Happy Birthday, UNIVAC I 241
Daniel Goldman writes "Today is the 53rd birthday of the UNIVAC I
(UNIVersal Automatic Computer I). The UNIVAC I
was delivered to the Census Bureau in 1951. It weighed some 16,000 pounds,
used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per
second. It was the first American commercial computer, as well as the first
computer designed for business use. The first few sales were to government
agencies, the A.C. Nielsen Company,
and the Prudential Insurance
Company. It could retain a maximum of 1000 numbers and was able to
add, subtract, multiply, divide, sort, collate and take square and cube
roots. Its transfer write/read to and from magnetic tape was 10,000 characters
per second."
That would make a great story... (Score:4, Insightful)
These things don't become "news" every year.
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:2)
My prediction:
June 14, 2005: Happy Birthday, UNIVAC I
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm totally with you man. However, I will be looking forward to it's 0x37 bday on 0xE067D6.
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:3, Funny)
I look forward to the day when all numbers are judged not by what other numbers divide them, but by their own magnitude. Each number has its own unique contribution to make, and 53 is certainly not a lesser number than 50.
Re:That would make a great story... (Score:4, Funny)
I've got a 53 dollar bill right here saying you're wrong.
Oh wait, actually I don't.
Actually (Score:2)
where is it now? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:where is it now? (Score:3, Informative)
Here is a site about UNIVACs today [google.com] that might be interesting for you.
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in 1951 there were factories that pumped out vacuum tubes by the millions. That was convenient, because Univac burned out tubes by the thousands.
Firing up an old Univac would require firing up some old tube factories, too.
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:where is it now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Dunno, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run windows.
By the way, my mom used to work for Univac as a stenographer, out on Cape Canaveral back in the 50's. She'd bring home boxes of punched tapes, punch cards, and all the rest of the detritus of mid 20th century computing. We thought we were the hot shit playing around with that stuff as kids. Space Age! Whoa!
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Interesting)
The funny part is that these were built to coordinate air defenses against a Soviet bomber strike, but towards the end of their life they had to buy replacement tubes from countries in the Soviet bloc because they were the only places that still manufactured them.
Re:where is it now? (Score:2)
Firing up an old Univac would require firing up some old tube factories, too.
All this talk is making it sound as though tubes are inherently unreliable. I'm betting that there wasn't a whole lot of forced air cooling in this beast, and heat *will* eventually get tubes, just like other electronics.
I've had tube based electronics run for years on end withou
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Interesting)
When my Explorer Post was given an old computer to play with (a DEC PDP-3) we found, after getting it to do a few simple things, that disposing of it even in the late 70's was a hazardous/toxic waste issue. As "Love Canal" had already met with public attention, and commercial electrolytes showing up in cattle, we had either the choice of paying transporation to send it to a museum which would have taken it or pay to dispose of it. Since Dow was our Post sponsor, they were willing to bundle it up with other electronic gear for proper disposal.
As much as these old beasts are fascinating, they're a pain to get rid of.
Re:where is it now? (Score:4, Funny)
The other giveaway is the large coal chute on the back side of the building.
Re:where is it now? - Dino-iron is not extinct yet (Score:5, Informative)
Re:where is it now? - Dino-iron is not extinct yet (Score:2)
You beat me to it. I wanted bragging rights! Is it in a basement museum now? It used to be in the EECS bldg right in an inset in one of the halls. Well, I suppose the entire thing was not there, I imagine it would be too big.
Re:where is it now? (Score:5, Interesting)
1000 numbers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:1000 numbers (Score:5, Informative)
The central processor was a 36 bit architecture, capable of executing most simple arithmetic instructions in one 4 microsecond cycle time. Multiplication of two 36-bit integers took 12 microseconds, and division of a 72-bit dividend by a 36-bit divisor 31.3 microseconds. The processor performed 36-bit single precision floating point arithmetic in hardware, but did not implement double precision floating point.
From Univac I [ed-thelen.org]
The UNIVAC's word size was 72 data bits, which held eleven digits plus a sign, plus one parity bit for each six data bits, giving a total of 84. The mercury delay line memory amounted to 1000 words. Besides numbers, the UNIVAC could represent alphanumeric data (letters of the alphabet and some punctuation marks) using six bits for each character with twelve characters to the word. Codes were assigned for the letters of the alphabet and punctuation marks, such as 010100 for A, 010101 for B, 010110 for C and so on.
According to Why do We need a floating-point arithmetic standard? [berkeley.edu]
Univac 110x float:
Underflow limit = 2^-129 ~ 1.5 x 10^-39
Overflow limit = 2^27 ~ 1.7 x 10^8
And in comparison...? (Score:2)
Re:1000 numbers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:1000 numbers (Score:2)
Re:1000 numbers (Score:2)
You missed something, each Fastrand sector was 28 words of 36 bits.
That user's manual for the Univac I is amazing - 1000 (decimal) words of memory.
Re:1000 numbers (Score:4, Informative)
Mercury delay line memory (Score:2)
Well, (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, (Score:3, Funny)
No. You must be thinking of the Apple Lisa.
And yet (Score:5, Funny)
I remember UNIVAC I (Score:3, Interesting)
I started my career on Univac / Unisys (Score:4, Interesting)
No LEDs in 1951! (Score:5, Informative)
Yes that's good and all (Score:4, Funny)
Its transfer rate to and from magnetic tape was 10,000 characters per second.
How many Libraries of Congress is that??
/totally serious
Re:Yes that's good and all (Score:2)
Some more specs/info (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Some more specs/info (Score:3, Interesting)
- The UNIVAC became famous when it was use by the US Census Bureau to calculate the results of the 1952 presidential election.
- The number of vacuum tubes was reduced fmor about 19,000 to 5,000, therefore reducing the power consumption from 175 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts (!), and also reducing the size and weight. (In comparison, your PC probably has a 200-500Watt p
Whats new? (Score:2, Funny)
I'll tell you what's been added! (Score:5, Funny)
UNIVAC = Johnny-come-lately (Score:5, Informative)
...this message brought to you courtesy of the memory of LEO [leo-computers.org.uk].
Of course, like all British technological innovation, any lead over the rest of the world was quickly thrown away by an incompetent government and business sector.
Re:UNIVAC = Johnny-come-lately (Score:2, Informative)
Re:UNIVAC = Johnny-come-lately (Score:2)
Uni-Vac (Score:2)
heh. when I was a kid and first heard about UNIVAC, I thought the name meant that it used one vacuum tube.
Correct Acronym Explanation? (Score:2, Insightful)
Has anyone tried... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Has anyone tried... (Score:2, Informative)
The Univac III was roughly contemporaneous with the Univac 1107. There would be no Univac IV. The 1107 line continued long into the Unisys regime. The Univac III lacked a scalable architecture and died against the System/360 and movement to plug-compatible system
Univac was called "Univac" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Univac was called "Univac" (Score:2)
Re:Univac was called "Univac" (Score:2, Informative)
Also, here's a reference to Univac and its one vacuum tube [sfwriter.com].
If the /. folks get their panties in a knot over an ASIMOV reference, I don't know what this world has come to! Is slashdot now only for praising Apple and bashing Bill? Can't we get back to basics with geeky sci-fi references?
A time when anything was possible (Score:5, Interesting)
BTW, one of the best short stories along those lines was Isaac Asimov's The Last Question [dyndns.org] (published in Nine Tomorrows [barnesandnoble.com] among other places). The focus isn't really the computer, but it shows how people were thinking about these new-fangled gadgets at the time.
Re:A time when anything was possible (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A time when anything was possible (Score:3, Funny)
Today its an "iMac" or "eMachines". They sound like something I should cuddle up with a nice cup of tea.
Not the first business computer (Score:3, Informative)
Here [leo-computers.org.uk] is a site with some history. Apparently, they started on it back in '47. Lyons was originally a tea shop in London, before they branched out into computing.
And in other news... (Score:3, Funny)
...Krispy Kreme, manufacturer of premium farinaceous products, have announced the construction of a new supercomputer. The device, which will contain 1729 million AMD Opteron CPUs, linked to 1 terabyte of 2 picosecond RAM via a 1 Exabit/s bus, will be used to model the diffusive transport of coffee throughout glazed doughnuts.
Re:And in other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Edmund C. Berkeley (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Edmund C. Berkeley (Score:2)
That would have been some birth... (Score:2)
Seriously, do we really need to anthropomorphize machines this much? It was popular to do in the fifties and sixties, but aren't we over that by now?
Bork!
Re:That would have been some birth... (Score:2)
Seems like a little.... (Score:3, Insightful)
The computing power is low as compared to today's standards, but people forget that the basic principals that apply to developing software for mainframes of 20,30,40 years ago still should apply to developing software for PCs today.
Efficient, well designed, clean code should apply to code today as it did 20 years ago.
[soapbox mode off]
Re:Seems like a little.... (Score:3, Funny)
You still have team meetings about the correct way to number your punchcards?
Geek math (Score:2)
Re:Geek math (Score:2)
220 years (local) to Mercury is the equivalent of 19360 earth days (one mercury year is 88 earth days)
If you divide 19360 earth days by 365.25 (earth days in a year) you come out with the happy number of 53 years!
Re:Geek math (Score:2)
Wow! 53 years old... (Score:2, Funny)
Never mind.
Daniel Goldman's Calendar (Score:2, Flamebait)
Happy Birthday leopard (Score:2, Funny)
I hate to have paid for this story (Score:3, Funny)
security? (Score:2, Funny)
First Virus? (Score:3, Interesting)
The page about the game ANIMAL brought back memories. I can't remember the name of the computer I played this on - it was about 20-25 years ago.
I didn't know the game was a 'virus'. Very interesting.
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/animal.ht ml [fourmilab.ch]
Re:First {Multi platform} Virus? (Score:2)
Obligatory Simpsons quote (Professor Frink) (Score:3, Funny)
Putting UNIVAC I to good use... (Score:2)
Where's Ken Brown? (Score:3, Funny)
amazed by the specs (Score:2, Interesting)
As fast as AOL? (Score:2)
Blast from the Past (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Blast from the Past (Score:2)
This seems to be a recurring theme in classic science fiction. In James Blish's Cities in Flight novels, I remember a scene that described in passing the automated deviced that consumed the dishes from table, and recycled all the waste for the next meal.
One of the characters was irked because the table ate his slide rule.
Flying a City at
Decendant of Univac I still in production (Score:5, Informative)
I was an operator on a 2200 class system in the early 90's.
As mainframes go, it was pretty cool!
What if you have more than one? (Score:2)
I'll take the ENIAC anyday (Score:2)
ENIAC [janowiak.com]
Why CEOs shouldn't control technology (Score:2)
Nobody knows what lies on the Road Ahead.
Re:UNIVAC sounds great and all... (Score:2)
Re:UNIVAC sounds great and all... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:UNIVAC sounds great and all... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:**ducks** (Score:3, Funny)
Re:53rd birthday? what's special about it? (Score:5, Funny)
"I'm 110101 years old? So what? I'm looking forward to my 1000000 birthday party! That'll be the day! And don't even get me started about the day I turn 10000000!!!!"
Re:53rd birthday? what's special about it? (Score:2)
set your calenders (Score:2)
(p.s. old age officially begins at 33 bits - July 20, 2087)
Re:set your calenders (Score:2)
Re:53rd birthday? what's special about it? (Score:4, Funny)
53 is prime (fun)
5+3 is 8 (not prime, but a power of 2. and we all love powers of 2)
a google search for 53 returns 96,100,000 results and 9+6+1 = 16 (a power of 2!) and 1+6 is 7 (a prime!)
5-3 is 2 (a power of 2, and a prime
And you thought 53 wasn't special
Re:53rd birthday? what's special about it? (Score:2)
Suppose that there is at least one uninteresting natural number. One of those numbers must be the smallest uninteresting number.
Now that's pretty interesting.
Oblig. Simpsons Paraphrase (Score:2)
Re:What no "Imagine a Beowolf cluster" jokes yet? (Score:5, Funny)
Where would you put it? "Oh and over here, next to Texas is New Mexico which, you might find interesting to note is not actually an inhabited state. It's where we keep our UNIVAC Beowulf Cluster. Sweet huh? You can see it from space!"
Re:obligatory (-5, redundant) (Score:3, Informative)
Though it was IBM, not Univac equipment.
Re:me too! (Score:2)
I'm the same age as the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything.
Re:Laugh if you must... (Score:2)
Guinness Bias? (Score:3, Informative)
Also because of the geographic