Analogue Computers In Production At Burgess Hill – Electronics Weekly

So, 60 years ago started a story in Electronics Weekly’s edition of September 21st 1961

The story continues:

The company, a subsidiary ol Electronic Assoclates Inc.of USA, will in future take over the supply of the European market, which until now hus been supplied with machines imported from the United States.

 In an exclusive interview with Electronics Weekly, the British company spoke of its contribution to the analogue computer market and the opportunities in this field. There are 15 major manufacturers of analogue computers in t

Electronic Associates Ltd.is one of the most recent of these, having set up the Burgess Hill factory in December of last year. The European headquarters had been in Brussels before this. A computation centre was established there i

The American organisation claims to have captured between 75 and 80 per cent of the free- world market for analogue machines. Britain itself has been one of the smallest consumers. 

Success in this field is ascribed largely to the accuracy and re- liability of the systems offered. There appears to be only one other manufacturer in this country producing an analogue computer with an accuracy of 0.001%.

Accuracies of this nature have not been in demand before. But many technologists, nuclear and missile testers in particular, are requesting them.

An advantage of ciose tolerances is the repeatability of problems. Programmes are frequently re-run, and a drift of one per cent can give a different solution.

Determining whether the error is a programme irregularity or machine drift can take as much as half a day. With a 231R, small changes in any parameter are readily discernible.

To achieve such rigid specifications, components with a tolerance of up to 0.005 per cent are needed.

There are. few manufacturers in this country able to meet this requirement as yet.

Source: https://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/mannerisms/memory-lane/782973-2021-12/