MOBIDIC, for mobile digital computer, was part of a pioneering effort by the US Army Signals Corps to computerize the distribution of intelligence around the battlefield, known as Fieldata. Fieldata standardized the character format, electical signals and other details, allowing standardized computers to be built by many companies. MOBIDIC computers, built by Sylvania, were housed in two large tractor-trailer trucks, and demanded reliability that tube-based machines of the era simply couldn't provide. Although the project never left the experimental phase, two machines were delivered in 1957 and used in Germany for some time. In 1962 Fieldata was cancelled in a general reorganization that was going on within the Army.
Another part of the Fieldata project was the design and construction of computers at several different scales, from data-input terminals at one end, to theatre-wide data processing centers at the other.
Several Fieldata-standard computers were built during the lifetime of the project, including the transportable MOBIDIC from Sylvania, and the BASICPAC and LOGICPAC from Philco.
Another system, ARTOC, was intended to provide graphical output (in the form of photographic slides), but was never completed.
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