Editor's Postview…
To no one's great surprise, comments, pro and con, have been arriving on the contents o] the first issue o] C o m p u t i n g S u r v e y s. Most are o] a quite general nature and are, there]ore, relegated to the editor's files. One, in particular, raised a specific point with regard to Pro]essor Saul Rosen's paper, "Elec-tronic Computers: A Historical Survey," and is reproduced below along with Pro]es-sor Rosen' s response. All communications regarding C o m p u t i n g S u r v e y s and its contents are welcome. Only those communications distinctly labeled "Letter to the Editor" will be considered ]or publication. The editor reserves the right to delete any part o] any communication in the interest o] avoiding repetition and conserving space. In cases where letters are concerned with specific papers, the author o] the paper will be permitted an opportunity to respond, as in the present case. It is difficult to quarrel with a paper that starts off with a disclaimer such as "This paper makes no attempt at completeness..." as Saul Rosen's his-toncal presentation does m your m~tlal issue. For the record, however, and to add to the completeness somewhat, I would like to comment on the role played by the Atomic Energy Commission in the early development of the electronic computer. The Commission supported the design, development and constructmn of the IAS computer In its 1947-1948 report entitled "Atomic Energy Development ." the Commission reported that "Mathe-matmians at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, have reported, progress in design of specml t'~-pes of high-speed computmg machines for the Commlssmn." ~ It is interesting to note that in that same report use of the E N I A C by Los Alamos for Monte Carlo solution of neutron-diffusion problems is mentmned. In addition, computers based on the IAS design were constructed at Argonne National Laboratory for use at Ar-gonne (the AVIDAC) and for use at Oak Ridge ~Edltor's Note This quotation appears on p 65 of the refer-enced document I t ~s (or at least was) available through the Superintendent of Documents, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C National Laboratory (the ORACLE) in parallel with the M A N I A C development at Los Alamos. In June of 1953 the Commission put into operation a U N I V …