Summary of IBM - MIT Collaboration, January 1, 1953 to January 31, 1953 inclusive

Abstract

The third month of the interval covered by the Subcontract between MIT and IBM has continued discussions regarding engineering aspects of the Air Defense problem. Principle among these has been the proposal made by IBM concerning the design of an arithmetic element for Whirlwind II. Subsequent discussions have resulted in tentative decisions to have a 32-bit word length, with the arithmetic element capable of working as a single unit or split so that it can work on two 16-bit words simultaneously.