The Reeves Electronic Analog Computer (commonly shortened REAC) was a family of early

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computation machine (computer) that uses physical phenomena such as Electrical network, electrical, Mechanics, mechanical, or Hydraulics, hydraulic quantities behaving according to the math ...

s produced in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Reeves Instrument Corporation Reeves Instrument Corporation (RICO) was a Cold War manufacturer of computer and radar systems for the United States. The corporation was the Project Cyclone laboratory operator for simulation of guided missiles, and RICO developed several Strateg ...

from the 1940s through the 1960s.

History

Origins

In the 1940s,

began developing ideas for a digital computation machine. They hired mathematician Samuel Lubkin, of the original team who designed the

UNIVAC UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...

, to lead the project. The original proposal was to build a machine called the REEVAC, which was to have been based on the design of the

EDVAC EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was one of the earliest electronic computers. It was built by Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Along with ORDVAC, it was a successor to the ENIAC. ...

machine, which Lubkin had also done design work on. For unknown reasons, Reeves decided to scrap this approach, and Lubkin left the company for a job with the National Bureau of Standards (the US government organization later renamed the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

). Reeves then decided to move forward with an analogue computer instead. In 1946, the

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

launched a project code named

Project Cyclone Project Cyclone was a 20-year initiative of the US Office of Naval Research that lasted from 1946 to the mid-1960s. It was one of a series of projects whose purpose was to develop a computer laboratory with a company in the private sector that woul ...

at Reeves to develop a general purpose analogue computing machine to further Naval objectives — it is unclear if this was the cause of Reeves's change of direction or a consequence. This was the beginning of a 20-year partnership between Reeves and the Navy. For the entire 20-year duration of Project Cyclone, Reeves would continually furnish the Navy with the most recent REAC model.

Commercial production

In 1948, Reeves began putting the REAC machine into commercial production. The original price was USD $14,320 for the machine itself, but fully loaded with all the necessary

peripheral A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

s it cost USD $37,000 (about USD $425,000 in 2021 dollars). By 1951, there were more than sixty REAC machines in use at universities, private (usually engineering) companies, and government and military institutions. Today the REAC is credited with proving that a general-purpose analog computer could be a viable commercial product. Notable early adopters included the following: * Naval Air Missile Test Center (now the

Pacific Missile Test Center Pacific Missile Test Center (PMTC) is the former name of the current Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division. The name of the center was the Naval Air Missile Test Center prior to PMTC. It is located at Naval Base Ventura County/ Naval Air St ...

) *

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Uses

REAC computers played a role in the development of many military projects, such as the

Ryan X-13 Vertijet The Ryan X-13 Vertijet (company designation Model 69) is an experimental tail-sitting vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) jet aircraft built by Ryan Aeronautical and flown in the United States in the 1950s. The main objective of the project wa ...

. A REAC was the first computer at

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Instal ...

, and was instrumental in running simulations in development of the first

anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be ta ...

. It also was used in the Aeronautical Computer Laboratory at

Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster was a U.S. Navy military installation located in Warminster, Pennsylvania, Warminster, Pennsylvania and Ivyland, Pennsylvania, Ivyland, Pennsylvania. For most of its existence (1949–1993), the base was kn ...

Hardware

The machine as it arrived from the manufacturer consisted of several cabinets with connecting cables, and was described as "essentially an Erector Set whose pieces are electronic or electro-mechanical parts." The average runtime for single problem was about one minute.

Models

There were seven models produced during the life of the system: * REAC 100 (1947) * REAC 200 (1952) * REAC 300 (1953) * REAC 400 (1956) * REAC 500 (1963) * REAC 550 (1964) * REAC 600 (1965)

External links

REAC 600 sales brochure

References

{{reflist, 30em Computer-related introductions in 1946 1940s computers Military computers Vacuum tube computers Military electronics of the United States Analog computers