31 March 1951: First UNIVAC Delivered

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

I haven't been posting this stuff to the list on a regular basis
because of 'relativity' :-) but I figured this one was worthwhile.

FWIW, I've had the privilege of programming IBM 360/370 ASM on
punchcards, yet that seems a giant leap forward from the UNIVAC
days. God, I'm glad I didn't pursue programming and decided to
become a networking flunky instead (actually, it was all a matter
of happenstance, but that's another story altogether). :-)

00:01

[snip]

The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer made in the United States. It was 
designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the men behind the second American electronic computer, the ENIAC. In 
the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".

The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951 and was dedicated on June 14th that 
year.[1] The fifth machine (built for the Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict the 1952 presidential 
election. With a sample of just 1% of the voting population it predicted that Eisenhower would win.

The UNIVAC I computers were built by Remington Rand's UNIVAC-division (successor of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer 
Corporation, bought by Rand in 1950).

UNIVAC I used 5,200 vacuum tubes, weighed 29,000 pounds (13 metric tons), consumed 125 kW, and could perform about 
1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock. The Central Complex alone (i.e. the processor and memory unit) 
was 14 feet by 8 feet by 8.5 feet high (4.3 m × 2.4 m × 2.6 m). The complete system occupied more than 350 ft² (35.5 
m²) of floor space.

[snip]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_1

Dig it. :-)

- ferg

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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