![]() Constants which are stored in the "memory system" also enable the arithmetic unit to compute automatically such functions as sine, cosine, and logarithms. It can add these figures in one third of that time. The computing section of the machine, which carries out electronically the commands issued to it by the sequencing drum, can multiply two 16-dight numbers in a fraction over twelve thousands of a second. The drums revolve at speeds up to 120 revolutions per second and the magnetic spots move by the recording and play-back heads at speeds greater than 150 miles par hour. More than 4000 16-digit numbers, plus 4000 "commands" for carrying out the various operations of the machine, can be put on these nine drums. An elaborate system of recorders and play-backs "circulate" the information between the drums and other parts of the machine. The results then come out of the machine on another magnetic tape.īoth the information for carrying out given operations and the numbers with which the operations are performed are represented by small magnetic spots on the surface of the rapidly rotating drums. Problems are solved by feeding information on a magnetic tape to the sequencing drum which in turn "commands" the computing section to accomplish the desired operations with the numbers in the storage drum. The "memory system" consists of eight storage drums and a sequencing drum. ![]() ![]() This novel "memory system," which enables Mark III to operate 20 times faster than Mark II, completed less than two years ago, combines mechanical relay, and electronic systems. The machine will be used by the United States Navy Bureau of Ordnance. Over 600 physicists, mathematicians, economists, engineers, and industrialists from all parts of the country and abroad attended the four-day Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machines at the Computation Laboratory and observed the first public demonstration of this device. A "memory system" capable of storing 64,000 digits and leading a computing machine through a complex mathematical problem of 4000 steps was shown at the unveiling of Harvard University's new Mark III calculating machine September 13. ![]()
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