LETTER TO(Sanitized)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 40
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2003
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 22, 1977
• Content Type: LETTER

proved For Release 2003/08/1$E f85BOO236ROQ.100080002-4
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE
FORT GPORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755
Records Review Branch
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC
I
Serial: D4M-589
2 2 JUL 1977
Y151L LLA ror a briefing on
its declassification ,,,-na,-.m .
the course of the meeting the foira ng material wasarequested ofrhim.
1. Influence of U.S. Cryptologic Organizations on the Digital
Computer IndustrS~r~~
2. Memo for Director, NSA/Chief CSS, dated 26 January 1976
from former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld; Subject: Continuing the
Securit P ection of Cryptologic Information and Material Beyond 30
Years.
25X1A
25X1A
3. Memo for Deputy Secretary of Defense Ellsworth from
Director f CSS, dated 6 December 1976; Subject: NSA Declassification
Plan.
. Compendium of various statutes for safeguarding cryptologic
Inclosed herewith are the documents.
Sincerely,
Information Officer
4 Incls:
1. a/s (dup)
2. 3. & 4. a/s
Isis correspondence m4y ! Q d,.classitmd
r=pon removal of tilt, inch"u.es a, :,! ;;,r sica
remr~vLg of 4 r~v2,~F n,:"Eatier~t, f l
Approved For
25X1A
 ILLEGIB
ILLEGIB
Approved For Rge 2003/08/18 : C
INFLUENCE OF U.S. CRYPTOLOGIC
ORGANIZATIONS ON THE
DIGITAL COMPUTER INDUSTRY
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
Fort George G. Meade, Maryland
Apl
 Approved For Rel se 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R0QQ100080002-4
1C;KNOWLEDGEMENTS
Because many of the developments mentioned in this account of NSA's
computer industry impact occurred many years ago, it was essential that
the author consult numerous official records and reports, to supplement
his own recollections based on first-hand experience. To those officials
who made possible access to such documents, the author expresses sincere
thanks for their support.
The author also is pleased to acknowledge the assistance of many
technical people -- employees, former employees, and affiliated non-
employees of NSA -- who gave of their time and technical expertise to
read drafts, catch errors, or volunteer suggested improvements. Because
there was much overlapping of interest areas, it would be impossible to
connect individual subjects to specific personal contributions.
The author finally assumes sole responsibility for the use made of
and conclusions drawn from his source materials.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For ReIse 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236RQ09100080002-4
Introduction
1
Non-NSA Beginnings
2
Pre-Computer NSA -
4
NSA First-Generation Computers
7
Impact on General Data Handling
15
NSA's Second Generation Computers: Solid-
State Machines
17
Toward the Computer of the Future: LIGHTNING
24
Appendix A: Chronology of NSA Computer "Firsts"
29
Appendix B: Theory and Techniques for Design
of Electronic Computers
30
References
35
Table 1. First-Generation Digital Computers
Supported Wholly or In Past by U.S. Government
Funding
Table 3. ABNER Instruction Code 11
Figure 1. PITS. Diagrammatic View of Section of
Tape, Showing Alternating Blocks of Information 13
Figure 2. HARVEST System Block Diagram 23
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Relgase 2003/08/18: CIA-RDP85B00236RA-A0100080002-4
INTRODUCTION. During; the 1970's there has been a great increase in
publication of articles and books on the historical aspects of the
computing field. In 1971 and 1972 Lhe Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) sponsored observances of the 25th anniversary of its founding.
Special honors and awards have been heaped on many of the founding
fathers and mothers, both personally and posthumously. Last fall the
COMPCON-76 was held in Washington, D.C. in connection with the IEEE
Computer Society's 25th anniversary celebration. Part of that conference
featured a "pioneers' gathering" which was attended by many notables i:t
the field. In December 19;'6, as part-of the Computer Society's anniversary
observance, the Society published special issues of the IEEE Transactions
on Computers and of the Society's magazine COMPUTER. These journals ;;id
others contain reminiscenc-us and chronologies of p:i1Ah,u1at' InterL,.It
those of us who shared the experiences of the time. More important,
such writings can contribute to the education of the younger generations
of computer specialists, who usually show a keen interest in learning
about "the olden days."
An unfortunate aspect of all such historical accounts of computer
lore is the omission (conspicuously, to some of us) of mention of the
National Security Agency (NSA), or of the contributions by that Agency
which helped in laying the foundation of the computer industry. The :JS_
over the years has been required to observe a policy of anonymity, and
with good reason. But, in this age of maturing appreciation of the role
of computers in nearly all civilized endeavors, it is time for acknowledging
that NSA, too, uses computers. In tact, that Agency's contributions te
the computer industry have been outstanding. This article relates fur
the first time some of the details behind the NSA computer story:
Appendix A, "Chronology of NSA Computer 'Firsts'," encapsulates several
highlights.
The reader will notice the conspicuous absence of remarks upon
software efforts at NSA. While this side of the Agency's operations
received its proper share of support, discussion of software systems h.s
been omitted because of the key word "influence" in our title. In oth,r
words, whereas NSA instigated significant innovative software advances,
an exceptional influence on industry software systems isn't easily demonst-
rated.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236RQ00100080002-4
The U.S. computer industry is one that might not have gotten off
the ground at all without the stimulus and financial support of the U.S.
government. The details of the Atmy Ordnance wartime requirement for
assistance in calculation of ballistic tables and the creation of a team
of engineers and mathematicians at the University of Pennsylvania's
Moore School o Electrical Engineering to design and build ENIAC are
well known. (1 (2)* Also, the design and construction of UNIVAC for the
Bureau of the Census, and of RAYDAC by the Raytheon Corporation for
Naval Research Labs. are important pioneering stages in early computer
history. In these, the Bureau of Standards exerted important influences
as supervisor of the contracts and in technical guidance. Table 1,
showing the important first-generation computers supported partly or
wholly by U.S. funds, conveys some idea of the importance of government
support in the early days of the computer:
Table 1. FIRST-GENERATLON DIGITAL COMPUTERS SUPPORTED
WHOLLY OR IN PART BY U.S. GOVERNMENT FUNDING
EDVAC Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University
of Pennsylvania
RAYDAC Raytheon Corporation, Waltham, Mass.
(Orig. "HURRICANE")
SEAC National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C.
SWAC National'Bureau of Standards, Institute for
(Orig. "ZEPHYR") Numerical Analysis, UCLA
UNIVAC Electronic Control Company (later: Eckert-
Mauchly Computer Corp., Sperry-Rand Corp.)
WHIRLWIND Massachmmetts Institute of Technology Servo-
Mechanisms Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
MOORE SCHOOL LECTURES;' I.A.:}. REPORTS. By the time ENIAC was
completed, in February 1946:, John W. Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert, its
designers, had fairly clear ideas about the kinds of features a modern
general-purpose computer sn>uld have. For example, besides high-speed
storage for both instructions and data, the computer of the future
should have some kind of "discriminate" instructions which would make
possible the modification ox the course of problem solution. The experience
in building and operating ts'NIAC certainly helped, particularly in emphasizing
certain features a computer: should not have. The total storage capacity
of ENIAC was only 20 numbers, and the method of setting up problems to
be solved consisted of plugging up, in proper sequence, large cables
interconnecting the registers containing numbers to be operated upon.
Also, while ENIAC's circuits were quite fast enough, it contained 18,000
electron tubes, a prohibitively large number.
Besides the people at Moore School, several other research centers
and universities had begun making plans for design of large-scale computers.
The completion of constructdon of ENIAC provided the trigger for the
proposal for a conference, or series of lectures, in which outstanding
researchers could report on their work. The Moore School was a natural
setting, and the Office of Naval Research, U.S. Navy, and the Ordnance
Department, U.S. Army, provided joint sponsorship. The lectures were
given 8 July--31 August 19'i6 and the invited participants included
representatives from 20 organizations, governmental and private. The
names of speakers and titles of the talks in'the complete program,
"Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers," are
reproduced in Appendix B.
The Moore School lectures were noteworthy in several ways. Logical
design for both single-address and multi-address instruction systems
were described. Engineering principles were presented for deal.ing with
arithmetic operations, as well as several systems for constructing
practical computer memories: Numerical methods for attacking mathematical
problems were proposed, suitable for use in digital computers. Among
the lecturers' names, that of Dr. John von Neumann is worth noting~3)
since he contributed, as a Moore School consultant, a 1945 report
in which many of the logical design suggestions were presented for tL.L
first time. Also, in June 1946 he first of two important Institute
for Advanced Study reports (4) t5 appeared. These reports contained
detailed discussions of von Neumann's ideas for computer organization
and construction, and basic principles, with examples, showing how to
program and code problems. The proposed computer logic, which came to
be known as "the von Neumann machine," has proved to be the basic system
followed in most computers until recent times. Thus, the Moore School
lectures and the I.A.S. reports can be said to have laid the foundation
for the modern computer industry.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Relse 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236RO49100080002-4
PRE-C(71IFly 1'FR NSA
Before formation of.the Defense Deparment, the NSA's principal
predecessors were Navy's Communications Supplementary Activities, Washington
(CSAW) and Army Security Agency (ASA). Both CSAW and ASA performed for
their respective departments important cryptologic functions.
Such activities always were able to command good support and security
protection, but particularly this dame to a peak during World War II.
From about 1935, CSAW and ASA both began to make good use of machines in
support of their mission; an integral and continuing feature was their
punched-card installations. Before the advent of modern digital computers,
their punched-card machines constituted the backbone of machine support;
t fact, in general purpose applicability, the punched-card installation
was the natural predecessor of the modern computer. In addition, both
agencies built or had built under contract several special-purpose
machines. CSAW, particularly, enli.fited the support of several contractors
to design and build special-purposcequipment; in some cases these were
ialized as to problem and thus were of no use on any other job. In
several other instances, the specialization constituted a specific
furction, such as comparing or counting; these machines had limited
appi_icabil.ity, but were not confined to a single problem. It is worth
,i?. ink; nizt. that machines built in ;this "pre-computer" era utilized
'):i,-speed digital circuits similar to, and definitely antedating
techniques later used in electronic: digital computer technology. During
World War II Navy used Eastman Kodak, National Cash Register, and several
other firms to plan and build these' machines. M.I.T.'s Vannevar Bush
"'?d some of the ideas for these early equipments. The ASA utilized
the. services of Bell Telephone Laboratories during the war to design and
construct a large complex of relay equipment which was dedicated to one
particular problem. The ASA and CSAW punched-card equipment installations
menally; of particular interest was a series of special-
__;e attachments built for the mn8t part by II3M for operation with
the IBM Tabulators. These in etfect_,multiplied many-fold the power of
the standard punched-card complex. Much of the effort by IBM which
resulted in special-attachment design and construction was part of that
.,,_-.~,pany's support for the war etfor,:, An arrangement for such work to
be done at cost, together with avail_ability of cleared company personnel,
facilitated speedy action in emerge]ities. ASA's and CSAW's close
collaboration with companies who as-i,isted them in pre-war and World War
II assignments provided valuable exi,Qrience for these companies in
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
producing solutions to da?-b processing jobs similar in technique to
those which these firms were to face in later computers-for-business
assignments.
In most of the foregoing machine design jobs done by outside contractor,
it was necessary to bring contractor personnel into a classified problem
area; that is, security clearance for selected personnel was required.
This requirement, and the necessity to observe physical security regulations,
plus the feeling on the part of contractors that such limited-application
efforts for government were not profitable, resulted in refusals by
several firms to accept such machine-design contracts after WW-II. Thus
it was that, at the end of the war, a group of Naval officers who wer,,
acquainted with this situation and particularly were technically able to
provide continuing guidance for such machine support in the future,
banded together and formed P:ngineering Research Associates, Inc., (E. ` N. ) .
Navy's Bureau of Ships provided a blanket contract and arrangaments !L'.
clearance and security. E.K.A. thus began in 1946 what became a most
successful arrangement for designing equipments for use by CSAW. The
company's operations were regulated by a BuShips contract under which a
number of "tasks" could be 4s-signed with minimum notice as long a.
were available. One significant aspect of the Navy's procedure for
supervising work under this contract was the BuShips' system for inspection
and quality control. Undoubtedly it was largely because of strict
adherence to this policy that E.R.A. was able to maintain an exv.olle..'
record of delivering equipnient that "worked." Most of. tho mac::: ( .
built under this contractual arrangement were quite specialized as to
function. Their engineering technology was similar to that being developed
for electronic general-purpose digital computers.
J. W. Coombs (6) in a report at the 1947 National Electronics
Conference, described work otx one of the early tasks, assigned to E.1.A.
in August 1946 to investigate magnetic recording on drums and disks,
among other things. One of the first models constructed to-test magnetic
drum recording used an aluminum drum whose magnetized surface consisted
of paper magnetic tapes glued to the drum's surface. Information was
recorded statically, advancing the drum about 8 steps per second, by use
of a ratchet which moved on signals from the input punched paper tape
reader. Thus holes in the tApe were recorded as magnetic marks on tha
drum. After recording, the drum was rotated at 225 rpm and signals
could be read, erased and rewritten on the same track at a rate of
20,000 pulses per second.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For RelUse 2003/08/18: CIA-RDP85B00236RO:W100080002-4
Two new tasks were assigned, calling for construction of practical
special-purpose machines using magnetic drums to store data for analysis.
Task 9, GOLDBERG, was assigned in 1947; it was to be a comparator-like
system with statistical capabilities. Early in 1948 work on Task 21,
DEMON, was authorized. DEMON was to use data stored on the drum to
perform a specialized version of table look-up. Both used large 34-
inch-diameter drums which rotated at 3,500 rpm. Although GOLDBERG was
assigned earlier, the DEMON project was completed first, and the first
of five DEMON equipments was delivered in October 1948. The magnetic
drum memory on DEMON was, as far as we know, the first drum memory in
practical operational use in the United States. When the first DEMON
was delivered, operation of electronic equipment containing large numbers
of electron tubes was still in infancy. Besides routine provisions for
cooling, it was found that many tuhies burned out at initial power-on. A
procedure for identifying "marginal" components was tried and found to
iiccessful: each day, voltages were systematically lowered on separate
racks of equipment. Marginal check5ng on DEMON is believed to be the
first regular use of this technique:in routine equipment maintenance.
E.R.A. built several other machines for NSA and other sponsors
sz used magnetic drums for stor ge. Later improved models utilized
-sprayed magnetic coating instead ol:tapes, and were also more compact.
The last built for NSA were those delivered with the ATLAS computers,
described below. Another example worthy of note is the ABEL computer.
built by CSAW engineers in: about four months in 1949, a slow-
re-lay analog of ATLAS I. Its drum memory, built by E.R.A., was
idtc:itica.t to those used on one of the special-purpose machines. ABEL
was used. primarily for training ATLAS programmers, but also computed
.~ tables of reference material. After being in successful operation
?. roost two years, ABEL was donated to the Office of Naval Research
tor- use in support of the Logistics: Research Project, on the campus of
the George Washington University. The mac ne, renamed "ONR Relay
Comnttt^r," is described in a 1952 report by J. Jay Wolf.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Rel a 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236ROQ .100080002-4
ATLAS I, ATLAS Ii.. Among those attending the lectures at Moore
School was LCDR James T. Pendergrass, representing Navy's CSAW. His
supervisor had participated in consultations with Dr. von Neumann and
others regarding the new computer designs being proposed, and picked
LCDR Pendergrass to attend the lectures and learn of computers' possi_:)Ie-
applicability to theirproblems. Pendergrass was particularly impressed
by the versatility promised by the proposed designs, since up to that
time most machines were built to attack a particular problem. T'''-,
special-purpose approach often had proved to be expensive and ti.;.
consuming. In some situations, also, the effort turned out to be a
complete waste when a problem disappeared by the time a special machine
had been designed and constructed. The prospect of having equipcrent
capable of working on any of a whole range of problems was -ci_
LCDR Pendergrass' report conveyed that possibility convin..;.giy, 'oy
including actual sample programs. Within a few months, negotiations
between CSAW and E.R.A. resulted in establishment of Task 13, providing
for design and construction of the ATLAS computer (from
mental giant, in comic strip BARNABY). Approximately one year 1
(November 1948) E.R.A.isubmitted a report to the National Bureau of
Standards containing the description of a computer with design similar
to that of ATLAS. (8) (9).
ATLAS' logical design was patterned after that of Lhe 1nSLILULe hi
Advanced Study (IAS) machine; M.I.T.'s WHIRLWIND, another machine based
on the von Neumann principles, was already under construction about this
time. The M.I.T. reports on WHIRLWIND were made availabl-. to AT!_.'
planners, and provided! valuable support during early stage, of AZ-
design. ATLAS differed in word size from the IAS and WHIRLWIND machine.:,
but the instructions for all three were of the one-address type, which
turned out to be characteristic of most early parallel machines. The
original proposal for the ATLAS computer called for internal high--;peel
memory using the Selectron, a specially-designed electrostatic tube
being developed at RCA'is Princeton Laboratories for the IAS computer.
Unfortunately, however, at the time Task 13 was assigned, the Selectron
had not attained the reliability required for computer use, so the
decision was made'to substitute a magnetic drum type of memory. (it may
be of interest to note-that the only operational set of Selectron tubes
was that used in RAND corporation's JOHNNIAC, an IAS-type computer
finished March 1954.) The drum memory for ATLAS was much improved over
the DEMON drums, and its access time (time required to locate and read
word from memory into the arithmetic unit, or vice-versa) was considerably
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For ReIWe 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R0f;100080002-4
shorter than that of the earlier drums (17 milliseconds instead of
approximately 250 maximum per drum revolution). The drum memory for
ATLAS is believed to be the first in which drum locations ("addresses")
were permanently recorded electronically. E.R.A. in December 1947
described their drum researches in a report to the Office of Naval
Research. `10) ATLAS' capacity was :16,384 words of 24 bits (binary
digits); the feature of "Interlace pLugging," added after it was delivered,
aided the programmers in improving the access time by orders of magnitude.
Actual best access time thus was reduced to 32 microseconds in cases
where the operand or instruction could be located optimally. Table 2
lists the ATLAS instructions. ATLAS was delivered in December 1950, and
:'c,cond machine of identical design was delivered March 1953.
Several months before ATLAS was delivered, a proposal was under way
for design of a successor, to be calLed ATLAS II. Its logic design was
*niaue, believed to be the first computer with two-address instructions.
I.LS ':;i.gh-speed memory was built with electrostatic tubes (so-called
"Williams tubes"); there was also a medium-speed drum memory similar to
the one used in ATLAS I. ATLAS 11 was delivered in October 1953, and a
ATLAS II using magnetic cores or high-speed memory instead of
;i.:n ' tubes. was delivered iir November 1954. Incidentally, the
!.ec-ond ATLAS II is believed to be the first core memory computer delivered
to a customer in the United States. All four machines (two ATLAS I's
:.nd 1 o ATLAS II's) gave excellent service for six to eight years.
~~. s)Ianned to market the ATLAS I commercially, with the designation
"F , PA 1101," which was the binary equivalent of the ATLAS I task number
(13). However, only one such machine was built (for E.R.A.'s Arlington
"Ii?r), bccause the commercial version of ATLAS II (UNIVAC Scientific
1r 4;'v under way, was a more powerful computer.
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Relape 2003/08/18: CIA-RDP85B00236RGQ%100080002-4
Clear Add
Hold Add
Clear Subtract
Hold Subtract
Vector Add
Fill Q
Substitute Digits
Absolute Clear Add
Absolute Hold Add
Absolute Clear Subtract
Absolute Hold Subtract
Shift A Left
Shift Q Left
Substitute Execution Address
Split Clear Add
Split Hold Add
Split Clear Subtract
Split Hold Subtract
Store A
Store Q
Clear Add Plus One
Clear AR
Clear Add from Q
Hold Add from Q
Transmit A to Q
Q Jump
Jump
Sign-Conditional Jump
Zero-Conditional Junp
Clear Logical Multiply
Hold Logical Multiply
Print Only
Print and Punch
intermediate Stop
optional Stop
Final Stop
Clear Multiply
Hold Multiply
Divide
optional Jump
Pass
Approved For Release 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236R000100080002-4
 Approved For Rel sse 2003/08/18 : CIA-RDP85B00236ROW100080002-4
ABNER. Not long after receiving a copy of Pendergrass' October
1946 report on the Moore School lectures, ASA analysts began studies of
all extant computer proposals. The machines considered (only paper
proposals of course; none were built) were Raytheon's RAYDAC, UNIVAC,
and 1DVAC in addition to ATLAS. ASA ,itaiysts wrote experimental programs,
estimated operation times to execute typical problems, and visited
computer planners at each location. The conclusion of the ASA group
after these studies was a recommendation to procure a four-address
computer like EDVAC. The National Bureau of Standards assisted ASA
analysts and engineers, and when the decision was made for ASA to build
.t:s own machine, NBS also made arrangeients for subcontracts for mercury
delay memory and for magnetic tape drives, from Technitrol Corporation
and Raytheon respectively. Design and construction of a machine (named
"ABNER") was just getting under way, when ASA analysts began consideration
of plans for a future improved computer. It was apparent that the
f r,e;:.tary computer instructions being programmed to execute typical
cryptologic jobs were resulting in excessive operation times and such
jobs were clumsy to implement. To lessen the programmers' burden, a
series of special-purpose instructions: was worked out, with the help of
AJY engineers. By the time this additional set of instructions was
pntfected, the first machine was already partly built, but it was found
ttrat-the-new features could be incorporated in the first machine without
excessive delay or additional hardware. So it was decided to add the
analyti_c instructions to ABNER. instead of a total instruction set
the new code of orders totaled 31, using a five-bit operation
syr