In 1947 Raytheon signed a contract to make their first computer. It would be their last... at least for many many years. The fruits of this contract was RAYDAC. Early digital computers were odd, to say the least. And RAYDAC distinguishes itself. From zig-zag delay lines to hunting tapes to freon cooling, it truly is a unique machine.

Selected Sources:

https://ed-thelen.org/McGee_Book-4.2.2.pdf - McGee on his experience programming RAYDAC

https://sci-hub.st/10.1109/JRPROC.1948.232626 - A Digital Computer for Scientific Applications

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2002859 - The Logical Design of RAYDAC

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The image of a mainframe is almost always accompanied by it's companion: the magnetic tape drive. For decades magnetic tape served as the medium of choice for computing. It was faster than punch cards, and more available than hard drives. But where did it come from? Is it a borrowed technology like the vacuum tube?

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In which we discuss GPSS: the General Purpose Simulation Language. As for as languages go, this is a unique one. It's designed for certain types of simulations. It's code is just a handy way to feed a flowchart into a computer. It's design is closer to an analog computer than it is to a programming language. Yet GPSS is Turing Complete. Step inside and prepare to be... confused!

The big source of the show:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/960118.808382 - The Development of GPSS

Like Advent of Computing? Then check out the after show! Adjunct of Computing is now LIVE: YouTube Spotify Apple Podcasts