ERA was formed from a group of code-breakers working for the United States Navy during World War II.

The team had built a number of code-breaking machines, similar to the more famous Colossus computer in England, but designed to attack Japanese codes.

The result was ERA, which formed in St. Paul, Minnesota in the hangars of a former Chase Aircraft shadow factory.

[1][self-published source][2][3] A faster version using Williams tubes and drums was delivered to the NSA in 1953.

At about this time the company became embroiled in a lengthy series of political maneuverings in Washington, D.C. Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round claimed that the founding of ERA was a conflict of interest for Norris and Engstrom because they had used their war-time government connections to set up a company for their own profit.

A series of machines based on the same basic design followed, and were sold into the 1960s before being replaced by the similar-in-name-only UNIVAC 1100 family.