o COMPUTE R t SDIGITAL _ N EflfVSLETTER - OFPICK-•OFNAVAL•i--KARCHMAT11-MATICAL SCI ICCS DIVISION Vol 4 No 4 Olto'tb r 1952 I TANI KOF CON'INTS DIGKITAt C OM 1 Naval I'roviiln ICKS'IIt Wround Chlculoloro A The UNIVAC 1 Whirl ind I 4 Compueler Research Corporation Comptitere ADAC 1OA-A CRC 107 5 Moore School Automatic Computer M AC 6 Rayheon Automatic Computer IRAYDAC 7 The 4WAC Aberdeen Paovind Oround Computer The ORDVAC The EDVAC ' 17 OOT 1•1 The ENIAC The BELL IBM 9 CS LR O MarkI S _- ' 'I D CONVERSION EQUIPMENT LIST OF COMPUTING BERVICEB The attached sat of organiations offering computing services is incomplete sind will be continued in the next issue of the Digital Computer Newsletter It is suggested that additional organisations providing such facilities or services forward information on them to the Office of Naval Research Code 434 prior to 1 December 1052 Correction Due to an editorial error in the July 1952 issue it wa stated that the access time of the four KNIAC functioa tables was reduced from SAT to 1AT It should red from IAT to UAT for Pub i CL EA I NGHOU SE S -Information I0r lodural Scionfific Tdc Springfield V • 22151 ' --- 1 I c A ar DISCLAIME N7M W THIS DOCUMENT IS BEST QUA TY AVAILABLE TIE COPY FURNISHED TO DTIC CONTALNED A SIGNFICANT NUMBER OF NOT DO HWlICH WE AP V RODUC LiEGIBLY REPRODUCED FROM THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINED BLANK PAGES THAT HAVE BEST AVAILABLE COPY BEEN DELETED I te'tl'l e Ai e 'deeuDWIe N I I CONI wIII eIueli' IT Ieeltte IN uei't ia tileleI e l ereeer I'lhl-i Alivir 1 ehilt to litiltil ot-111ehe'tiled doewni 11114 for nue1nt11u 114111 1 fit I'll e11e e'eee i A tnrthe'g oipuullis'nnt fact io theit Mark 11 lit living opi' nlede withl ime litiginve'r titit'd lto the' opt' rating MtAW 911111411 111 l oolgin is uueeloriwy aced wor'k in pe'eenwt opJil Inwtird thce 111141t itte of hIIM 'a ret inp1ut -olciput to Matkh1 It o that ti 011it b more adoptable tit alul little' jerobilvinee and probloelm Involv ing the re'ductione of largo arri tlots tif data 81icee thie lait report the' Ma rk III E lectr-onic Caic ulatot' has worked onl ballistic problems andu In Addition man just conmplete'd a meapping probtenm Involvineg the molution of 703 simeultaneous liecear alifebe'aic equations which consisted of approximately 30 000 non-sero coeffirlents Duerinill thin perikd a rogular scheduled semi-annual maintenance Inspection warn also observed Inteernmittent troubles sue still a source o1 a considerable amount of downtime and emphiasis io being plaired onl the Investigation of methods to improva reliability THKt U 4IVAC In June 1952 UNIVAC SYSTIFM I was turned over to the customer's personnel The entire moving operation installation and final tests were completed UNIVAC SYSTEM III which passed Its acceptance test in April 1952 is now in the process of being shipped to Its permanent location UNIVAC SYNTEM IV satisfactorily passed its acceptance test oil August 22 1952 It is now In operation In its test location until plans for its delivery have been completed Design work has progressed on a high-speed printer and a self-checking Card-to-Tapeo Converter These two new adlditions to the UNIVAC SYSTEM will be available during 1953 WHIRLWIND I The average weekly operation time of Whirlwind I has continued to increase An of 4 August 99 computer hours per weekt were assigned to military industrial and academic problems During the last three months the computer has yielded 85% useful time permitting the operation of a total of11169 programs exclusive of military applications No new problems were undertaken during the summer During the last three weeks in August the computer was shut down for the installation and testing of a new input-output system The Whirlwindi system contains a permanent magnetic tape system 18 display outputs for oscilloscopes a Failrchild camera arrangement for photographing displays a photoelectric paper-tape reader and two new FL Flexowriter units each with a printer paper-tape punch and mechanical paper-tape reader The old Flexowriter equipment can also be used in the system and will be available on a standby basis until additional FL units on order arrive A now control desk consolidates in a convenient arrangement the terminal equipment with the control communication and monitoring faclities required to operate the computer U The old input-output system utilized separate orders to operate each type of terminal equipment the new system uses the same order to operate any unit This elimination of the old orders has been most important because it has released their positions for other types of operations The single order selects the desired unit and the mode of operation by means of Its addreqs section The 21 July through 1 August MIT summer course on Digital Computers and their AppU- cation sponsored by the Digital Computer Laboratory and the Electriciall Enaginteering Department was highly vouceueftul Ninesty-six petople Were enrolled representing six seaclademi t r I org•l• tui1 tliuim thre e Iuliwint a -nlnt'hine firnim ighit rh'nilrol v vp nrri uu ii'i inmltutilimui riI guve rnnmviit spenel flive ms t IisA ight ' nod pi oet1o'llur 11m1 1111 m fouIr Ip'riro 1 s 111 1u' ' 'su1 •1t'i lnd III dlvvr%111NIi rI dslntrhinl •I•11painsi• and bumines aeA 'AI AC 102-A The CADWC 102-A ham recently heon aAugmented with the following improvements I Punched card fAellitie for Input and outiput 3 Operation with from one to eight magnotit' tape units each capAble of independent ailnultaneous block arch while comnputing taken place providing up to 33 800 000 binary digits of storage 3 Addition of an eight word high speed buffer storage register and other improvements to provide computing speedl of three to five times greater thain CADAC CRC 102 By proper programming up to a0 complete three address operations per second can be performed 4 Inclusion of double precision multiply and divide commands and a scale factor command to facilitate double precision floating point and automatic scaling programs 5 Inclusion of logical shift command to facilitate interpretive sub-routine programming 6 Inclusion of test magnitude command in addition to test algebraic command to facilItate branching and sero test transfers 7 The inclusion of a test switch command to faciUtate progran do-bugging similar to breakpoint command with four switches available 8 Inclusion of punched paper tape read command mechsnlatng the ue of the Filexowriter tapes Productioniof CADAC 102-A's has been started CRC 105 CRC 105 the first decimal digital differential analyzer to be produced is under test and will be delivered this falll-UT1eecimal throughout and can be filled it is claimed more than four times faster than binary machines of similar type This machine has 60 integrators with an accuracy of six decimal digits per integrator Constant multipliers are provided with each integrator facilitating scaling and reducing the necessity of using integrators for constant multiplication 6 It Is equipped with a single automatic typewriter which prints results from all integrators Plotting and empirical function equipment is provided capable of plotting aW many as 12 functions and introducing an many as 12 empirical functions simultaneously Initial cindiUons can be stored and a problem re-run from the same initial coridiUons conveniently by pushing a Restore Initial Conditions Button Any required changes may be made from the decimal keyboard Saturable type non-linoarities can be handled by using any Integrator to limit the maximum and minimum of any variable to specified values An automatic Integrator overflow stop with visul indicator has been provided to facilitate scaling It in possible to stop the computer and print any desired variables at fixed Intervals or 3- h'intc AR nixiln'a mininmia Infle rtinim and plr'-determin'd vnlu'e of 1111 1I eurh atl h ' o niopleiion of pri1t1ing the mtachin•e will autonmatlrally Marlri c'mputation % i i Ollvi tUltim t interval thr4m11l'h Ow ne' I 1 Ieviteioin such is rcutting off the output of Integrators depending upon the sign of the o •itther lidogrator can bIt made hy uning an Integrator as a decision device integrlarieM The rompny has several of thone machine In production C1W 107 Two CRC 107 general purpose decimal and alphabetic data procetsing computers are under construction and will he completed sometime late In 1952 or early 1053 The internal drum memory of the CRC 107 will store 1 000 words of high spoed storage and 10 000 words of medium speed storage on the same drum The numbers and commanidm are in coded decimal form throughout the entire system Theaemachines are capable of operating with a large magnetic tape file of up to 10 000 000 words of eleven decimal digits per word Separate magnetic tape editing and printing equipment is provided to prepare print from verity and edit magnetic tapes Information may be located in the magnetic tape file at very high rates of speed because each magnetic tape unit is provided with its own searching capacities and computing may proceed Independently of several simultaneous searches Alphabetic information can be handled directly by the tape and printing equipment as well as by the computer A high speed printer enables printiug to take place from tapes or computer as speeds of 100 words per second 120 characters per line 10 lines per second Complete flexibility In preparing various forms is possible using the high speed printer The machine can accept or transmit information to and from punched cards punched paper tape and typewriter with keyboard The Company has developed as a separate Item a block search magnUc tape unit denoted as CtRC 126 which is used with the CADAC 102-A or CRC 107 MOORE SCHOOL AUTOMATIC COMPUT•R MBAC The construction of the Algebraic Unit of MBAC Is conUnuing Several design projects have been completed including a logical redeaoin of the Timer as a full dyamic device with no flip-flops Along with this there has been the design of high-power driver circuits and distribution systems Additional phases of construction to be lniUated shortly will Include the Computer Cycle Counter and Automatic Control RAYTHEON AUTOMATIC COMPUTER RAYDAC The RAYDAC Raytheon Digital Automatic Computer successfully completed its final acceptance tests on 19 July 1952 One phase of the tests required an exhaustive sequence of reading recording and searching on the four magnetic tape external memory units of the computer under automaUc machine control This test proceeded continuously for 1 hour and 23 minutes during which period the magnetic tape operatios were completed without error TIts last phase of the acceptance tests required the computer to solve successfully a set -4- of fourteen simultaneous nonlinear ordinary differential equations This problem involving of nearly 50 000 output quantities was completed without error or machine the evaluation stoppage in aipproximately 59 minutes in the computer's acceptance run The RAYDAC has been disassembled and Is being shipped to the Naval Air Missile Test Center Point Mugu California where It will be utilized for missile data reduction computations as well as for many scientific and engineering problems requiring the use of a largescale general-purpose high-speed digital computer THE SWAC IBM collator input has been in use on the SWAC for the last three months giving a readin rate of 40 words per second This card input has also been used to operate the SWAC as a card programmed computer s viaallc1d with a read-out rate of soy- A punched C i•d output system has Ucri per second 17 words An alternate deflecUon system for the cathode ray tube memory has been developed The new system generates the deflection signals at a level high enough to drive the cathode ray memory tubes directly without further amplification of the signal Several RCA three-inch experimental cathode ray tubes have been received and are murrently undergoing tests The following computations were performed on SWAC during the quarter T Lk Number Problem Systematic and Random Errors Control System Equations Probability Distributions Boundary-Value Problem Sets of Linear Equations Primality Tests for Mersenne Numbers Character Sums Continued Fractions 1101-53-1101 52-29 1101-53-1101 52-30 1101-53-1101 49-la 1101-53-1101 49-la 1101-53-1101 49-la 1101-11-5101 50-4 1101-53-1101 49-la 1101-53-1101 49-la Sponsor USAF USAF USN USN USN USN USN USN Information on any of these computations may be found under the appropriate task numbers in Projects and Publications of the National Applied Mathematics Laboratories National Bureau of Standards ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND COMPUTERS THE ORDVAC The ORDVAC has been in operation at the Aberdeen Proving Ground since 9 March 1952 ad has already successfully solved a large group of important problems Several improvements have been installed Including a switch for clear tape and IBM input Instructions IBM read and punch equipment controlled by -acoded sequence for conversion to and from decimal form has been in successful operation since June 1952 THE EDVAC howmr recent weeks The EDVAC hau hId some set-backs due to power supply fallur the 10 000 word drum have show as Omrh as 100 hours available machine time Testing -5- designed hy the Brush Development Company is continuing as Is test of IBM input-output equipment THE ENIAC The ENIAC continues to serve as an important part of the computing facilities of the BRL showing an available machine time somewhat in excess of the newer machines •_'R-I eeentlyu ----ir u v €t ing of new programs ence-dotector-was added In order to facilitate the code check- THEBELL The Bell computers have continued in use for their entire available time However because o1 tneir olow rate oi uopradon there has been an increasing tendency to neglect the Bell Computers in favor of the faster machines IBM The IBM equipment Including the Relay Calculators and CPC continue to serve primarily as card processing equipment for the rearranging and transferring of information from one machine to another C S I R O MARK I This machine was publicly demonstrated at a corference during August 1951 at Sydney New South Wales and has been In service since October of that year The computer is of the serial binary electronic type with a main word length of 20 digits The main store is of mercury acoustic type at a pulse rate of 333 kcs with a capacity up to 1024 words of 1 ms access time An auxiliary store of the asynchronous magnetic drum type and of 1024 word capacity and access time of 10 ms is incorporated Operating speed is about 500 commands per second Input at present is via punched cards read in a column by column fashion and output by page printer The code is of the two address type and a 20 digit command consists of two main 5 digit addresses a source and a 1destination together with a third 10 digit or sub-addres which opecifies only a Tarticular location in the stores Commands are stored serially Besides the stores a number of one-word arithmetical acoustic reisters are provided Program design uses the sub-routine principle and special devices are adopted to render all standard routines free to be placed anywhere in the store and to facilitate standardized linking into and out of them Improvements under way include use of high speed tape for input and output the extension of the magnetic store to 4096 words and doubling of the operating speed by elimination of dead time Since October 1951 the library of standard routines has been steadily Increased and computations tackled have Included chemical flutter coordinate data and time series analymes the computation of some fuactioa tables the evaluatiom of multlpaxameter bingrds aad the solution of partial ad ourdma7y difforelal epatlms -6-9 6 DATA PROCESSING AND CONVERSION EQUIPMENT GRAPH PI OTTER The l ogistics Research Company 141 South Pacific Avenue Redondo Beach California has developed a digital graph plotter the Logrinc It automatically plots one variable against another algebraically in incremental steps in response to electrical Impulses The plotting area in 12 x 18 or a continuous strip of 12 paper can be used Each step is 1 64 along any axis Plotting speed is up to 20 steps per second and steps along both axes may be taken simultaneously NOTICE A Review of Electronic Digital Computers contains the papers presented at the Joint American Institute of Electrical Engineers Institute of Radio Engineers Computer Conference held in Philadelphia Pennsylvania December 1951 AT his pu uA A s together detailed information concerning existing large-scale digital computers which are in productive operation Additional copies may be obtained at the rate of $3 50 each from Mr R S Gardner Technical Secretary American Institute of Electrical Engineers 33 West 39th Street New York New York A Joint Conference similar to the one last year will be held 10 11 and 12 December 1952 in New York City The subject of the meeting will be Input and Output Equipment and there will be exhibits of existing linmt-output devices as well as papers describing them and their operaticm -7-J -- L% - r - --- i AVAILABILITY OF DIGITAL COMPUTING SERVICES GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 1 Air Force a Name and Address of Contact Commanding General V Center Wright Patterson Air Force Base Ohio Attn WCRhM2 v •iopment b Facilities and their Lncation SWAC Automatic Computer Institute for Numerical Analysis National Bureau of Standards University of California 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles 24 California see National Bureau of Standards Mark I and IV Automatic Computers tory Cambridge 39 Massachusetts Harvard University Computation Labora- Three Card Programmed Calculators CPCs and four REACs Computation Research Section Wright Air Development Center Wright Patterson Air Force Base Ohio c Coding and Mathematical Services are avaiable at all the above activiUes d To Whom Available Air Force Facilities and Air Force Contractors 2 Army a Office Chief of Ordnance Washington 25 D C b Automatic Computers include ORDVAC EDVAC ENIAC two Bell Relay Also a-valable are two IBM Rc1ay Computers and one Card Programmed Calculator BallisUc Research Laboratories Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Ma-ry••Tnd c Available d Primarily available to government agencies and their contractors limited availability to non-government agencies 3 Navy a Chief Bureau of Ordnance Washington 25 D C Attn Re3 b Aiken Relay and Mark mI Ulectronic Automatic Calculators Naval Proving Ground Dahlgren Virginia c Available d Government agencies and government contractors 4 National Bureau of Standards a Franz Alt and Milton Abramowitz NBS Washington D C b SEAC Automatic Computer up to date standard IBM machine and desk calculators 1D L Washington D C e Available research mathematicianu also available for consultation d to gesral only to gove mat agencies and their coutractors -g - LI l•I a Franz Alt NBS Washington D C Arnold D Hestenes Institute for Numerical Analysis University of California Los Angeles California b SWAC Automatic Computer up to date IB3M machines and desk Calculators NU3S Institute for Numeric alAn aly-sij c Available research mathematicians 2lso available for consultation d In general only to government agencies and their contractors NON-GOVERNqMENT 5 Battelle Memorial Institute a Jack Belzer Battelle Memorial Institute 505 King Avenue Columbus 1 Ohio b IBM punched-card equipment including a 604-type electronic calculator a linear difta catil-1 analyzer with twenty amplifiers will soon be available Battelle Memorial Institute c Available d No restriction 6 Burroughs Adding Machine Company a Alex Orden Burroughs Adding Machine Company New Products Division 511 N Broad Street Philadelphia 23 Pennsylvania t 4 b General purpoe automatic dilgtal computer with magnetic drum memory and puce ae totu Burroughs Adding machine Co c Available d General not limited to government agencies and their contractors 7 Financial Publishing Company a Charles H Gushee Mathematical Tables Division 02 Brookline Avenue Boston 15 M-Assachusetts b Desk Calculators and IBM equipment including two CPCu Financia l Publishiiig Company c Control boards will be wired by Financial Publishing Company d No restriction 6 International Business Machines Corporation a Manager or Sales Representative at local IBM office I b Modeln IICPC 1670 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles California ModelsI and fi uSNR101 500 Madison Avenue New York N Ir Model ZMU P 1145 19th Street N W Washington D C c Available research mathematicians also available for comnitatica d No restrictiem _10- In ddiclhoi to teclh ical conw t -rrivic ha 1d4 'd hyv Staffs of mill ja as llhst'd A MII ' 1PNM Il iniai i s Srvi 'c ltiir a n• in most of th1 l ri r ' throuilrh 1 utthe United States which can hie lot't ' I th'rough the lI•a• Ithlmoene directory These St I vice Bureaus handle large volumes of business in the accounting field Many of these have 602A multipliers or 604 electronic 'ultipliers and can provide machine service provided the customer does his own mathematical planning and programming IBM also provides mathematical consultant ser ice which is available upon inquiry at the local IBM office 9 Moore School of Electrical Engineerinfr a Donald F Hunt University of Pennsylvania Computing Center Moore School of Electrical Engineering Philadelphia 4 Pennsylvania b IBM equipment including a CPC Mechanical Differential Analyzer also available Moore School of Electrical Engineering c Axailable d Government agencies and their contractors private industry and universities 10 Telecomputing Corporation a William D Bell Telecomputing Corporation 133 East Santa Anita Avenue Burbank California b IRM eouipment including three'CPCs and auxiliary devices Including automatic graph readers and digital plotters Telecomputing Corporation c Available d No restriction PLANNED FACILITIES 1 Engineering Research Associates a Howard Engstrom ERA 507 18th Street South Arlington Virginia James 0 Miles ERA 1902 West Minhiehaha Avenue St Paul W4 Minn b ERA 1101 Automatic Computer EPA Arlington VA c Available d No restriction I I '- 1 - • O 6s o