Project A-NEW MOD2

The A-New MOD 2 was the ground simulator used to test the concepts being developed for the A-New MOD 3 system, which used the central digital prototype computer, the Univac 1830, CP-823/U. 


Not much is known (by myself anyways) about A-NEW MOD2. In almost every publication written on the P-3 Orion, there is a paragraph or page on the early development, (albeit the information is usually incorrect), mentioning MOD1 and MOD3 in some form. 
  So what was MOD2? It is my belief that A-NEW MOD 2 was the laboratory test unit and simulator used to interpret data from the A-NEW MOD1, XN-1 experiments and eventually used in conjunction with the engineering prototype digital computing system, the Univac 1830, Navy CP-823/U used in the MOD3 test aircraft. 

Also, there is a mention in the Feasibility Study from October 1963. In this study, there is a section contemplating the omission of the control memory for the proposed engineering prototype, the CP-823/U.
   It reads: "The total effect of omitting the Control Memory then, is a 30 percent savings in logic circuitry as well as no control memory or associated circuits with a result that the computer capability is approximately 25 percent less than the CP-642B (Univac 1212) computer but still 75 percent more capable than the CP-642A (Univac 1206) currently used in the MOD 2 Lab system." (Todd's Note: The Navy-designated Univac computers, CP-642A and CP-642B, were used extensively by the U.S. Navy as shipboard weapons guidance and command & control computers. They were some of the most technologically advanced computers of their time. No wonder they were chosen for the MOD2 lab test unit).



(C) Todd J. Thomas 2010