY NEW YORK NEW YORK - UNIVAC System Employing techniques developsel by this group the engineering staff has maintned a record of 82 per cent good productive machine time during the past 2 year period with 6-8 per cent of the remaining time devoted to routine maintenance procedures The design construction and installation of a useful auxiliary device called Memory Breakpoint Selector has resulted in significantly reducing time spent in program debugging This device permits the programmer to cause a machine halt when any previously specified address Is referred to by the machine - 12 - An improved automatic Uniservo Selection System has been Installed A digital-toanalogue converter for cathode ray tube display of high speed Information from Univac in the form of plotted curves has been completed This unit is equipped for photographing the curves obtained by programmed instruction The design Installation and testing of 2 new Instructions for the computer baa been completed They are termed and 0 instructions Briefly the Instrzction will select from a specified portion of the memory the largest number and store its address The 0 instruction permits a search through a specified portion of the memory for equality with a specified word Applications exist in matrix evaluation table looking and fast sorting routines A sort routine using the order is 60 times faster than one using conventional coding IBM 704 System A complete IBM 704 system Is being installed in new quarters at 4-6 WasuiigtnPiTce It Is expected that operLlions will begin on a stngle-shift during June Personnel Dr E Bromberg has been on leave of absence at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory during the present year Mr Max Goldstein has joined the staff of the Computing Facility and will direct the IBM 704 installation PRINCETON DIGITAL COMPUTER - PRINCETON UNIV - PRINCETON NJ By July 1 1957 the Princeton Digital Computer is expected to be transferred from the Institute for Advanced Study to Princeton University This has been planned since early 1956 and was the reason for the changes in operation and personnel which we reported in the Digital Computer Newsletter July 1956 Although the University in to take over the administration and operation of the Computer the machine will physically remain in the present building owned by and situated close to the Institute The Computer will not be part of any department of the University nor will it form a department by itself but it will be administered by a Committee on Computer Problems appointed by the President of Princeton University with Professor H D Smyth acting as Chairman It has been agreed that members of the Institute for Advanced Study will also have access to the Computer Financial support for 1957-58 has been secured from various sources Contracts are being negotiated with the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense to pay for computations to be done in connection with specified projects In addition a grant from the National Science Foundation has been received for use of the machine for non-project research a substantial amount of machine time will therefore be available for problems arising in the scientific community of Princeton Most of the personnel will continue under the new regime Dr Hans J Maehly will be Chief of the Computer Staff and Gordon Whitney will act as Chief Engineer The new address Is Princeton Digital Computer Princeton University Princeton N J ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING SECTION - RCA - CAMDEN NEW JERSEY The BIZMAC Electronic Data Processing Section established In Camden serves the needs of Commercial Electronic Products and other RCA Divisions Time permitting Data Processing Service will also be available for interested activities external to RCA The complement of equipment presently available includes the large scale BIZMAC Electronic Digital Computer System capable of handling variable non-standard length items with input and output magnetic tape speeds of 10 000 characters per second The system can handle input data In the form of punched card which are processed at the rate of 400 cards per minute or written documents The latter are converted to punched paper tape using a - 13 - I Tapewriter-Verifier High-speed output is provided by the Electro-Meclanical Pri ter capable of preparing printed copy at the rate of 600 lines of print per minute The system also includes numerous conversion and duplicating devices and an Interrogation Unit for furnishing information on data stored within the system on a rush basis Planned use of the system includes inventory and material control production control accounts receivable accounts payable sales analysis management reporting etc The first job to run on a regularly scheduled basis was accomplished during April 1957 It incorporated the file maintenance and reporting associated with Commercial Electronic Products' Finished Goods Inventory Computer Operability statistics for the month of March and April are March April Productive Time 124 0 184 6 Inoperable Tizue 5 5 19 8 129 5 204 4 Total DIGITAL COMPUTING CENTER - THE RAMO-WOOLDRIDGE CORPORATION LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA - Two additions have recently been made to the computing facilities The first was the replacement of the Univac Scientific Model 1103 by an 1103A computer with Uniservo tape units and a 600 line per minute printer and plotter The new computer has 4 096 cells of magnetic core storage and built-in floating point Most notable feature of the change was the speed with which the new computer was installed in place of the old After pulling the switch for the last time on the 1103 at 8 00 a m Saturday April 27 the 1103 was taken out the 1103A was installed and the new machine was available for beginning systems check by 3 00 p m Sunday April 28 During the checkout period approximately 2-3 weeks until the computer is turned over for full use computer time has been purchased at Lockheed Missile Systems Division Palo Alto and at Remington Rand in St Paul For the latter a teletype line with IBM transceivers and teletype receiving-sending units at each end has been used to send data back and forth As a result service on high priority problems was maintained The Second addition is the Epsco ADDAVERTER an analog-digital and digital-analog converter to connect the 1103A and the 300-amplifier Electronic Associates analog computer It is expected that by the use of the combined computing equipment problems of considerably greater complexity can be solved than would be possible with either alone The connection between the two computers is now being checked out and preliminary testing is underway NAVAL ORDNANCE COMPUTATION CENTER - U S NAVAL PROVING GROUND DAH LGREN VIRGINIA - The Naval Ordnance Research Calculator NORC continues on an around-the-clock schedule five days per week To further increase the versatility of this computing facility a number of projects are now in progress Analog to Diital Tape Design and procurement are under way for a device which converts analog data to digital magnetic tape suitable for input to the NORC Universal Data Transcriber Design work is proceeding on a data transcriber which will achieve great flexibility by means of a stored program and plugboard-tallored instructions Its primary use will be to conver't data from a wide variety of sources to a form suitable for NORC input but its applicability will not be limited to any particular calculator - 14 - High Speed Printer A contract is now in force to procure a l6 000-character-per-ssoomd aactron cathode ray tube Features include rather elaborate editing printe-r-'la-d-oe-n-U facilities and point-plotting in rectangular coordinates The rrinter will be wired direct to the NORC COMPUTERS OVERSEAS DECCA RADAR LIMITED - LONDON ENGLAND DECCA RADAR LIMITED is entering the market with auxiliary equipment for computers and data processing systems The DECCA TWIN TAPE UNIT contains two independent high speed transport mechanisms for hali-inch magnetic tape using pneumatic drive Built-in automatic loading and unloading facilities make reel changing simple and fast High-impedance precision digital TAPE RECORDING HEADS have eight tracks on half-inch tape Their MAGNETIC DRUM UNIT stores 2560 bits on each of 64 tracks has ferrite heads for 270 Kc digit frequency They are interested in expanding the usage of magnetic tape for input and output N V ELECTROLOGICA - AMSTERDAM HOLLAND On the 21st of June 1956 a new company N Y Electrologica was formed aiming at the production and distribution of logical equipment in the electronic electromechanical and related fields The company is primarily concerned with the construction of electronic computers for clerical and scientific purposes The formation of the company was made possible by the close cooperation of the Nillmij life-insurance company of the Hague and the Mathematisch Centrum Mathematical Centre of Amsterdam Since its foundation in 1946 the Centrum has been concerned with the construction and use of electronic computers and at the time when the N V Electrologica came Into being the Centrum had at its disposal a group of highly specialized technicians in this field After the completion of the machines which were then under development the immediate needs for this type of equipment at the M C were however satisfied and it was to be feared that this almost unique Dutch group would dissolve for lack a1 financial support and adequate objectives The foundation of the N V Electrologica as a result of the cooperation of the parties mentioned has provided a suitable solution for this problem The compvr7 has agreed to have all the research and construction activitk necessary to realize its objectives performed by the technical group at the M C and to assumr the full financial resbonsibility for its operations It is understood that the financial relationship bevNi the N V Electrologica and the M C which results from this arrangement will be ih ran w #strimental to the scientific activities of the latter but that these activities will In effect bu k ivanced by It Since 1953 three electronic computers have been built at the M C The first of thesq named ARRA has been used by the M C until the middle of 1956 It was a simple machine which has nevertheless proved to be extremely useful A copy of this machine was built by the N V Konlnklijke Vliestulgfabrieken Fokker in collaboration with the M C and this machine named FERTA has been in oper ±ion there since early 1955 for the scientific-technical computations which must be performe for the design of modern passenger-aircraft During the period from March 1955 tin June 1956 the M C developed th3 electronic computer ARMAC see ARMAC this issue of the Newsletter which has been in operation in this institution since that time For the N V Electrologica a completely new type of computer called X-1 is now being developed It differs in many respects from the previous machines and owing to its inputoutput arrangements will be very well adapted to solve the problems of administraUon and -15 - manamment As the machines can be used in combination with punched-card machines they will find application in many cases where mechanical punched-card equipment is now in use The technical construction of the X-1 Is very modern The electronic valves used in previous machines have now been completely replaced by transistors as a result both physical dimensions and power-consumption have been drastically reduced The memory of the machine is magnetic ferrite cores The speed has been Considerably increased with respect to the earlier machines The X-1 will carry out an addition of 2 numbers and 8 decimal digits in 64 microsecomi this means that the machine can perform more than 15000 additions of this type per second It is intended that the prototype of this machine which will be used by NillmiJ be finished before the end of 1957 The life Insurance company will use the machine to perform administrative tasks Already an important part of this administration Is being done by electronic means and the many years of experience with electronic equipment which are thus available to N V Electrologica will prove to be of great importance to future users of this machine ENGLISH ELECTRIC EXPORT TRADING COMPAN- LIMITED - STAFFORD ENGLAND Their special purpose digital computer to form part of Kinetic Heat Simulator Equipment is nww operating at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough The Computer is designed to solve the equation e a AOX0 AIXI A2X2 A3X3 A4X4 where e the difference between beat flow measured and heat flow demanded and where _Xo z heat flow A0 heat flow co-efficient -Xl temperature of skin X2 temperature of laboratory X3 representative aerodynamic temperature AlA2 A3 2 aerodynamic heat co-efficient A4 X4 spare channel The computer and input feed for aerodynamic functions are time-shared multiplex between the various heat stations distributed over the structure under test Computer Specification Synchronous computer clock frequency 100 Kc s operating in parallel mode Computation time to evaluate e s 550 microseconds Addition time for two 18-bit binary numbers 10 microseconds Input from punched tape reader and analogue to digital convertor Maintenance Aids Plug-in packages Marginial Check Facility Special built in check circuits All providing easy servicinj and maintenance - 16 - INSTITUT FUER PRAKTISCHE MATHEMATIK IPM der TECBMSCHEN HOCHSCHULE - DARMSTADT GERMANY An electronic digital computer IBM 650 was installed at the IPM Darmstadt Director Prof Dr A Walther in January 1957 This is the first of a group of computers given to Universities and Institutes of Technology in Germany by the German government via the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft i e Council for Research in Germany The next computers will go to the University Hamburg and the Techniache Hochschule Hannover in a near future Operation of the IBM 650 at Darmstadt started February 11 1957 This computer Is being used for problems of scientific research and for training of students It relieves the other electronic digital computer at the IPM i e the DERA computer see DCN Oct 1955 from the routine workload thereby leaving it for development work in computer technology and research on automatic programming The electrmjic digital computer IBM 650 is now fabricated in Germany at the plant of IBM-DeutschlAnd in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart ARMAC - MATHEMATICAL CENTRE - AMSTERDAM HOLLAND The ARMAC Automatische Rekenmachine MAthematisch Centrum was described in the Digital Computer Newsletter January 1957 A recent announcement lists the following additional details The memory consists of a magnetic drum storing 3584 words in 112 tracks of 32 words each and 64 words of magnetic core storage One half of the magnetic core memory is used as a buffer store for instructions A full track of the drum 64 instructions can be copied Into the buffer the transfer from drum to buffer is automatic i e need not be programmed A record is kept in the machine of the number of the track in the buffer store to enable the control to determine whether the next Instruction is available in the buffer If it is found that the next instruction is not available in the buffer a drum to core storage transfer automatically precedes its extraction The other 32 words of fast storage can be used for any purpose and may contain either numbers or instructions Whole track and quarter track transfer instructions between this part of the core storage and the drum are provided Both drum and core storage are checked by the use of two parity bits per word one for each half word The speed of the machine is 412 microseconds for an addition and approximately 5 milliseconds for a multiplication In normal programs the average overall speed is about 1000 operations per second In ARMAC the same germanium-diode and tube circuitry of conventional design were used which proved successful In the previous machines ARRA and FERTA COMPONENTS MODEL 8 ELECTROPLOTTER - BENSON-LEHNER CORP - LAA ANGELES CALIF The Electroplotter B a flexible high-speed plotter developed by the Benson-Lelmer Corporation offers users of general purpose computers four degrees of freedom in presenting output data in graphic form Accepting information from punched paper tape punched cards or magnetic tape the plotter operates as a computer output by printing a complete fourdimensional graphic display In one reading - 17 - The simplest output of the machine is a two-dimensional X-Y point-to-point plot The more complex displays include 1 the presentation of digital information at demandable positions over the plotting area 2 the plotting of discrete points at any position flagged by a line of digital and symbolic information 3 the rotation of the entire printing mechanism forn ing the plotted point or any simultaneous combination of the three The machine operates at rates of between 70 and 100 complete displays per minute Significant fields for the application of the Electroplotter S include magnetic and gravimetric mapping topographical surveying stress mapping in structures geophysical subsection mapping trajector flight tracing of ballistic and powered missiles tabulation of data for production control automatic drafting and lofting and the plotting of aerodynamics pressures and stresses on solid sections The development of the Electroplotter Model S mws completed about five months ago and the first unit was recently delivered to Standard Oil Company In Houston The next two units are scheduled to go to other oil companies in Houston and these will be followed by shipments to Pratt Whitney Aircraft and the Army Map Service in Washington D C These machines will be operating with the following computers ELECOM 125 UNIVAC IBM 650 IBM 704 and Bendix The Model S will also be compatible for operation with the ElectroData and Logistics Research computers CHARACTER SENSING - INTELLIGENT MACHINES RESEARCH CO - ALEXANDRIA VA The Intelligent Machines Research Co develops and manufactures character sensing machines to convert from print to machine language The company's first commercial equipment went into daily use over a year ago at the Readers Digest's circulation department The equipment scans a typewritten Remington Rand Card and then punches a portion of the abstracted data onto the same card Speed is 150 cards per minute Four other machines have been delivered for different applications Companies and the Ohio Bell Telephone Co These include Oil Although punched cards has been the most frequently required output punched tape and other outputs are available The document to be read may be paper or a punched card and in the latter case models are available which punch the information into the same card Paper feeds for several different types of documents are available The material to be read should be of reasonably good quality and while models capable of reading handwritten material are not standardly available any type face or combination of type faces may be specified However for extra reliability a special numeric font designed for proof against common printing typing and imprinting imperfections is recommended Alphabetic equipment is currently constructed on a custom basis only The standard machines sell for between $15 000 and $35 000 with custom equipment more expensive Standard equipment may be rented but special purpose equlpment is for sale only Maintenance is available in key U S cities Before assuming any specific application is or is not feasible the company should be contatted BANK PO6TING MACHINE - NATIONAL CASH REGIBTER CO - DAYTON OHIO The National Cash Register Company bias Installed their first electronic bank posting machines in Passaic New Jersey They expect to accomplish the work of 15 conventional-type posting machines and also e'iminate more than 75 per cent of the man hours required to locate and correct errors - 18 - The Post-Tronic electronically 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Determines whether the correct account has been selected Picks up and verifies the old balance Determines whether a balance is good or if an account is overdrawn Picks up and verifies accumulated check count Selects the correct posting line Detects accounts with stop payments and 1holds Picks up adds and verifies trial balances Picks up and verifies balance transfers and all other encoded information when a new ledger card is prepared MISCELLANEOUS SYSTEMS DIV - BECKMAN INSTRUMENTS INC - ANAHEIM CALIF BECKMAN Instruments Inc announces the formation of the Systems Division to merge the activities of the Data and Control Systems Department of the Scientific Instruments Division and the Systems Department of the Berkeley Division The new Systems Division will have its headquarters at 325 North Muller Avenue Anaheim California Research and manufacturing of complete automatic data reduction systems will utilize the capabilities of other divisions of the company toward the goal of supplying industry test facilities and research groups with complete data reduction systems G15 - BENDIX COMPUTER DIVIBION - LOS ANGELES CALIF Twenty-five conferees representing 14 organizations attended the second meeting of the Bendix Computer Users' Subcommittee on Highway Design held in Chicago April 17 Purposes for organizing the group are to coordinate the efforts of all Bendix Computer users in the highway design field and the Bendix Computer Division in order to avoid duplcation of programming efforts and to utilize the professional skills available in the most efficient manner in the fields of engineering mathematics programming and coding Additional purposes are to establish a system of interchange of information which will best benefit the individual user and to participate most effectively as an organized group in the establishment of a computer program library in the Bureau of Public Roads Members took additional action at this second meeting to help materialize the establishing of a formal Highway Design Program Library in the Bureau of Public Roads Such a library will expedite the interchange of programmia information COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRY RESEARCH INC - ARLINGTON VIRGiNIA An IBM Type 704 computer has been installed at the Research Center of the Council for Economic and Industry Research Inc 1200 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington 2 Virginla Containing two magnetic core units with a total capacity of 8192 words an equal amount of drum storage capacity and presently five magnetic tape units the computer is serving two purposes It is being used in conjunction with current research contracts of 'E'I R and it is also available on an hourly service basis to others who have a need for high-speed computer facilities There are presently available blocks of computer time which can be committed to an organization desiring a continuing and regular allocation of machine time -19- Information about programming assistance which is available and machine time may be obtained from the Computer Services Division of the Council The Mathematical and Statistical Services Division offers a wide range of analytical services in such fields as numerical analysis system simulation Monte Carlo methods and operations research Assistance in these fields may be secured in conjunction with or independent of machine computation DATATRON USERS ORGANIZATION The basic purposes of this organization are to provide a mechanism for exchange of relevant experience between companies and other institutions which operate or plan to operate computing and or data processing facilities consisting of Datatron Digital Computers and related peripheral equipment and to work for continuous improvement in design capabilities maintenance and related features of Datatron and related equipment The owners or leasers of Datatron Computer Models 203 204 205 or any future models which are so similar in logic and design as to be considered later models of the same computer either installed or on order are qualified for membership in this organization NEWSLETTER - OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH - WASHINGTON D C Effective with this issue of the NEWSLETTER the Joint editorship by Mr Gordon D Goldstein and Mr Albrecht J Neumann has been discontinued Mr Goldstein will continue as the Editor however Mr Neumann will no longer be associated with the NEWSLETTER Mr Neumann is occupied full time with his duties in ONR's Office of the Development Coordi- nator ERMA MEMORY - TELEMETER MAGNETICS INC - LOS ANGELES CALIF Telemeter Magnetics Inc of Los Angeles a subsidiary of International Telemetering Corporation has been awarded the contract by General Electric to build magnetic core memory systems for the ERMA computer The computer is designed for automatic processing of commercial bank checking accounts and is under construction at General Electric's Phoenix plant CONTRIBUTIONS FOR DIGITAL COMPUTER NEWSLETTER The Office of Naval Research welcomes contributions to the NEWSLETTER It is hoped to continuously improve the contents of this newsletter and to make it an even better medium of exchange of information between government laboratories academic Institutions and industry It is hoped that the readers will participate to an even greater extent than in the past in transmitting suggestions and technical material to this Office for inclusion in future issues Because of limited time and personnel it is often impossible for the editor to acknowledge individsally all material which has been sent to this Office for publication 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 The NEWSLETTER is circulated to all interested military and government agencies and the contractors of the Federal Government In addition it Is being reprinted in the Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery Communications should be addressed to GORDON D GOLDSTEIN Editor Digital Computer Newsletter Office of Naval Research Washington 25 D C - 20 -