HARVEST

The extraordinary versatility and efficiency of electronic computers have made them useful in handling almost every class of data. With the earliest design work on computers, in 1946, came the realization of the potential usefulness of such machines for Agency purposes. NSA's computer installation ranks among the largest in the country.

NSA has been a silent partner with private industry from the earliest days of postwar computer development. Many commercial computer lines have sprouted from earlier designs for NSA use. A good example of this partnership was HARVEST, a cooperative project in the 1950s between NSA and IBM to build a new, state-of-the-art second- generation general-purpose processor. To be successful, HARVEST had to have a super high-speed memory and high-speed tape drives, beyond anything then in existence. Developed over a five-year period, the most innovative component was TRACTOR, the high-speed tape drive system. HARVEST went on line in 1962, and it was finally retired in 1976.