Resumen de Development and application of the Göttingen electronic computers

Peter L. Biermann

• The Göttingen work of development in the field of electronic computers started on a larger scale in 1950 with the establishment of the "Arbeitsgruppe Numerische Rechenmaschinen" headed by Dr. H. Billing. Three computers were completed until now, of wich the G-1 (completed 1952) and the G1a (completed 1958) are punched paper tape controlled, while G-2 (completed 1954/55) is controlled from the store. These 3 machines have magnetic drums as main storage units and are of the serial type. A fourth machine, the G-3, has a ferrite core store and is of the parallel type; its completion is expected 1960. The G-1 has been in operation for more than 30.000 hours, the G-2 for more than 20.000 hours, both machines having been operated almost around the clock for long periods of time. The work is being continued in Munich to wich place the institute has just been transferred as Max-Planck-Institut für Physik und Astrophysik (the activities in the computer field forming part of the astrophysics division). The work performed with these machines in the Max-Planck-Institute belongs almost exclusively to purely scientific problems connected with basic research. A large part of the problems belong to the qantum theory of atomic nuclei, of the electron shells of atoms, or of the structure of molecules, further problems to the theory of the orbits of cosmic ray particles in the geomagnetic field, to various branches of fluid dynamics, of plasma physics and of magneto-hydrodynamics, part of which arose in connection with astrophysical problems and with the theory of controlled thermonuclear fusion