Fifty Years Ago .... from the pages of Computer Weekly

13th February 1975 computing, compiled by TNMOC volunteer archivist, Brian Aldous.

A selection of stories from Computer Weekly from 13th February 1975. The full archive of Computer Weekly can be seen at TNMOC, where there are special rolling displays of front pages from 25 and 40 years ago.

RCA’s latest laser beam: With so many potential applications for small, accurate and powerful optical scanner data capture devices, RCA in the US has developed a document reader using a one millionth cubic inch semiconductor diode generating a laser beam which can scan a 10 inch deep page in 14 seconds. The solid-state laser uses only one watt of power compared with the 10 watts consumed by an equivalent but bulkier glass enclosed gas laser. The aluminium gallium arsenide chip in the RCA device generates an astigmatic beam of near infrared light, about 8000 Angstroms. This is optically shaped to a near round cross section and scanned over the document being read in both horizontal and vertical planes by galvanometer driven mirrors. The light is reflected from the characters on the document onto an array of photo detectors which are linked to the reader’s character recognition system. (CW 432 13/2/1975 p28)