Name/Title
1953/10- Radio & Television News, "The Oarac"Tags
Radio & Television NewsDescription
The article titled “The Oarac” from the October 1953 issue of Radio & Television News discusses the Office of Air Research Automatic Computer (OARAC).
The OARAC was an electronic calculating machine designed and built for the U.S. Air Force by General Electric Company. It was capable of solving complex mathematical problems at high speeds. The OARAC boasted a 10,000-word memory with an average access time of 9 milliseconds. It could multiply two ten-digit numbers in approximately 8 milliseconds and add them in less than 100 microseconds. The memory centered around an aluminum cylinder coated with magnetic oxide, similar to magnetic tape recorders. It had about 200 magnetic record-playback heads that could write and read magnetic spots, representing binary digits (bits) of information. The OARAC represented a significant advancement in computing technology at the time, showcasing the potential of electronic computers in processing data for research and military applications
