Naval Tactical Data System

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An AN / USQ-20 calculator

Naval Tactical Data System , abbreviated to NTDS , is an electronic computer system which was developed by Remington Rand ( Sperry Rand ) and the US Navy from 1950 to 1960 and was used in warships from 1960 onwards .

history

Warships have operations centers (Engl. Combat Information Center, CIC ) . In these rooms, all information relating to the positions of aircraft , ships and submarines is brought together in order to create and maintain a situation report. This situation report is used by the ship's command as a basis for tactical decisions and was used until the use of computers e.g. B. manually performed on a plot board (plexiglass board with lighting). On a warship, it was usually only visible and assessable for a limited group - usually the ship's command and operations management. 1950–1960, with the miniaturization of computers, vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors . In this context, processes that had previously been carried out manually were automated and the NTDS systems were introduced. These computers made it possible to create a computer-aided picture of the situation, which could be displayed directly on the consoles of the decision-makers and thus ensured a uniform level of information. Furthermore, the use of effectors (e.g. fire control devices, weapons, etc.) could be automated. By means of the Link 11 radio data transmission , the individual ships exchanged information in a group and allowed a faster evaluation of the information as well as the expansion of the situation report to areas outside the detection range of their own sensors - at least as long as a platform in the Link network covered this area with its sensors . The NTDS was the predecessor of today's AEGIS used on US cruisers and destroyers .

The use of the electronic systems allowed above all a faster evaluation of the situation as well as a reduction of errors in the evaluation of the information.

Hardware used

A variety of embedded UNIVAC -Computersystemen, typically with 30- bit - RISC processors and 32K drum memory were used for it. The systems had 16 I / O peripheral connections via which the corresponding sensors such as radar systems could be connected. The computers were cooled with water. The systems were also known as UNIVAC-NTDS or UNIVAC 1206/8 .

The last computer generation of NTDS technology is the AN / UYK-43 , a water-cooled multiprocessor core computer , which is produced by Lockheed Martin on behalf of the US Navy. The calculator serves u. a. to control the SPY-1 radar, in the German Navy it is used in the command system of the frigate class F123 .

NTDS interface

A proprietary interface architecture of the same name was developed for the NTDS , which is described in US MIL-STD-1397 . This is a parallel interface - relatively slow from today's perspective - with which the various components of an NTDS were connected. In order to be able to connect more modern civil hardware, NTDS interface adapters are now also offered as PCI mounting cards for PC systems, e.g. B. from GET.

The NTDS interface is now considered obsolete, as it is not network-compatible compared to newer technologies (e.g. FDDI , MIL-Bus , ATM or Ethernet ) and has to be programmed relatively laboriously to adapt to the respective application. Nevertheless, many military devices such as radar systems or missile systems are still offered with this interface.

Seymour Cray and the NTDS

Seymour Cray designed one of the first systems, the AN / USQ-17 . With the departure of Seymour Cray from Sperry Rand, the original design was redesigned and delivered under the name AN / USQ-20 . Cray's original design was never implemented in production.

See also

credentials

  • David L. Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea: The Digitization of the United States Navy . IEEE Computer Society Press. 1999. ISBN 0-7695-0024-2 .

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