Floyd Steele

Floyd George Steele (June 28, 1918 – September 23, 1995) was an American physicist, engineer, and computer designer who grew up in Brush, Colorado. He is known for leading the design team at Northrup that developed the MADIDDA, an early digital computer.

Early life

Floyd George Steele grew up in Colorado. He was named after his uncle, Floyd Odlum, a businessman known for coming out on top of the Great Depression.

Steele received his BA in physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, a BS in electrical engineering and a MS in aeronautical engineering from Caltech. Before joining Northrop he worked for Douglas Aircraft from 1941 to 1944 and while in the Navy attended Captain Eddie's Radar School.

MADDIDA

Steele was the conceptual leader of the MADDIDA design group at Northrop Corporation.

Development of the MADDIDA began in 1946 with the goal of producing the first DIgital Data Analyzer (DIDA). When the decision was made to use MAgnetic Drum memory (MAD) for the DIDA, the name was lengthened to MADDIDA (pronounced "Mad Ida").

Soon after the MADIDDA's completion, Steele and his team realized that a general-purpose digital computer could also be used to as a differential analyzer through the use of an appropriate simulation language.

The Computer Research Corporation A year after the first MADIDDA was demonstrated, Steele and the MADDIDA design team left Northrop, and was joined by Irving S. Reed On July 16, 1950 they formed the Computer Research Corporation (CRC) in order to develop general-purpose computers.

After developing the Cadac, an early minicomputer, CRC was sold to National Cash Register (NCR) in February 1953.