Recent computer projects

A.R.C. (Automatic Relay Computer) is a part relay, part electronic calculating machine now nearing completion a t the laboratories of the British Rubber Producers Research Association, Welwyn Garden City. This machine is a digital computer, capable of dealing with any problem which can be expressed in terms of the processes of ordinary arithmetic. It comprises an arithmetic u n it'a n d control, both constructed of standard telephone relays, and a memory which consists of a rotating drum on which data is impressed in the form of magnetic impulses. Binary scale is used, and the machine is constructed primarily to work to 6-decimal accuracy, though numbers having any multiple of this number of digits can be handled.