IP: Re::UNIVAC turns 50

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Subject: Re: IP: UNIVAC turns 50
> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 12:21:10 -0400
> x-sender: pjensen () sdimail pollen com
> x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, January 22, 1998
> From: Peter Jensen <pjensen () pollen com>
> To: "David Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
>
> > > > > Look at what a half-century has wrought. It was 50 years ago
> > > > > today that the famed Univac, widely considered the first
> > > > > commercial computer, made its public debut during a dedication at
> > > > > the U.S. Census Bureau
>
>
>
> David -
>
> As someone who first learned to program on Univac 1 - my very first
> teacher was Mauchly himself - I have a vivid memory of a visit I made to
> Sperry in, I believe, 1959.
>
> Upon entering the building, they'd placed a Univac 1 prominently in view,
> and powered up.  The system console for these had about as many lights as
> Times Square, and they had placed a small louspeaker on top of this
> console.
>
> When I asked about that speaker, they told me they had a coil wrapped
> around the main system bus, and had hooked this to an audio amplifier.
> They then proceeded to have this $1.5 million beheamoth play "Mary Had a
> Little Lamb".
>
> Little did I realize at the time that I was witnessing the first digital
> audio synthesizer - and little did Sperry realize what they'd created!
> Another 1/2 Billion dollar opportunity lost!
>
> One other memory from the time was Mauchly coming in one day and,
> appearing quite engrossed in thought, announcing that he'd realized that
> five computers could handle all the computational needs of the country.
> He drew something out on the board, but I don't recall what it was, that
> was his justification for this.  I know this incident is widely
> attributed to Watson at IBM, but I personally heard Mauchly say it.
>
> For perspective - the Univac 1 used a rotating drum main memory of 500
> words.
>
> Peter Jensen
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