De Computer: Werkwijze en toepassingsmogelijkheden van elektronische rekenmachines

Since world‐war II, there has been an enormous development in the field of the electronic data processing equipment. This rapid development was on one side due to the boom which followed the war, on the other hand the armaments‐race contributed considerably to a further increase of the research in this sector. In the years 1948–50 it became clear that this equipment could also be of great advantage in other areas than scientific, such as business administration, automatic translation, information retrieval and production control. These applications, however, made other demands on the computer. A greater and faster memory and more speed in input and output of data were necessary. The research in the last few years is therefore mainly concentrated on these problems. The computers, as they are now available, consist of 5 units: input device, calculating‐unit, storage, control unit and output device. The processing is controlled by means of a program, which consists of a number of instructions, prescribing in detail the operations to be performed by the machine. It will be clear that the use of this equipment requires a careful study beforehand, whilst also the implications on staff and organisation must be considered.