Browsing by Subject "United States -- Data processing"

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    Oral history interview with Charles L. Critchfield
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-05-29) Critchfield, Charles L. (Charles Louis), 1910-
    The interview mainly concerns John von Neumann, whom Critchfield knew through his thesis advisor, Edward Teller, and through his work at Aberdeen and Los Alamos. It describes von Neumann's work on shaped charges; his work at the Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland and his interactions there with Robert Kent; and his consulting work at Los Alamos, especially on the implosion device.
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    Oral history interview with David J. Wheeler
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-05-14) Wheeler, David J., 1927-
    Wheeler, who was a research student at the University Mathematical Laboratory at Cambridge from 1948-51, begins with a discussion of the EDSAC project during his tenure. He compares the research orientation and the programming methods at Cambridge with those at the Institute for Advanced Study. He points out that, while the Cambridge group was motivated to process many smaller projects from the larger university community, the Institute was involved with a smaller number of larger projects. Wheeler mentions some of the projects that were run on the EDSAC, the user-oriented programming methods that developed at the laboratory, and the influence of the EDSAC model on the ILLIAC, the ORDVAC, and the IBM 701. He also discusses the weekly meetings held in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory, the University of Birmingham, and the Telecommunications Research Establishment. These were attended by visitors from other British institutions as well as from the continent and the United States. Wheeler notes visits by Douglas Hartree (of Cavendish Laboratory), Nelson Blackman (of ONR), Peter Naur, Aad van Wijngarden, Arthur van der Poel, Friedrich L. Bauer, and Louis Couffignal. In the final part of the interview Wheeler discusses his visit to Illinois where he worked on the ILLIAC and taught from September 1951 to September 1953.
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    Oral history interview with Nicholas C. Metropolis
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-05-29) Metropolis, N. (Nicholas), 1915-
    Metropolis, the first director of computing services at Los Alamos National Laboratory, discusses John von Neumann's work in computing. Most of the interview concerns activity at Los Alamos: how von Neumann came to consult at the laboratory; his scientific contacts there, including Metropolis, Robert Richtmyer, and Edward Teller; von Neumann's first hands-on experience with punched card equipment; his contributions to shock-fitting and the implosion problem; interactions between, and comparisons of von Neumann and Enrico Fermi; and the development of Monte Carlo techniques. Other topics include: the relationship between Turing and von Neumann; work on numerical methods for non-linear problems; and the ENIAC calculations done for Los Alamos.