Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/07/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The code name for M9 was P864 or PS864, 864 being the square millimeters of the full frame sensors. On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 2:27 PM, Herbert Kanner <kanner at acm.org> wrote: > I always wonder where these numbers come from. Examples" some early > mainframe computers: IBM's first scientific computer: 701, IBM's most > successful business data computer: 1401, major Control Data computer: 3600. > Well, I learned the story of one of these when doing essential reading > after becoming a docent in the Computer History Museum. > > During WWII, the U.S. Navy had a group of engineering officers developing > specialized hardware to aid in cryptography. When the war ended, the Navy > wanted to keep these guys, so it persuaded them to form a corporation > (Engineering Research Associates, or ERA for short, and bought them a > building in Minneapolis that used to be a glider factory. The Navy gave > these guys thirteen consecutive tasks, the thirteenth being to build a > general-purpose computer. > > The computer was so successful that ERA asked the Navy for permission to > sell this computer commercially after first removing a secret instruction > code from the public version. It was granted. I actually saw this computer > in operation around 1951 at George Washington University. It was sold as > the ERA 1101. > > What I learned at the Museum was that 1101 was very appropriate; as a > binary number, its value is thirteen. > > > Herbert Kanner > kanner at acm.org > 650-326-8204 > > Question authority and the authorities will question you. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com> // http://facebook.com/richardmanphoto // https://instagram.com/richardmanphoto