195605

195605 195605

User Manual: 195605

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 52

Download
Open PDF In Browser	View PDF

The Position of the University in the Field of
High Speed Computation and Data Handling
· . . Alston S. HouseholderFree Use of the Toronto Computer, and Remote
Programming of It
C. Gotlieb and Others

· . . c.

The Mechanized Muse
· .. Elizabeth W. Thomas
LR.E. National Convention, March, 1956, New York Titles and Abstracts of Papers Bearing on
Computers and Automation
Western Joint Computer Conference, San Francisco,
February, 1956 - Titles and Abstracts of Papers

Now, any business, large or small, can put electronic computers to
work to cut costs and increase efficiency.
CD.C is proud to announce Canada's first Data Processing Centre
established by private enterprise. Located at the Company's Head
Office in Ottawa, this centre is available to serve government and
i.ndustry in any part of Canada.

USE OUR SE,RVICE .••
. If you are planning to obtain your own computing facilities,
you can have CD.C test your procedures and solve specimen
problems using this centre.
If you have your own computing facilities, you can transfer
your peak loads or overloads to CD.C

If you cannot justify having your own computing facilities,...
you can make use of those at this centre.
If you are confronted
problem, you may find
nor sufficient facilities
Computing Centre will

with an unusually difficult research
you have neither the ne'cessary staff
in such a situation, the CD.C
be found invaluable.

If you have continually recurring computing or data prOcesssing p·roblems, you can arrange to leose communication
facilities linking your office directly wnh the CD.C Centre.
Highly qualified and experienced applied mathematicians and
engineers, backed by the latest computer facilities, both digital and
analog, are at your service for problem formulation and analysis,
programming, computation, data reduction, application of data
processing equipment to business procedures, practical instruction in
computer operation and
5604R

COMPUTERS
CYBERNETICS
Vol. 5,

AUTOMATION

AND

ROBOTS

•

AUT,O'MATIC

CONTROL

No.5

May, 1956
ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1951

ARTICLES ANn PAPEHS
The Position of the University
in the Field of High Speed
Computation and Data Handling
Free Use of the Toronto Computer,
and Remote Programming of It,Part 1

••• A. S. Householder

6

••• C. C.. Gotlieb
and Others

20

...... E. W. Thomas

11

FICTION
The Mechanized Muse
REF~RENCE

INFORMATION

I.R.E. National Convention, March,
1956, New York -- Titles and Abstracts
of Papers Bearing on Computers and
Automation
Western Joint Computer Conference,
San Francisco t February t 195.6 -Titles and Abstracts of Papers
New Patents

14

26

••• R. R.. Skolnick

The Editor's Notes
Index of Notices
Advertising Index

40

4
4
50

Advisory Committee: Samuel B. Williams,
Herbert F. Mitchell, Jr:, Justin
Oppenheim

Editor:
Edmund C. Berkeley
Assistant Editors:
Neil D. Macdonald, F.L. Walker

Con tribu ting Edi tors: Andrew D. Booth, John M. Breen, John W. Carr, III, Alston S. Householder
Publisher: Berkeley Enterprises, Inc.
513 Avenue of the Americas, New York 21, N.Y. - Algonquin 5-7177
Advertising Office:
36 West 11 Street., New York, II, N.Y. - Gramercy 7-1157
Editorial Office:
Main Office: 815 'Washington Street., Newtonville 60, Mass. - Decatur 2-5453 or 2-3928
Advertising Representatives: Sa~ Francisco - W. A. Babcock, 605 Market St., San Francisco 5, Calif. Yukon 2-3954
Los Angeles - Wentworth F. Green, 439 So. West'ern Ave., Los Angeles 5, Cal if.' Dunkirk 7- 8135
elsewhere - the Publisher
CDMPllTERS AND AUTOMATION is published monthly. Copyright, 1955 by Be.rkeley Enterprises, Inc. Subscription rates
$5.50 for p.ne year, SlO.50 for two years, in the United States;
$6.00 for one year,
$11.50 for two years,
in
Canada;
$6.50 for one year, $12.50 for two years elsewhere.
Bulk subscription rates:
see page 10. Advertising rates:
see page 48.
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office, New York, N. Y.

- 3 -

THE EDITOR'S NOTES
THE PRINTING OF TECHNICAL INFORMATION IN
"COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION"
I. From Mr. I. McNamee and
E. Fullemfider, u.s. Naval
Ordnance Laboratory
Corona, Calif.
Thank you for your letter of Feb. 6, and
your interest in our subject of filtering s~m­
pled functions. We would be honored to have
our paper appear in "Computers and Automation".
Your suggestions or questions, or those
of your readers, would be valued by us, since
we are still actively interested in the general problem. Thank you for your kind invitation to publish our paper.
II. From the Editor to
Mr. McNamee and Mr. Fullenwider
Thank you for your letter of March 26,
enclosing your paper "Filtering Sampled Functions". We think your paper is interesting,
and would like to publish it, if you could perhaps take on the labor of typing it in the fo~
in which it could be photographed for photoof set reproduction. We make this request because 'your paper at present covers 41 pages
of doubled spaced manuscript, ~tt by 11", including 4 full pages of figures, 38 pages bearing mathematical symbols, and several tables.
The procedure for preparing master copy
for photooffset for our purposes is quite simple. There is only one main rule: type it exactly. right with single line spacing in columns four inches wide. The rest of the procedure is given below.
We ask you to do this particularly b ecause we h.ave only one person at present in
our group who can intelligently copy you r
mathematical symbols, and who has satisfactory handlvriting and that person is quite busy
with some other tasks.
III. Comments from the Editor
As readers of "Computers and Automation"
will have noticed, tve have taken full advantage from time to time of the fact that we publish our magazine by photooffset. Quite often
for example, we have been able to print quickly the titles and abstracts of a computer conference or meeting because lve have received
.- 4 -

three copies of the printed program. We could
then cut up two copies to make a one-side set
to be photographed, keeping the third'copy fur
reference and checking. The narrow columns of
most of the programs of computer meetings are
ideal for making columns in our pages.
We are eager to make our publishing' fa~
cllities\available to authors who have papers
relating to computers and their applications
and implications. If anyone desires to have
his paper published somewhere else, we are
completely satisfied. But when there is no
room somewhere else for his paper, and if it
appears suitable for the rather "un-fencedin" editorial coverage of "Computers and Automation", we shall be glad to consider his
paper, in preliminary form or final form, for
publication.
It will be very easy for us to say yes
to publishing a technical paper if it is sent
in to us in good form for photooffset reproduction.
IV. Procedure for Preparing
Master Copy for Photooffset
For technical information, to be published in our pages in two columns, the reduction
in size that we regularly use is 2~~. In o~r
words, an actual measurement of 10 inches on
the actual copy is reduced photographically to
8 inches in the film from which the magazine
is printed
and other distances proportionately.
{continued o~ page 381
•
*
-'f

INDEX' OF NOTICES
For Information on:
Advertising Index
Advertising Rates and
Specifications
Back Copies
Bulk Subscription Rates
Computer Directory
Manuscripts
Reader's Inquiry Form
Special Issues

See Page:
50

48
46
10

44
31
,50

3Q

Address Changes: If your address changes,please
send us both your nelf and your old address, (torn
off from the wrapper if possible), and allow
three weeks for the change •

Always tense but never tired
Again CTC comes up with an advancement for more secure, more effective eleetronic assemblies. It's the new
Perma-Torq* constant tensioning device for tuning cores of standard CTC
ceramic coil forms.
CTC's Perma-Torq, a compression
spring of heat treated beryllium copper,
has very high resistance to fatigue and
keeps coils tuned as set, under extreme
shock and vibration. It allows for immediate readjustment without removal
or loosening of any mounting nut or
locking spring. But most important of
all - Perma-Torq like all CTC components is quality controlled.
CTC's quality-control means you get
consistent top quality components.
Each step of production is checked,
each component part - even though
already certified - is checked again.
And finally CTC's finished product is
checked. That's why CTC can offer you
a guaranteed electronic component standard or custom - whose perform··
ance you can depend upon.
CTC researchers and practical experts are always available to help solve

your components problems. F{)r samples, specifications and prices write to
Sales Engineering Dept., Cambridge
Thermionic Corporation, 437 Concord
Ave., Cambridge 38, Mass. On the West
Coast contact E. V. Roberts, 5068 West
Washington Blvd., Los Angeles 16 or
988 Market St., San Francisco, Cal.
NEW PERMA-TORQ UNITS come completely
factory assembled to mounting studs, elimmating
the bother of assembling and adjusting separate
locking springs. CTC coil forms with Perma-Torq
Tensioning Device are designated PLST, PLS5,
PLS6 and PLS7, are completely interchangeable
with the LST, LS5, -LS6 and LS7 series, and are
availa.ble at no increase in price.
·Pgtent pending
...'"'~

~ :~~' \"'Y''''~'',«,}

*, .....M~'#'

CAMBRIDGE

,.,.

~,'

"'"wA"»"Jo.'......

.:.'

'",.-.,

"

..",.;

THERMIONIC

CORPORATION

makers 0/ guaranteed electronic components
custom or standard

THE POSITION OF THE UNIVERSITY IN THE FIELD
OF HIGH SPEED COMPUTATION AND DATA HANDLING
ALSTON S. HOrSPHOLJaFR
~athe~atics Panel
Oak P.idge National Lahoratory
Oak ~id~e, Tenn.

It seems necess ary to begin this t a l k
with what may seem a platitude by saying that
the position of the university, in this field
as in any other, can be stated very s imply.
It is a source of instruction and a center of
research. If a subject is already closed, or
is so trivial and unimportant as to be u ndeserving of continued study and deve lop men t,
then it has no place in the university c u rriculum. And a presentation that goes nofarther than the formal development. of the known,
that opens no pathways to the unexplored, such
a presentation may be appropriate to the trade
school or the catechism, but not to the u n iversity. To quote A. N. Whitehead: "So far
as the mere imparting of information is c 0 ncerned, no university has had any justification
for existence since the popularization of printing in the fifteenth century". And elsewhere
in the same essay: "Fools act on imagination
without kn01dedge; pedants act on know ledg e
without imagination. The task of a university
is to weld together imagination and experience".
It seems logical to develop the s ubj e ct
before us by first sketching the position that
has been occupied and is occupied by uni ve rs i ties and other ins ti tutions 0 f h i 9 h e r
learning; and then passing to the future with
some predictions and inj unctions. The par t
that has been played by universities in thi s
country in the development of digital computers is well known; it will be enough to mention
a few high spots. Unfortunately, in the early
stages the work was veiled in wartime secrecy,
but fortunately the veil is now long sin c e
removed. Outstanding early contributionsw6re
from the University of Pennsylvania 0 nth e
Eniac, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
on the Whirlwind, and Harvard University c n
the several Marks. Long before this, the logical possibility of constructing a gener a 1
purpose computing machine had been demonstrated
by A. M. Turing in his doctoral disser·t a ti 0 n
l'lritten at Princeton. Turing's pape r wa s
published in the late 30's, and in the earl y
4U's McCulloch and Pitts, at the Universities
of Illinois and of Chicago, published a paper
which carried Turing's ideas somewhat further
by shotdng that one could go a long 1'1 a yin
interpreting the vertebrate central n e rvo u s
system as a Turing machine. There have be en
subsequent developments in this direction a t
Chicago, at MIT, and at Southern Californ i a
in particular, and while this work is off the
- 6 -

ma i n line of practical computer developm en t
and application, it could turn out to have an
influence on the machines of the future.
To return to the main line, the Institute
for Advanced Study and the University of Illinois
are next to be mentioned. Probably no one person has been more influential on the log i cal
design of current machines than von Neumann of
the Institute. It is unfortunate that the early
reports by von Neumann, in collaboration tV i t h
Goldstine, Burks, and others, on logical design
and on programming, did not appear in the open
Ii terature, but they had a wide cir cui at ion
nevertheless. The classical paper by von Neumann and Goldstine on the analysis of erro r s
in digi tal computation did appear in the Bulletin
of the American Mathematical Society, and i t
laid the foundation for the study of this hitherto undeveloped, but now critically important
field. A number of machines, including two
built at the University of Illinois, have followed more or less closely the design laid down
at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Somet'lhat less ambitious development and
construction projects exist or have existed at
other universities: California, Pennsylvan i a
State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and perhaps others.
In the field of applications, the University
of California at Los Angeles was able to p r 0vide housing for the Institute for Numeric a 1
Analys is. More recently it took over the operation of the SWAC (Standards' Western Awwmatic
Computer), and continued to maintain asanewhat
reduced group tvhen INA was discontinued by the
National Bureau of Standards. Consequently,
this University has for some time been an active center of research in numerical analysis.
To a lesser extent the proximity of computi n g
machines has stimulated work in numerical analysis in places like American University, t h e
University of Maryland, the University of Delaware, to mention only a few. Finally, as you
all know, commercially made machines are coming
increas ingly 1\'1 thin reach of even the academic
budget, and so many schools are taking advantage of the fact that I could not hope to n a me
them all and hence refrain from mentioning any.
With this very sketchy summaryofuniversity
activities in this country, let us look abroad
where the situation may be less familiar. First,
as you may recall, the Williams tube was develoRed at the Uni vers i ty of Manches ter, and the

Computers Rnd Automation

effort has been made to devise a list of operations that make programming as simple as possible, since the machine is to be made a va i 1able to outs iders lvho tvill do their 0 If n p r 0gramming. The name of Stiefel, at Zurich, is
perhaps best known in this country when coupled
with that of Hestenes, as codiscoverer of a
method of successive approximation to the s 0lution of a system of linear equations, wit h
convergence after a f ini te number of s t e p s •
More recently he has made important contrib utions to the theory of successive approximation
in general for linear systems, or, as he calls
them, methods of relaxation. The name of R utishauser is perhaps less well known, but a
series of papers on what he cal.ls the quotientdifference algorithm has attracted considerable
attention. In these papers he succeeds in tying together and generalizing in a remarkable
way a multitude of seemingly disparate tec hniques in numerical analysis, such ascontinued
fractions, the Bernoull i met~od of sol v i n g
equations, and the Aitken 5 - process for accelerating convergence. In this general connection, mention might be made also of s 0 m e
papers by F. L. Bauer, at the Technische Hochschule, Munich, who has shown how the metho d
of Bernoulli, which converges linearly, can
be modified to yield quadratic con verge nc e
such as is to be had by the use of Graeffe's
method. Thus it is possible to achieve the
rapid convergence of the one method wi tho u t
sacrificing the self-correcting feature of the
other.

prototype of the Ferranti computer was c 0 nstructed, of which one of the early models is
located on this continent at the University of
Toronto. A second machine for computing use
has been completed at Manchester and also, as
a developmental project, a transistor machine.
Cambridge University has been outstanding
in both development and application. The Edsac
I was one of the earliest of the h ig h s pee d
machines of t~hat might be called contemporary
design, to distinguish it from the more primitive Eniac. It is of interest, too, t hat
Leo, the machine belonging to the J. Lyons and
Company, and used for accounting, Ivas built at
Cambridge, largely following the design of
Edsac 1. The Wilkes-Wheeler-Gill text on programs was the first on this subj ect to rea c h
the commercial press. Also, the Edsac grou p
has been otherwise influential in that several
of its members have been in this country 0 n
extended visits to MIT, Illinois, and e Is ewhere, and Cambridge is a Mecca for Americ an
experts going abroad. Ed~ac II is one of the
. first to use magnetic cores throughout and the
design of the control makes use of the scheme
of microprogramming devised by Wilkes.
The
same scheme, in a form revised somel~hat by
Billing at the Max-Planck Institute, is being
follO\~ed in the core machine under construction
at Gottingen.
I do not hope to be exhaustive and hop e
not to be exhausting. Hence, I pass over other
Bri tish acti vi ties and proceed to the continent.
Starting at the far North, a relay machine,
the BARK, was constructed at the Technica 1
High School in Stockholm by the Stvedish Board
for Computing Machinery. This \Vas followed by
the BESK, with cathode ray tube storage, and
upon completion of the BESK, the BARK tfas dismantled. The Besk remains the fastest machine
in western Europe, and so far as I know, Ifill
be surpassed only by Edsac II in the n e a r
future. The machine is in the hands of a small
but able group of mathematicians and engineers.
Tl)ere are plans for making copies in Cop e nhagen and in Oslo.

Interest in digital machines was rathe r
s low to develop in Germany, but nOt~ it is extensive. Last October there was held at the
Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt, a three-day
conference on digital computers and data processing. About 600 people were in attendance,
and al though many different countries tV e r e
represented, probably 80 percent or more 0 f.
the participants were from Germany, and 0 f
these, most were from uni vers i ties and the
technical high schools.
At the Max-Planck Institute in Gottingen
a small tape-controlled ma~hine, the G 1, has
been operating for some time, and three other
machines are currently under construction. One
is the core machine already mentioned. Another
is an enlarged version of the G 1, and the
third is a more standard drum type. Drum machines are also being built in Munich and i.n
Dresden, at the Technische Hochschule, and at
Darmstadt a small core memory will be backe d
up by a .drum. In the way of applications, the
Munich group seems to be rather more in t e rested in bus iness than is ·the case elsewhere.
It is interesting to note that in Germany the
Williams tube is being bypassed compl e t e Iy ,
all storage being magnetic, with either dru m
or cores.

At ~terdam, the Mathematical Center of
the University constructed a relay machine,the
ARRA, and then proceeded by additions and replacements to turn it into an electronic m achine. They are also working on a mach i n e
wi th magnetic core memory. The Mathematic a 1
Center and the Department of Mathematics seem
to be better coordinated than is the cas e in
some schools, and Amsterdam can be classed as
one of the leading centers of research in numerical analysis.
Farther South, in Zurich, a relay machine
has been in operation for some time at the
Technische IIochschule, and a drum machine i s
being buil t. In designing the latter a special

- 7 -

Computers and Automation

While the Darmstadt Conference was interesting enough in providing a vielv of d eveloprnents in western Europe, the occasion lvas made
more dramatic by the presence of several p a rticipants from the other side of the Iron Curtain. I have already mentioned Dresden in East
Germany. From Prague came Svoboda and Oblonsky,
who have built a drum machine, the SAPO, and
are building a more elaborate one. The SAPO~,
in effect. three mutually checking mach i n es,
and it utilizes five-address commands, the extra two addresses designating alternate loc ations for the next command. Svoboda's g r 0 u p
seems to be very active in numerical analysis,
and in logical synthesis, but unfortunately,
although I have some of their publications in
my possession, they are in Czech so t hat my
understanding is something less than complete!
From Moscow came Professors Lebedev and
Basilevsky, accompanied by Drs. Ktorov and Novikov, l-vho acted mainly as interpreters. To
the best of my knowledge, this was the fir s t
time the West had been informed of Ru s s ian
activities. It turns out that they h av e a
drum machine, the Ural, and a machine calle d
the BESM which uses cathode ray tubes and auxiliary drum and tapes, with triple address
commands a'nd floating-point binary representa,tion of numbers ~ It operates at a speed that
surpasses anything else exc~pt the NORC.
As I remarked before, I am not trying to
be exhaustive, and perhaps I should brin«this
account to a close. It is intended 0 n 1 y t 0
suggest the extent of the activi ty on the part
of educational institutions, and to indic ate
some" of the things they are doing. In comparing the scenes in Europe and America, however,
there are several important factors that should
be borne in mind. In Europe the educ ati 0 n al
institutions are all financed by either the
national or the local governments. Moreover,
although England has, for example, a National
Physical Laboratory, which corresponds roughly
to our National Bureau of Standards, tot h e
best of my knmdedge there is no c ompar abl e
ins ti tution in the countries of conti n en tal
Europe. To some extent, its place is t a ken
by the schools.

It 'is time now to come back home and cast
a glance into the future. In this country no
school needs any longer to build a machine just
to have one, and countless schools are finding
it possible to acquire them by purchase, b y
rental, or even as outright gifts.
In so m e
cases construction may be worthwhile as a research or a training project. But it seems to
me that in the future the universities can contribute most in applications and in training.
In the matter of training, one he a rs 0 n
all s ides of the shortage in 'technical manlXJ.fer,
and in the field of computing the shortage is,
if anything, even more acute than elsewhere.
Until quite recently there has been no demand
to speak of for people in this field, whereas,
now the demand is very great and several conferences have been held for discussing t II e
specific problems associated tv! th training of
computer people. Personally, I am not sur e
that it is proper to approach the problem i n
just this tvay. The shortage of techni call y
trained people is general. Th at there i s a
shortage of computer people is but a corollary
to the main theorem. HOtfeVer important the
special case may be, it remains but a special
case. The universities cannot be blamed for
'the shortage and there is relatively 1 itt 1 e
they can do to alleviate the situation in addition to what they are doing now. Certainly,
they should not resort to narrOtV spec i a 1 ization.

In this country much of the early stimulus
to commercial development came from government
laboratories, and some came from i ns u ran c e
firms and other business organizations. In this
respect the experience in England has bee n
comparable, but on the continent there h as been
nothing of the sort. Consequently, a few British firms are making computers, but there have
been none on the continent. IIence, s pe a king
generally, Amsterdam, Zurich, Darmstadt, and
the others had no choice but to build 0 r go
without. This situation is changing, but the
changes are very recent.
-, 8 -

Let me be a little more specific. In our
organiz ation at Oak Ridge, tye operate a digital
computer called the Oracle. We, therefo r e ,
have a staff of analysts, programmers, and
coders. Al though the distinction bet11een the
jobs of analyst, programmer, and coder are
fairly clearcut, all our programmers do their
own coding, and often our analys ts do likewise t
Our general policy in hiring is, therefore, to
require at least a bachelor's degree with a
mathematics major. Naturally at the start it
t1TaS seldom possible to find people with any
machine experience or any special tr a i n in g
along these lines. It is still not easy. But
on the other hand, I Was never much concerned
by the fact. Basic ability and a good gener~
mathematical background,seem to me to be much
more important than special experience. since
the latter can be acquired on the job by anyone equipped with the former. Therefore, if
the record of a new graduate shows a co u r s e
in programming, or even in numerical analysis,
I would not be greatly impressed by that fact
alone.
This is the negative side of the picture.
But there is also a positive side. I do think
digi tal computers are here to stay and t hat
the fact should have a real bearing 0 nth e
college courses, especially in mathema tics.

Computers and Automation

The bearing on courses in physics or che~try
or other fields from which problems a r i s e
Th e
would seem to be at least less direct.
advent of the digital computer is 1 ike 1 y to
stimulate developments in certain are a s i n
physics, say, and this would naturally be reflected in course content, especially in the
more advanced courses. But whatever the source
of a computing problem, the analysis and the
programmdng is basically mathematical in character.

the textbooks. Newton's method is generally
presented as though it applied to real roo t s
only, whereas in fact it is quite general. And
there is much interesting material availableon
the geometry of the roots in the complex plane,
all of which is good mathematics and potentially
useful to anyone who might ever have occas ion
to solve an equation numerically, and this includes physicists and chemists as well as n umerical analysts.

My suggestion is that the addition of one
or two or three special courses in programmdng
or numerical analysis or both lsnotsufficient
and may even be detrimental, and that instead
there should be a rather general reorientation
of all the courses. This go s pel has bee n
preached on other occasions, and I may be boring
those who have heard it before, but nevert h eless, a few specific suggestions migh t be a r
repeating. Perhaps some are already b e i n g
followed in some places, but not all of the m
are in effect everywhere.
The traditional first course in differential equations devotes a great deal of time to
the search for transformations and integrating
factors that reduce the solution to a quadrature.
I conj ecture the theorem that in the class 0 f
equations which arise in practice the technique
is almost everywhere inapplicable. Moreover,
even if one does succeed in reducing the problem to a quadrature, the quadrature itself can
seldom be carried out, or if it can will g e nerally lead to unmanageable functions, so that
one is ultimately forced back to a direct attack upon the equation itself. In the case of
first-order linear equations, or of a few equations reducible to that form, the technique is
useful, but I can think of no other outstandkg
examples. In place of a study of integrati n g
factors I would suggest two things. The first
is a little time spent applying an elementary
numerical method, say that of Euler, for a rough
And
numerical solution of a few equations.
the second is an introduction to the Poincar~­
Bendixson theory of singular points. E i th e r
one, or, better yet, the two together, can, it
seems to me, give the student a much bet te r
feeling than integrating factors can 0 f the
relation of a family of functions to the d i fferential ~quation it satisfies.
'
I have less of a quarrel with the theory
of equations, but even there an instructor may
leave the student tvi th the impress ion t hat
Cardan's formula has some direct practic a 1
utility. But there is, for example, an interesting and important theory associated wit h
Bernoulli's method of solving an equation, especially as developed in the recent papers by
Bauer and Rutishauser already mentioned, and
in papers by Aitken and others, and yet the
method itself is seldom or never developed in

In calculus it is easy to leave the student
with the impression that any integral, or a t
least most integrals, can be carried out analytically by someone smart enough to do so, and
that one is always better off when the attempt
is successful. The fact is, of course, that
many functions are best evaluated by carryi n g
out a numerical quadrature, and if a functio n
is given initially as an integral the likelihood
is strong that this is such a function. In the
treatment of limits the attention is generally
focussed upon the conditions that assure the
existence or nonexistence of a limit. In practical work, in cases where a limit is known to
exist, one is greatly interested in estimates
of the deviation from the limit of an arbi trary
term in the sequence. These estimates are given
by remainder formulas. They are, indeed, often
useful in proving convergence and their consideration requires little more than ash if t 0 f
emphasis.
Finally, I wish to enter a plea fo r the
earlier introduction and more general use 0 f
matrices and vectors. It seems to me that this
introduction comes most naturally in fhe freshman course in analytical geometry. The i r importance, for both pure and applied mathematicians, seems scarcely open to question, and yet
a deplorable cultural lag permits even s 0 m e
mathematics majors to graduate with the barest
nodding acquaintance.
Digital computers and computing are drawing upon a variety of areas which are usually
taken up only in the more advanced courses i n
mathematics, but which could be, and sometimes
are being, at least introduced at more elementary levels. Foremost among these are Boolea n
algebra and symbolic logic. Another i s the
theory of groups. Still another may be co~
atorial topology, since apparently Gmriel Kron
has had spectacular success in applying this in
solving certain systems of equations. Whether
such topics should be offered in special undergraduate courses, or whether the entire mathematical curriculum should be reorganized, as is
being done in some places, is a question Ishall
not attempt to answer here.
A while back I indicated that I did not
consider an undergraduate course in numerical
analysis too important, but now, as you see, I
am virtually advocating that the entire mathe-

- 9 -

Computers and Automation
of application, both in their training and in
matical curriculum be oriented toward numerical
analysis. My argument is that the slant can
their research, although their training should
increase the utility of the subj ect for a l l
never descend to the trade school level. While
some background in physics, chemistry, andofuer
those who are interested in mathematics 0 n 1 y
as a tool, without in any tfay lowering the digsciences is certainly advantageous to the future programmer or numerical analyst, it seems
nity of the courses as mathematics. Where such
to me that eventually his problems become math. a viewpoint does not prevail, however, a course
ematical in character. Hence, the immediately
in numerical analysis can be of value provided
it is not a mere collection of recipes.
relevant training and research should cente r
in the mathematics departments. This plac e s
upon them a unique responsibility not sh are d
To illus trate t"hat I have in mind her e,
suppose in a course in numerical analysis 0 n e
by other departments.
is about to take up the solution of algebra i c
equations by the method of Bernoulli. In this
In all this I have spoken only of scienmethod one forms a basic sequence which satistific uses of the machine and have skillfully
fies the linear difference equation whose coavoided mentioning bus iness applications. This
efficients are those of the algebraic equation
is for the very good reason that I h a v e no
to be solved. From this basic sequence 0 n e
background for discussing this area. Neverforms a secondary sequence by taking ratios of
theless, on general principles it seems th a t
consecutive terms. If the equation has a single
the problems are still logical and arithmetical
root of largest modulus, then the new sequence
in character and that mathematics could help.
approaches this root as its limit, and the rate
The hard thing is to persuade mathematicia n s
of t.)nvergence is determined by the rati 0 0 f
to become interested in business problems, and
the modulus of this root to that of the n ext
business experts to study mathematics. I prelargest root. If there are two largest root s
dict most rapid progress tvhever mathematicians,
of equal modulus, this secondary sequence has
engineers, and business experts can be p e rno limit, but other sequences can be for m e d
suaded to join together in arriving at a common
whose limits are the coefficients of the quadunderstanding by which to differentiate the
ratic satisfied by these two roots, and the
primary needs of business from the incidental
rate of convergence depends upon the ratio 0 f
byproducts of established procedur e s, and
thence to devise the hardware and routines for
the common modulus of the two roots to that of
achieving the real objectives. Where coul d
the next. If the two largest roo t s a re of
such teams form more readily than in a univernearly equal modulus, convergence to the 1 a rsity?
gest will be slow, but convergence to th e coefficients of the quadratic may be sui tab 1 y
-_
FNl
::= _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
... _-_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ =:c
fast. Now all these points can be brought out
and illus~ated by numerical experimen t a tio n
with a fetf simple, manufactured cub i c san d
quartics with no very laborious and extensi v e
BULK SUBSCRIPTION RATES
computation. In short, I am recommending that
the course be one in numerical analysis, d i rThese rates apply to SUbscriptions coming in
ected toward the mathematics, rather than 0 n e
together direct to the publisher. For example,
in numerical techniques for developing special
if 5 subscriptions come in together, the savskills.
ing on each one-year subscription tv'i 11 be 24
percent, and on each tt-lTo-year subscription will
Perhaps some apology is due for a t 0 0be 31 percent. The bulk subscription rat e s,
frequent use of the first person singular i n
depending on the number of simultaneous s u bthis account. The excuse is that the viewpoint
scriptions received, follow:
is ~ own personal one, and it is very likel y
to be limited and onesided. I have objec ted
Bulk SubscriPtion Rates
to specialization and yet I have proposed a
(United States)
fairly general slanting of the rna th emat i c s
courses toward numerical analysis. In feeling
Rate for Each Subscription, and
Number of
Simul taneous Resulting Saving to Subscriber
that such a slant would be quite gener a l l y
Subscriptions
One Year
Two Years
beneficial I may be merely exhibiting the bias
of my profession. But to summarize: Universi$6.60, 37%
10 or more
$3.80, 31%
ties, both here and abroad, have played an im4.20, 24
7.25, 31
5 to 9
portant part in the development of dig ita 1
4.60, 16
8.00, 24
4
computing machinery, and they have contributed
5.00,
8.80, 16
3
9
to the understanding of how to use them. Cer2
5.25, 5
9.55, 9
tainly, government laboratories and commercial
firms have also contributed, but my topic conFor Canada, add 50 cents for each year; 0 u tcerns only the universities. In th e f u t u re,
side of the United States and Canada, add $1.00
in this country at least, it seems to me that
for each year.
universities can contribute mo~t in the field

- 10 -

TIlE MECHANIZED MUSE
ELIZABETH W. THOMAS
'led Bank, N.J.

Dr. Ca'rl Jonus Yaffee, Ph.D., M.A., M.S.,
Associate Director of Cornumbia University's
School of Engineering and creator of the r ecently unveiled Yaffee Electronic Relay Poe mWriter, is a fresh-faced, blue-eyed silvery
haired gentleman of 67, wi th a boyish s mil e
and a diffident manner. He looks more 1 ike a
busy and contented small-town pediatrician than
an internationally celebrated scie n tis t with
nearly half the letters of the alphabet following his name;' but YERP, as his current brainchild is more generally known, is the sixth in
a series of notable contributions to the ar t s
and sciences which he has made since his arrival
in this country from Austria in 1918 - contributions which include such familiar househo 1 d
devices as the Yaffee Automatic Pinochle Player
(YAPP), the Yaffee Automatic Check-Book C 0 rrector (YACC)', and the Yaffee Electronic Automatic Housewife (YEAH), the latest mod e 1 0 f
which not only orders and cooks the meals but
washes the dishes and puts them away.
YERP has been five years a-borning, and
has employed a full-time staff of 55, composed
of members of Cornumbia' Engineering, Applied
Science, Mathematical, and English Departmen~
-- technicians, and clerical help. It is, says
the Doctor modestly, merely an extension of the
gigantic electronic "brains" wh!ch are be in g
produced regularly by our industrial an d university'engineering laboratories. YERP embodies
many of the"same principles and ,muc h of the
same circuitry as its mathematical relatives;
it differs mainly in that it treats w 0 r d s
rather than mathematical data. It can be demonstrated, says the Doctor -- adding, wit h a
twinkle, that he viII not do 'so just now -that the mechanical processes involved in the
cons truc tion of a poem are essen t i all y th e
same as those associated with the solution of
a series of complex equations. The prob Ie m
was chiefly one of providing greatly expanded
maane to-electronic storage capac! ty, t 0 accommodate YERP'S enormous "vocabulary"; i ncreased sensi tivi ty in selectors, by which YERP
is enabled to "recognize", and select or reject
a work; stepped-up operational speed, permitting YERP to "scan" almost infinite combin ations of words in a few fractions of a second;
and a simple but flexible coding system, whereby
YERP'can be "instructed" to move along p r eselected operational procedures.

At the present moment YERP occupies three
rooms of the Cornumbia Physics Laborator y in
the Morton Memorial Building, but i t IN i l l
shortly be installed in a specially built annex of the New York General Library, where it
will be available to poets and students a t a
nominal fee. Pending its removal to permanent
quarters, visitors may be taken on a tour of
YERP any Thursday afternoon, upon application
to the University· secretary.
On the occasion of my audience with YERP
I was fortunate enough to have the good Doctor
himself as interpreter. My group contained, I
suppose, the average mixture of literary, scientific, and miscellaneous components: representatives of the Book Departments of t h r ee
Metropolitan dailies, two engineering students
from ne ighbor ing uni vers i ties, a young re porter
from a well-known weekly news magazine, a lady
poet from Ohio, two gentleman poets both from
New Jersey', and myself. We were ushered into
a comfortably furnished reception room in the
Phys ics Laboratory, where the great man greeted
us informally and quickly disarmed the fears
of the mechanically unsophisticated.
"The scientist uses beeg words to impress
you wi th his knowledge," he began. "He r e at
Cornumbia ve do not strive to impress -- v e
seek to instruct. Anybody among you who e e s
able to chenge a fuse will have no dif~lc-ul ty
in following my brief remarks on the IOOchanlcal
side of our machine', which viII be of interest,
I hope, alike to poet and engineer. The latter, if he desires, may satisfy his scientific
curiosity by reading· the technical manual 0 n
the machine, which ees available at t his department; and the former may wish to purchase
the little book of poems produced by the machine, which ees on sale at the Un i v e r sit Y
Book Store."
We learned that YERP contains over 50 0
vacuum tubes, 10,000 transistors, 20,OOOcrystal diodes, 350 pluggable units, 1,356 mile s
of wiring, a magneto-electronic storage un i t
with a 5,OOO,OOO-word capacity, a prin tin g
unit capable of printing 1000 words a minute,
and a vocabulary of about 1,500,000 1'J 0 r d s
which are punched on cards. The vocabu 1 ary,
incidentally, is constantly being revised and
kept up to date by a special group of readers

- 11 -

Computers and Automation

ttl think it's sweet, n Ivhispered his compatriot.

We gathered around the table and watched
carefully.

Willy looked perplexed. "HOlY abo u t a
sonnet?" suggested one of the newspapermen.

"B - U - S - T - E - R , " spelled out the
Doctor, slowly and clearly.

ttSonnet all right with you?" ask e d the
Doctor.

"B - U - S - T - E - R, " repeated Mis s
Matthews, 'a click of the instrument's key s
punctuating each letter.

"OK 11ith me," said Willy.
don't it?"

"It rhyme s,
"Proper noun,t1 said the Doctor.

"Iambic pentameter?" asked the Doc tor.
"Or do you prefer one of the more mod e r n
modes?"

Click, went Miss Matthews.
"Rhyme-code-punch 3 in column 27," c
tinued the Doctor.

"Iambic pentameter," said Willy firmly.
"I'm a fool for Iambic pentameter."

0

n-

Click.

The Doctor flipped fourteen switches 0 n
the machine's control panel. Each switch, he
told us, called for a line in Iambic pentameter.
"Ve viII now select the rhyme-pattern,"
said the Doctor, t1and impulse the cor r e c t
slvi tches. Thus ees the machine en a b 1 e d to
select terminal v.ords in the desired rhymin g
sequence."

"Route to Selector Number three," sa i d
the Doctor. "That's the obligatory selector,"
he explained to us. "The given '\ford must then
occur at least once in the verse."
Click.
"Re-punch and compare," concluded the
Doctor.

Mter a certain amount of prompting, Willy
selected a standard Shakespearean rhymiQJ pattern ,
and the Doctor adjusted fourteen more switches
to the corresponding positions.

Clickity clickity clickity sssswich plunk,
went the word actuator, and Miss Matthews held
two cards up to the light and compared them.
tlOK," said the Doctor, "ve're ready to -what you say, roll."

"Now," he sa ide "If there are any special vords, such as vould not be included i n
the standard voc abul ary, ve may now ins e r t
them. tt

He inserted the card in the input u nit,
depressed the "ON" switch, and the card loY a s
promptly swallowed up. We were then conducted
into a third room, where the printing mechan-.
ism was housed.

Willy regarded his shoes bashfully.
"Think of this purely as a s cie nt i f i c
demonstration," said the Doctor encouragingly.
"The young lady's name, perhaps?"
"Name of Beatrice," said Willy, blushing
furiol!~~y.

"Now," said Dr. Yaffee, "before ve tu r n
on the sldtch, one vord of caution. Ve mus t
not ask too much of our machine. Just as the
diamond comes rough from the mine, a If a i tin g
the craftsman's hand to give it 1 us t e r an d
beauty, so comes the poem from the machine. tI

"H'm," said the Doctor dubiously.
"I always call her 'Buster''', volunteered'
Willy, and the Doctor brightened.

Willy was instructed how to turn the machine on, which he did. There was a cliCking
and '\fhirringi lights on various panels around
the room flashed on and off, and we waited for
perhaps three minutes in silence. Th en the
type bars started to move.

''Miss Matthews," he called. Apr e tty,
dark-haired girl materialized from someWhere,
and sat down at a table holding an instrument
that looked like a small typewriter. She took
a blank card from a rack, similar to the ones
Ive had seen in the drawers, inserted it in the
machine, and awaited further instructions.

we read.

"Please to observe closely while the young
lady prepares the card for insertion in the
machine," said the Doctor. "The instrume n t
she ees using ees called the Word Actuator."

"Stop, stop," bellowed the Doctor, leaping for the control button. There was instant
cessation of the hum of machinery as the type
bars subsided in their bed. "Elizabeth! Car-

AS ANTIQUE ART ATTIRES AN AURA'S ARC
AND AIDS AMBIGUOUS ALE AS AN ADJUSTER

- 12 -

Computers and Automation
called "Prospectors", whose job it is to read
tion and classification of our vocabulary; he
all of the poetic output of the count ryan d
worked for five years to develop the prese n t
report on all significant trends in word usage.
system, and ve may confidently say that f e Ttl
At present, for instance, it is practically
known human emotions are not included in it.
obligatory for the poet to employ such 1.ford s
So pick your sobject, and ve viII procee d
as "nubile", and "incandescent", at leas t OIre
without further delay to write our poem."
in each poem.
Willy appeared to be overcome by s t ageTime required for the produc t ion of a
frigh t. "I thought you could jus t pus h a
standard-length poem is approximately f i v e
button, " he quavered.
minutes, exclusive, of course, of the tim e
consumed in preparation and polishing, wh i c h
"Come, come," rallied the Doctor kindly.
may take from ten minutes to two hours, d e"A young man like you, at the peak of his sexual
pending upon the individual operator.
maturi ty -- sure ly there mus t be some 0 net 0
1.'Vhom you 1.'Iould 1.·dsh to express yourself -"
"It ees not true," said Dr. Yaffee at the
conclusion of his short lecture, as severely
"My girl's in Florida," said Will Y at
as if one of us had suggested that it.!!!! true,
length. "Could that thing write her a poe m
"that the Yaffee Electronic Relay Poem-Writer
telling her to take it easy and don't get carviII eventually supersede or obsolete the poet.
ried a1.fay by no no-good creep jus t b e c a use
What it viII do ees to free the poet from the
he's gotta sun-burn and one of them foreign
sports cars _ I f
mechanical trammels that have hitherto shackled
him, increase his output, and en han c e his
leisure."
"Splendid," said the Doctor approvingly.
"A popular sobj ect. Let us see which of 0 u r
We were then escorted into an adj oini n g
categories viII most closely approximate the
room, brilliantly lit, lined on all four walls
sentiments you have expressed."
from floor to ceiling with filing cabi net s,
and furnished with business-like looking chairs
He crossed the room to the "L's. "'Lover,
and tables. In the middle of the room s too d
the''', he read. fIVe have broken this d 0 Vi n
a squat black object, rather resembling a kitinto a number of sub-classifications. I can
chen stove, which, we were inforlOOd, was the
offer you 'Lover, the Dejected'; 'Lover, th e
. feed, or input unit, of YERP. Dr. Yaffee asked
Desolate'; 'Lover, the Desperate'; 'Lover,the
for a volunteer demonstrator.
Despondent'" --

"I would prefer someone with neither a
scientific nor a literary background, n he said.
"Thus ve viII get a true picture of the machine's extraordinary capabilities."
After some hesitation the young reporter
from the news weekly offered himself up onthe
altar of science. His name, he told us, VI as
Willy. Ordinarily he was on the Sports Desk,
but he was at present subbing for a sick friend
at the adjacent Science Desk.
"First off," Dr. Yaffee instructed Willy,
"ve must select our sobject. Please to notice
the filing cabinets around the room. T he r e
are more than 500 of them. Each drawer has
its own title, indicating its sobject, and in
the drawers are kept, punched on cards, 0 u r
machine's vocabulaty -- one vord to each card,
along with various coding punches for the purpose.of identification and recognition by the
machine. Here, as you see," said the Doctor,
crossing to the far side of the room, "vestart
with the sobject 'Aberration'; so on to 'Abnegation', 'Ambition', 'Anger', 'Anxiety',and
so forth; on through 'Beauty', 'B r a very' "
'Brutali ty' - I pick at random - rig h ton
down through the alphabet to l.zoomorphism' •
My colleague, Professor Morgansen of the English Department, ees responsible for the selec-

Willy shook his head.
said hoarsely.

"Just noivous", he

" 'Lover, the Apprehens i ve ' ", anno u n c e d
the Doctor~ "I think this ees just whatve're
looking for."
He removed three long, shallow drawer s
from the file, in which thousands of 0 b long
cards lay neatly stacked: placed ·them on a low
table, and wheeled them across the roo m t 0
YERP'S input unit. He then inserted the contents of all three drawers into the machine,
briskly tapping the edges. of the s t a c k s to
bring them into perfect alignment. When a 11
of the cards were thus stowed, he touched a
s1.fi tch. The machine went on with a low hum,
and instantly the cards disappeared 1.dthin its
capacious maw.
"You may think of this unit as the machine's memory," he informed us, "in which are
stored these thousands of vords, punched on
cards, just as a man stores his vocabulary in
his memory. So. Now. Next. Ve must tell
the machine what form of verse ve wish towrite,
and select our rhyme pattern."
"Rhyme!" murmured one of the New J e rse y
poets. ''How quaint!"
(continued on page 3R)

- 13 -

I.R.E. NATIONAL CONVENTION, MARCH, 1956, NEW YORKTITLES AND ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS BEARING ON
COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION

The Program of Technical Sessions of the IRE
National Convention in New York, March, 1956, contains many papers having some relation to computers and automation. Folloldng are the titles
and abstracts of 31 of these papers, and notation
of the part of the IRE Convention Record in lvhich
they will be published.
SESSION II

mitted over a radio channel of a given width has
a close relationship to the complexity of the apparatus involved in its transmission and reception.
Virtually every radio service licensed by the Federal Communications Commdssion utilizes far more
radio spectrum than needed to convey the necessazy
intelligence in order to utilize low cost apparatus. There are excellent expansion possibilities
in the land mobile services which are today the
most inefficient users of our radio spectrum.

Sponsored by the Professional Group on Medical Electronics. To be published in Part 9 of
the IRE Convention Record.

SESSION IV
Sponsored by the Professional Group on CO~
munications Systems. To be published in Part 8 a
the IRE Convention Record.

Medical Electronics I

2.3

The Application of Automatic, HighSpeed Measurement Techniques to Cytology

General Communications Systems

W. E. Tolles, R. C. Bostrom, and
H. S. Sawyer, Airborne Instruments
Lab., Inc., Mineola, N.Y.

4.1

The Cytoanalyzer, an instrument being developed for high-speed, automatic screening of cytological smears for the early detection of cancer,
is based on the distinguishable differences that
exist between malignant and normal cells when compared ldth respect to nucleus size and density.
This paper disc usses the techniques us ed to obtain
these differences in cell characteristics from
the electrical analog of the smear. The design
and operation of the measuring and computing circuits used in the instrument, including evaluation test methods and results, are described. ~le
design of the scanning element used to convert the
optical info~mation of the smear to a serial electrical current is summarized.

Sponsored by the Professional Group on Vehicular Communications. To be published in Part 8 of
the IRE Convention Record.
Vehicular Communications:
"Nelv Horizons for Vehicular
Communications"
3.3

A.' O. Mann, SKF Industries, Inc.,
Philadelphia, Pa.
The current status of teletypewriter and related communications equipment for integrated data
processing at SKF lvill be described. Further description will be given of the futu~e plans for
provision of a complete, national circui try of teletypewri ter. The relationship of such communic ations equipment to a complete computational and
control program wi.!l be outlined, highlighting our
plans for a complete closed circuitry with full
feedback. Included in the paper will be descriptions of some new and decidedly novel communications equipment t'lhich l'le have developed in collaboration ldth A.T. & T. Co. and t~ich exists mwhete
else.
4.3

SESSION III

More Words Per Minute Per Kilocycle
C. B. Plummer, Federal Communications
Commission, Washington, D. C.
The amount of information lvhich may be trans- 14 -

The Place of Communications in
Integrated Data Processing

Sixteen Channel Time Division Multiplex System Employing Transistors
and Magnetic Core Memory Circuits
J. C. Myrick, Rixon Electronics, Inc.,
Silver Spring, Md. and Walter E.
Mo rro1v, M. 1. T., Cambridge, Mass ~

A four-channel time division multiplex system, utilizing vacuum tubes, has been in use for
several years. This paper describes a new development, lvhich compresses sixteen standard 60 0 r
100 lvord per minute teletype inputs into a tilE
division multiplex system developing an output
suitabl~or use with frequency-shift keying systems. [be computer field has been drawn on for
ferrite core memory circuits, shift registers,

Computers and Automation

binary count-dotvn circuits, and applications 0 f
transistors. The equipment to be described occupies the same rack space, requires far less power
input, and is inherently much more reliable than
the multiplex equipment currently in use.

3)

An important feature of this equipment is the
incorporation of timing facilities based on an oscillator with an inherent stability of one part in
ten to the eighth per day or better. This provid~
highly synchronous operation with infrequent synchronizing pulses.

TIle probability that a Rayleigh distributed random variable tdll fade bel 0 tV a
threshold for a given time.

Results obtained for the last two functions
will be presented. They agree very well wit h
known analytical results.
SESSION X
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Automatic Control. To be published in Part 4 of the
IRE Convention Record.

SESSION VII
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Information Theory. To be published in Part 4 of the
IRE Convention Record.

Automatic Control
10.5

Information Theory I
7.1

C. H. Doersam, Jr., Doerco-Consultants, Port Washington, N.Y.

Information Theory and
Quality Control
Jerome Rothstein, Signal Corps
Engineering Labs, Fort Monmouth, N.J.

A basic analogy is described between a communication system and a manufacturing system with
the follotdng correspondences between terms: me ssage source and specification, transmitter and
means for modifying ratv materials, channel and objects possessing measurable characteristics relevant to specifications, source of noise and cause
for rejection, receiver and quality measurement
system,' ensemble of received messages and lot of
manufactured articles of measured statisticalqumity. The common logical basis of statistical communication theory and statistical quality control,
plus the fact that measurement can also be described as communication, assumes particular importance
if automation is extended to encompass both quality control and proQuction.
7.5

The "Reasonableness Check" in
Automation

The nature of automation with respect to the
automatic control of a physical process is revieT.ved. The boundaries of extent and rate \\hich limit
the physical processes are noted. The new concept of "reasonableness concept" is defined in
terms of these boundaries. ExamplE; are given
which show that in its most elemental form the
reasonableness check is common. Its power when
extended to more complicated control situations
is discussed. An example of one such problem is
given. This example uses a digital computer in
an automatic control problem. It serves to indicate some of the methods tvhich have been developed from the basic concept.

SESSION XI
Sponsored by the Professional ~roup on Aeronautical and Navigational Electronics. To be published in Part 8 of the IRE Convention Record.

Evaluation of Complex Statistical
Functions by an Analog Computer
Air Traffic Control
R. R. Favreau and H. Low, Princeton
Computation Co., Princeton, N. J.
and I. Pfeffer, The Ramo-Wooldridge
Corp., Los Angeles, Calif.

11.1

This paper presents a technique for experimentally determining a number of statistical functions which are difficult or impossible to evaluate analytically. Technique developed tfill be
described by illustrating its use in evaluating
three such functions listed below:
1)

2)

The probability distribution'of time to
first passage across a threshold for a
Gaussian Random variable with a given
spectrum.
The probability distribution ft> r the
length of interval between two successive
zeros of a Gaussian random variable with
a given spectrum.
- 15 -

Symbolic Display System for Air
Traffic Control
L. T. Harris, Griffiss Air
Force Base, Rome, N. Y.

A general statement is made concerning the
work that has been accomplished to date in the
air traffic control area, the inadequateness of
present day air traffic control equipment, and a
revietv of various technical developments that hold
promise of being effectively used in air traffic
display systems.
A plan is presented for a proposed integrated display system capable of providing a nonambiguous display of aircraft identity and position coordinates suitable for high density air
traffic control application.

11.2

Computers amI 4u tomation

A Nel\' Look at Requirements fl~r
Electronic Systems in Air Traffic
Control

R. S. Grubmeyer, Franklin Institute,
Philadelphia, Pa.
As new equipments and concepts have been developed for the control of air traffic, simulation
and other tests have thrOtvn additional light on the
detailed requirements for nelV electronic systems
and equipments. Some of these requirements have
been met, but others continue to present a challenge to the e1ec tronic industry. This paper 1\'111
highlight the most pressing current requirements,
presenting the background information on their development so that alternative solutions may suggest
themselves. The primary purpose of the paper is
to develop in the industry an increased alVareness
of current needs so that research and development
programs can be guided along· the most productive
lines.
11.3

Traffic Control Electronics
Research Goes Modern
E. N. Storrs and J. L. Ryerson,
Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, N. Y.

This paper describes the system's research
and development program of the intercenter Traffic
Control Approach and Landing (TRACAL) team of the
Air Research and Development Command of the U. S.
Air Force. The basic system engineering concepts
of this group are outlined in schematic form and
the plans for the Phase I, II, and III t r a f f i c
control systems are described.
Details of the techniques being applied in the
development of enroute traffic control, approach,
landing, airfield guidance, and display are d i scussed.
11.4

SESSION XVII

Sponsored by the Professional Group on Reliability and Quality Control. To be publishe din
Part 6 of the IRE Convention Record.
Quality Control and Reliability
Studies of Electronic Equipments
17.2

Some Reliability Aspects of Systems
Design
Fred Moskowitz and J. B. Mclean,
Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, N. Y.

This report uses elementary princ i p 1 e s 0 f
probabili ty theory and a systematic developm e n t
is presented which leads to formulas, charts, and
guide rules for engineers involved in the design
of systems and equipments. Examples are g i ve n
which illustrate the use of the formulas and th e
principles derived.
This study attempts to show that 1" hen the
problem is present of obtaining reliable e~ment
which consists of unreliable parts, the solutio n
is redundancy. Complexi ty by itself need not necessarily lead to unreliability if complexi t y i s
used correc tly •
1\'0 very s imp1e redundancy schemes are described and analyzed. It is shotfn t hat ~ t i s
possible to obtain a desired reliability at relatively reasonable cost in terms of increased size
and Iveight.

SESSION XVIII
Sponsored by the Profess ional Group 0 n N uclear Science. To be published in Part 9 of th e
IRE Convention Record.

An analysis for Human Flight
Control
Nuclear Instrumentation

L. J. Fogel, Stavid Engineering, Inc.,
Plainfield, N. J.
18.2
A mathematical model of some aspects of the
aircraft information transfer process is suggested
l\'hich includes some usually disregarded human operator characteristics, such as anticipation, amplitude quantization and sequential sampling.
Various measures for system performanceevaluation are suggested. These may be used to examine
the nonstationary probability density distributwn
of the output-message lvith respect to the inputsignal probability density distribution as a
function of time. The output-message is def in e d
as the actual flight path, .while the input-signal
is taken to be the "intended" airpath-that path
described by the probability function 0 b t a i ne d
from all previous successful performance 0 f the
mission phase under consideration. The formulated
solution permi ts both nonlinear and time-varyin g
elements, provided their transduction rem a ins'
single-valued ld th time limited memory. This paper'
presents a general survey of the field and an engineering approach to many highly complex displaycontrol design problems.
- 16 -

Punch Card Recording and Multiple
Counting Data
H. D. leVine and Henry Sadowski,
U. S. Atomic Energy Commdssion,
Health and Safety Laboratory,
Net" York, N. Y.

The system will process data from as man y
as 100 counting systems by channeling a complete
set of information on a given sample into a central
IBM card punch. Automatic interrogation of individual counters permits the elimination of manual
techniques and the avoidance of the human erro r
factor. Each punch card carries detailed information on the number of the sample, the character
of the sample, activity, counting geometry of the
counti~g system, counting time, and other related
data. Most circuits were redesigned to eliminate
vacuum tubes and apply transistor and glow counter
techniques.

SESSION XXIV

Computer1'o nod AutomRtion

Sponsored jointly by the Professional Groups
on Antennas and Propagation. Telemetry and Remote
Control, and Mili tary Elec tronics. To be Published
in Part 1 of the IRE Convention Record.
Symposium: The U. S. Earth Satellite
Program -- Vanguard of Outer Space
Chairman: W. R. G. Baker, General
Electric Co., Syracuse, N. Y.

photo panel and brown recorder and also the use of
magnetic tape for recording of high frequency information in fm form to replace the oscillographs
now being .used. Both !iystems will allm'\' the use
of automatic techniques for processing the d a t a,
since the information is recorded in electrically
retrievable forms. The lot'l frequency system has
better accuracy than present systems and for most
cases the high frequency system has the equivalent
or better accuracy.

28.2

The prospect of man-made Earth Satellites to
be launched in the International Geophysical Year
(1957-8) has excited the imagination of engineer,
scientist and layman. The launching, placing i n
orbi t, cons truc tion of the rockets and satell i t e
itself present interesting engineering challenges.
Few realize, hotvever, the scope of the prob 1 ems
associated tvi th the conununication and colI ec tio n
of data from such a missile.
The objectives of the satellite program and
the scientific gains to be achieved will becovered
in this discussion. The major emphasis, however,
will be placed upon problems of:
1) Keeping track of the missile which is to
be done by radio and, more precisely, by optics,
and

2) Gathering: data from the missile. Al 1 0 f
this involves radio transmission, propagation and
intermittent reception at many points widely separated along the ground, and rapid computa t ions
based on such data.
The establishment of a satellite might co ncei vably be accomplished without. the use 0 f t·h e
electronic art. The use of electronics, however,
will increase immeasurably its value to man.

Airborne Data Acquisition System
W. H. Foster, Electronic Engineering Co., Los Angeles, Calif.

The contents of this paper are comprised 0 f
the results of Phase II of Project DATml, awarded
by EAFB to EECo of Calif. DATUM is the code name
for Data Acquisition and Transmiss ion by Unif 0 r m
Methods. Phase II is the airborne data acquisition
portion of the project. It consists of both accumulati~g and recording flight data.
In addi tion to the entire system itself, several new units discussed in the paper are: the
airborne magnetic tape recorder, recently developed
strain g·ag~ oscillators, the calibration sys t em,
and possibly a new transducer to record total fuel·
used.
This new approach to the accumulation of airborne data by uniform means facilitates rap i d ,
sometimes "instantaneous" data reduction.
I n
addi tion, there exis t no problems of time and event
correlation, such as existed when some data tV a s
recorded on photo panel, some on oscillograph recording, and some on magnetic tape after air to
gnd telemetering. With this relatively new system
accuracies of 10 per cent are "readily" obtainable.
Preliminary checkout of the system, u n d e r
simulated conditions, indicates that all des i g n
goals have been met, some superseded. Co mpIe t e
flight tests will be completed in December.

SESSION XXVIII
28.3
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Telemetry and Remote Control. To be published in Part
1 of the IRE Convention Record.

F. K. Williams, Rocketdyne Field
Lab., Rocketdyne, Canoga Park,
Calif.

Flight Data Reduction Systems
28.1

Requirements of a High Speed,
High Quantity, All-Electronic
Data Processing System

Handling large quantities of data taken over
relatively wide bandwidths is customarily done by
hand or electromechanical semi-automatic systems.
To circumvent the problem of handling this da t a,
Rocketdyne has developed an all electronic, h ig h
speed high quantity data system. This system operates on a total bandl.ddth of 1,500 cps (b a sed
on Hartley IS criterion) or 10 thousand conversions/
second of nine bits each. Analog information is
received from one hundred separate input channels,
multiplexed, clamped and converted. This data is
recorded in a permanent storage on magnetic tap e
capable of holding eight minutes of informationor
four million eight hundred thousand, eighteen bit
words. Each lyord contains the information producai
from a channel and the identification of the channel
plus a gross error marker. Since all of the data

An Improved System for Collecting
and Processing Flight Test Data
H. W. Royce, Glenn L. Martin Co.,
Baltimore, Md.

This report outlines a system l'lhich tvill be
capable of collecting aircraft and missile flight
tes t data and of resolving data reduc tion pro blems presently encountered. At the s arne time this
system offers a method for preserving better accuracy and permitting some simplification in adding netf measurements foum\, to be necessary 1 ate
in the program.
Reasons are presented for the use of digital
recording on magnetic tape as replacement for the
- 17 -

Computers and Automation

is recorded in digi tal form on tape, it can 00 usoo
to supply information to a digital electronic conr
puter, in this case an IBM 701 or IBM 704.
Th e
taped ral~ data is played back into a data selector
circui t tIThich eliminates all unwanted data tim etvise. Finally, the data ,is transcribed onto t t" 0
IBM 727 tape units in blocks of arbitrary length.
This blocked data can then be processed directly
from the console of the IBM computer in any tV a y
desired. Analog records can be reproduced, computing can be done, or punched card or typed data
taken from the machines output. The latter part
of the system can also be fed from a digi tal radio
telemetering system.

28.4

The mUltiplier consists of a simple electronic
integrator, a comparator, tt'lO output s~ gates,
and an additional comparator for each in pu.t • A
five input multiplier is described which operates
at a sampling rate of 400 cps tdth a transitio n
time to the net" produc t val ue of 100," sec.

32.2

Analog Multiplying Circuits Using
Switching Transistors
Kan Chen and R. o. Decker, Westinghouse Electric Corp., East
Pittsburgh, Pa.

Techniques for a High Speed, High
Quantity All-Electronic Data
Processing System, IDIOT II
M. L. Klein, Rocketdyne Field Lab.,
Rocketdyne, Canoga Park, Calif.

The design of a high speed, all-elec tr 0 n i c
data handling system requires the use of sever a 1
novel techniques. Multiplexing is accomplis he d
with anelectr~-mechanical, mercury jet stvitc h
which simultaneously acts as a keying system fo r
the whole record. Each input is s 1 amped i n a n
all-electronic system which allows a finite period
for the conversion to binary code. The convertor,
a prograrruned trial vol tage encoder tvhich successi vely trys binary vol tages and executes a fix e d
logic, yields a straight binary code output. This
output, along with the channel identification and
error marker are transcribed onto tape in blocks
of six and timing markers added. This tape record
is the permanent data storage. To feed the d a t a
into a computer, the data is first played in t 0 a
time filter t1hich examines only wanted data. Each
block of six bi ts is examined for oddness and evenness and a pari ty check mark added to ma i n t a i n
oddness of bits. Finally this data is rec 0 rded
on two IBM 727 tape uni ts, blocked out into p r eset lengths with ten millisecond gaps i nse r te d
wi thout loss of data. This technique makes use of
the displaced time head method for keying. Wit h
the data available in this form, it can be use d
by the IBM 701 or 704 computer from console c 0 ntroL
Several million t\Tords of data can be handled
automatically in this manner and processed at extremely high speeds.
SESSION XXXII
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Electronic Computers. To be published in Part 4 0 f
the IRE Convention Record.

Analog mUltiplication schemes based 0 II the
principle of modulated rectangular pulses have been
developed using switching transistors and squareloop magnetic cores. A two quadrant mUltiplying
circuit employs amplitude and frequency modulatiDn.
A four quadrant multiplying circui t employs amplitude and pulsewidth modulation.
Each circuit has a high degree of r~produci­
bili ty and basic simplici ty that is not found i n
most vacuum tube multipliers. The accuracy 0 ve r
a two decade range of output is as good as t hat
achieved by more complex vacuum tube c irc u its.
Good temperature stability is possible because the.
transistors operate in a SId tching mode. The response time of both multiplying circuits is equal
to one cycle of the modulated rectangular pulses.
With distinct durability, dependability and long
1 ife, these cireui ts should find tdde accept a nc e
in both industrial and military applications.

32.3

A Multiple Input Analog Multiplier

Logic Design of the RCA Bizmac
Computer
A. D. Beard, L. S. Bensky, D. L.
Nettleton, and G. E. Poorte, Radio
Corporation of America, Camden, N.J.

The RCA Bizmac computer has been deve 1 <> p e d
as a maj or element of the Bizmac sys tern, and may
be described as a general-purpose three-addres s
stored-program machine. It has certain specialized
features which make it adept in cyclical accounting applications: completely variable word length
in all internal operations; highly-flexible i nstruction complement directed toward data-orga~
ing abili ty; a control philosophy which of fer s
great operational flexibility and s imp 1 if i e s
troubleshooting and maintenance.
The present paper tfill outline the control
and organiZational concepts of the computer.

32.4

Electric Computers I

32.1

a number of input variables. Positive vo 1 tag e
analogs of the input factors are periodically Sampled to produce an output product which changes in
discrete steps at the sampling rate.

Input and Output Devices in the
RCA Bizmac System

J. A. Brustman, K. L. Chien, C. I.
Cole, and D. Flechtner, Radio
Corporation of America, Camden, N.J.

D. D. Porter and A. S. Robinson,
Columbia University, Net" York, N.Y.

This paper will describe the f u nc t ion a 1
characteristics and some of the design feature s

This paper describes an electronic a n a log
computing technique for obtaining the product of

- 18 -

of the follotdng equipments:

Computers and Automation

Tape1.vri ter - A manual keyboard device which
creates punched paper tape.
Tapewriter-Verifier -- Permits a character-Qycharacter verification of a previ ously
prepared tape.
Paper Tape Transcriber - Transfers information from the punched paper tape to magnetic tape.
Card Transcriber -- Trans lates informa t ion
from punched cards to Bizmac code on magnetic tape.
Electro-Mechanical Printer - The major highspeed output printer of the Bizmac System.
Magnetic Tape Transcriber -- Transfersinformation from magnetic tape to punched paper
tape in the RCA Bizmac code.
Interrogation Unit -- Permi ts direc t acce s s
to the Tape File for a rush random interrogation.
32.5

Burroughs Series G High Speed Printer
E. M. DiGiulio, Control Instrument Co.,
Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.

The Burroughs Series G high speed' printer is
a device capable of printing 900 lines per minute
from punched cards. It represents the gre ate s t
single advance yet achieved in increasing the speed
of tabulating and printing machines. This p ape r
discusses some of the basic design features th a t
make this high speed operation feasible. Chi e f
among these are the dual card feed with its independent picker knife control, the unique tiT i r e
printing arrangement and the electronic circuitry
used for decoding and encoding information to be
printed. The paper will also cover some 0 f the
features to be incorporated in subsequent machines
of this series, such as accumulation, magneti c
core storage, a bill feed printer and a pr in t e r
punch.
SESSION XXXV
Sponsored by the Professional Group on P r 0duction Techniques. To be published in Part 6 of
the IRE Convention Record.
Design Approaches with Printed Wiring
35 .. 2

Principles of Circuit Design
for Automation
H. S. Dordick, Radio Corporation
of America, Camden, N. J.

analysis. The technique is applied to a v ari e t y
of products and the resultant standardized aut 0mation package is shown. Slides will be presented.
SESSION XXXIX
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Electronic Computers. To be published in Part 4 of the
IRE Convention Record.
Electronic Computers -- II
Chairman: John H. Hmvard, Burroughs Corp.,
Paoli, Pa.

39.1

B. Cox and J. Goldberg, Stanford
Research Inst., Menlo Park, Calif.
A recently announced electronic accounting
machine (ERMA) is required to file 50,000 items a
day to magnetic tape storage. The filing proceeds
continuously during the day and utilizes a magnetic
drum as a temporary storage device. Each item is
identified by an index number; the items are entered to the machine sequentially in random index number, but are stored on magnetic tape in numerical
order. The sorting operation occurs between drum
and tape and is accomplished by a unique electronic-sorter, which is characterized by its ability
to scan a large number of drum tracks simultaneously td th but a single index number regis ter and a
minimum of associated logical circuitry. The system is further characterized by a small number of
lvri ting-erasing operations per item.
39.2
A Magnetic Drum Extension to the Gamma 3
Computer
P.L. Dreyfus, H.G. Feissel, and B.M.
Leclerc, Compagnie Des Machines Bull.,
Paris, France
The BULL Gamma 3, a production line computer,
t'las primarily designed tv! th a ,small internal storage to be connected to standard punched card machines.
An extension including a magnetic drum and
high speed storage may not\' be connected to the existing model, increasing a thousand fold its internal storage.
This paper will describe logical and technological problems.involved in this connection and
some basic features of drum circuitry.
39.3

The equivalence of circuit design,requi rements for high volure automation and j ob- s ho p
automation is shotvn. A technique of a n a I y sis
known as sub-modularization is described. Th i s
resul ts in circuit elements of standard s i z e ,
content, configuration, and manufacturing p r 0cessing. These elements are applicable to many
diverse types of equipment, creating a mass produced type of product within the, job-shop. A mathematical representation is given which aids in
standardization of circuits and systematizing the

A Magnetic Drum Sorting System

The Univac Magnetic Computer - Part 1.
Logical Design and Specifications
A.J. Gehring, L.W. Stowe, and L.D.
Wilson, Remington Rand Univac Division
of Sperry Rand Corp., Philadelphia~ Pa.

This paper describes a two address, decimal
serial, binary parallel computer which uses about
1,500 magnetic core devic~s together with germanium diodes to perform all arithmetic and control
functions. The arithmetic element lIS:"S four rna/]_ 19 (continued o~ page ~2)

Free
an'd

Use
the

of

the

Remote

Toronto

Computer,

Programming

of

It

PART 1
~

1.

c.

GOTLJER and'others
Computation ~entre
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

Note By the Editor:

III.

In the December 1955 issue of "Computers and
Automation", The Editor's Notes contained a brief
report of a conversation in Boston lvith Dr. C.C.
Gotlieb of the Computation Centre at the University of Toronto. Dr. Gotlieb said that they had
a policy' of allowing free use of their Ferranti
computer Ferut, to a reasonable extent, to any
investigator (t"hether in Canada or not) t"ho was
not going to profit personally from the research:
this in spite of the fact that they regularly
charge $100 an hour for the use of their computer
on commercial problems. He invited the putting
of problems of this class on Ferut.

PREFACE
This manual was written for scientists, engineers and others in Canada to make available to
them the use of FERUT, the automatic electronic
digital computing machine at the Computation Centre in the University of Toronto. It is intended
also to acquaint other readers with the systems
used here. With its aid one can write programs
for computations by the machine without having to
learn the many intricacies that must be mastered
by the professional programmer whose concern is
with the efficient use of the machine in long calculations. Already programs in Transcode have
been written outside Toronto and the results of
computation sent by mail. Wherever a number of
similar calculations have to be done as part of a
research, it is advantageous to use this method
in place of a desk calculator. For calculaiions
that do not involve many hours of machine time,
Transcode overcomes the difficulty of providing
sufficient expert prograffimdng help to accomplish
all the t"ork for tvhich the machine is sui table
and for which computing time is available.

In addition Dr. Gotlieb said that they were
planning to tie in their computer by teletype
with many other universities in Canada, so that
each co~ld have access to the machine and put its
ot"n problems first hand onto the machine. In this
way they could make their one machine helpful to
the whole of Canada for research and instruction.
II.

From "Transcode Manual" -- ~_System
of Automatic Programming for FERUT,
the Ferranti Mark I Electronic Digital Computer at the University of
Toronto, published by the Computation Centre, University of Toronto,
Canada, October, 1955, 58 pages:

From Dr. C.C. Gotlieb:

I thought that was a very fair report of the
conversation t"e had in Boston. The programming
of our machine is such that we have not exactly
been swamped by requests from outside users to
avail themselves of the free machine time for
"r.eal code" problems.

The general ideas embodied in this system
were evolved by Professors Hume and Gotlieb. The
very substantial amount of expert programmdng required to prepare the machine to translate the
simplified Transcode program was carried out by
Professor Hume and Dr. Worsley. The system was
'first put in operation in September, 1954. Since
then a number of elegant improvements, especially
those due to Dr. Kates, Dr. Worsley and Mr. Watson, have been incorporated. Much ingenuity has
gone into the routines for the machine that the
user of Transcode unconsciously relies on.
Prof. Griffith and Mr. Weir have also contributed
library routines. The manual was prepared by ~­
fessor Gotlieb, Dr. Worsley and Mrs .. A. Wallis.
Already over fifty persons have used the system
in their work. To encourage learners, it may be
mentioned that graduate students in science and
engineering at Toronto have learned readily in a
very short time and are enthusiastic users.

I am sending under separate cover a cop Y
of our new Transcode Manual which contains a description of our system of automatic programming
for Ferut. We find we can teach this system in
a few hours and Transcode programs from outside
Toronto have been coming in steadily. You will
also be interested to know that we have had five
evenings of extremely successful runs tvi th the
Uni versi ty of Saskatchelvan via the teletype link
supplied by the Canadian National Railways. It
D;lay be that CNR will provide us wi th free tel etype lines to any Canadian uni vers i ty and the
experience t"e have had to date makes us extremely enthusiastic about this way of running. There
are already some fifteen people at the University
of Saskatchetvan who have run problems on Fer u t
wi thout ever having seen the machine, and w e
feel that we can appreciably increase the number
of students tiho acquire experience on a computer
during their university career.

For those without much knowledge of computing by machine who approach this manual hopefully,
may I suggest that the main initial hurdle to be
overcome is the mastery of new vocabulary. A
serious attempt has been made to make the reading

- 40 -

ComputerN Rnd Automlltioll

of this manual easy in that respect for them. At
the same time it is fair.to point out that although FERUT operated Iii th Tra:tscode accompl ishes
in one hour as much calculation as a man with a
desk machine can do in one month, the l'lri ting of
a program means producing in some detail the series of instructions required. Accordingly attention to detail cannot be avoided. HOl1ever it is
soon 1earned and the aide memoire or summary sheet
requires only a single sheet of paper.

Chapter 4.

Examples ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 33

Chapter 5.

Libra~y

Appendix

Lest it should be thought that Transcode is
a sort of programmdng only for amateurs I should
like to mention that in the interest of speed of
computing FERUT is a fixed-point machine ordinarily. Ho'tyever, programming tv! th fixed dec i mal
point encounters on occasion quite exacting problems of scaling. By its use of floating point,
Transcode is a valuable aid to the programmer facing scaling problems and indeed in some calcu1.ations Transcode is more economical than fixed
point computation. Since, in Transcode, numbers
are submitted to the machine in decimal form, the
user is saved all contact with binary arithmetic.
Finally in introducing the reader to the authors may I suggest that he keep in mind that he
is investing his time in a rewarding venture.
Hours of desk computing are handled painlessly by
the machine in a few minutes.
As Director of the Computation Centre I moWd
like to take this opportunity of expressing my
appreciation of the enthusiasm and hard work of
the Centre staff in creating this new facility at
Toronto to serve the interests of scientific co~
puting in Canada. I hope their efforts will be
rewarded by a good response from the physicists
and others it is written for.

III
IV
V

1.1

GENERAL

Electronic Digital Computers

The FERUT computer is one of a type generally described by the terms digital and auto rna ti c.
The term digital is used to distinguish such co~
puters from analog, or continuosly-variable d evices, of which the slide-rule and differenti a 1
analyser are common examples. The earlier digital calculators, such as the abacus and desk-type
adding machines, lyere designed to mechanize only
the ari thmetical operations which occur in han d
calculations. H01vever, these r~quire a human operator to carry out such processes as in pu tti n g
data, transferring intermediate results from one
register to another, transcribing the final anStfers into a presentable form and possibly e~loy­
ing judgment at some stage in the calculation to
decide between alternative procedures. The term
automatic is applied to computers which are des igned to carry out these processes wi thout the
intervention of an operator.
FERUT can also be described as a stared-program calculator. That is to say, it functions by
obeying a sequence of instructions which must first
be stored within the machine in some coded form.

TRANS CODE MANUAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.2

Functional Units

Computers satisfying the above description
are now named after Dr. A. M. Turing of Mandeste~
who first postulated the theoretical form of a
machine t.vhich would calculate any computable nu~
ber. In practical terms, Turing machines must contain five basic units:

Chapter 1. General
1.1 Electronic Digital Computers •••••••••• l
1.2 Functional Units •••••••••••••••••.•••• l
1.3 Machine Instructions ••• ~ •••••••••••••• 2
1.4 Automatic Coding Techniques ••••••••••• 4
Chapter 2. The Transcode Machine
2.1 Machine Description ••••••••••••••••••• 6
2.2 Transcode Instructions •••••••••••••••• 9
2.3 Tape Controls •••••••••••••••••••••••• 19
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6

CHAPTER 1.

Finally, FERUT may be described as a un i versal calculator in the sense that it can be used
to solve any problem which can be reduced to a sequence of numerical operations on given data.
Only considerations of speed and storage capacity
can qualify this statement.

W.H. Watson, Director.

Chapt~r

Magnitude Restrictions on ~
Transcode Number ••••••••••••• 53
Ferut Operating Sheet for
Transcode ••••••••••• 54
Times of Transcode Operations •••• 56
Glossary of Terms •••••••••••••••• 57
Summary Sheet •••.•••••••••••••••• 59

I
II

If any learner experiences difficulty we
should like to hear from his so that lye may profit by learning where lye failed as instructors.

Functions ••••.••••••••••••• 43

(i)
(ii)
(iii)

3. Operating Notes
Program Design ••••••••••••••••••••••• 22
Tape Preparation ••••••••••••••••••••• 23
Console Procedures ••••••••••••••••••• 25
Write Taping ••••• ~ ••••••••••••••••••• 26
Transcode Zero and Infinity •••••••••• 27
Special Coding Techniques •••••••••••• 28

(iv)
(v)

an input unit,
a set of storage registers,
an arithmetical unit capable of
performing logical or arithmetic
operations on arrays of dig its
stored in the registers,
an output unit, and
a control unit which arranges for
the functioning of the computer as
a whole.

The set of available operations constitutes
- 21 '-

Computers and Automation

the instruction code of a given computer. The program, or set of these instructions r~quired tosriWe
a given pt:oblem, must be prepared by a proc es s
known as coding, and fed into the store 0 f the
comput~r before being obeyed.
The individual instructions then assume the same physical fo r m as
numbers within the machine. The operation of computing involves the following steps:
(i)

(ii)

(iii)

inputting the program, along with
any necessary data, such as starting values, parameters, and tables
of empirical functions,
initiating the calculation by causing the control to proceed to the
first instruction,
removing the final results,
(outputting instructions are generally included in the program).

A machine like FERUT makes use of special storage
registers to carry out its operations. There is
an accumulator, a register into which the immediate re,sul ts of an arithmetic or logical operation
are placed. ,There is also a set of B-registers
which can be used to modify machine instructions
as they are obeyed without altering their form in
the store and without recourse to the accumulator.
B-registers can be used as counters, since addition
and subtraction can be carried out directly on
their contents.

Digit representation within a computer need
not be decimal. Scales of 32, 8 and 2 are common.
The binary, or scale of 2, representation is used
in FERUT. Each bit, or unit of binary information,
may be represented by an on-or-off device, and recognized by the presence or absence of a b rig h t
spot on a cathode-ray tube.
1.3

Machine Instructions

A machine instruction consists of two part~
a functional operator and an operand. The operand
generally consists of one or more addresses, that
is, names of store locations which contain relevant information. Thus a typical single-address
instruction might be

ADD 567
Th is l\1ould ins truc t the computer to add the number stored in the 567th storage location to the
number already contained in the accumulator. A
three-address instruction could take on the form:

In FERUT, instructions are single-address.
Each is represented by one "line", i.e. a set of
'20 binary digits (bits) of stored information.
Of these 20 bits,' the last 6 are used to specify
the operation, the'first 10 to specify the address of the operand, 'and the remainder to specify
the B-register used to modify the instruction.
A B-register contains the same number of bits as
a stored line, and is therefore commonly referred
to as a B-line. Outside the machine, each instruction is represented by four characters, each
5-bit character being a symbol in the standard
teletype code.
It should be noted that machine instt:uctions
are generally quite elementary. Each one achieves
only a fragmentary portion of the entire task to
be performed so that much detailed work is necessary to prepare a problem for automatic solution.
Another practical difficulty often encountered by the programmer for a universal computer
is that of scaling. FERUT is a fixed-point ma chine, that is to say, the binary point ~emains in
a fixed position relative to the binary digits
used to represent a number within the machine.
Hence numbers within a limited t:ange of magnitude
only are allowed to occur in the course of a calculation. For example, one may be using the machine in such a lfay that all numbers are required
to lie between -1/2 and+l/2. Since it is possible for the sum of a set of numbers to exceed
these bounds even though each individual number
lies within them, suitable scale factors must be
attached to the individual numbers so that such
an overflol\' does not occur. Compensation for
these factors must be made elsewhere in the program. The problems of scaling become acute when
scale factors cannot be chosen so as to permit retention of a sufficient number of significant figures. It may then be preferable to represent numbers in floating form, that is, as standardized
numbers or mantissae tv! th appropriate exponents.
Thus -736.25: ~7.3625 x 102 and may be repre~ted
by the mantissa -7.3625 and the exponent 2. A
fixed-point computer can be made to handle floating numbers by the use of special coding methods.
Similarly, of course, a binary computer can be
used to deal with numbers represented in any other
scale of notation.

1.4

SUBT ABC
anJ instructs the machine to subtract the number
in storage location B from the number in storage
location A and place the result in storage location C. Machines in which instructions are not
obeyed sequentially must provide for the operand
to include the address containing the n ext i nstruction. Thus a two-address code migh.t pr 0 v ide
instructions like
ADD 0052

in the address 0052 to the accumulator and select
the next instruction out of address 7631.

Automatic Coding Techniques

Experience has shown that certain routines
(or sub-sections of programs) can be devised in
a sufficiently flexible manner to carryover from
one problem to another. Thus routines can be
l"ri t ten once and for all to perform such operatiom
as:
(i)

7631
(ii)

which l'Jould require the machine to add the number

(iii)

- 22 -

reading-in instructions through the
input unit, converting them into the
form required by the computer and
storing them as required by the program,
similarly inputting decimal data,
evaluating certain functions such as

C.omputers and Automat101l

(iv)

(v)

(vi)

sines and cosines,
performing calculations such as advancing the integration of a system of differential equations by one step in accordance with some established numerical method,
printing out data, with all necessary
conversion from machine form to required layout on the printed page,
arranging to perform a sequence of instructions a prescribed number of times
before proceeding to the next part of
the calculation.

This last operation is commonly known as looping, and is often accompanied by a systematic modification of some of the instructions in the s~nce.
It is this technique t.vhich really makes a storedprogram calculator workable, since it takes advantage of the repetitive nature of calculations suitable for automatic execution.
To use a computer efficiently, it is necessazy
to consolidate and unify coding techniques. First
of all, a scheme of input and organization of routines must be adopted. Compatible Id th this scheme,
a library of routines must be constructed to perform such operations as have just bee~ described.
There is still a considerable amount of work to be
done for each problem by way of co-ordinating library routines into a completed program and this entails a full knowledge of the code and specifications of the machine.
Thus the final step towards automatizing coding techniques is to arrange for the computer itself to do the organizing and coding by a pseudocode. Transcode is an automatic coding systemt~t­
ten especially for FERUT. It derives its name from
the fact that it arranges for all information, prepared for input in a simplified form, to be read
into the machine from a punched paper tape and
translated into the form required by the computer.
This translating tak~s place automatically on c e
and for all before the calculation proper is started. Translation routines of this type are a 1 s 0
known as compiling routines or compilers.
CHAPTER 2.
2.1

THE TRANSCODE MACH INE

Machine Description

When programming t.'Ii th Transcode, FERUT may be
regarded as another machine in Ivhich the specifications for numerical representation, storage organization and instruction code are quite different from those for the "real" machine. The following are the properties of the Transcode machine.
2.11 Number Representation
It is not necessary for the Transcode user to
become familiar with the binary system. Numbers
normally entering into a calculation are expressed in the floating decimal system, that is every
number has associated t"li th ita power of ten which
may be considered as its scale factor. For example
-107.345 is written -1.07345 x 10 +2.
- 23 -

Since the normal machine code of FERUT is
constructed to operate on numbers in fixed-point
binary form, a conversion must take place whenever floating decimal numbers are read in. For
in
Transcode each floating-decimal number is,
fact, represented by its equivalent floating-binary form, two lines (40 bits) of machine storage
being used to represent the mantissa, and the fo~
lowing line (20 bits) to represent twice the binary exponent. (The factor two in the exponent
was adopted for convenience in coding). It is
possible to carry as many as 12 significant decimals in a Transcode calculation.
Integers, as well as fractions, can of course
be punched in floating-decimal form and read into
the machine. They then occupy three lines of machine storage. The representation may not always
be exact, however, since an error of 1 in ~O may
be introduced by the conversion.
When counting iterations it is necessary to
represent integers exactly within the computer
and of a length which can readily be used in a
B-line. Therefore an alternative representation
has been provided for integers. All the numbers
used in B-lines are 20-bi t integers in fix e dpoint form. Note also that the exponent part of
a floating number is an even integer of this sort.
2.12 Storage OrganiZation
The Transcode machine, like FERUT, has two
levels of stores, electronic and magnetic. The
ELECTRONIC store consists of three pages* labelled X, Y and Z. There are 21 addresses or store
positions on each of the X and Y pages, labelled
XOl, X02, •• X21; YOl, Y02, •• Y21. The Z page contains only thirteen addresses ZOI •• Z13. All of
these electronic storage positions are individually and simultaneously available during computation and they may be used to store data, intermediate results or tables.
The MAGNETIC store consists of 64**DRUM locations, divided equally into two sets, called
the lot..rer and upper halves of the range. Each
DRUM location can be used as an auxiliary store
for a block of 21 electronic store positions. The
contents of the X or Y page may be transferred as
a whole, to or from a DRUM location by means of
instructions described below. The Z page can be
transferred only under the conditions of Section
3.64. Such an operation replaces the previous
set of 21 numbers with the new material. DRUM
locations may also be filled directly from the input tape. It should be noted that the magnetic
store is only accessible in block form, this being an engineering feature of the machine.

Transcode also makes provision for storing
up to 21 CONSTANTS per program. These are labelled COl, C02, •• C21. They retain their identity
'throughout the execution of a calculation and can
only be introduced by input from tape before the
calculation commences. They are actually stored
among the translated machine instructions to become available as required by the program.
*
These pages correspond to the cathode ray
tubes which can be viewed from the console. Each

r...omputers and Automa tion

contains 64 lines of machine storage arranged' i n
tl\t) col umns.
In the X and Y pages, the 1 a s t 63
lines are used for storage of Transcode numbers,
and the first is spare. In' the Z page, the 1 as t
39 lines are used for storage of Transcode numbers,
and the remainder are used by Transcode for monitoring purposes and must not normally be altered
by the program.

2.2

Transcode Instructions

2.21

Arithmetic Instructions
The ins truc tions
XOl.O
XOl.O
XOl.O
X01.0

ADDN
SUBT
MULT
DIVD

**

This number may be increased by special arrangement with the operator.

Z01.0
ZOl.O
ZOl.O
ZOl.O

YOLO
YOl.O
Y01.0
YOLO

have the effect of placing respectively in ZOI the
four results (XO!) + (YO!), (x0!) - (YO!), (x0!) x
(YO!) and (x0!) -:- (YOU. In general, the fir s t
two addresses may be any of the X, Y, Z or C 1 0cations, and their contents are left unchanged by
the operation. The third address may be an X, Y
or Z location.

2.13 Instructions
The program for a calculation consists of a
consecutively numbered set of instructions. These
are numbered in sequence,' as 001, 002, 003 etc.
Thus each instruction in a given program can be
identified by its "instruction number", jjj. Instructions are of the three address type, and always take the form of:

The instruction
1/2QRT

a four letter functional part specuying
the operation to be done.
(ii) three addresses, each having four digits,
specifying the storage locations of the
operands, results, arguments, etc.

XOl.O

000.0

Z01.0

(i)

The first three of the four digits of each
address speclfy a storage location as d efi ned
above. The fourth digit can refer to a B 1 i n e,
as described belo1v; for the moment it tfill be taken
as zero, which indicates no B-modification. Fo r
some instructions, this four-digit address may take
on a specialized form, such as an integer, specifying how many Transcode numbers arero be printed.
It may even be a dummy, in tfhich case it is represented by four zeros. The exact meaning of e a c h
of the four digits in each of the three addresses
is defined below for each instruction and thisinformation is summarized in Appendix V.

has the effect of placing ""(XO!) in ZOI. The instruction

KOMP

XOl.O

I (XO!) I -

places

Y01.0

ZOl.O

(YO!) in ZOI.

The possible addresses for these two instructions
are as for the four instructions above.
The use of the first five instructions ~ obvious and in fact they are the basic compu tin g
instructions. The KOMP (compare) instruction has
many uses; in particular if (Yon
zero it stores
the modulus of a number. This is often necessary
in examining for convergence or in. determining if
two supposedly equal res ul ts agree (see ex amp 1 e
below for calculating ~ - >' ).

=

A few preliminary remarks may be made abo u t
Transcode instructions. "Storage location" her e
is to ~an magnetic or electronic. The contents
of any" storage location are indeterminate, unt i 1
filled by a programmed operation. The conten t s
of storage locations used as arguments in a Transcode operation are left unaltered by the operation.
The resul ts of a Transcode oper"ation are pIa c e d
in the designated storage location, imp 1 yin g a
replacement of information previously s tor e d
therein. Constants, however, can only be intr 0duced initially from the input tape.

2.22

Let (x0!) be used to represent the contents
of storage location XOI. Then the instruc t ion
"add (XO!) to (YO!) and place the result in ZOl"
and having the instruction number ooj, is written
as
OOj ADDN XOl.O
YOl.O
ZOl.O

places floating point zero (here .• ' _10- 10 ,000) in
XOI and may be applied to any X, Y or Z address.
It is useful for clearing locations bef 0 ret h e
start of an iteration. Here the last tlfo addresses
are dunmies.

The instruction
OVER

(j)

(iv)

XOl.O

000.0

ZOl.O

transfers (XOl) to ZOl, leaving (XOl) unchanged.
It has possible addresses as for the first fo u.r
instructions. Note, however, that the second address here is a du~.
ZERO

XOl.O

000.0

000.0

The next two instructions arrange for the
transfer of information between the DRUM and
electronic store.

The instructions for the TRANS CODE machi n e
tdll be discussed under the following headings:
(ii)
(iii)

Transfer Instructions

Arithmetic instructions
Transfer instructions
Looping and control-transfer instruc-'
tions
Miscellaneous instructions
- 24 -

READ

001.0

000.0

XOO.O

copies the contents of DRUM position 001 0 n to
page X, i.e. positions XOI to X21. This is commonly referred to as "reading down from the DRUM".

Computers an~ Automation

WRlE

001.0

000.0

iOo.o

copies the contents of page X on to DRUM position
001. This is commonly referred to as "writing up
to the DRUM".
In general any of the DRUM positions, and the
X or Y page (but.!!Q.1 the Z page) may be use d •
These instructions may be B-modified as explained
at the end of this section. The analogy of reading
pages out of or Il(ri ting pages into a book might be
noted.

Note that' the address of the last number to b e
operated upon is written into the instruction address which is to be progressively mOdified, the
fourth digit being the number of the B line co ntrolling the loop. While the above three instructions are the ones written into the program, the
instructions actually obeyed are carried 0 u t i n
the following sequence:
LOOP
ZERO
TR~

ZERO
2.23

Looping and Control Transfer Instructions

TR~

ZERO
To achieve econo~ of effort in writing programs, it is necessary to arrange that sequence s
of instructions be used over and over again, i.e.
to Il(ri te loops. B-lines have several uses, and
one' of the most important is to act as coun te r s
to facilitate looping. The LOOP and B-conditionru
TRNS (transfer control) instructions h a ve bee n
specially devised for this pu-rpose. Suppose th a t
it is required to cycle through a set of instructions 21 times, before proceeding to the next instruction. This can be achieved by
001
002

LOOP

021.0

000.3

TRNS

002.0

000.3

I~T

000.0

The process of looping is very commonly accompanied by the progressive modification of certain instructions Id thin the loop. Tra ns cod e
enables this to be done automatically, using the
same B-line that controls the loop.

001
002

ZERO
ZERO

XOl.O
X-2.0

000.0
000.0

000,.0
000.0

021

ZERO

X2l.0

000.0

000.0

TR~

000.0
000.0

Set B 3 to 3(21-1), an integer.
Place "zero" in Store X21 + (B3) •
Subtract 3 from (B3) and test the
sign of B3. If it is positive or
zero, send control to instruction
002. If it is negative, procee d
to the next instruction, n a mel y
004.

In general any of the X, Y, or Z ad dre sse s
can be B modified. A control transfer can tak e
place to any instruction in the program, and may
be made conditional on anyone of the B lines 2,
3, 4, 5 or 6. Note that the addresses of constants
can not be B modified.

001.0

000.0

000.0

causes control to obey instruction 001 n ext u ncondi tionally. The last two addresses are dummies.
TRNS

001.0

000.0

X01.0

causes a jump of control to 001 if the mant is s a
of (XOl)~ 0, othe~~ise the next instruction will
follow in the usual l'\(ay. In general, the tit i r d
address here may refer to any X, Y or Z positio n
but not B modified, and the second address is a
dummy.

The following method allows a much s h 0 r t e r
seq~ence of instructions to do the same thing:
000.3
000.0
000.3

000.0
000.0

Magnetic storage locations can also be p r 0gressively modified.- However, since it is generally required to modify them in ascending and
consecutive sequence, a different technique, r equiring tll(O B lines, is necessary. This is d i scussed later.

TRNS

021.0
X21.3
002.0

002.0
X21.0
004.

There are two other control transferinstructions which are useful.

Suppose, for example, it is desired to place
ZERO in each of the locations X01, X02, ••• X21 •
This could be accomplished by the twenty-one instructions

LOOP
ZERO

000.0
000.0
000.0
000.0
000.0
000.0

The mechanism by which the above pro c e s s
takes place is as follows: numbers in the X, Y or
Z addresses are actually stored in reverse sequence
Iv! thin the machine, separated by 3 machine address
units. During translation, the 3 written instructions become, in words
001.
002.
003.

The LOOP instruction here prepares the machine to repeat 21 times the set of instructions
which follows, B3 being assigned in this case as
the counter for keeping track of the number of the
iteration. The third address here is a dum my.
The TRNS instruction terminates the sequencetobe
cycled through in the following way. It m a k e s
the machine select as its next instruction the
one numbered 002, provided That B3 has not ye t
counted off the numbep of iterations specifiedby
the LOOP instruction. When B3 shows the co u n t
to be complete, the TRNS instruction allows control to proceed as usual to the next instruction,
00 (n+2) in the numbered sequence.

001
002
003

in

000.3
000.0
000.0
000.0
000.0
000.0

000.0

(Set of INST to be
(obeyed 21 times over)
OOn
00 (n + 1)

TRNS
ZERO

021.0
X01.0
002.0
X02.0
002.0
X03.0

This last control transfer instruction may
be combined wi th the KOMP ins truc tion to m a k e a
simple way of testing when some iterated proces s
produces a negligibly small result. Suppose for
example it is desired to compute -Q,-I.
from its

000.0
000.0
000.0

(continued on page 14)

- 25 -

WESTERN
San

Ti tIes

JOINT"

COMPUTER

Francisco,
and

CONFERENCE,

February, 1956

Abstracts

of

Papers

The Joint Computer Conference Committee (formed by the American Institute of E~­
trical Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Radio
Engineers) held the Ninth Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, Calif., Feb 7-9,
1956. The proceedings of the conference will be printed soon, and may be purchased
from any of th"e sponsoring societies, for example, from the Association for Computing
Machinery, 2 East 63 St., New York 21, N.Y.
Following are the titles and abstracts of the papers given.

Tuesday, February 7
10:00 a.m •• Noon

OPENING SESSIOl'1
Terrace Rooni

Chairman
Oliver Whitby, technical program coordinator, Stanford Research Institute
Keynote Speaker
Norman H. Taylor, computer systems engineer, Lincolu
Labs., M.I.T.
Walter E. Larew, brigadier general, chief, Army Communications Service Div., Office of the Chief Signal
Officer
Harold Silverstein, special assistant to the Chief Sig~al
Officer
Benedict Jacobelis, captain, Office of the Chief Signal
Officer
Computation of electronic exploitation techniques for weapons
systems and research activities has been a major activity in
the military services for over a decade. The past few years
have been marked with stimulated interest in the application
of these same electronic techniques to the business type
activities of the Army. Acting under guidance from the top
levels of command the Army has established an aggressive
program to outline electronic data processing systems in
supply operations, personnel, and fiscal management and
other administrative activities. Although this program is
aimed at far.reaching improvements through long-range
planning and operations research, it is planned to take action in those areas which offer immediate benefits.

:! :00 • 5 :00 p.m.

PROGRAMMING AND CODING
Terrace Room

A Truly Automatic Computing System
Mandalay Grems, Boeing Airplane Co.
R. E. Porter, Boeing Airplane Co.
A mathematical computing problem can be given directly to
a digital computer as a set of algebraic expressions. These
algebraic expressions are written in terms of familiar symbols
for parentheses, parameters, constants, arithmetic operations,
transcendental functions, and a few logical operations. The
computer itself interprets and translates these expressions to
machine instructions and automatically records these in·
structions in a form which can be used repeatedly with input
data for computing results. The input data are entered as
decimal coefficients with reference to a parameter or con·
stant. The coefficient includes a decimal point and can be
accompanied by a "power of ten." The computing is performed in a floating decimal system and no scaling of values
is necessary by the originator of the problem.

Lincoln Laboratory Utility Program System
H. D. Bennington, Lincoln Lab., M.I.T.
C. H. Gaudette, Lincoln Lab., M.I.T.
This paper discusses a utility program system to assist the
coding, checkout, maintenance and documentation of large.
scale, control programs. A typical program contains 50,000
instructions, one million bits of data storage, and is pre- .
pared by a staff of 20-40 programmers, many of whom are
relatively inexperienced. The utility system requires 25,000
registers.

An Automatic Supervisor Jor the IBM 702
Bruse Moncrieff, Rand Corporation
The operation of a large-scale data processor making ex·
tensive use of magnetic tapes is a routine·dominated situ·
ation. Recognition of this leads to the hope that many of
the operating procedures can be given over to the machine.
The motive is to increase the operating efficiency by cutting
down the non-productive time between jobs; by reducing
the human effort in tape handling and identification; and
by reducing the re-run time caused by operator errors.

Chairman
Francis V. Wagner, group leader, eNgineering computing, North American Aviation, Inc.
Gestalt Programming: A New Concept in Automatic Programming
Douglas T. Ross, Servo Lab., M.LT.

\

Gestalt Programming is a desired special language by which
a human and computer can converse with each other. Its function is to allow~ both easily and quickly: (a) the computer
to inform the human of the computer's troubles, (b) the
human to inquire as to the status of the solution of a prob·
lem being solved on the computer, (c) the computer to do
a major portion of its own programming, or (d) the solutions of problems involving both human and computer
decisions.

2:00 p.m.· 5:00 p.m. AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT
Nob Hill Theater
Chairman
W. F. Gunning, Beckman Instruments, Inc.

26 -

Computers and Automation
Engineerin!! Desi!!n of a Magnetic Disk Random,
Access JUemory

Magnetic Recording Head Design
A. S. Hoagland, assistant professor, University of California

T. Noyes~ project engineer~ I.B.M.
W. E. Di('kinson~ project engineer. I.B.l\I.

An analysis of the process of magn~tic recording of digital
data is presented from which qualitative head design concepts are developed and their usefulness demonstr~ted, both
in the evaluation of structures and in design for high density
storflge. The vector nature (or three dimensionality) of
the problem is considered and the condition of operation is
non-contact.

The IBM 305 :Magnetic Disk Random Acce:;s File is a
5,000.000 character storage unit with fairly rapid access to
any individual record. The random access time places this
storage medium in the range between magnetic cores and
magnetic tapes. The general construction and layout of the
machine will be reviewed. The access mechanism and posi.
tioning of the magnetic heads is discussed in detail and a
description of the air-heads is presented. Recording densities
are variable and a modified non·return·to·zero method of
recording is used.

A '1 erminalJor Data Transmission Over Telephone
Circuits

E. B. Ferrell, switching research engineer, Bell Telephone Laboratories

"Print" Coding System for the

In a recent experiment, a simple terminal for data transmission has been demonstrated. Such a terminal might be
associated with a special telephone line. Between two such
terminals it would be possible to send data back and forth
at the rate of 750 bits per second, or 1000 words per minute.
The demonstration equipment involved magnetic tape to
magnetic tape transmission using amplitude modulation of
a 1200·cycle carrier. It err,ployed a 7·bit self-checking code.

705

U. W. Berner, I.B.M. Corp.
PRINT (PRe-edited INTerpretive system) is basically an
interpretive system which incorporates a number of compiling
features in a pre·edit routine. The cost of interpreting versus compiling has been found to be only five percent greater
in time and much less in compactness, e.g., the multiplication of two matrices requires the writing of only six pseudo
commands. A complete method of symbolic indexing and
diagnostics is incorporated. The system retains the compact· ,
ness and efficiency of the interpretive method with minimum
interpretation time.

The Use of the Charactron With An Era 1103
Ben Ferber, supervisor, Digital Computing Lab., Convair

The IBM Type 705 Autocoder

As an aid in debugging, the Char act ron can display the contents of memory' at the rate of fifty words per second. A
floating point program can be traced at the rate of ten
commands per second. For problems with many answers required at each interval, the format can be vertical for ease
in reading, While the Computer is calculating and displaying
one page of answers, the camera is fixing and developing the
previous page. The Charactron has also been successfully
used as an aid in editing input data.

Roy Goldfinger, I.B.M. Corp.
This paper describes a system of automatic coding being
developed for the IBM Electronic Data Processing Machine
Type 705. The Autocoder System permits the programmer
to define records and constant data in terms of their English
names and character lengths. Ordinary 705 operations, combinations of 705 operations, called macro-operations, and
library functions may make reference' to defined fields and
records by name.

A New lUagnetic Tape Handler for Computer Applications

Program Interrupt on the Univac Scientific Computer

Robert M. Brunlhaugh, Ampex Electric Corporation
The recently announced Ampex Series FR200 magnetic tape
transports have been expressly designed for the storage and
processing of information in digital form. This Series features 5 millisecond start·or-stop time, single· loop threading,
and a unique simplified servo tape feed control. Various
elements of the tape transport mechanism are discussed in
detail, including the basic design considerations, and operation of the servo system. Typical application'i in the computer field are outlined.

6 :00 p.m. - 8 :00 p.m.

IB~I

;. Mersel, Supervisor, 1103 (Univac Scientific Computer) Computing Group, Remington Rand
A computational run on a computer involves several different
types of operations such as input, output, and special computing routines. These all involve transfer of control in the
computer program and in the case of input-output operations,
close synchronization is required in the program. Computer
programming can be simplified and versatility can be increased by building into the computer certain facilities for
automatic transfer of control.

COCKTAIL PARTY
Venetian Room

Wedllesday, February
9 :00 a.m. - Noon

MACHINE DESIGN
Terrace Room

(,~ :00

Chairman
William L. Martin, director of research, Marchant Research, Inc.

a.m. - Noon

SYSTEMS
Noh Hill Theater

Chairman
G. D. McCann, professor, Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Requirements for a Rapid Access Data File

A. Pulse Duration Modulated Data Processing System

George Eisler, Electronics Division, National Cash Register Co.

John Lowe, Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc.
Jack Middlekauff, Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc.

General purpose data processing maehines now on the market
are limited in their performance by the electronic data file
systems associated with them. This paper discusses the
various means of organizing such file systems with the hope
that equipment designers will be helped in achieving a much
needed solution. The desirable factors havin~ the greatest
influence on system utility are discussed in detail: Speed,
addressing, capacity and volatility.

PDM telemetry data are recorded on magnetic tape in analog
form. Time marks are recorded in a second channel of the
same tape. An analog-to·digital converter (Magnavox Series
200) translates this analog tape to a digital (pure binary)
tape of a form suitable for reading into an IBM Type 701
EDPM. The 701 performs a number of operations including

2i -

Computers and AutomationElectrical Engineering, Vniversity of California

integrating the time marks, edItmg and checking, stripping,
scaling, and calibrating. It punches binary cards for plotting on an IBM Type 407 Accounting Machine.

An Experimental Monitoring Routine for the

A P.D.M. Data Converter

Helen V. l\leek, Programming and Operations Research

w. R. Arsenault, project engineer, Magnavox Research

Staff, Hughes

Laboratories

The Logical Design of a Digital Computer for a
Large Scale Real-Time Application

An Improved Multichannel Drift-Stabilization
System

1\1. 1\1. Astrahan, B. Housman, and W. H. Tholnas~
I.B.M.
J. F. Jacobs and R. P. l\layer, Lincoln Lab, l\I.I.T.

Peter G. Pantazelos, research engineer, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Drift stabilization is essential in doc amplifiers in electronic
differential analyzers. To make possible the simultaneous
drift stabilization of 30 computing amplifiers, a multichannel drift·stabilization system was built at the Dynamic Analysis and Control Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. A multichannel system is superior in several
respects to individually stabilized amplifiers, in particular,
reduced initial cost, smaller size, and less maintenance. The
system built at the D.A.C.L. retains the basic advantages
of a multichannel system and incorporates several design
features that improve its operation and extend its range of
usefulness. The features of the D.A.C.L. drift-stabilization
system result in better performance than previous multichannel systems and are particularly advantageous in generalized high·accuracy analogue facilities.

The computer described in this paper is a large. binary. gt'neral purpose. dif!:ital computer designed jointly by JB:\I and
MIT engineers. ,Some of the features which make its operation efficient are a 6.0 microsecond cycle magnetic core memory, an indexing system for automati~ally modifying instruction addresses, an input-output control which eliminates all
interruptions of computation including those caused by
access time, a dual arithmetic element which opt'rates on
two sets of operands simultaneously, a buffer drum system
which handles high data rates by writing in the first empty
register to pass the heads. and a one-half micro-second-perbit multiplication. The prototype has been in operation for
over a year.

Computer Design to Facilitate Linear Programming

f.ombined Analog and Digital Computing Techniques for the Solution of Differential Equations

R. C. Gunderson, mathematician, Remington Rand
The growing importance of linear programming in business.
industry, and go\ernment has presentt'd the users and manufacturers of high speed digital computers with an exciting
facet of computer application. However, the question im·
mediately arises as to how we might better deiign future
computers to exploit the possibilities of this powerful tool.
The actual needs are few and mathematically simple. Furth·
ermore. these needs are extremely compatible with those
logical properties desired by logicians. However. consideration must he gi\en to the a(hantages gained timewise by
more efficient use of high spt'ed storage Illt'dia. Secondly.
the occurrence of many zeros in the linear systems involved
suggests the use of some form of zero suppression, conserving both time and storage space. These are but a few of the
requirements which should be gh en consideration in the
building of the future machines of our industry.

Hurney~

supervisor, Electronic Development,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

One of the difficulties in the use of an electronic analogue
computer for the solution of ordinary differential equat ions
invoh-ing variable coefficients is its relative inability to perform certain multiplications rapidly and accurately. In in",tances where a variablt' mm~t bt' multiplied by a function of
another variable, this difficulty is particularly apparent. This
paper describes how a digitally stored table of functions may
be used with an analogue computer to solve this general
class of ordinary differential equations.

12:30 - 2:00 p.ln.
Chairman
John F.

Ai~craft

An experimental interpretive routine for the JB:\I 705 has
been prepared which monitors the instructions of the code in
question and gives a complete history of the computer action as a result of this code ..-\ll instructions. or only selected
instructions. depending on a console switch setting. will be
monitored. The history will be written directly to a line
printer or to magnetic tape for later printing. again depend·
ing on the position of a console switch.

Digitizing pulse duration modulated data at a rapid rate and
presenting it in a suitable form for data reduction has been
a problem for some time. The Magnavox Series 200 Converter is designed to accept PDM data recorded on magnetic
tape, automatically digitize it, and record the digital information on the magnetic tape in a form suitable for input
to a digital computer or other data reduction equipment. This
paper covers the design and operation of the Series 200
converter. The machine has been in operation for a period
of eight months and this experience will be reported.

Paul A.

IB~l

705

CONFERENCE LUNCHEON
Venetian Room'

Haanstra~

senior project engineer, International Business \Iachines Corp.
Speaker'
Edward Teller, professor of physics, lTniversity of
California. Berkeley

2 :00 p.lll. - 5 :00 p.nl. DESIGN, PROGRAl\Il\IING
AND CODING
Terrace Room
Chairman
Paul L. Morton, professor and chairman, Division of

- 28 -

Considerations in ,Uaking a Data Gathering System Computer Compatible
Bill L. Waddell, G.

::\1.

Giannini &: Company. Inc.

The paper discusses the design problems facing the Data
Systems engineers required to produce a Data Collection
System that will be able to enter easily a computer. Some
empirical formulas are presented with a discussion of how
to use tJIt'''e formula ... The many recording tools and their
application to Data Systems preparing for entry into com·
puter" are dt'''crilwd with a discussion of the place of each
recordin~ clt'\ ict'. The second section of the paper is a critical analysis of Four Data Recording or Gathering Systems
dt',ignt'd to go directly to a Digital Computer.

Computers and Automation
2 :00 p.m.-5 :00 p.m. SCIENTIFIC APPLICATION
Nob Hill Theater
Chairman
n. H. Lehmer, professor, Department of Mathematics.

The proper role of the small machine in handling scientific
and engineering computations will be illustrated by examples
of the performance of the Burroughs EIOl in the aeronautical field. The basic parameters of the machine, speed, capacity, etc., will be outlined in order to provide a framework
to evaluate the specific applications which will be presented.

University of California, Berkeley

Using a Variable Word Length Computer Jor Scientific Calculation

Traffic Simulator with a Digital Computer

s. y . Wong,

Fred Gruenherger, numerical analyst, General Electri('
Company

E. H. Coughram, I.B.M. branch manager, Richland.
Washington
Variable word length alphameric machines are designed primarily for commercial data processing. One would expect
relatively low efficiency and some compromise with desired
operations in using such a machine for numerical analysis
work. Just the reverse seems to be the case. The variable
word length affords many outstanding advantages which far
outweigh two small disadvantages.

Integrated Data Processing with the Univac File
Computer

R. P. Daly, data handling systems engineer, Remington
Rand
The manner in which the Univac File Computer meets the
needs of input/output flexibility, balanced internal storage of
large capacity, and adequate external storage for integrated
data processing is discussed with examples.

Unusual Problems and Their Solutions by Digital
Computer Techniques

Lawrence Rosenfeld, head,

Operations Research,
Mathematical Services Group, Melpar, Inc.
A number of case histories of "unusual problems" will be
outlined and discussed. These will include: (1) The determination of stock trends for the speculative department
of a large brokerage house; (2) Baseball forecasting and its
use by a gambling house; (3) The determination of optimal trucking routes through a given traffic congestion pattern.

A Fixed-Program Data-Processer Jor Banking 0 perations

Jack Goldberg, research engineer, Computer Laboratory, Stanford Research Institute
The internal programming differs from that of the typical
stored-program computer in that the sequence of operations
in the main is pre·programmed by the wiring of the machine
rather than by coded instruction words. The machine is intended for an "On-line" operation reqbiiing a large variety
of simultaneously occurring processes, with severe requirements of accuracy and reliability.

A Progress Report on Computer Applications in
Computer Design

S. R. Cray, electrical engineer, Remington Rand
R. N. Kisch, electrical engineer, Remington Rand

9:00 a.m. - Noon

This paper summarizes the logical properties of a set of magnetic switch building blocks and presents mechanized pro·
cedures for computer design using these elements_ Symbols
are defined for representing the building blocks in algebraic
equations. All of the combinatorial ground rules for proper
electrical operation are reduced to equation formats. A threephase design program is then outlined which has been used
for processing those portions of computing systems which
are constructed of these building blocks.

CIRCUITS
Nob Hill Theater

Chairman
J. D. Noe, assistant director, Division of Engineering

-1 Topological Application oj Digital Computing

Machines

Ascher Opler, Research Department, Dow Chemical
Company
A method has been devised by which networks can be reo
duced to a digital code which represents the topological
configuration. Logical programs may be written which en·
able a digital computer to analyze these coded representations for the existence of specified sub-networks. The code
appears capable of extension to other elementary operations
in applied topology.

Research, Stanford Research Institute

A One-Microsecond Adder, Using One-Megacycle
Circuitry

A. Weinberger, National Bureau of Standards
J. L. Smith, National Bureau of Standards
An analysis of the functional representation of the carry
digits in the addition process shows that the one-megacycle
circuitry of SEAC and DYSEAC can be organized logically to
permit the formation of many successive carries simultaneously. A parallel adder utilizing this principle is developed
which is capable of adding two 53-bit numbers in one micro·
second, with relatively few additional components over those
required in a parallel adder of more conventional design.

The Transfluxor: A Magnetic Gate with Stored
Variable Setting

Thursday, February 9
9 :00 a.m. - Noon

Philco Corp.

This paper presents a method of traffic simulation with a digital computer as means to (1) study traffic control systems
(2) plan new roadways and (3) supply information for theoretical studies.

APPLICATIONS
Terrace Room

Chairman
Roger Sisson, Canning, Sisson & Associates

Applications oj the Small Digital Computer in the
Aeronautical Industry

Huhert M. Livingston, sales engineer, Burroughs Corp.
Edgar L. Lyons, sales engineer, Burroughs Corp.

- 29 -

Jan A. Rajchman and Arthur W. Lo, RCA Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey
The transfluxor is a new magnetic gate with stored variable
setting. It comprises a core of magnetic material with a
nearly rectangular hysteresis loop and having two or more
apertures. The control of the transfer of flux between the
three or more legs of the magnetic core provides novel means
to store and gate electrical signals. The characteristics of a
representative two-aperture transfluxor are described.

Computers and Automation
Bilateral Magnetic Selection Systems for LargeScale Computers

Amir H. Sepahban, section engineer, Government &

Characteristics of the 'RCA

Bi~mac

Computer

A. D. Beard, L. S. Bensky, D. L. Nettleton, G. E.
Poorte, Radio Corporation of America

Industrial Division, Philco Corporation

In the RCA Bizmac Computer the input and output data
are stored on magnetic tape stations. Five input and ten
output trunks are available. The Computer has a high·speed
memory of 4,096 characters, and an auxiliary memory of
32,000 characters. The latter serves as the main instruction
storage. The machine has an instruction complement of
twenty· two different instruction types, many of which can
be subject to minor variations at the discretion of the pro·
grammer. Instructions are of the three-address type.

Selective writing of information on a chosen channel of a
large memory system (e.g., a magnetic drum memory) and
selective reading of information from one out of many such
memory channels can be accomplished by use of a single
two-way magnetic pyramid made solely of high quality magnetic saturable cores_ A description is given of a working
magnetic selection unit used in a large inventory control system with a few thousand magnetic drum channels.

T he Megacycle F erractor

Programming the Variable-Item-Length RCA Bizmac Computer

T. H. Bonn, department head, Component Research &

L. S. Bensky, T. M. Hurewitz, A. S. Kranzley,
R. A. C. Lane, Radio Corporation of America

Development, Remington Rand

The design characteristics of the computer were arrived at
after a careful study of the processing needs of business
problems. The most important of these characteristics is the
fully variable length of data items on magnetic tape. The
manner in which the computer handles variability in all of
its aspects has provided a uniquely adaptable tool for commercial applications. The writing of programs for the Bizmac
Computer is therefore also unique in many ways.

The ferractor is a magnetic amplifier designed to replace
vacuum tubes in digital computer pulse circuits. Operation
at information rates as high as 2% megacycles with moderate
power gains and power levels has been achieved. Ferractors
are readily adaptable to modular construction. Using them
as building blocks, the control and arithmetic sections of computers can be economically constructed with a minimum
number of circuit types.

2 :00 p.m. - 5 :00 p.m.

RCA BIZMAC SYSTEM
Terrace Room

* ___________

Chairman

E. S. Calhoun, manager, Electronic Data Processing Re-

ICc - - - - - - - - - - •

SPE.CIAL ISSUES OF
('('C'OMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION"

search, Stanford Research Institute

Purpose and Application of the RCA Bizmac
System

Tbe June issue of "Computers and Automation" commencing with June, 1955, is aspecia1
issue, "Tbe Computer Directory."

W. K. Halstead, J. W. Leas, J. N. Marshall, E. E.
Minett, Radio Corporation of America
The RCA Bizmac System has been designed specifically to
meet the data-processing needs of large business operations.
Therefore, a number of novel features were incorporated
into the RCA Bizmac System. These include an entirely new
concept of data-recording variability, a much higher level
of system integration than heretofore provided, and several
special-purpose machines designed to take much of the burden of the major computer, which .is part of the system also.

For details about the next com put e r
directory, see "The Computer Directory, 1956:
.Notice. ~,

Functional Organization of Data in the RCA
Bizmac System

A. D. Beard, W. K. Halstead, J. F. Page, Radio
Corporation of America
The characteristics of business data will be discusse.d, as
well as the influence which these characteristics had on the
basic planning of the RCA Bizmac System. It was desirable
to provide complete variability of data-item and message
length in storing information on magnetic tape. Th!s led to
compression factors as high as five in the storage of certain
files when compared with the earlier fixed-word, fixed,block
concept.

The System Central Concept in the RCA Bizmac
System

J. A. Brustman, P. T. O'Neil, J. L. Owings, Radio
Corporation of America
The purpose of the System Central is to integrate the elements of a Bizmac System and to provide for controlling the
performance of each element so that the combination functions in proper concert. In the Bizmac System, specialized
supervi'lory equipments have been designed to apply over-all
control and direction.

30 -

..

How Commercial Controls

FleKDwriters®
and Auxiliary Equipment are used for

MANUSCRIPTS

INSTRUMENTATION

Articles. We desire to publish articles that are
factual, useful, understandable, andin~sting
to many kinds of people engaged in one part or another of the field of computers and automation.
In this audience are many people who h ave expert
knowledge of some part of too field, but wOO are laymen in other parts of it. Consequently al~iter
should seek to explain his subjec t, and show its
context and significance. He should define unfamiliar terms, or use them in a way that make s
their meaning unmistakable. He should identify
unfamiliar persons with a few \\I'ords. He shruld.
use examples, details, comparisons, analogies,
etc., whenever they may help readers to understand a difficult point. He should give data
supporting his argument and evidence for his
assertions. We look particularly for articles
that explore ideas in the field of computers
and automation, and their applications and impl~ca~ions. An article may c~rtainly be contr~
versial if the subject is discussed reason ably
Ordinarily, the length should be 1000 to 4000
words. A suggestion for an article should be
submitted to us before too much work is done.

FLEXOWRITER FEATURES
Prints at 100 words per minute
Remote Non-Print Control
Automatic Feed Back pulses
Automatic Timing pulses
Printing up to 280 characters
per line
Control voltage 90 or 48 VDC
Remote Color Shift Control
Automatic Tab and
Carriage Return
Programmed Format Control
Transmit or Receive directly
Available in 5, 6,7, 8-Channel
Tape

APPLICATIONS
Computers-Input Output
Recording and Logging Systems
Machine Tool Controls
Automatic Calculations
Conveyor Controls
Data Reduction Systems
Punched Tape Verifying
Data Preparation
Punched Tape Conversion
Punched Card Preparation
Process Control Systems

Technical Papers. Many of the foregoing ~quUe­
ments for articles do not necessarily apply to
technical papers. Undefined technical terms,
unfamiliar assumptions, mathematics, circuit
diagrams, etc., may be entirely appropriate.
Topics interesting probably to only a few
people are acceptable.

Fiction. We desire to print or reprint fiction
which explores scientific ideas and possibilities about computing machinery, robots, cybernetics, automation, etc., and their implica~
~9Qt1nued on pags!

CONTROl

Commercial Controls punched paper tape equipment is
now used in offices, factories, and a wide variety of research
and development projects. The Flexowriter automatic
writing machine will print, punch and read paper tape. In
addition, it will transmit or receive information directly.
Many types of equipment are now using the Flexowriter
for direct data input and output-to prepare program
tapes for input-to capture output data in printed form.
The Auxiliary Motorized Tape Punch, when cableconnected to other equipment, records data in punched
paper tape.
The Auxiliary Motorized Tape Reader reads punched
tape to direct the automatic operation of other equipment.

We are interested in articles, papers,reference
information, science fiction, and discussion relating to computers and automation. To be considered for any particular issue, the manurer~t
should be in our hands by the fifth of the preceding month.

Reference Information. We desire to print or reprint ref~rence information: lists, roste~ abstracts, bibliographies, etc., of use to computer people. We are interested in, m a king
arrangements for systematic publication from
time to time of such information, with other
people besides our own staff. Anyone who would
like to take the responsibility for a type of
reference information should write us.

~nd

AUXILIARY
MOTORIZED
TAPE READER

.•
V ·

~~

~
.........................................
WRITE for complete Information.

-

I .

Please mention the application in which you are interested.

COMMERCIAL CONTROLS CORPORATION
1 Leighton Avenue • Rochester 2, New York
Dept. CA·56
Sales and Service offices in principal cities listed in classified
telephone directory under "Typewriters-Automatic"

ti'
- 31 -

LR.E.
(continued from page 19)

~omputers

and Automation

netic one-word registers of the recirculating type.
A six-bit static register stores instruction digits and drives a switching matrix to produce needed control signals. A t1Yo-phase square-tvave clock
operating at 660 kc drives the two standard types
of series magnetic amplifiers. These amplifiers.
and all other circuitry in the computer are packaged on plug-in, printed~viring panels of seventeen types. Memory is provided by a magnetic drum
rotating at 16,500 rpm Ivhich stores 2,000 machine
1fords.
39.4.

Sponsored by the Professional Group on Electronic Computers. To be published in Part 4 of
the IRE Convention Record.
Electronic Computers III-Symposium on the Impact of
Computers on Science and Society
Chairman: Theodore H. Bonn, Sperry
Rand Corp., Philadelphia, Pa.

The Univac Magnetic Computer -- Part II.
Megacycle Magnetic Modules
B.K. Smith, Remington Rand Univac
Division of Sperry Rand Corp.,
Philadelphia, Pa.

Through intelligent packaging, mass-production economy is possible on even unique or s p ecialized computers. The magnetic amplifier, ad~t­
able to all normal vacuum-tube computer functions,
has proved a satisfactory module.
This pap e r
.points out that, in consideration of the properties of magnetic materials, a nelY philosophy of
'design is required. This philosophy entails close
collaboration of.logicians, designers, packaging
engineers. and research physicists, from the beginning of the development of a computer.
Through nelf miniaturization techniques and
improved magnetic materials, Sperry Rand Corporation has obtained reliable ·results from magnetic
amplifiers at frequencies over 2 me. Development
of useful computer forms to replace common logical circuits is discussed.

'The recent development of digital and analog
computers has had a profound effect on science a
and technology. Science has been given a new
tool -- the ability to perform calculations that
were heretofore considered impossibly complex and
time consuming. In addition, the development of
computers as a branch of teChnology has contributed to the generation of new ideas, which in
turn are affecting other disciplines. How are
these events shaping the course of scientific
research and technological development? On what
new goals are scientists focusing their attention
nOlY that computers are available to them?
HOIV Itlll these new tools of science affect
our daily lives? What problems will they present
and what benefits does the future hold?
A panel of distinguished speakers will talk
on the above problems. At the conclusion of prepared talk~, there will be a round table discussion of the problems raised.
42.1.

A.V. Astin, National Bureau of
Standards, Washington, D.C.

42.2.

R.E. Meagher, University of Illinois,
Urbana, Ill.

The Univac Magnetic Computer -Part III. Drum Memory

42.3.

D. Sayre, International Business
Machines Corp., New York, N.Y.

V.J. Porter, S.E. Smith, and M. Naiman,
Remington Rand Univac Division of
Sperry Rand Corp., Philadelphia, Pa.

42.4.

J.W. Forrester, M.I.T., Cambridge,
Mass.

Criteria for the selection of the type of
logic are considered, and single-layer logic is
offered as' the optimum logic for this application.
39.5.

SESSIGN XLII

A magnetic drum-memory with a capacity of
110,000 bits at an operation frequency of 658 kc
is described. Storage includes 24,000 bits at a
maximum access time of 0.9 millisecond and 72,000
bits at 3.6 milliseconds, with the remainder for
sprocket and timing functions.

SESSION XLVIII
Sponsored by the Professional Group on Instrumentation. To be published in Part 5 of the
IRE Convention Record.

The memory is sealed in helium to protect it
against corrosion, reduce input pot~er, and improve
heat dissipation. The drum's high speed (16,600
rp~ and high pulse-density ensure the short access times and the high bitrate.
A method of magnetic-head construction is
described tvhich makes for a compac t struc ture and
facilitates the precise locations of heads in
respect to the drum.

Instrumentation II
48.3.

Extending the Versatility of a Laboratory Magnetic Tape Data-Storage
Device
.
A.V. Gangnes, Ampex Corp_, Redwood
City, Calif.

The fields of research and development en- .
compass a vast number of processes requiring
many different methods of acquiring, storing,
and evaluating test inffrrmation. This paper des-'32 -

(continued on page 44)

•

•

ENSINEERS

. . . .1

pioneers in

INERTIAL NAVIGATION
Immediate openings for
Supervisory and Staff
positions as well as for
Senior Engineers. Engineers,
and Associate Engineers,

experienced in:

SYSTEMS EVALUATION
GYROSCOPICS
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
ACCELEROMETERS
TELEMETRY
GUIDANCE SYSTEMS
STABILIZING DEVICES
SERVOMECHANISMS
AUTOMATIC CONTROLS
THERMODYNAMICS
OPTICS
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
TRANSFORMERS
RELIABILITY
WEIGHT CONTROL

•

ARMA, recognized for its accomplishments in the fields of
navigation and fire control, is a leader in the development of
Inertial Navigation. This new system deals solely with space, time
and acceleration ••. acting independently of external influences.
Creative engineering of the highest order is required to develop
components making Inertial Navigation possible: accelerometers
to measure acceleration; integrators to convert this information
into velocity and distance; D'IIrOs to provide directional
reference and hold the system stable; computers to calculate
course-to-steer and distance-to-go. Components must meet
rigid weight and size requirements ... and function with
undreamed-of accuracy.
ARMA, one of America's largest producers of ultra-precise
equipment, offers unlimited opportunity for engineers to
help in this great endeavor. Challenging projects and ARMA's
extensive supplementary benefits make an ARMA
career doubly attractive.
ARMA engineers are currently working a 48 hour week at
premium rates to meet ao critical demand in the Defense
Dept's missile program. Moving allowances arranged.

Send resume in confidence to:

Technical Personnel Dep't. 2-500
Division of American Bosch Arma Corporation
Roosevelt Field, Garden City, Long Island, N. Y•

RCA offers opportunities

IN MISSILE TEST

Data Reduction
for
~ MATHEMATICIANS
~ STATISTICIANS
~ PHYSICISTS

~ ASTRO-PHYSICISTS

e.

RADIO CORPORATION OF

- 33 -

Degree plus experience in reduction of
test data, applied mathematics, statistical techniques, or observatory
practices. Positions now available on
Florida's central east coast.
Liberal company benefits-Relocation
assistance.
For information and arrangements for
personal interview, send complete
resume to:
Mr. D. E. Pinholster
Employment Manager, Dept. N-14E
Missile Test Proiecf
RCA Service Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 1226
Melbo"urne, Florida

AME~ICA

TORONTO COMPUTER

Computers antI Automation

{continued from page 25}

series expansion, -Aurmning the terms until they becorne less than 10 •
Let (COl) =1; (002) :=: 10, -8 and let x b e
available in ZOI. Then the following seq u en c e
computes ~ -" :
001
002
003
004
005
006
007
008

009

OVER
OVER
ZERO
MULT
ADDN
DIVD
ADDN
KOMP
TRNS

COl.O
COl.O
Z04.0
Z02.0
COl.O
Z02.0
Z03.0
Z02.0
004.0

000.00
000.00
000.0
ZOl.O
Z04.0
Z04.0
Z02.0
C02.0
000.0

Z02.0
Z03.0
000.0
Z02.0
Z04.0
Z02.0
Z03.0
Z05.0
Z05.0

BSET

WRTE

It was seen how iterations on numbers in the
elec tronic s tore are done td th the help of the LOOP
instruction. In such iterations the B counters
are set and reduced automatically by the program.
When it is desired to perform a sequence of iterations on DRUM positions this automatic controlof
the B counters is impossible and it is necess a ry
to set and reduce them by explicit instructions.
For example the instruction
000.5

011.0

The basic instructions transfering da ta between the X or Y page and DRUM storage locations
have been described. The following two examples
illustrate the use of B instructions when modifylng drum positions:
Wri te the X page on DRUM pos i tion {001..- (B4)
where B4 is to contain the integer n:

The answer is available in Z03.

BSET

temporarily, the content of a B line until required.
When needed, the B-line may be restored with a BSET
instruction.

000.5

000.0

XOl.O

puts (X0l) in B line 5, the second address being
a dummy. Specifically it is the content 0 f the
exponent line only of XOI that is involved here.
Any B line 2 to 6 inclusive, may be set by either
of these two instructions and any store position
(X, Y, Z or C) not B-modified, may be used in the
third address of the second of these instructions.
To reduce the counters, the instruction
NEGB

000.5

001.0

001
002
003
004

subtracts 1 from (BS) and
NEGB

000.5

000.0

X01.0

subtracts the (exponent line of XOl) from (BS).
If it is desired to add a number intoaBline
INCB

000.5

001.0

Finally, it is sometimes convenient to store
the contents of a B line. This may be done with
JOTB

000.5

000.0

2.24

WRTE
I NCB
TRNS

000.0
000.3
000.4
001.0
000.3

000.0
000.0
xOO.O
000.0
000.0

Miscellaneous Instructions

There remain to be described 8 number of instructions which perform miscellaneous operations.
007.2

006.0

X01.0

causes the machine to output seven numbers, e ac h
with a six-digit mantissa, two numbers per paper
line, from consecutive storage locations, begnming
tvi th (XOl). The output may be "print" only, "ll.llldl" ,
only (for later printing on a separate Teleprinter)
or "print and punch", according to the setting of
a 3-t'ITay std tch on the console. Apart fro m the
specifications in the PRNT instruction, the form&
of the printing is fixed, consisting of:

000.0

adds the integer 1 into (BS).

000.4
016.0
001.0
000.4
003.0

BSET
LOOP

In the last example, note that B3 is used to
control the loop and B4 to control the progressNe
modification of the magnetic DRUM address. Not e
also that the run of DRUM positions lies entirely
in the lOtfer half of the range. Some further notes
on DRUM selection are given in Section 3.62.

PRNT

000.0

000.0
XOO.O

If n is to take on the values 1, 2, ••• 15, 16
in succession, these instructions should be embedded into a loop as follows:

005

BSET

OOn.O
000.4

There is one important restriction, namely,
that the unmodified DRUM location and the modified
DRUM location must both lie in the same half of the
range. The tt"o halves of the range are numbere d
001, 002, ••• 032 and 033, 034 ••• 064 respectively.

000.0

puts the integer 11 in B line 5, the tidrd address
being a durmny.

000.4
001.0

for
each
number

the mantissa (one digit before the
decimal point and rounded-off)
the mantissa's sign
1 space
the exponent modulo 100 (two digits)
the exponent's sign
2 spaces

X01.0
Thus, in the above example, if

t'tfhich stores (BS) in the exponent line 0 f XOI.
Possible addresses for the last four instructions
are as for the B-set instructions.
If more than five B lines are simultaneously
required in a program, JOTB may be used to store,
- 34 -

(XOD
(X02)
(X03)
(X04)

=
=

-=

=

(X05) ::

... 0.01234567
- 1.234567T 123.4567
- 12345.67
-t 1234567.
(continued on page 3(.)

PHYSICIST or ENGINEER

ANALOG

COMPUTER'

HEAD

We're looking for an individualist. We'd like him to be of a
high order of analytical ability, and to have already become
proficient in computer programing in support of activities in
the fields of reactor physics, heat transfer, hydraulics, and
mechanics. After that he will take the reins; and using his
administrative abilities, show us that this is one position that
is definitely fitted to ~he man.
If you have the vision to keep on looking ahead and are realistic
enough to keep a staff looking ahead right up there with you,
then we invite you to write in confidence to General Electric.
For now, more than ever, people like you are creating the positions they will continue to grow with. Personal Interviews will
be arranged with all selected candidates.
In writing; please include your experience, age. academic background and technical references.
Mr. E. P. Galbraith Technical Personnel Placement

GENERALe ElECTRIC
Richland, Washington

- 35 -

"
)

1DR~1D

Cml.PUfER

Computers and Automation

(continued from page 34)

(X06) ':::
(X07) =

- 123456789.
+ 12345678912.

the output will be printed as:
1.23457..
1.23457+
1.23457+
1.23457+

0202 ...
06+
10+

1.23457- OO~
1.23457- 04+
1.23457- 08+

instructions as it finds them by a corresponding
sequence of instructions in real machine code.
When the last pseudo-instruction has been read in
there must be some way of indicating to the machine that it is now to make final preparations for
obeying the program.* This is accomplished by
the instruction
QUIT

An extr~ line feed terminates the PRNT instruction.
A£ symbol and one other character associated l'11ith
checking procedures, will terminate each printed
line. All these should be ignored. See Section
3.65. Note that the last line need not contain a
full complement of numbers.

(8tm>N ~ 64

where m is the number of digits per mantissa and
N is the number of numbers per paper line. Some
further facilities of the PRNT instruction are
given in Sections 3.5, 3.66, and 3.67.
The instruction
VOID

000.0

000.0

000.0

The instruction
000.0

000.0

inserts a stopU into the program, and is generally
used to terminate a piece of calculation.
In real FERUT code there are two stop instructions designated as /G and /L. The console has
two switches corresponding to these instructions.
If a /G (or /L) stop is encountered, and the
/G (or" /L) switch is on, the machine t-vill come to
a halt until instructed to go on by means of the
console switch marked MANUAL PREPULSE. In normal
running procedure, the /G is on, the /L off. It
is also possible to program a dynamic stop by meam
of a short loop of instructions from which control
can emerge only by manual intervention.
For calculations which proceed over a considerable time there is some danger that information
on the electronic store will be lost. This danger
can be lessened by inserting the instruction

000."0
COKE

inserts a dummy instruction into the program, and
is obeyed without action.
Of the four letters used to designate the
function of an instruction only the first is actually interpreted by the Transcode program. tErefore an unwanted instruction may be over~vritten
on the tape by converting its first character to
a V, but it should be noted that for sequencing
purposes there is still an instruction present.
In particular the tape representations for P and
V are as shotvn in Fig. 2.1, so that a P may be

l'

000.0

which must be the last instruction in any set.
Note that QUIT is never used for any other purpose than this~

HALT
In general, from 1 to 21 numbers (inclusive)
may be output by one PRNT instruction, the number
of digi ts per mantissa may be betlveen 1 and 12
(inclusive), and the address of the first number
may be any X, Y or Z position, not B-modified.
The decimal point is always printed, even if only
one digit it called for. The length of a paper
line must be adjusted so that the total number of
digits, signs, spaces etc. does not exceed 64.
Since the format is fixed, this means that

000.0

Fig. 2.1

V

changed to a V by inserting one additional hole.
This makes it very convenient to use the PRNT
instruction for printing out intermediate results
during the stage of program development, and then
to convert PRNT to VOID once the program is known
to be correct.
As already explained, Transcode works b y
having its program read tape and replacing pseudr
- 36 -

000.0

000.0

000.0

at intervals corresponding to a calculating time
of 5 to 10 minutes, causing certain constants,
instructions etc. to be refreshed automatically
from their more permanent form on the drum. The
times for individual operations are listed in Appendix III.
Note that all three addresses in each of the
four instructions VOID, QUIT, HALT and COKE are
dummies. They need not necessarily be punched as
zeros, provided that they look like permissible
Transcode addresses. This allolvs any Transcode
instruction to be converted into a VOID, as mentioned above.
The last instruction, FNTN, is a particularly
important one, allowing simple utilization of
Transcode library programs which have been written
to carry out standard mathematical processes. Suppose, for example, that is necessary to evaluate
the sine of an angle during a Transcode program.
There is available a standard routine for this,
and it may be assigned an arbitrary function number, say 001, for the problem in which it is to
be used. During input, in the manner explained
in Section 2.3, the library tape for TC:SIN will
be read into the storage location reserved for
the first function. The" FNTN instruction must
also specify, in addition to the function number,
the addresses where the argument is to be found
(continued on page 44)

ROBOT
SHOW STOPPERS
Did you see our story
Magazine, March 19, pp

Bryant

magnetic

in L if e
l73--T76?

drums

From time to time you may nee d t 0
help organize a display in a business
show including'some device that you
hope will "STOP" every pers 0 n attending the show and make him notice
your display - a device which may
be called a "SHOW-STOPPER".
In addition to publishing the magazine "COMPurERS AND AUTOMATION", we
have for six years been developing
and constructing "ROBOT SHOW-STO PPERS", small robot machines tha t
respond to their environmen tan d
Two of them
behave b.y themselves.
are:
RELAY MOE: A machine that will play
the game Ti t-Tat-Toe with a human
being, and ei ther win or draw all
the time, or (depending 0 nth e
setting of a st'lli tch) will so metimes lose, so as to make the game
more interesting for the hum an
being (tvas at the I.R.E. Show, in
Guardian Electric's exhibit; see
picture in Life Magazine);
SQUEE: An electronic robot squirrel that will hunt for a "nut"
indicated by a person in the
audience, pick it up in his
"hands", take the nut to his
"nest", there leave it and then.
hunt for more nuts (see picture
in Life Magazine);
.
Besides these we have other small
robots finished or under development.
These machines may be rented for
shows under certain conditions; a~
so, modifications of the small robots to fit a particular purp 0 se
are often possible.
To: Berkeley Enterprises Inc.,
513 Ave. of the Americas, R156
New York 11, N. Y.
Please send us more informa ti 0 n
about your ROOOT SHOW STOPPERS. The
advertising appliclltion tile h,w.:: i n

for semi·permanent storage of data in digital
computers or for use as delay lines
• Designed to purchaser's requirements
• Drum runout ,00010" T.LR. or less
• Air bearings or super'precision ball bearings
• Belt drive or integral motor drive
• Speeds to 100,000 RPM
• Capacities to 5,000,000 bits or more
• Vertical or horizontal housing
• Head mounting surfaces to suit
• High density magnetic oxide or electroplated
magnetic alloy coating

mind is: _________________________
Complete Information On Request-write:

From:

(Organization)

(Address)
(Filled in by: Name, Title, Date)

BRYANT GAGE and SPINDLE DIVISION
P. O. Box 620-K, Springfield, Vermont, U. S. A.
DIVISION

- 37 -

OF BRYANT CHUCKING GRINDER CO.

MEeHANI ZED MUSE

(continued from page 13)

oline!

George!

Computers and Automation

,

THE WEARY NOMAD FRAMES HIS ROAD APART
REPELLED BY CAUTION ON THE SHATTERED
BRINK
TO HER HE FLINGS HIS INCANDESCENT HEART
UNCERTAIN OF THE SNOW HE LONGS TO SINK

Rodney!" shouted the Doctor.

Doors flew open on all sides of the room,
and four agitated young people hurried to the
Doctor's side.
"Who has left the cards in alphabetic a 1
order?" thundered the Doctor, his mild b 1 u e
eyes fairly flashing. "I ask you please t 0
look --"

"Note the appearance of an
word," the Doctor pointed out.

"Ve put the vocabularies in alphabetical
order every few weeks for checking and replacing worn cards," explained the Doctor, moppillJ
his br01'1. ''My staff has the strictest orders
to randomize them before returning them to the
files. It ees routine. What has happened?"

The machine shuddered slightly and paused,
as if gathering strength for the final assault.
AS ANXIOUS CANDLES FORGE A FLEETING
CLUSTER
THE NUBILE MOllIS REVOLVE IN PRAISE OF
BUSTER

"These must be the checking cards," said
one of the girls -- El iz abeth, I think -- in a
faint voice. "They must have been put in the
file by mistake. I'll get you the right ones
immediately -- I put them through the Rando~
izer myself. I'll have them here in two minutes. tI

"A very fair example," said the Doctor,
tearing off the sheet and handing it to Willy.
"A little polishing, perhaps -- but you have
some fine lines there."

While we were t'laiting for the correc t
cards, I asked Dr. Yaffee what the Randomizer
was.

By the time the Doctor had made himse I f
clear, Elizabeth returned, announcing that the
checking cards had been removed from the card
feed and the correct cards inserted.
0nc e
more, Willy pushed the "ON" std tch, and w e
gathered breathlessly about the machine~ the
type bars started to move.
mE HOUR IS TWICE A CAT ON VELVET ROSE
WHO MELTS THE MOON UNTIL llIE WILLOW SINiS
UNFOUND DELIGHT STANDS MIERE 1HE LANTERN
GROWS
AND MEETS mE GLASSY SHORE ON DOWNCAST
WINGS
"Holy -- jumping Willy.

MO$es,"

0

b s e r ve d

b Ii gat 0 r y

FORGOTTEN FEARS CREEP DOWN THE BROKEN
WALL
DIM SHADOWS 1WIST THE CONTOURS OF mE
SEA
THE WIND REPEATS llIE EARNEST SEAGULLS
CALL
AND GIVES llIE DREAMING RAIN THE MORNINGS
KEY

Four shocked young faces bent 0 v e r the
printed lines, and four trembling voices repeated them.

"The Randomizer, al though only a by-product of the Poem-Writer, ees a most valu a bl e
adjunct." he said proudly. "It was built at a
cost of half a million dollars, and has since
proved useful in many other fields. Briefly,
it accomplishes in a few seconds t\fhat it tvould
take you many hours to do if you sat down in
the middle of this room and tossed the card s
about repeatedly. Furthermore, it put s th e
cards in random random order, rather than i n
ordered t;andom order. I make myself clear?"

0

As I left to catch my commuters' trai n,
Willy was murmuring the lines over to himself,
a puzzled look in his eyes, but p rid e 0 f
authorship, I feel sure, dawning in the depths
of his nubile incandescent heart.

- END -

* - - - - - - - - - )'~----------*
EDITOR'S NOTES

(continued from page 4)

1. Copy should be typed in columns four
inches wide td th single spacing using a bl ack
ribbon on white paper. It is very desirable
to have a carbon paper ribbon on the typewr.irer
since that makes a great deal of difference in
tvhat the camera sees, and what the p r i n ted
pages look like. It is also desirable of oourse
that the typewriter have well-aligned keys.

2. We do not require exact right-hand
justification of lines of'typing: one or at
most two characters over, and one, two, three,
or four characters less are all satisfactory
to us.
3. Any untypable information, such as
mathematical formulas, should be entered td th
good handwriting using jet black ink, and mak(continued on page 42)

- 38 -

,'/,' f ' . /' '
~,

~ /~/~

';

'/:

NOW!
dependable relays for printed circuits
Maybe you, too, have been awaiting availability of a
gpod relay for direct insertion into printed circuits. Now
Automatic Electric can solve your problem with a miniature relay that is just right.
120 million operations, without a single readjustment
or relubrication! That's what you get from this rugged,
improved Series SQD Relay, because it features a special
heavy-duty bearing and bearing pin. Also a recess in the
bearing plate retains an adequate supply of lubricant
for long-term lubrication of the bearing pin.
Consider these additional advantages:
1. The sections of the terminals that insert into the
printed circuit board are NOT brazed or welded
into place, but are integral parts of the coil terminals and contact springs-thus preyenting internalloss in conductivity or continuity.
2. Terminal design permits direct plug-in of the relay
into a printed circuit board, ready to be secured in
place with any acceptable soldering technique.
Usually the desired contact spring combination, or
pile-up, is sufficiently large so that additional mounting
(support) of the relay is not necessary.

SQD Miniature Printed Circuit Relays are available
with many different contact spring arrangements, and
for a multitude of applications. Springs can be made of
phosphor-bronze, ~~Bronco" metal, or other specialpurpose materials, as required.
Of course the long life, heavy-duty features of the
improved SQD Relay can be had in the conventional /
type of plug-in relay, if tegular sockets are preferred for
use, whether in printed circuitry or other applications.
To get complete details, write: Automatic Electric Sales
Corporation, 1033 West Van Buren St., Chicago 7,
Illinois. In Canada: Automatic Electric (Canada) Ltd.,
Toronto. Offices in principal cities.

AUTOMATIC

ELECTRIC

NEW PATENTS
Ht\YMOND R. SKOLNICK, Reg. Patent Agent

Ford lost. Co., Div. of Sperry ~nd Corp.
tong Island City I, New York

The following is a compilation 0 f pat e n t s
pertaining to computers and associated equipment from the Official Gazette of the Uni te d
States Patent Office, dates of issue as indicated. Each entry consists of: patent number /
inventor(s) / assignee / invention.
January 31.1956: 2,733.004 / John E. Richardson, Pasadena, Calif. / - / An electrical
computer for solving the equation El E2=E3
F4 of Ifhich El. E2, and E4 have a predetermined amplitude.
2,733,008 / John B. D'Andrea and Herbert M.
Heuver, Dayton, Ohio / - / A digi tal c 0 nverter.
2,733,383 / George C. Wilson, Chatham, N. J. /
- / An electrical time delay apparatus.
2,733,388/ Adolf W. Rechten and Bria n M.
Bellman, 'Taplol\f, Eng. / British Telecommunications Research, Ltd., Taplow, Eng. / A
magnetic amplifier for effecting the momentary operation of an electromagnetic rela y
in response to an impulsive signal.
2,733,391 / Robert H. Mayer, Middle R i v e r,
Md. / The Glenn L. Martin Co. ,Middle River,
Md. / An integrator.
2,733,392 / Harold M. Wright, Troy, Ohio / - /
An apparatus for synchronizing a slave r 0tating element with a constant speed master
rotating element at a predetermined angular
displacement relative to the master element.
2,733,409 / Saul Kuchinsky, Philadelphia, Pa./
Burroughs Corp., Detroi t, Mich. / A puIs e
code modulation system.
2,733,410/ William M. Goodall, Oakhurst,
N. J. / Bell Telephone Lab. Inc., Nm'JYork,
N. Y. / A pulse code modulation coder.
2,733,425 / Frederick Calland Williams, Timperley, Eng., and Gordon E. Thomas, P 0 r t
Talbot, Wales / National Research De ve 10 pment Corp., London, Eng. / A servo contro 1
means for data storage device.
2,733,432 / Jack Breckman, Long Branch, N.J./
U.S.A. / A circuit for encoding a s i 9 n a 1
ampli tude as a code group of digits ign a 1 s
in cyclic binary code.
February 7. 1956: 2,733,631 / Dan McLachlan,
Jr., Salt Lake City, Utah / Research Corp.,
Nelv York, N. Y. / An optical analog computer using projected light patterns.
2,733,862 / lIans P. Luhn, Armonk, N. Y. / International Business Machines Corp., New
York, N. Y. / A binary decode counter.
2,734,160 / Clifford V. Franks, Cleve 1 and ,
Ohio and Walter J. Brown, Titusville, Fla./
Walter J. Br01.l'n / An electrical system
having a controllable converter supply in g
power to a load.
- 40 -

2,734,162 / Gordon C. Blanke, Sierre Madre,
Calif. / Beckman Instruments Inc., Sou t h
Pasadena, Calif. / A rectifying and voltage
regulating circuit producing a voltage-controlled direct current output from a source
of alternating current.
2,734,165 / Carroll W. Lufcy, Silver S pri n g
and Albert E. Schmid, Jr., Greenbelt, Md.,
U.S.A. / A magnetic amplifier with half-wave
phase reversal type output.
2,734,168 / Robert A. Zachary and Joh n G.
Schermerhorn, Syracuse, N. Y. / Ge ne r a 1
Electric Co., N. Y. / A phase detector circuit responsive to the phase difference between two alternating vol tages of the sam e
frequency.
2,734,182 / Jan A. Rajchman, Princeton, N.J./
Radio Corp. of America, Del. / A magnet i c
matrix and computing device.
2,734,186 / Frederick C. Williams, Timperley,
Eng. / National Research Development Corp.,
London, Eng. / A magnetic recording system
for an electronic binary digital computing
machine operating with serial mode p u Is e
train signals.
2,734,187 / Jan A. Rajchman, Princeton, N.J. /
Radio Corp. of America, Del. / A system for
selectively driving to a \.desired magne tic
condi tion one or more of n plurality of driven
magnetic elements individually identifiable
as corresponding to the elements of a matrix
arranged in rows and columns.
February 14. 1956: 2,734,684 / Harold D.Ross,
Jr., and Clarence E. Frizzell, Poughkeepsie,
N. Y. / International Business Mac h i n e s
Corp., New York, N. Y. / An e 1 e c t ron i c
counter made up of cascade connec te d bistable elements.
2,734,692 / Leland P. Robinson, Pas a de n a ,
Calif. / Electro Data Corp., Pasadena,Cauf./
A tape storage device for data keeping equipmente
2,734,949 / Clifford E. Berry, Altadena, Calif. / Consolidated Engineering Corp., Pasadena, Calif. / A device for automatic a 11 y
and periodically correcting the zero d r if t
in an amplifier.
2,734,954 / Marshall C. Kidd, Haddon Heights,
N. J. / Radio Corp. of America, Del. /
A
card swi tching device in a data s tor age
device.
2,735,005 / Floyd G. Steele, Manhattan Beach,
Calif. / Northrop Aircraft, Inc., Ha.vthorne,
Calif. / A two-way binary counting circuit.
2,735,021 / Ole K. Nilssen, Collings1vo 0 d ,
N. J. / Radio Corp. of America, Del. / A
magnetic binary device.
2,735,066 / John L. Coil, Richmond, and Rich-

AIRBORNE ELECTRONICS
AND
WEAPON CONTROL SYSTEMS

At Ramo-Wooldridge today there exists a wide range
of projects intended to aid aircraft in navi~ating to the
vicinity of targets, finding the targets, destroying them,
and returning safely to base. Work is under way in such
fields as infrared and microwave detection, information
display, communication and navigation, and analog and
digital computing. Some projects are in the laboratory
development stage, some in the flight test stage, some
in pilot production.

Positions are available for scientists and engineers
in these fields of current activity:
Communications Systems
Digital Computers and Control Systems
Airborne Electronic and Control Systems
Electronic Instrumentation and Test Equipment
Guided Missile Research and Development
Automation and Data Processing
Basic Electronic and Aeronautical Research

Good progress is being made in the establishment of
facilities and operational patterns that are well tailored
to the unique requirements of advanced electronic
systems work.

The Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation
15730

ARBOR

VITAE

STREET.

LOS

ANGELES

415.

CALIFORNIA

Computers and AutomRtion

ard Gundelfinger, San Pablo, Calif. FBerkeley
Scientific Corp., Richmond, Calif. IA counting-rate meter.
2,735,082 I Jacob Goldberg, Bonnar Cox, and
James E. Heywood, Palo Alto, Calif. I - I A
data sorting system.

February 21, 1956: 2,735,302 I Arnold T. Nordsieck, La Jolla, Calif. I - I A mechanic a 1
integrating device.
2,735,615 I Harvey O. Hoadley, Rochester, N.Y.I
Eas tman Kodak Co., Roches ter , N. Y.
I An
electronic analog multiplier circuit.
2,735,616 I Harvey O. Hoadley, Rochester, N.Y.I
Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y. I
An
electronic multiplier circuit.
2,735,971 I Robert S. Raven, Catonsville, and
Harry C. Moses, Baltimore, Md. I U.S.A. IA two
speed control circuit for a servo system.
2,735,977 I William M. Webster, Jr., Princeton,
N. J. I U.S.A. I An inverter circuit.
2,735,987 I James B. Camp, Fairfield and Coleman H. Watson, Birmingham, Ala. I U.S. Steel
Corp., N. J. I A magnetic memory device.
2,736,007 I David E. Kenyon, Cold Spring Harbor,
N. Y. I Sperry Rand Corp., Del. I A teledata
system for conveying a plurality of intelligence signals to a remote point.
2,736,019 I Clyde E. Vogeley, Jr., and Theodore
Miller, Pittsburgh, Pa. I U.S.A. I A phas ecomparator tracking system.
2,736,021 I David E. Sunstein, Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.1
Philco Corp., Philadelphia, Pa. I A s ig na 1
integrating system.
February 28, 1956: 2,736,490 I John W. Schneirer,
Upper Darby, Pa. I - I A computing de vic e
for determining a ratio between two quantitative measurements.
2,136,770 I Joseph T. McNaney, San Diego, Calif./
General Dynamics Corp., Del. I A pr in t e r
capable of responding to a source of in put
information comprising code and synchronizing
signals.
2,736,801,1 Clyde E. Wiegand, Oakland, and ~~en
Chamberlain, Berkeley, Calif. / U.S.A. I
A
distributed pulse height discriminator.
2,736,802 I Lawrence Cranberg, Los Alamos, New
Mex. I U.S.A. I A pulse height analyzer system.
2,736,851 I Jean R. H. Dutilh, Paris, Fr./ - I
An electromechanical phase-shifter in an angular
position data transmission device.
2,736,852 I Eldred C. Nelson, Los Ang e 1 e s ,
Calif. I - I An automatic digital motor control system for machine tools.
2,736,880 I Jay W. Forrester, Wellesley,Mass./
Research Corp., New York, N. Y. I A multicoordinate digital information storage device.
2,736,881 I Andrew Donald Booth, Fenny Compton,
Eng. I The- Bri tish Tabulating Machine Co.,
Ltd., London, Eng. I A data storage dev ice
with magneto-strictive read-out.
2,736,883 I Leonard Boddy, Ann Arbor, Mich. /
King-Seeley Corp., Ann Arbor, Mich. I An in- 42 -

tegrating reI ay and signal mechanism.
I Harold R. Kaiser, Woodlands Hills,
Claude A. Lane, Culver City, and Wilford S.
Shockency, Torrence, Calif. I Hughes Aircraft
Co., Del. I A high speed electronic digitalto-analogue converter system.

2,736,889

*---------___
- FNl --_______
-

t::

EDITOR'S NOTES

(continued from page

~R)

ing sure that there are no faintly or partially written lines.
4. Any guide lines or other notations
which are not to be photographed should be
written lightly with a blue~riting mechanical pencil, because the camera regularly sees
blue as white, and so does not photograph it.
5. If a small mistake is made, it can be
erased, and typed over. If a large mistake
is made, the correction can be typed on a separate piece of paper and cemented tv! th rubber
cement accurately over the mistake. W hat
counts is what the camera sees. Rubber cenent
should be used not glue since rubber cement
does not buckle the paper.
6. For removing untfanted black marks (sucl1
as a blot), a good grade of artist's poster
white can be bought at an art store and painted on with a fine small paint brush. Painting
white stuff over a mistake is excellent removal of it.

7. Small line drawings may be placed where
they occur in the text. Other figures and
illustrations should be furnished separately,
with no colors except black, gray, and white,
and with names like Figure 1, Figure 2, and
so forth. The text should contain references
to the figures using these designations, so
that there is some leetvay as to where the figures may be placed in the printed article.
The separately furnished figures when printed
may be full size or any size, not necessarily
reduced 20%. For in photooffset printing, copy
and illustrations can be stretched or shrunk
as if they were on rubber sheets.
8. We shall of course inspect master copy
that we receive and if necessary make other
corrections. But since our style of type will
often be different from the author's style of
type, it will be a help if the author does as
much as possible of his own correcting.
Publishing by photooffset is becoming
steadily more important. More and more people
are preparing their final drafts of anything
in a form in lvhich copies can be easily supplied to anybody for any purpose. The day will
come I think lvhen the normal t... ay of typing
anything will be in such a form that 1 to 5000
copies can be easily made from the first final
typing.
- El'TI -

en

PUBLICAT IONS

c::

(!Iz:
UI
UI

P 34; LINEA~ PROG~A~MING
~ND COMPUTEnS.
Reprint of tHO
articles by Chandler Davis, in July
and August 1955 "Computers and Automation". A clear, well-written introduction.to linear programming,willi
emphash. on the ideas.
• .•. $1.20

en

c::

(!z:I
(!z:I

UI
UI

UI

z:

C 0

en

c::

z:

UI

en

~

(!Im~
z:
z:
::)

i=

0

::)

D-

D-

l-

I-

:=
0

c.J

c::

:=

c.J

~

o

c.J

UI

P 2D: THE COMPUTER DIRECTORY, 1955.
164 pages, 7500 Who's Who entries,
300 Organization entries, and 600
entries of Produc ts and Services for
Sale in the Computer Field; 250,000
words of condensed factual information about the computer field, June
1955 issue of "Computers and Automation."
..•• $4.00

p

:::c.J

c.J

UI

I-

c.J

UI

...J
UI

U

z:
:z:
c.J

UI

I-

co
~

...J

~

:=
UI

:z:

c::

(!I

UI
UI

en

c::

UI

I-

==
z:

UI

t e r S
l-

~

:=
Q

UI

::::i

DD~

::)

D-

:=
0

c.J

~

en

UI
Q

...J

~

c.J

Z

~

:z:

c.J

UI

:=

Design and development groups of Northrop's
Computing Center offer additional opportunities
in the original development of computing
and data reduction- components and systems.
Laboratory technicians, electronic engineers
and mechanical engineers are needed
for the design and development in
reconnaissance data systems and computing
equipment involving transistors, magnetic
decision elements, printed circuits and
miniaturization techniques.

In fact, you can also: 90893 85202
44393 29081 (Solve for the digits-each letter stands for just one digi t
o to 9)
.
All are new numbles, additions, multiplications, etc.; some easy, some
hard. Each wi th two messages, 0 n e
open, one hidden. Hints for solution.
Good exercises in logical reasoning.
•••• $1.00
--------MAIL THIS COUPON---------or copy it

A large number of job classifications written
specifically for computing personnel
provide unlimited opportunities with proper
salary and advancement assured. If you qualify
for any phase of computer research, design
or application, contact: Northrop Aircraft, Inc.,
1001 E. Broadway, Hawthorne, California.
Phone ORegon 8·9111, Extension 1893.

Edmund C. Berkeley and Associates,
815 Washington St., R159
Newtonville 60, Mass.
Please send me publications circled
and your announcement of publications:
32

en
z:

z:
~
:z:

:=
6c::

en

Applied mathematicians and engineers are
needed as computing analysts for aSSignment
to Northrop's analogue computing facility, and
too, for the newly expanded digital electronic
computer department which provides
unparalleled service in the practical solution of
complex engineering problems.

I

25

c.J

I-

:::

If computing and data reduction are new to
you but you are a qualified engineer,
mathematician or a laboratory technician,
contact us and learn how you may establish a
career in this vital field.

TRY II A V E and T R A I N
ESE
FUN your WIT S
=TWVAS WASE
ENTNS
WYE = VIF

2D

c.J

If you are already an experienced computing
analyst or engineer, you will find work
here to interest you.

P 25: NUMBLES
NUMBER PUZZLES FOR
NIMBLE MINDS. Report. Con t a ins
collection of puzzles like:

I

...J

Would you like to join one of the progressive
Computing Centers on the West Coast ...
where a broad variety of equipment and
activities will be a constant challenge?

P 32: SYMBOLIC LOGIC, by LB~IS CARROLL. Reprint of "Symbolic Log i c,
Part I, Elementary," 4th editioo, 1897,
240 pages, by Lewis Carroll (C. L.
Dodgson). Contains Letlfis Carroll's
inimi table and entertaining problems
in symbolic logic, his method of solution (now partly out of date), and
his sketches of Parts II and III,
Hhich he never t'Vrote since he die d
in 1898.
• ••• $2.50

+ T II

en
z:

~

z:

~

z:

UI

(!z:I

en
Ien
>...J

UI
UI

34

I enclose $
in full payment.
(Add 10¢ per item to cover c..ost 0 f
handling and mailing.) It is understood that if I am not satisfied, I
may return any item lUi thin five days
after receiving it, and you will at
once refund my money. My name and
address are attached.

NORTHROP AIRCRAfT, INC.
PIONEERS IN ALL WEATHER AND PILOTLESS FLIGHT

5-A-4;1-A

- 43 -

I.R.E.

Computers and Automation

(continued from page 32)

cribes a system philosophy of instrument development that provides a device of sufficient versatility that a large variety of these data-handling applications can be fulfilled by a single
machine. Attention is given to various encoding
methods available, variation in volume of information to be stored, and the need for acquiring
anel evaluating analog data on different time bases. Particular emphasis is placed on efficient
use of equipment space, component environment,
and standardization of components, inasmuch as
these factors directly affect reliability, cost,
and service abili ty.
- END-

f(moNTo COMPLTER

(cont inued from page ~6)

and the result stored.
FNTN

001.0

----------------*

Thus the instruction
XOl.O

YOl.O

lvill place sin (XOl) in YOlo
In general the second address can be any X,
Y, Z or C address, B-modified except for the C
case, and the third address can be any X, Y or Z
address, B-modified. Function numbers may normally range from 001, 002, •• 015, but a larger number may be had by special arrangement lvi th the operator. Chapter 5 of this manual includes a list
of Transcode functions available in the library,
with notes on their use. Functions of more than
one argument can be accommodated, and even operations such as matrix inversion can be brought into the scheme. (See library descriptions).
The FNTN instruction can also be used to divide a long program into convenient segments.
Thus, a programmer may construct his Oll1n FNTN's,
as described below. In fact, whenever the total
number of instructions in one set appreciably exceeds 100, the progra~ should be segmented.

*

During the tape read-in, Transcode addresses
are replaced by machine code addresses. However,
this cannot be done for control transfers to instructions yet to come and therefore a directory
list of machine addresses is built up during the
read-in. Part of the final preparations consists
of using this list to fill in the actual addresses
where necessary. In this connection it should be
. noted that provision is made for at most 64 forward control transfers, but this is not likely to
be a restriction in any Transcode program.
'#

///G in machine code.

(continued on page 45)

and which at the same time is a good story. ~
dinarily, the length should be 1000 to 400h\Urds.
Discussion. We desire to print in "Forum" brief
discussions, arguments, announcements, news,
letters, descriptions of remarkable new developments, etc., anything likely to be of substantial interest to computer people.
·~ayments.

- END -

NOTICE

The June 1956 iss ue of "Computers and Automation" will be the second issue of "The Computer Directory". Last year I'Ve published the
first issue, 164 pages. Our present plans for
the June 1956 directory follow:
Part. 1 of the directory in 1956 will be a
cumulative "Roster of Organizations in the Computer Field" based on the last cumulative roster (published December 1955, containing about
330 entries) and brought up to date. Entries
in this roster will be free. If you knOl4J 0 f
any changes, addi tions, or corrections 1" hi c h
should be made in the entries, please tell u s.
Part 2 of the directory will be the secund
edi tion of "The Computing Machinery Fie 1 d :
Products and Services for Sale." 0 v e r 600
entries on 21 pages appeared in the firs t edition in June 1955; a considerable increase is
anticipated. The previous entries, and blank
forms, were sent in February, to suppliers for
revie1'/, checking, and additions. A nom ina 1
charge of $6.00 an entry is requested from each
supplier in order to help defray the cos t 0 f
preparing and printing the directory; but if
the charge is not paid, the entry may s till
appear in condensed form, if desirable to make
the listing complete.
Part 3 of the directory will be the third
edi tion of the Who's Who in the Computer Field.
In the June 1955 issue, about 7500 en t r i e s
appeared on 96 pages; of these about 2600were
full entries, and the remainder were brie f
entries. Our present plans are to p ubI ish
only nety or revised Who's Who informati 0 n in
the June 1956 directory. Blank forms for nelV
or revised entries l'{ere sent in March to a I I
computer people l'11e knotv of. A nominal charge
of $2.00 an entry or other support of the Who's
Who was requested from each person t"hose entry
is printed, in order to help defray the cos t
of preparing and printing the Who's Who.
The main reason for the nominal charges
mentioned above is that lve look on the directory as a service to many people in the c 0 mputer field; yet so far it has not paid for
itself; and we need to make a com pro m i s e,
publishing at least some information ab 0 u t
everything that sh9uld appear in the directory,
but fuller information for those tv h 0 h a v e
shared directly in the cost.

*--~~--~~~~--~~---------------------­
¥anuscript N~tice (continued from page 31)

In many cases, we make small token
payments for articles, papers, and fiction, if
the author wishes to be paid. The rate is ordinarily ~¢ a word, the maximum is $20, and
both depend on length in words, whether printed before, whether article or paper, etc.

THE COMPUTER DIRECTORY, 1956:

- 44 -

TORONfO COMPUfER

Computers and Automation

(continued frorr page 44)

2.3

Tape Controls

punched on a separate tape from the instructions.

In addition to the instructions, there is
available in the Transcode system a set of TAPE
CONTROLS which facilitates the inputting of instructions and data and organization of the program. When the computer is started by reans of
certain settings on the console hand switches, it
proceeds to read tape until it encounters one of
these TAPE CONTROLS, tthereupon it takes the appropriate action. Blank tape has no effect and may
precede any tape control. If any character other
than a TAPE CONTROL or blank tape is encountered,
a dynamic stop* tvill occur and tape input t"lill
cease. The follotdng is a list of the TAPE CONTROLS and a description of their effects.
INST ooj
is for reading the program. It must be followed
directly by j operational instructions of the type
described above, the last one necessarily being
QUIT 000.0
000.0 000.0. Instructions are .
read into the store consecutively in the same sequence as they are punched on the tape, the first
instruction becoming 001, the second 002 etc.
When it is required to make reference to any instruction the instruction number is specified and
it is not necessary to know where the instruction
is stored with reference to the "real" machine.
~ote that the instruction numbers and the decimal
separator for the B-line are not punched.
CNST

pqq
pqq
pqq

reads in the set of constants, the first being CO~
the second C02, etc. Assimilation by the program
is automatic and takes place during translation.
Note the termination by'" to indicate that the last
constant has been read in. There can be at most
21 constants per program.
NUMB

pqq ••••• ~n~
pqq ••••• EMARK REG. U. S. PAT. OFF.

NATIONAL

CASH
REGISTER COMPANY
3348 West BI Segundo Blva., Hawthorne, Calif.

ELECTRONICS DIVISION

- 47 -

ADVERTISING IN ~~ICO,MPUTERS AND AUTO,MATION"
Memorandum from Berkeley Enterpr1ses, Inc.
Publisher of COMPUTERS AND AlJTO\1ATION
513 Ave. of the Americas, New York 11, N.Y.
1. What is "COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION"? It is
a monthly magazine containing articles, papers,
and reference information related to computing
machinery, robots, automatic control, cybernetics, automation, etc. One important piece of
reference information published is the "Ros t e r
of Organization~ in the Field of Computers and
Automation". The bas ic subscription rat e is
$5.50 a year in the Uni ted States. Sin g 1 e
copies are $1.25, except June, 1955, "The Computer Directory" (164 pages, $4.00). For the
titles of articles and papers in recent issues
of the magazine, see the "Back Copies" page in
this issue.
2. What is the circulation? The circulation
includes 2000 subscribers (as of Feb.lO): over
300 purchasers of individual back copies; and
an estimated 2500 nonsubscribing readers. The
logical readers of COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION
are people concerned with the field of computers
and automation. These include a great number
of people tvho will make recommendations to their
organizations about purchasing computing machinery, similar machinery, and components,
and whose decisions may involve very substantial figures. The print order for the May
issue wa~ 2700 copies. The overrun is largely
held for eventual sale as back copies, and in
the 'case of several issues the over ru n has
been exhausted through such sale.
3.

What type of advertising does COMPUTERS
The purpose of the magazine is to be factual and to the point. For
this purpose the kind of advertising Ivan ted is
the kind'.that answers questions factually. We
recommend for the audience that we reach, that
advertising be factual, useful, interesting,
understandable, and new from issue to issue.
We reserve the right not to accept advertismg
that does not meet bur standards.
AND AU1~MATION take?

4. What are the specifications and cost of
advertising? 'COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION is pub1 ished on page~ 8~" x 11" (ad size, 7" x 10")
and produced by photooffset, except that printed sheet advertising may be inserted and bound
in with the magazine in most cases. The closing date for any issue is approximate 1 y th e
10th of the month 'preceding. If poss ible, the
company advertising should produce final copy.
For photooffset, the copy should be exact I y
as desired, actual size, and a~sembled, and
may include typing, 'oJri ting, 1 in e dr a tv in g,
printing, screened h,'lf tones, and any othe r

- 48 -

copy that may be put under the photo 0 f f s e t
camera without further preparation. Unscreened
photographic prints and any other copy requirmg
addi tional preparation for photooffset shou I d
be furnished separately; it will be prep ared,
finished, and charged to the advertiser a t
small additional costs. In the case of printed
inserts, a sufficient quantity for the issu e
should be shipped to our printer, addres s on
request.
Display advertising is sold in units of a full
page (ad size 7" x 10", basic rate, $190) twothirds page (basic rate~ $145), and half pag e
(basic rate, $97); back cover, $370; in sid e
front or back cover, $230. Extra. for color red
(full pages only and only in certain pasi tions),
35%. Two-page printed insert (one sheet), $320;
four-page printed insert (tt'lO sheets), $590.
Classified advertising is sold by the tv 0 r d
(60 cents a word) with a minimum of 20 words.
5. Who are our advertisers? Our advertisers
in recent issues have included the follow in g
companies, among others:
Aircraft-Marine Products, Inc.
American Bosch Corp.
Ampex Corp.
Armour Research Foundation
Arnold Engineering· Co.
Automatic Electric Co.
Bendix Aviation Corp.
Cambridge Thermionic Corp.
Epsco, Inc.
Ferranti Electric Co.
Ferroxcube Corp. of America
General Electric Co.
Hughes Re~earch, and Development Lab.
International Business .Machines Corp.
Lockheed Aircraft Corp.
Lockheed Missile Systems
Logistics Research, Inc.
The Glenn L. Martin Co.
Monrobot Corp.
Norden-Ketay Corp.
Northrop Aircraft, Inc.
George A. Philbrick Researches, Inc •.
Potter Instrument Co.
Ramo-Wooldridge Corp.
Reeves Instrument Co.
Remington Rand, Inc.
Republic Aviation Corp.
Sprague Electric Co.
Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.

Mathematical Analyst Keith Kersery loads
jet transport flutter problem into one
of Lockheed's two 701's. On order: two
704's to. help keep Lockheed in forefront of numerical analysis and production con1rol data processing.

With two 701 digital computers already,in operation, Lockheed
has ordered two 704's to pennit greater application of numerical
analysis to cOP1plex aeronautical.problems now being
approached. Scheduled for delivery early next year, the 704's
will replace the 701 'so

704's and

701~s

speed

Lockheed research in
numerical analysis

Much of the work scheduled or in progress is classified.
However, two significant features are significant to career-minded
Mathematical Analysts: '1) the wi&~ variety of assignments
.
created by Lockheed's diversified development program and
2) the advanced nature of the work, which falls largely into
unexplored areas of numerical analysis.

Career positions for

Mathem·~tical

Analysts

Lockheed's expanding development program in nuclear energy,
turbo-prop and"jet transports, radar search planes, extremely highspeed aircraft and other classified projects has created a number of
openings for Mathematical Analysts to work on the 704's.
Lockheed offers you attractive salaries, generous travel and moving
allowances which enable you and your family to move to Southern
California at virtually no expense; and an extremely wide range of
employe benefits which add approximately 14% to each engineer's
salary in the form of insurance, retirement pension, etc.
Those interested in advanced work in this field are invited to
write E. W. Des Lauriers, Dept. MA-3~-5.

LOCKHEED
BURBANK

AIRCRAFT CORPORATION. CALIFORNIA DIVISION

CALIFORNIA

ADVERTISING IN.DEX
Computing Devices of Canada, Ltd., P. O. Box 508,
Ot tawa, Canada / Elec tronic Computers / P age
2 / CA No. 135
Ferroxcube Corp., East Bridge St., Saugerties, N.Y./
Magnetic Core Materials / Page 35 / CA No. 136
General Electric Co., {Hanford Atomic Prod uc ts} ,
Richland, Washington / Help Wanted / Page 35 /
CA No. 137
Lockheed Aircraft Corp., California Div., Burbank,
Calif. / Mathematical Analys ts Wanted / P age
49 / CA No. 139
National Cash Register Co., Electronics Div., 3348
W. E. 1 Segundo Blvd., Hawthorne, Cal i f . /
Digi tal Computer Engineers / Page 47 / CA No .140
Northrop Aircraft, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif. / Employment Opportunity / Page 43 / CA No. 141

The purpose of COMPUTERS AND AUTOMATION is to be
factual, useful, and understandable. For th i s
purpose, the kind of advertising we des ire t 0
publish is the kind that answers questions, suc h
as: What are your products? What are lOur services?
And for each product, What is it called? W h a t
does it do? Hot\' well does it lvork? What are its
main specifications?
Following is the index and a summary of advertisements. Each item contains: Name and address 0 f
the advertiser / subject of the advertisemen t /
page number where it appears / CA number in cas e
of inquiry (see note below).
Aircraft Marine Products, Inc., 2100 P axto n St.,
Harrisburg, Pa. / Taper Technique / Page 51 /
CA No. 127
Arma Division, American Bosch Corp., Roo seve 1 t
Field, Garden City, L. I., N. Y. / Engineering
Opportunities / Page 3 / CA No. 128
Automatic Electric Company, 1033 W. Van Buren St. ,
Chicago, Ill. / Relays for Printed Circ ui t s I
Page 39 / CA No. 129
Berkeley Enterprises, Inc., 513 Ave. of the Americas, New York 11, N. Y. / Robot Show Stoppers,
Publications, Geniac Kit / Pages 37, 43, 47 /
CA No. 130
Bryant Chucking Grinder Co., P. O. Box 62 O-K,
Springfield, Vermont / Magnetic Drums / P age
37 / CA No. 131
Cambridge Thermionic Corp., 430 Concord Ave.,
Cambridge 38, Mass. / Perma-Torg Units / P age
5 / CA No. 132
Commercial Controls Corp. (Flexowriter), Rochester
2, N. Y. / Use Flexolvriter / Page 31 / CA No.
133
Computers and Automation, 513 Ave. of the Americas, New York 11, N. Y. / Back Copies, Advertising /Pages 46, 48 / CA No. 134

Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., 8820 Bellanca Ave., Los
Angeles 45, Calif. / Employment Opportunities /
Page 41 / CA No. 142
R.C.A. Service Co., Inc., Missile Test Project,
P. O. Box 1226, Melbourne, Fla. / Help Wanted /
Page 33 / CA No. 143
Sprague Electric Co., 377 Marshall St., Nor t h
Adams, Mass. / Pulse Transformer Kit / P age
52 / CA No. 144

READER'S INQUIRY
If you wish more information about any products
or services mentioned in one or more 0 f the s e
advertisements, you may circle the appro pr i ate
. CA Nos. on the Reader's Inquiry Form below and
send that form to us (we pay postage; see the
instructions). We shall then forward your i nquiries, and you will hear from the advertisers
direc t. If you do not tvish to tear the magazine,
just drop us a line on a postcard.
*--------------------------~--------------------*

*

READER'S INQUIRY FORM
Paste label on envelope:J...

Enclose form in envelope: '"

r - - ------- -- - -- --..., .. --- - - ------ - - - - -- - -- -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - - --~a:J
.::..
.c
"A-

""'0

0

ell

......

01
m

m

~

CD

0lIl

... ~
-<
;:II;

m
m
m

CD

0lIl
."
0lIl

01

m

Z

:
0

CO

z
-f
iii
m
.!"

""'0

a.:

~en

:r:

:<

•

~en

Your Address? ............. ' ... .
Your Organization?

zen
:;:0

lis Address?.....

~m

~"'O

Your Title? ......

"r-

FORM

.. .
.. ... .

~-<

~r-

z»

Please send me additional information on the following subiects for which I have
circled the CA number:

OJ

m

I
6
11
16
21

r-

!l

2
7
12
17
22

3
8
13
18
23

4
9
14
19
24

5
10
15
20
25

26
31
36
41
46

7l
32
37
42
q

28
33
38
e
48

29
34
39
44
49

30 51 52 53 54 55 76 77 78 79 80 101 102 103 104
35 56 57 58 59 60 81 82 83 84 85 106 107 lOB 109
40 61 62 63 64 65 86 87 88 89 90 111 112 113 114
45 66 67 68 69 70 91 92 93 94 95 116 117 118119
50 71 n 73 7A 75 96 97 98 99 100 121 122 123 124

105
110
115
120
125

126 127 128
131 132 133
136 137 138
141 142 Ie
1-16!A7 148

129
134
139
144
U9

Y.lQ

ttl
140
145
150

z",-U

~r ~

::!.
(")

:I!

~ 3: ...

~

REMARKS:

~;o:;~

JIIIIIIIIIIIII gi ~
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 0_ _

INQUIRY

Name (please print) ......................... .

?l
.$

~
CO
.,-:- go Z "<

: fi

READER'S

>-

~Z
~m

........

___

--"" . . . . . . . .

:...1_________________________________________ _

- 50 -

ask about

~@~~
TO

BETTER

WIRING

More
Co~fide~ce . ..

-

Less

[}{pe ~se
with

A-MP Taper Pins, Taper Bloks, Taper Tips,
Taper Tabs and Taper Tab Receptacles
offer great freedom of circuit design and
insure maximum electrical stability.
They cut material cost ... cut labor cost
... and reduce assembly time. Taper Technique is benefiting manufacturers of business
machines, aircraft, guided missiles and
electronic equipment.
You, too, can benefit by the A-MP Taper
Technique. Consult your local A-MP salesman or write to Harrisburg.

@A-MP 1956

Aircraft-Marine Products Inc.
I

General Office: Harrisburg, Pa.
A-MP of Canada, Ltd., Toronto, Canada. A-MP-Holland N.V., 's-Hertogenbosch, Holland
Aircraft-Marine Products (G.B.) Ltd., London, England. Societe A-MP de France, Courbevoie, Seine, France

HERE'S THE IDEAL TOOL FOR
ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT
OF CIRCUITS USING

PULSE TRANSFORMERS

Type

Sprague's new Type lOOZI Pulse Transformer Kit
contains five multiple winding transformers. each
chosen for its wide range of practical application.
Complete technical data on each of the transformers is included in the instruction card in each
kit so that the circuit designer may readily select
the required windings to give transformer
characteristics best suited for his' applications ...
. whether it be push-pull driver. blocking oscillator.
pulse gating. pulse amplifier. or impedance matching. The electrical characteristics of the transformers in the kit have been designed so that they
may be matched by standard Sprague subininiature
hermetically-sealed pulse transformers shown in
engineering bulletin 5028.
For complete infor-mation on this kit, as well as
the extensive line of Sprague pulse transformers.
write to the Technical Literature Section. Sprague
Electric Company. 377 Marshall Street, North
Adams. Massachusetts.

Sprague on request will provide
you with complete application
engineering service for optimum
results in the use of pulse
transformers.
Export ror lhe Americas: Sprague Eleclric Inlernalional Ltd., North Adams, Massachusetts. CABLE: SPREXINT.



---

Source Exif Data:

File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.3
Linearized                      : No
XMP Toolkit                     : Adobe XMP Core 4.2.1-c041 52.342996, 2008/05/07-21:37:19
Create Date                     : 2015:08:22 08:29:46-08:00
Modify Date                     : 2015:08:22 07:48:23-07:00
Metadata Date                   : 2015:08:22 07:48:23-07:00
Producer                        : Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Paper Capture Plug-in
Format                          : application/pdf
Document ID                     : uuid:e747737f-2fb0-0647-bc0c-722d36e6f869
Instance ID                     : uuid:118ab0bb-0723-de4d-b5ba-32e471641cf2
Page Layout                     : SinglePage
Page Mode                       : UseNone
Page Count                      : 52

EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools