ORACLE (computer) ORACLE (computer) The ORACLE or "Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine", an early computer built by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was based on the IAS architecture developed by John von Neumann. The "Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review" states: [Oak Ridge National] Laboratory engineers assisted Argonne [National Laboratory] during the early 1950s in design and fabrication of the Oak Ridge Automatic Computer and Logical Engine. Its name was selected with reference to a lyrical acronym from Greek mythology—ORACLE, defined as 'a shrine in which a deity reveals hidden knowledge.' Assembled before the development of transistors and microchips, the ORACLE was
Computer-assisted reporting other disciplines by journalists. One researcher argues the "age of computer-assisted reporting" began in 1952, when CBS television used a UNIVAC I computer to analyze returns from the U.S. presidential election. One of the earliest examples came in 1967, after riots in Detroit, when Philip Meyer of the Detroit Free Press used a mainframe computer to show that people who had attended college were equally likely to have rioted as were high school dropouts. Since the 1950s, computer-assisted developed to the point that databases became central to the journalist's work by the 1980s. In his book, Precision Journalism, the first