Development of Computer Technology 



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MARK III Aiken Dahlgren Electronic Calculator. 



felt that technology was moving along rapidly, and we felt that in order to get 

 the best computer for our needs the Navy had to sponsor development. 

 Around 1958, there was a committee put together to look at Navy needs, and 

 they surveyed a lot of installations. They came to the conclusion that we should 

 talk to some computer manufacturers like IBM, UNIVAC, and maybe Bur- 

 roughs. They came to the conclusion that the way to get the best computer was 

 to sponsor a development, and they chose IBM. A contract was made with IBM 

 to build a computer to meet the state of the art for one dollar plus cost, so the 

 Navy paid IBM one dollar plus the cost of building the computer which turned 

 out to be the NORC, delivered here in 1955. 



That was a significant step forward in speeds of computers. Back at that time, 

 NORC was the fastest computer in the world. It was built at Watson Lab in New 

 York, and they did some things with the NORC that were way beyond what was 

 considered the state of the art. For instance, magnetic tape is one of the storage 

 devices on computers. At that time, most of the commercial organizations were 

 using 100 bits per inch on tape. On the NORC, IBM went to 500 bits per inch. 

 Even the engineers at IBM in Poughkeepsie and other parts of the company 



