Editing MISTRAM (section)

==M-236 computer==

MISTRAM was used on a number of projects, including the ATLAS missile system, other large military radar projects in the 1960s, and Project Apollo, and the Air Force required a data-collection computer to be installed in a tracking station downrange from Cape Canaveral. The data would eventually be shared with the [[36-bit]] [[IBM 7094]] machine at the Cape, so the computer would likely have to be 36-bits as well (why they didn't use an IBM 7094 is something of a mystery). General Electric built a machine called the M236 for the task.<ref>{{cite journal|author=John Couleur|title=The Core of the Black Canyon Computer Corporation|url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ge/history/Couleur_-_The_Core_of_the_Black_Canyon_Computer_Corporation_1995.pdf|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|volume=17|issue=4|pages=56–60|date=Winter 1995|doi=10.1109/85.477436}}</ref>

According to Dr. Neelands, certain military people involved in the project were adamant about not relying on "computers", therefore this "information processor" was developed. This high speed 36-bit minicomputer was developed by the GE Heavy Military Electronics Department (HMED) in [[Syracuse, New York]]. The M236 was designed for real-time processing in a radar-based missile flight measurement system and lacked some general purpose features, such as overlapped instruction processing, the floating point operations needed for [[Fortran]], and operating system support features, such as [[base and bounds]] registers.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Jane King  |author2=William A. Shelly |name-list-style=amp |title=A family history of Honeywell's large-scale computer systems|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|volume=19|issue=4|year=1997|pages=42–46|doi=10.1109/85.627898}}</ref> The M-236 computer was developed for the US Air Force Cape Canaveral Missile Range, and installed at [[Eleuthera]] (Bahamas). The 36-bit computer [[Word (data type)|word length]] was needed for radar tracking computations and for the required exchange of data with an IBM 7094 located at the Cape. The chief architect of the M236 was [[John Couleur]].

The M236 being a component of a military project, rather than a general-purpose computer, conformed to the desires of Ralph J. Cordiner, Chairman & CEO of General Electric from 1958 to 1963, not to go into competition with IBM by selling general-purpose computers. In addition, development expenditures would be paid for by the U.S. government. However, the [[GE-225]], developed as a process control computer, had become a profitable general-purpose computer; GE's 1950 business plan included development of more computer systems.<ref name="rise-and-fall">{{cite journal|author=J.A.N. Lee|title=The Rise and Fall of the General Electric Corporation Computer Department|url=http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ge/history/Lee_-_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_General_Electric_Coporation_Computer_Department_1995.pdf|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|volume=17|issue=4|pages=24–45|date=Winter 1995|doi=10.1109/85.477434}}</ref>

The debate in favor or against subsequent development of an M236-derived general purpose computer took more than one year and concluded finally with the victory of the M2360 project proponents in February 1963. The GE upper management was impressed by the opportunity to save the rental fees from IBM leased equipment used internally by GE (the cost of development of the new project was estimated to be offset by only one year of rentals). The other GE departments were not very impressed and were reluctant to jettison their IBM machines.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jean Bellec (FEB) |title=From GECOS to GCOS8 - A History of Large Systems in GE, Honeywell, NEC and Bull |url=http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/english/gecos_to_gcos8_part_1.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709213845/http://www.feb-patrimoine.com/english/gecos_to_gcos8_part_1.htm |archive-date=2010-07-09 }}</ref> The M2360 project became the [[GE-600 series]], developed by a team led by John Couleur.