S£CtJftJJ'i JNF6RMAfJ6i9 ECR E7! 

REF ID:A59578 

c 0 p y 

MEMORANDUM FOR THE CHIEF OF STAFF 

4 September 1952 

SUBJECT: Report by the Inspector to the Director on Analytical 

Machine Employment, dated 15 August 1952. 

1. With respect to the recommeniations contained in subject 

report, I offer the following comments: 

a. I do not concur with the recommendation of paragraph 7a 

that the planning and scheduling of analytic equipment 

be placed directJ..y l.Ulder the Techn.i.cal Director of the 

Office of Operations. Although a re-examination of 

organizational structure of the Machine Division ·is 

appropriate, I believe that the Technical Director of 

the Office of Operations should not be burdened with 

this specific operational responsibility, nor do I believe that this responsibility should be withdrawn 

from the Machine Division. I believe that this Division 

might be appropriately re-organized into three branches: 

one responsible for computer type equipment, a second 

responsible for all other electronic analytic equip:pients, 

and the third responsible for IBM and relay equipments. 

(In the case of certain equipments allocation of responsibility bill necessarily have to be made arbitrarily) • 

Ea.ch Branch should have assigned to it the programmers, 

operators and maintenance personnel necessary to keep the 

equipment for which it is responsible operating at maximum effectiveness. I agree with the Inspector that there 

is a need for a group haVing responsibility for scheduling 

machine jobs. This group should addi ti.onally be responsible 

for preparing an overall Machines Program for tb.e Office of 

Operations, indicating the type and number of machines 

currently needed, and the type and number of machines which 

will be required am for which planning should go forward. 

This group should also be responsible for maintaining a 

continuing survey of equipment available and equipment required. It is my belief that such a group belongs in the 

Office of Machines Division as a Staff Group. Organization 

of a Machines DiVision 'l.s described above should facilitate 

the transition from the development to the operational stage 

in the case or new equipments, since the indiViduals who 

will u1 tima tely be responsible for the programming, opera ti on 

eclassifi ed and a ursuantto E .0. 1352 
REF ID:A59578 

&ECRE9F COPY 

SE9fiJ3f 4 September 19 52 

SUBJECT: Report by the Inspector to the Director on Ana.lyticaJ. 

a 

Machine Employment, dated 15 August 1952. 

am maintenance of such equipments would be those to 

whom they are turned over. 

b. The principle of decentraJ.ized machine installations 

is concurred in with certain reservations. Computer 

type equipment certainly does not lem itself to decentraJ.ized opera. tion. It is doubtful whether 

electronic analytic equipment can be decentralized 

as a practical. matter. However, it is certainly desirable that, within reason, the various operating 

components of the Office of Operations be provided 

with small desk-size analytic equipments for sampling 

and other smaller investigations. Also some provision 

should be made whereby operating Divisions, Branches, 

Sections, etc., have access to certain IBM equipment 

for general small scale investigative purposes. Large 

scale jobs will certainly require the services of a 

centralized machine-operating organization. 

c •• Continually improving the quality or machine operators 

is considered essential to the improvement of analytic 

equipment effectiveness. In this field there is no 

question that the operational usefulness and efficiency 

of the equipment can be no better than the quality of 

the programmer, maintenance personnel, and operators 

assigned the responsibility for opera. ting the equipment. 

The nature of the equipments being developed arxi the 

complex:i. ty of the jobs these equipments must per.fon;1 

are such that high quality personnel are absolutely 

necessary. 

d. The desirability of maintaining a permanent staff of 

well-trained military personnel in support of the 

machine processing operation is recognized as are the 

difficulties attendant upon procurJ..rn and administer.i.ng 

such a group. 

e. The ROBIN project was undertaken to satisfy (1) certain 

pressures from outside o£ AFSA, and (2) a technical requirement of the Office of Operations. The over-all 

ROBIN program as it evolved had three phases; first, 

the procurement of paper-tape-driven RO.BINS which are 

now operating; secom, the expedited completion of an 

improved photo-electric comparator; and third, the development and procurement of DELIA, which is in the 

2 

c 0 p y SECRET 
• 

II 

REF ID:A59578 

c 0 p y 

SECRET 

SEGRE~ 4 September 1952 

SUBJECT: Report by the Inspector to the Director on Analytical 

Machine Employment, dated 15 August 1952. 

process of installation now. The number of ROBIN equipments that was procured was determined by the Office of 

Operations based upon the anticipated volume of material 

that was to be processed am the time desired for such 

processing. The final cost of the tape ROBINS turned 

out to be much more than the Contractor's original estimate. The second phase has not successfully materialized 

yet because of difficulties with the equipment. At one 

ti.me there were advocates of' the idea of skipping the 

first phase because of the second. The current state of 

the ROBIN program emphasizes that just the development 

of equipment is not the complete answer to a problem involVing machine applications. The over-all ROBIN program 

was based on the assumption that the intercept program 

would bring in daily a certain volume of material. This 

has not materialized. The general efficienc"or the 

operation seems to be suffering because of operating 

difficulties. The possible results f:irom such a brute 

force search, assuming that the intercept program could 

provide the traffic and that there were no operative 

difficulties, are admittedly meager with a very small 

chance of success. All of these facts were known am. 

made part of the record when the project was undertaken 

am approved. 

2. With respect to paragraph l of the Inspector• s discussion I 

think it should not be overlooked that analytic machines offer ceriain 

advantages beside speed: Sustained accuracy and freedom from the organizational complications involved in dealing with large personnel forces 

should invariably accrue from the utilization of properly designed an:i 

selected equipments. 

J. The division of machines into labor savers am revolutionizers 

is not recommended nor is the further pursuqnce of such a concept considered fruitful. 

/s/s. Kullback 

S. KULLBACK 

Chief', 

Of'f'ice of Research and Develbpment 

3 

c 0 p y 

SECRET