IBM Naval Ordnance Research Calculator

The IBM Naval Ordnance Research Calculator (NORC) was a one-of-a-kind first-generation (vacuum tube) computer built by IBM for the United States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance.

[2] The Naval Ordnance Research Calculator (NORC), was built at the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory under the direction of Wallace Eckert.

The machine originally used Williams–Kilburn tubes for memory which stored 2,000 words electrostatically, with an access time of 8 microseconds.

The main hardware consisted of 1,982 pluggable units, each of which typically had several vacuum tubes plus supporting electronics.

It also had a display unit which consisted of a CRT tube and a 35 mm film camera which photographed the face of the tube and then sent the film through a develop and fix process before it was projected on a rear projection screen approximately 12 frames after the initial exposure.

High-volume data could also be recorded as text on the film, and employees of the Naval Weapons Laboratory would often work overtime in a darkened room scanning the films for obvious recording failures in critical data.