The Swedish Board for Computing Machinery ( sv, Matematikmaskinnämnden, MMN) was a Swedish government agency which built

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

's first

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

s: BARK and

BESK BESK (''Binär Elektronisk SekvensKalkylator'', Swedish for "Binary Electronic Sequence Calculator") was Sweden's first electronic computer, using vacuum tubes instead of relays. It was developed by ''Matematikmaskinnämnden'' (Swedish Board ...

. A governmental study into the need for computing machinery in Sweden had been conducted in 1947 by initiative of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promo ...

and the Naval Procurement Agency. The study recommended the immediate purchase of computing machinery from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and a budget of 2 million SEK was allocated for the purpose. The Swedish Board for Computing Machinery was established on November 26, 1948, to handle the purchase.Den svenska IT-historien: Matematikmaskinnämnden
, accessed on August 30, 2009 The Academy of Engineering Sciences had initiated some activities already in 1947 by sending five young engineers and scientists to research groups in the United States to study the ongoing activities. Two were sent to

John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...

at Princeton, two to

Howard H. Aiken Howard Hathaway Aiken (March 8, 1900 – March 14, 1973) was an American physicist and a pioneer in computing, being the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I computer. Biography Aiken studied at the University of Wisconsi ...

at Harvard, and one to IBM. When it turned out that it would not be possible for Sweden to get

export licence An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

s for US-built computers, the activities of MMN quickly changed into constructing rather than importing computing machinery. The

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

-based BARK, operational in 1950, was built as an interim measure. This was followed by the

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

-based BESK, operational in 1954, which for a short time was the fastest computer in the world. In 1963, MMN was closed down. At that time, the Swedish government felt that there was no need for further computer development by a government agency, as computers were now an industrial product. MMN had never received funds to launch developments of a new generation of

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

-based computers, so when they were closed down, they were no longer in the forefront of computer development. Some years before,

FACIT Facit (''Facit AB'') was an industrial corporation and manufacturer of office products including furniture. It was based in Åtvidaberg, Sweden, and founded in 1922 as ''AB Åtvidabergs Industrier''. Facit AB, a manufacturer of mechanical calcu ...

had recruited many key employees from MMN to its new division for electronic computers.

FACIT EDB FACIT EDB was a vacuum tube based computer that was manufactured by Åtvidabergs Industrier AB after the designs for BESK, that had been developed by the Swedish Board for Computing Machinery (Matematikmaskinnämnden). FACIT EDB was the first fu ...

that were completed in 1957 was essentially a transistor-based version of BESK.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swedish Board For Computing Machinery Defunct government agencies of Sweden Science and technology in Sweden History of computing hardware 1948 establishments in Sweden 1963 disestablishments in Sweden Information technology in Sweden