DATAR DATAR , short for " Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving " , was a pioneering computerized battlefield information system . DATAR combined the data from all of the sensors in a task force into a single " overall view " that was then transmitted back to all of the ships . Commanders could then see information from everywhere , not just their own ship ' s sensors . Development on DATAR was started by the Royal Canadian Navy in partnership with Ferranti Canada ( later known as Ferranti - Packard ) in 1949 . The system proved too costly for the post - war Navy to develop alone , and when the Royal Navy and the United States Navy declined to share in the program it was ended . Both would then go on to start development of similar systems to fill this same role , the RN ' s Comprehensive Display System and the USN ' s Naval Tactical Data System . History . In 1948 , the Canadian Defence Research Board ( DRB ) sent a letter to various Canadian electronics firms informing them of their intention to start a number of projects that would partner the military , academia and private companies . A copy of the letter was sent to Ferranti Canada , then a small distributor of Ferranti ' s United Kingdom electrical equipment . The letter was forwarded to the then - CEO of Ferranti in the UK , Vincent Ziani de Ferranti , who became excited at the prospect of enlarging their Canadian operations largely funded by the government . At a meeting in October 1948 de Ferranti was disappointed to learn that while the DRB was equally excited , the amount of money they had to offer was basically zero . Belyea ' s concept . Word of the meeting reached Jim Belyea , a researcher at the Navy ' s electrical laboratories outside Ottawa . Belyea had been developing the idea of an automated battlefield control system for some time , after having studied the problem of dealing with a coordinated attack by submarines on convoys . During World War II the slow speeds and short submerged range of the typical U - boat allowed the defenders to deal with them one - by - one , but as the capabilities of the newer Soviet designs improved it appeared that a coordinated all - underwater attack was a real possibility , one for which he felt an effective defence would require much faster reaction times . Belyea ' s idea was to share radar and sonar data between ships , processing the data in order to present a unified view of the battlefield relative to any particular ship ' s current heading and location . Belyea had experience with naval training simulators , and thus knew that conventional electrical analogue computation and display would not be sufficient for DATAR . Belyea ' s basic idea of sharing precise real time radar and sonar data between all ships in a convoy , compensating for ship movement and distinguishing between friendly and enemy ships was years ahead of its time . Indeed , it was a quantum jump into the future and although I am by no means up to date at the time of writing ( September , 2002 ) I am virtually certain that all modern naval task forces basically incorporate the Belyea concepts . However he had no good idea how to accomplish this , so he approached Ferranti , who had recently met with the DRB . Instead of the cash - strapped DRB , Belyea offered funding directly from the Navy itself . As Belyea was a lieutenant , he only had authority to approve contracts up to CAN $ 5 , 000 . As a cunning solution , Belyea put out several contracts under different names all to Ferranti . This solution pleased everyone and the DATAR project was born in 1949 , Ferranti setting up a new shop under the direction of Kenyon Taylor in Malton near the Avro Canada plants . The DATAR prototype . By 1950 the small team at Ferranti Canada had built a working pulse - code modulation ( PCM ) radio system that was able to transmit digitized radar data over long distances . The opening of the Korean War dramatically shifted the government ' s spending priorities , and 100 new ships were ordered in 1951 . Along with this came renewed interest in DATAR , and over the next two years they spent $ 1 . 9 million ( almost 15 million in year - 2000 dollars ) developing a prototype . The prototype machine used 3 , 800 vacuum tube s ( another source says 20 , 000 , another 10 , 000 ) and stored data for up to 500 objects on a magnetic drum . The system could supply data for 64 targets with a resolution of 40 by 40 yards over a 80 by 80 nautical mile grid . In a production setting , only one ship in a task force would carry the DATAR computer . The rest of the ships had computer terminal s that allowed the operators to use a trackball and trigger to send position info over the PCM links to the DATAR . DATAR then processed the locations , translated everything into the various ship ' s " local view " , and sent the data back to them over the same PCM links . Here it was displayed on another console originally adapted from a radar unit . In contrast with the United States Air Force ' s Semi Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) system , DATAR did not develop " tracks " automatically , relying on the operators to continue feeding new data into the system by hand . The trackball DATAR used was the first in the world ( predating the invention of the mouse by 11 years ) , and was built using a standard Canadian five - pin bowling ball . " Battleships " on Lake Ontario . The system was first tested in the fall of 1953 on Lake Ontario . A simulated convoy was set up , consisting of a shore station and two " Bangor " class minesweepers , the HMCS " Digby " and HMCS " Granby " . DATAR performed well , everyone being sent proper displays of the radar and simulated sonar " blips " . The test was a complete success , and the Navy was apparently extremely pleased . The only serious concern was the failure rate of the tubes , which meant that the machine was non - operational for a considerable amount of time . Ferranti was extremely interested in adapting the DATAR system to a transistor - based design , which they believed would solve this issue . However , equipping the entire Royal Canadian Navy ' s fleet would be extremely expensive . Production machines would likely be cheaper than $ 1 . 9 million prototype cost if produced in any sort of production run . In order to lower the overall cost , the Navy wanted to spread the development costs across a larger production line , and invited representatives of the Royal Navy and US Navy to view the system . They proved to be equally impressed ; one US officer was " too " impressed and looked under the display console , believing the display was being faked . But no matter how impressed they were , it appears they felt they could do better on their own , and declined to get involved . The Royal Navy would start work on their Comprehensive Display System that year under the direction of Elliot Brothers , and the US Navy ' s Naval Tactical Data System in 1956 . The DATAR project thus ended on a somewhat sour note . The system had gone from concept to working prototype in less than four years , and was by any measure a complete success . Yet the cost of deployment was simply too much for the Royal Canadian Navy to bear alone , and they decided to simply do without . DATAR ' s legacy . Luckily the work did not go completely to waste . Ferranti Canada used the basic DATAR design on a number of projects , transistorizing it in the process . The system eventually led to both ReserVec and the Ferranti - Packard 6000 mainframe .