Swedish Board for Computing Machinery

The Swedish Board for Computing Machinery, (MMN), was a Swedish government agency which built Sweden's first computers, BARK and BESK.A governmental study into the need for computing machinery in Sweden had been conducted in 1947 by initiative of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Naval Procurement Agency. The study recommended the immediate purchase of computing machinery from the United States and a budget of 2 million SEK was allocated for the purpose.The Swedish Board for Computing Machinery was established on November 26, 1948, to handle the purchase. The Academy of Engineering Sciences had initiated some activities already in 1947 by sending five young engineers and scientists to research groups in the United States to study the ongoing activities. Two were sent to John von Neumann at Princeton, two to Howard H. Aiken at Harvard, and one to IBM.