Keynote Address

THE Joint AlEE-Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE)-Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Computer Conference Committee certainly is gratified that the second annual conference is receiving the same enthusiastic support from such a wide group of engineers as did the first conference in December 1951 in Philadelphia, Pa. It was very reassuring during the planning of this conference to hear from our Publications Committee that the sales of the 1951 publication have totaled over 1,600 copies and that the demand is still high. I should like to thank R. S. Gardner of AlEE Headquarters and Robert Walker of the International Business Machines Corporation for the fine job they have done in publishing the resul ts of the 1951 meeting. In selecting a topic for the 1952 meeting, the Joint Committee has chosen one of the most controversial parts of our computing systems. Terminal or inputoutput equipment as it applies to digital computers is one of the broadest, most involved, most varied, and most difficult subjects to discuss in a 3-day meeting. The problem of input-output equipment becomes critical when electronics is introduced to the computing field. When computation is done with a desk calculator, there is no real problem of terminal equipment. A human being is quite versatile and fast enough in his reaction to provide a reasonable match between the mechanical arithmetic element of a desk calculator and the notebook from which he gets the problem and writes the answer. If an operator should spend half his time punching keys to insert numbers in a machine or writing answers in a notebook, it would not seem alarming or too time-consuming. When the electronic tube is substituted for the gears and relays in a desk calculator, the speed of doing arithmetic is increased a thousand times. The rate at which a man can feed data to or accept data from an electronic computer is very slow compared to the speed of such a device. Some mechanical or electronic aids are needed to match this terrific innovation. I should like to emphasize this concept of matching a man's speed to a computer's