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rocketry. Lebedev moved to Moscow and eventually developed some 15 different
computer models.
A few months after Lebedev's MESM was operational, another Russian re-
searcher, Isaac Brook, and his colleagues built the M-1 computer, which used
semiconductor diodes instead of tubes. This is claimed to be the first stored-pro-
gram computer built in Russia.
In late 1951, the first American commercial digital computer went on the mar-
ket. This was the famous UNIVAC I, designed by John Mauchly and Presper Eck-
ert. In 1951, Remington Rand purchased the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company
and its name was changed to Univac. In the 1950s, Univac and IBM competed in
the nascent market for mainframe digital computers.
In 1952, President Harry S. Truman signed a letter that authorized the creation
of the National Security Agency (NSA). This agency replaced an amalgamation
of separate military security groups, and it expanded its role from military intelli-
gence to true national intelligence.
In later years, the NSA would become the world's most sophisticated user of
computers and also the owner of the world's most powerful computers. The NSA
itself would contribute to software engineering and the development of encryption
technologies.
In 1957, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI)
placed a 25% tariff on computers and components imported into Japan. This
spurred the growth of Japanese computer companies such as Fujitsu, which soon
competed with American companies in global markets. Japan also pursued com-
petition in the market for computer components such as transistors and dynamic
random-access memory (DRAM) chips.
As is widely known, the Japanese industrial companies were among the first to
apply the concepts of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran to industrial quality
control. (Deming's contributions started in the 1940s and early 1950s. Juran's star-
ted in early 1954.) In 1950, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE)
invited W. Edwards Deming of the United States to teach a 30-day seminar on stat-
istical quality control. This seminar also paved the way for the later Deming Prize
for quality.
The high quality of Japanese products benefited their market shares in a variety
of products, including computer chips, computer memory, televisions and portable
radios, and automobiles. Eventually, Japan pulled ahead of the United States in
these markets due in part to very high manufacturing quality levels.
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