Technology: Figures in a Flash

To cope with the staggering information explosion in both business and government, a whole new electronic technology is fast developing that can store, catalogue and recall facts and figures in a pushbutton flash. Among the more sophisticated "information-retrieval" systems, Stromberg-Carlson has produced its 4020, Eastman Kodak its Recordak Miracode, RCA its 3488 and IBM its Walnut, which is used by the Central Intelligence Agency. Last week California's Ampex Corp. introduced the latest retrieval machine, a completely automated microfiling system that allows the searcher to edit his material as he selects it.

Ampex's Videofile system condenses bulky file folders to tiny reels of television magnetic tape, enabling 250,000 document pages to be stored on a 14-in. reel. At the push of a button, from any number of locations and at great distances, Videofile's computer automatically locates the individual file-on-film, then reproduces it as pictures on a TV screen or as printed copies—all in less than a minute. The operator can scan the TV screening of the file, get printed copies of only what portions he needs. More important, says Ampex, individual file entries can for the first time be replaced, relocated or deleted without replacing the entire section of the file. Cost: $200,000 to $1,000,000, depending on the size of the filing operation needed.

Videofile will be the component for other systems that Ampex intends to design specifically for banks, hospitals, insurance firms and other industries. The market for such retrieval systems is $23 million this year, but Ampex expects it to grow to $1.5 billion within the next decade. As the nation's paper work piles up, the machines are bound to become even more sophisticated. IBM's 7770 system not only taps millions of business facts stored in a computer but talks back to the information seeker with a 126-word vocabulary. Its recorded voice is sometimes that of a woman, but it is all business.