The method which is about to be explained has been the general practice for allocating files on disk and other random-access storage for over 30 years.

It mapped physical memory onto a larger pool of virtual memory, which could be dynamically swapped in and out of real memory as needed from random-access storage (typically: disk or drum storage).

Third-generation hardware, typified by the IBM 360 computer, introduced mass random-access storage, remotely controlled processing via telecommunications, and a time-sharing operation that allowed many people to utilize the computer at the same time.

The paper proposed a computer with a store of 409640-bit words stored on the faces of a number of "Selectrons" or electrostatic storage tubes, this being a device able to provide random-access storage before the introduction of the ferrite core store (first used on the Whirlwind computer at MIT in 1953).