The Delay-Line Memory was a computational system that used sound waves to process data, it was developed in the mid-1940s by J. Presper Eckert. Data was represented as a series of sound waves or pulses that traveled through a medium such as a tube full of mercury or a magnetostrictive wire. The waves were generated by a resonator and conveyed into a delay line, they would circulate through the line, as they reached the end they would be detected and re-amplified to maintain their strength. The waves represented binary input, with the presence or absence of a pulse corresponding to a 1 or 0.
Two models were built: the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). And the UNIVAC the 1st commercially available computer. Although the Delay Line Memory computational system had some major limitations, like slow processing speed and high error rate due to signal degradation and noise, it was instrumental during World War II radar technology to the point to have made the difference in the war outcome.
