Although it appears it was never an official recommendation, by the mid-1950s the DRTE decided that the best way to really develop transistor techniques in a complex system was to build a computer. This was not something they needed for their own use at the time, simply an example of an extremely complex system that would test their capabilities like few other systems could. But as development continued, many of the engineers involved became more interested in computer design than electronics, outside the DRTE's charter and eventually a source of friction between the group and the DRB who funded them.
