Sumario: | The Western Computer Conference and Exhibit, sponsored jointly by AIEE, IRE, and ACM, was held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, February 11 and 12, 1954. This was the second Western meeting initiated by the Joint Computer Conference Committee. The theme of the Conference was "Trends in Computers: Automatic Control and Data Processing." The three phases of the Conference --- exhibits, scheduled papers, and informal discussion groups --- were all well attended by the more than 1,000 registrants, A number of unregistered visitors also toured the exhibits. Twenty-three booths displayed major equipment, all relating to the theme. Two technical sessions ran in parallel each afternoon of the conference, and the twenty papers presented covered a variety of equipment and systems useful in scientific, engineering, and business fields. The full text of these papers is presented in this Proceedings. The discussions which followed the presentations, however, are not. The decision to omit summaries of discussions and questions was based on two considerations: first, editing and compiling a sufficiently accurate and detailed report of a discussion to be of real value to the reader almost invariably delays seriously the publication of the Proceedings; second, representatives of a number of companies indicated that they could participate more freely if no transcription were made. For the same reasons, the five Discussion Group sessions were not recorded, nor were summaries written. A note listing topics and names of panel members, and describing the general organization of the groups is included on the following page, however, because of the enthusiastic reception accorded these sessions.
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