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fore digital computers received that kind of funding, and it would be many years
before digital computers were sophisticated enough to replace analog computers
onboard naval vessels and aircraft.
The on-rushing military threats of this decade highlighted an urgent need for
rapid and reliable high-speed calculations of mathematics and also for expanding
computing devices from pure math into the domain of logical problem solving.
The pioneering theories and papers created by Turing, Shannon, Zuse,
Atanasoff, Aikin, Stibitz, and others would soon lead to true digital computers that
could handle logic and math problems thousands of times faster than had ever been
possible throughout human history.
Some of these concepts would begin to have practical impacts on the outcome
of World War II within just a few years.
Summary
At the start of the 1930s, the need for rapid computation was recognized, but prac-
tical knowledge about building such devices was sparse. By the end of the dec-
ade, impressive research had provided the logical basis for digital computing, and
working computers were under development. This decade also witnessed the in-
clusion of symbolic logic into computer designs, which would soon open up a vast
array of new kinds of applications dealing with logical issues such as telephone
routing and other forms of decision making. Computers were no longer envisioned
merely as fast mathematical calculators but as tools that could help in solving com-
plex logical problems. Several new analog computers were built for military pur-
poses such as naval gun control, bombsights, and submarine torpedo launching.
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