NBS Urged to Build New Computer

AT its meeting on February 3rd, the Advisory Committee for the National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Division considered proposals of the Bureau for new computing equipment, and recommended that the Bureau go ahead with plans for the construction of a new general‐purpose computer. The present machine, the SEAC, is already fully occupied with work for the Bureau and for other government agencies. In the two years required for machine construction, the demand for additional computation will very probably be more than SEAC can handle, so action on the construction of a new machine should start soon. The Committee also discussed the recommendations of the Conference on Mathematical Tables, held at MIT last September. One recommendation of the Conference was that the Bureau collect, edit, and publish a “tables for the occasional computer” (which might be described as an enlarged Jahnke‐Emde). The Bureau is requesting financial support for the National Science Foundation to perform this work. The Advisory Committee recommended that the work be carried out and hoped that the Science Foundation would be able to support it. The membership of the Applied Mathematics Advisory Committee is now: Dean Mina Rees (chairman), Mark Kac, Philip M. Morse, A. H. Taub, and E. U. Condon (the latter having replaced Edward Teller on the Committee).

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