A major seismic use for the fast-multiply unit

Abstract

No matter how much speed or capacity you add to your computer system, programmers will develop software which will tax it to its limits. Programmers at Petty Geophysical Engineering are no exception. Two years ago a fast-multiply unit which can multiply and add 2,000,000 times per second was added to their CDC 3200 installation. Soon afterwards they developed a sophisticated program for enhancing seismic signals which depends heavily on the unit's great speed. The program is called "APE", which is an acronym for Automatic Phase Editing. It has proved to be a valuable tool in the search for oil.